centenarian

Happy 104th birthday, Mother Battle!

Wilson Daily Times, 25 April 2024.

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In the 1930 census of Oak Level township, Nash County, North Carolina: farmer William Gray, 68; wife Georgeanna, 48; sons Bennie, 19, and Stephen, 13, and grandchildren Robert, 12, Walter, 9, Boney, 8, and Ellen Gray, 10, and Loneva Battle, 5.

On 4 June 1937, Elroy Battle, 21, of Wilson County, son of Alfred and Exie Battle, married Ellen Gray, 18, of Wilson County, daughter of William and Georgeanna Gray, in Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina. Witnesses to the ceremony included Eva Gray of Black Creek and Alice Artis of Wilson.

In 1940, Elroy Battle registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 August 1918 in Wilson County; lived on R.F.D. 3, Wilson; his contact was wife Ellen Battle; and he was self-employed.

In the 1940 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Elroy Battle, 21; wife Ellen, 20; sister Daisy, 19; brother-in-law Barney Gray, 18; and brother Lonnie Battle, 13.

In the 1950 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Elroy Battle, 31, farmer; wife Ellen, 30; son Richard Ray, 4; and cousin Walter Gray, 29.

“I’m spiritually fed, and I have lovely friends”: centenarian Rosa Arrington looks back.

Rosa Farmer Arrington‘s 1984 interview with the Daily Times shortly before her 102nd birthday is a joy to read! (Where are her photographs now??)

Wilson Daily Times, 31 December 1984.

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In the 1900 census of the Town of Wilson, Wilson County: day laborer James Farmer, 22, and his siblings Rosa, 17, Freeda, 10, Robert, 7, Richard, 5, Mark, 2, and Erickers, 7 months, plus boarder Tobias Farmer, 47, a barber.

On 19 September 1900, Warren Crank, 21, of Wilson, married Rosa Farmer, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Tobias Farmer and Chunnie Farmer, at Rosa Farmer’s house in Wilson. P.H. Leach applied for the license; Rev. William Baker performed the ceremony; and R.H.W. Wilkerson, Joe Edwards, and G.A. Martin were witnesses.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: oil mill laborer Warren Crank, 30; wife Rosie, 27, laundress; brother-in-law Mark Farmer, 12; and boarder Mute Land, 31, oil mill laborer.

Tobias Farmer died in Wilson on 17 May 1914. Per his death certificate, he was born 5 January 1854 in North Carolina to Elija Farmer and Rosa Barnes; was a widower; and worked as a barber. Rosa Crank was informant.

Warren Crank died 2 June 1917 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 8 December 1880 in Lynchburg, Virginia, to Thomas Crank; worked in a tobacco factory; and was married. Rosa Crank was informant. Crank was buried in Wilson, N.C. (which likely meant Vick or Odd Fellows Cemeteries.)

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 646 Green Street, house carpenter Levi Arrington, 33; wife Rosa, 33; and daughter Zelma, 7.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 208 Reid Street, carpenter Levi Arrington, 38, wife Rosa, 40, daughter Zelma, 16, and lodger Nelly Sharp, 20, a cook.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Arrington Zelma (c) student 208 N Reid

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 208 Reid Street, construction carpenter Levi Arrington, 53, born in Nash County; wife Rosa, 57, tobacco stemmer, born in Enfield; daughter Zelma, 28, born in Wilson, beauty parlor operator; and roomer Mary Johnson, 22, born in Winston-Salem, public school teacher.

On 25 February 1948, Hector Henry McPhail, 44, of Wilson, son of R.J. and Laura McPhail, married Zelma Mae Arrington, 35, of Wilson, son of Levi and Rosa Arrington, in Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina.

Zelma Arrington McPhail died 27 December 1948 at her home at 208 North Reid Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 1 April 1912 in Wilson to Levi Arrington and  Rosa Farmer; was married to Hector McPhail; worked as a beautician; and was buried in “Wilson/Roundtree” cemetery.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 208 Reid Street, carpenter Levi Arrington, 62; wife Rosa, 67, beauty parlor proprietor; and foster daughter Margaret Kenny, 9.

Robert Farmer died 23 March 1957 at his home at 803 South Railroad Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 26 March 1890 in Wilson County to Tobe Farmer and Eunice Hunter; was a laborer; and was a widower. Rosa Arrington was informant.

Levi Arrington died 11 June 1964 at his home at 208 North Reid Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 May 1887 in Nash County to Amie Salvage; was married to Rosa Arrington; and was a carpenter.

The death of Emily Jones, age 105.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 April 1917.

Proclaimed centenarians were seldom actually as old as claimed. Census evidence suggests that Emily Jones really was perhaps 80-90 years old when she died.

Samuel Jones, who arrived in Wilson before 1889, was a long-time employee of tobacconist Ula H. Cozart Sr., co-founder of Centre Brick tobacco warehouse.

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On 30 August 1866, Duke Jones and Emily Pinnell registered their marriage with a Warren County, North Carolina, justice of the peace. They had cohabited since 1 January 1857.

In the 1870 census of Township 7, Warren County: Daniel Jones, 44, farmer; wife Emily, 33; and children Samuel, 13, Jane, 12, Blake, 7, Joseph, 6, and Edward, 2.

In the 1880 census of Shocco township, Warren County: Duke Jones, 55, farmer; wife Emely, 55; and children Benjamin, 18, John, 16, and Ellick, 14.

On 24 December 1889, Sam Jones, 28, was issued a license to marry Julia Ann Boykin, 19, in Wilson County. They did not return the license.

In the 1900 census of Warrenton, Warren County: Duke Jones, 70, farmer, and wife Emily, 60.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: tobacco grader Samuel Jones, 45; wife Julia A., 29, tobacco grader; and children Nannie E., 7, William G., 3, Irena R., 5 months, and Maggie, 2. 

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: odd jobs laborer Sam Jones, 45; wife Julia, 39; and children Nannie, 17, cook, Willie, 13, grocery store delivery boy, Irene, 10, Sam, 9, Isar, 5, Magilena, 3, and May A., 1.

Emily Jones died 20 February 1917 in Warrenton, Warren County, North Carolina. Per her death certificate, she was born about 1813 in Raleigh, N.C.; was widowed; and was buried in Snow Hill Cemetery, Warren County. Informant was J.J. Jones, 701-19th Street, Washington, D.C.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 645 Green Street, laborer Sam Jones, 65, widower; children Rosa L., 7, Isier, 16, laborer, Maggie, 13, and Mary A., 10; daughter Mamie Garner, 25, and her sons Albert, 7, and Dick, 5; daughter Irean Lee, 19, and son-in-law Milton Lee, 23, house carpenter. 

Sam Jones Sr. died 1 February 1926 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 72 years old; was born in Warren County, N.C., to Duke Jones and Emlie Jones; was a widower; lived at 407 Carroll Street; worked as a night watchman for Planters Warehouse; and was buried in Rountrees Cemetery [likely, Vick.] Samuel Jones Jr. was informant.

The passing of John Clarence Artis, age 100.

John Clarence Artis, 16 October 1922-13 June 2023.

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John Clarence Artis was born 16 October 1922 in Wilson County to John Columbus Artis and Nancy Pearsall [Pender?]

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1113 Queen Street, widow Mary Pender, 45, laundress; daughter Nancy Artist, 23, laundress; grandsons John C., 7, and Willie, 5; son William H. Pender, 25, auto mechanic at garage; and lodger Maggie Edwards, 21, cook.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farmer Simon Pope, 37; wife Nancy, 33; stepson John Artis, 17; lodger David Ward, 16; nephew James Harris, 10; and mother-in-law Mary Jane Pender, 56, widow.

In 1942, John Clarence Artis registered for the World War II draft in Portsmouth, Virginia. Per his registration card, he was born 16 October 1922 in Wilson; he lived at 1029 London Street, Portsmouth; his contact was Mary Pender, 206 Manchester Street, Wilson; and he worked at the Naval Hospital, Portsmouth.

On 19 July 1957, John C. Artis Jr., 34, of 641 Cemetery Street, Wilson, son of John C. Artis and Nancy Pender Artis, married Margie Dunston, 26, of Lucama, daughter of Aaron and Lenatha Thompson, in Wilson.

Photo courtesy of http://www.carronsfuneralhome.com.

The passing of Rev. Dr. Beauregard Ward, 102.

Rev. Dr. Beauregard “B.G.” Ward, 6 August 1920-11 June 2023.

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In the 1930 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer James Ward, 50; wife Addie, 39; children Maggie, 19, Oz, 17, Ida, 16, Joseph, 15, Ora, 12, Bourgard, 11, Charlie, 8, Leland, 5, Minnie L., 3, and Annie M., 0; and mother Sarah, 72, widow.

On 11 May 1939, Boiggard Ward, 21, of Wilson County, son of Jim and Annie Ward, married Bertha Dupree, 19, of Snow Hill, N.C., daughter Preston and Ada Dupree, in Snow Hill, Greene County.

In the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: on Highway No. 264, farmer James Ward, 58; wife Addie, 46; and children Ida, 24, Charles, 18, Leland, 14, Minnie, 13, Annie, 10, Molena, 5, and Beauregard, 20; daughter-in-law Bertha Lee, 20; and grandson James Lee Barnes, 9.

In the 1950 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: proceeding east on Stantonsburg Black Creek Rd., farmer Beauregard Ward, 26; wife Bertha Lee, 26; children Boyd Lee, 9, Milton, 7, Gene Aubry, 5, Earnest, 4, Elnora, 3, Willie Gray, 2, and Linda Fay, born in August [1949]; and hired hand John L. Williams, 15.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 February 2009.

In memoriam: Mary Mercer Williams Bullock, age 105.

Wilson Times, 10 January 2023.

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In the 1930 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer Sam Williams, 26; wife Mary, 17; and son Sam Jr., 2 months.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 527 Lodge Street, paying $6/month for each side of a duplex, widow Louise B. Johnson, 34, laborer in redrying tobacco factory; also Samuel Williams, 37, redrying factory laborer; wife Mary, 28, redrying factory laborer; and children Samuel Jr., 11, Daisy Lee, 6, Cleo, 5, Charlie Lee, 2, and Eugenia, 9 months.

In 1947, Samuel Williams Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 22 January 1929 in Wilson County; lived at Route 4,  Wilson; worked for his father on Mark Lee Ellis’ farm; and his contact was his mother Mary Williams.

On 30 December 1950, Gurney Bullock, 48, of Ed Bullock and Lula Thomas Bullock, married Mary Mercer Williams, 38, daughter of Demp Mercer and Mattie Knight Mercer, in Wilson.

Samuel Williams [Jr.] died 3 October 1953 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 22 January 1927 in Wilson to Sam Williams and Mary Mercer; lived at 603 Cemetery Street; was married to Minnie L. Williams; and worked as a laborer.

Rest in peace, Vanilla P. Beane.

Black Wide-Awake mourns the passing of Vanilla Powell Beane, Wilson native, Washington, D.C., legend, and milliner extraordinaire. Her 103 years of life were exceptionally well-lived, and the world so much richer for her talents.

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Vanilla Beane, the District’s ‘Hat Lady,’ dies at 103.

By Michael Rosenwald, The Washington Times, 25 October 2022.

Vanilla Beane, whose radiant hats topped the heads of legions of African American women at church, weddings and funerals in the District for half a century, earning her the title of “D.C.’s Hat Lady,” died Oct. 23 at a hospital in Washington. She was 103.

The cause was complications following an aortic tear, said her grandson Craig Seymour.

Mrs. Beane’s hats, which she had designed and fabricated at the Bené Millinery and Bridal Supplies shop on Third Street NW, were featured on postage stamps and in collections at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Every hat was one-of-a-kind.

“Nobody wants to walk into a church and see someone else wearing their hat,” she once said.

Poet Maya Angelou wore one of Mrs. Beane’s millinery creations. Civil rights activist Dorothy I. Height donned them for meetings with presidents and other officials. “Hats give me a lift and make me feel real special,” Height explained — a sentiment shared by the countless others who shopped at Mrs. Beane’s store.

Mrs. Beane worked six days a week into her 100th year.

“Some people like real fussy hats,” she told The Washington Post in 2009. “Others like sophisticated hats, and a lot of people like simple hats. I try to please people regardless of their race or background.”

Mrs. Beane made her hats the old-fashioned way, wetting buckram — a stiff cotton — into molds decorated with all manner of fabrics. Keeping her fingernails cut short, Mr. Beane made tams, turbans, panamas, sailors and cloches. Decades of the repetitive fashioning turned her fingers stiff and rough.

“They look like I have been digging potatoes,” she said.

Vanilla Powell was born in Wilson, N.C., on Sept. 13, 1919, the second youngest of nine siblings. Her father was a carpenter and farmer, and her mother was a seamstress who also worked in White people’s homes washing their clothes.

Growing up during the Depression instilled a robust work ethic in the Powell children, who worked in the fields picking tobacco and cotton. On Sundays, they rested and walked to Sandy Point Baptist Church, where women sat in the pews wearing fancy hats.

“In the past, when most Blacks had blue-collar jobs, dressing up on Sundays was a cherished ritual,” Craig Marberry, co-author of “Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats,” said in a 2019 story about Mrs. Beane in The Post. “The hat tradition grew out of the idea that you were expressing how God has blessed you. The more flamboyant a hat, the more God has blessed you.”

After graduating from [C.H. Darden] high school in 1940, Vanilla Powell moved to Washington and two years later married Willie Beane Sr., producing the name that endlessly charmed her customers and friends, though it took her a little bit to realize its novelty.

“I was in the drugstore and the pharmacy said, ‘Do you know there is a Vanilla Beane?’” she recalled in a television interview in 2020. “I said I guess it was meant to be.”

In Washington, Mrs. Beane worked as an elevator operator in a downtown building with a hat store called Washington Millinery Supply. She was enamored by the intricate hats and the craft of making them, so she bought some supplies and began making them herself.

Eventually she showed her hats to the store’s owner, Richard Dietrick Sr. “She had very much talent, but she didn’t have the design know-how in those days,” Dietrick recalled later. “She picked it up very quickly.”

Mrs. Beane eventually began working for him, and when he moved his shop to Gaithersburg, Md., she bought his supplies and, in 1979, opened her own store. She was a shrewd businesswoman, convincing Ethel Sanders, the owner of Lovely Lady Boutique in Bethesda, Md., to move her store near Bené Millinery.

“People knew us as a team,” Sanders recalled in 2019. “Women would come in for a dress and I’d send them to Vanilla for a hat. Or they’d go for a hat and she’d send them to me for an outfit.”

Mrs. Beane’s shop had White customers, as well. One of them was Sherry Watkins, who founded the Rogue Hatters, a group of women who collected Mrs. Beane’s hats. Watkins owned 75.

Mrs. Beane taught them the rules of hat wearing.

“Don’t match the hat to the outfit,” Watkins recalled. “Just buy a hat you like and the outfit will come. Never wear your hat more than one inch above your eyebrows. Slant it to look more interesting and possibly even risque.”

Mrs. Beane seemed to never get designer’s block. Her designs constantly evolved.

At the National Museum of African American History and Culture, one of Mrs. Beane’s hats is green velveteen.

“The hat is circular with a rounded peak and constructed by layering a strip of fabric over itself in a wrapped design,” the museum’s description says. “The base of the fabric is a light green while the pile is a darker green, giving the hat a two-tone appearance.”

Another is a red felt bicorn style.

“The hat is composed of a single piece of stiff felt that has been folded up at the center front,” the museum notes. “The dome of the hat is cylindrical, with the raised brim attached at the top of the crown. There are red felt bows affixed at the attachment points.”

Mrs. Beane’s husband died in 1993. Their son, Willie G. Beane Jr., died in 1980. Ms. Beane is survived by two daughters, Margaret L. Seymour of Charleston, S.C., and Linda R. Jefferson of the District; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Beane was such a fixture of Washington that then-Fox News host Chris Wallace named her “Power Player of the Week” in the summer of 2020.

Wallace asked her what made a proper church hat.

“Well,” she answered, “any hat that’s not too fancy, not too wide.”

The host marveled at her longevity.

“In these challenging times,” Wallace said, “it’s nice to know there are still some constants in the world, like Vanilla Beane.”

Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post.

Wilson County’s own Vanilla Powell Beane honored as she turns 103!

Nothing I could write could improve upon Jeni Hansen’s remarks about her remarkable grandmother, so I take the liberty to share them here:
“This past week, on the evening of her 103rd birthday,​ ​Vanilla Powell Beane received the ​2022 ​Mayor’s Arts Award for Distinguished Honor. Thank you, Mayor [Muriel] Bowser​, and ​thank you DC for showing up to honor the oldest small business owner in Washington!
“I’ve said this before but it stands true today — one of the things I remain most inspired by, is my grandmother’s desire to do something without being recognized.
The other day we were talking about becoming who you are — the dedication, determination, triumphs, and challenges. I am not surprised she did the damn thing without analytics, likes, and without a platform – her passion wasn’t built around the approval of others but a genuine love for her craft. She was inducted into the National Association of Fashion & Accessories Designers in 1975, has more than one day named after her in Washington, and hats are featured on a U.S. Postal Service stamp and in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“If it takes you 103 years to be recognized for your talents, work hard and enjoy every day. When you make it where you’re going, overcome the obstacles you and others put in your way, and become who you are destined to be — I hope you’ll look in the mirror and say exactly what my grandma said to me, ‘Well, I’m here aren’t I?’
“The life you lead, truly, is the legacy you leave.”
Photo by Salah Djimbananou and text courtesy of Jeni Hansen, via Sandy Alston, Mrs. Beane’s great-niece.