Arts

Remembering Tarheel Slim.

We were talking about Wilson County surnames that you don’t really find among black people. One said, “Lamm.” Then, “Fulghum.” I said, “Bunn,” but Grover Jones Jr. said, “Tarheel Slim! His real name was Allen Bunn,” and that sent me down a rabbit hole.

It turns out Tarheel Slim was born in Nash County, but he had Wilson County roots, and he and his family frequently moved back and forth across the Wilson-Nash line. That’s plenty reason to call his name this Black Music Month.

Alden Bunn was a guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose work spanned gospel, blues, doo-wop, R&B, pop, and rockabilly. He was born in 1924 near Bailey in Nash County (or maybe near Lucama in Wilson County) to a sharecropping family. In the early 1940s, he sang with local gospel groups  the Gospel Four and the Selah Jubilee Singers, but eventually moved into secular music. He married Carrie Ella Dingle, whose family had migrated to Wilson County from South Carolina. Bunn joined Wilson native David McNeil as a member of The Larks before migrating to New York City around 1950. He achieved his greatest acclaim recording with his second wife Anna Lee “Little Ann” Sandford circa 1960, then enjoyed a new album and a revival on college campuses and in hipster circles in the early 1970s.

Tarheel Slim’s “Number 9 Train,” Fury Records, 1958.

Bridgeport (Conn.) Telegram, 19 March 1960.

Washington (D.C.) Daily News, 23 January 1961.

Alden “Tarheel Slim” Bunn died in August 1977.

New York Times, 26 August 1977.

A few years after his death: “Charly, the independent blues and R ‘n B label, has delved back into the 50s and 60s for an enterprising reissue series of 25 three-track singles.” One of the records showcased Tarheel Slim.

Manchester (England) Evening News, 26 September 1980.

In the early 1990s, the era of feverish CD reissues of whole catalogs of nearly forgotten labels, Tarheel Slim and Little Ann appeared on a two-disc compilation of songs recorded by the Harlem-based Fire and Fury labels.

Hartford (Conn.) Courant, 18 April 1993.

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In 1918, Henry Ramphson Bunn registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 4 July 1899; lived in Lucama, Wilson County; and worked for Jim Bunn.

On 26 January 1919, Henry Bunn, 19, of Cross Roads township, son of Jim and Millie Bunn, married Leona Owens, 20, of Cross Roads, in Lucama, Wilson County. Missionary Baptist minister R. Crockett performed the ceremony at the Baptist church in Lucama in the presence of Rev. C.D. Dew, Rev. Emson Hooks, and J.H. Battle.

In the 1920 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: laborer Henry Bunn, 23; wife Leonia A., 24; and son Valise, 3 months.

Nash County, North Carolina, birth records indexes show Allen Rathel Bunn born 24 September 1923 in Bailey, Nash County, to Henry R. Bunn and Leona Owens.

On 23 July 1927, Israel Thomas, 38, married Leona Bunn, 23, in Wilson. Church of God minister Hattie L. Daniels performed the ceremony at her church at 207 East Reid Street in the presence of Andrew Williams, Bettie Cooper, and T.W. Owens.

In the 1930 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: Isrel Thomas, 46; wife Leonia, 34; and [her] sons Valee, 11, and Alten B., 7.

In the 1940 census of Mannings township, Nash County: Isarel Thomas, 57; wife Leona Thomas, 43; and stepsons Vailience, 20, and Alden Bunn, 16, all day laborers. Israel Thomas reported that the family was living in Wilson County in 1935.

In 1942, Alden Rathell Bunn registered for the World War II draft in Nash County. Per his registration card, he was born 24 September 1924 in Nash County; lived at R.F.D. #2, Middlesex, Nash County; his contact was Leonia Thomas; and he worked for Rufus Fulghum. He was described as 6’3″ and 172 lbs.

Leonia Thomas died 5 November 1947 in Lucama, Springhill township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 3 July 1897 in South Carolina to Mack Owens and Mary Gardner; was married to Issrael Thomas; and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery, Wilson. Allen Bunn, Route 1, Lucama, was informant.

Former Wilson artist realizes ambition.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 13 August 1938.

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  • Daniel Edward Freeman
  • Ellen Wilson — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: William Wilson, 51, livery stable groom; wife Sarah, 48; and daughters Ellen, 23, and Lillian, 21.

Lane Street Project: the sunny side.

Gravedigging news aside, today was lovely. 

The daffodils at Rountree never disappoint.

I sacrificed blood and boot trying get through the briers and wisteria to reach the base of the pole in Rountree Cemetery. I failed, but that’s okay.

I made a detour to Elm City Colored/Heritage Cemetery just to snap a photo of this marvel. Clarence B. Best at his best. I’m not sure why “avenging angel of death” was the motif the family settled on, but it makes for a compelling visual.

And then I pulled up to the house, and my sister’s car was in the driveway. All the way from New Jersey.

This evening I spoke at the library. I always relish these opportunities to share my research with folks who recognize and cherish the names and places I talk about. My family, two of my father’s classmates, my Wilson County Genealogical Society folks, the Lane Street Project Senior Force, Black Wide-Awake readers and followers, library staff, and so many others filled the room. Thank you.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10.

28 Books for 28 days.

Twenty-eight books I recommend to contextualize the history and culture of Wilson County, North Carolina,’s African-American people, in no particular order. Search for a review of one book every day this Black History Month. You’ve got the rest of the year to read them.

  1. Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family, Norma Jean and Carole Darden (1978)
  2. African-American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina, Beverly Patterson and Sarah Bryan (2013)
  3. Greater Freedom: the Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina, Charles W. McKinney Jr. (2010)
  4. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Stories of Social Upheaval, Saidiya Hartman (2019)
  5. The Place You Love Is Gone: Progress Hits Home, Melissa Holbrook Pierson (2006)
  6. Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia, Lynn Rainville (2014)
  7. Throwed Away: Failures of Progress in Eastern North Carolina, Linda Flowers (1990)
  8. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist (2014)
  9. Sherrod Village: A Memoir, Barbara Williams Lewis (2014)
  10. Elm City: A Negro Community in Action, C.L. Spellman (1942)
  11. Race and Politics in North Carolina 1872-1901: The Black Second, Eric Anderson (1980)
  12. No Justice No Peace, Algernon McNeil (2015)
  13. The Rise of a Southern Town, Wilson, North Carolina 1849-1920, Patrick M. Valentine (2002)
  14. Jim Crow in North Carolina: The Legislative Program from 1865 to 1920, Richard A. Paschal (2020)
  15. To Walk About in Freedom: The Long Emancipation of Priscilla Joyner, Carole Emberton (2022)
  16. Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, Ed and Ryan Mitchell (2023)
  17. Cemetery Citizens: Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds, Adam Rosenblatt (2024)
  18. ‘Make the Gig’: The History of the Monitors, John Harris (2024)
  19. In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning, Grace Elizabeth Hale (2023)
  20. Black Folks: The Roots of the Black Working Class, Blair LM Kelley (2023)
  21. Civil Rights History from the Ground Up: Local Struggles, A National Movement, Emilye Crosby, ed. (2011)
  22. Historic Wilson in Vintage Postcards, J. Robert Boykin III (2003)
  23. Slavery in North Carolina 1748-1775, Marvin L. Michael Kay and Lorin Lee Cary (2000)
  24. From a Cat House to the White House: The Story of an African-American Chef, Jesse Pender (2007)
  25. Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, David Zucchino (2020)
  26. North Carolina’s Free People of Color 1715-1885, Warren E. Milteer Jr. (2020)
  27. George Henry White: An Even Chance in the Game of Life, Benjamin Justesen (2001)
  28. History of African Americans in North Carolina, Jeffrey J. Crow, Paul D. Escott, and Flora J. Hadley Watelington (2002)

Lane Street Project: congrats and gratitude.

I didn’t recognize the phone number, but I answered anyway. I was in a bit of a rush, heading into Home Depot for something or other. The caller was Chris Facey. He’d just started a residency in Wilson with Eyes on Main Street, and Jerome De Perlinghi had suggested he talk to me. I didn’t know it yet, but I was talking to the man who would, while forming an indelible bond with Castonoble Hooks, capture so many beautiful, joyful, sorrowful moments along Lane Street Project’s journey.

I’m so proud that Chris’ work has been included in the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Evidence of Existence on-line exhibit. Chris captured this image during Lane Street Project’s second season — the shaft and pyramidal cap of Henry Tart’s obelisk gleaming dully in a wisteria-draped glade.

Chris has brought honor and recognition to our ancestors. We thank him for his gifts of “art and record” and wish him multifold blessings.

Follow Chris Facey on Instagram @coco.butter.shutter

Unexpected joy on Christmas morning.

During the depths of the Great Depression, young Lusynthia Johnson wrote this Christmas short story set in a thinly veiled Wilson.

The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), 26 December 1936.

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Lusynthia Page Johnson was born in 1922 in Wilson County to Theodore Roosevelt Johnson and Rachel Bynum Johnson. In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Mamie Bynum, 50; daughter Mozell Jeffrey, 23, maid; daughter Rachel Johnson, 25, hospital maid; son-in-law Rosevelt Johnson, 23, orchestra musician; roomer Namie Lasitor, 22, servant; and granddaughter Lucinda Farmer, 8.