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Histories» Show All «Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 9» Next» Booth: Frances Adelle Booth Memories on the Thaddeus Floyd Booth side of the family
1
2 Gene Harris: THADDEUS FLOYD BOOTH, born 16
3 December, 1854, died July, 1932. He was born at Snow
4 Hill Plantation. He is buried at Claremont, Virginia,
5 at St --
6 TIM: St. Anne's --
7 Gene Harris: -- St. Anne's Episcopal
8 Church.
9 TIM: Is that correct?
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes.
11 Gene Harris: His wife's maiden name is
12 Mary?
13 TIM: Louise Barrett, Southampton County.
14 Gene Harris: Southampton County. She was
15 born June 28th, 1864. It looks like, Sebrill,
16 S-E-B-R-E-L-L, Southampton County, Virginia. She died
17 March of 1942 at the home of Percy J. BOOTH, in
18 Savage, Virginia --
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh.
20 Gene Harris: -- and she was buried Sunday,
21 March 8th, 1942, at Claremont, Virginia, at St.
22 Anne's, probably with her husband?
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh.
24 Gene Harris: Okay. Children are: Magnus
25 Floyd BOOTH, borne 25 July, 1883. All births are in
1 Surry County, Virginia.
2 Magnus Floyd BOOTH was born to M-I-N-E,
3 it looks like, Fairfield, F-A--I-R-F-I-E-L-D --
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Mynee(phonetic).
5 Mynee.
6 Gene Harris: M-I-N-E Fairfield.
7 The next son is Hiram A. BOOTH, who was
8 born 21 January, 1885. He was married to Annie
9 Bailey?
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right.
11 Gene Harris: The next child is Annie Belle
12 BOOTH.
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh.
14 Gene Harris: She was married 2 January,
15 1887, to Willie D. Baird.
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right.
17 Gene Harris: The next one is Bessie Binns,
18 B-I-N-N-S, BOOTH, born 28 April, 1889 --
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Ellis.
20 Gene Harris: -- and to Claude H. Ellis,
21 E-L-L-I-S.
22 And she died February 1972.
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know about the
24 dates, but I know who they were married to and that.
25 Gene Harris: Okay. The next one is
1 Thaddeus Clyde BOOTH, born 31 January, 1891, married
2 to Ruth --
3 TIM: It looks like, Rogue --
4 Gene Harris: -- Rogue, R-O-G-U-E, Johnson.
5 Next one is Percy Jackson BOOTH, born 6
6 June, 1893, married Martha McCoy --
7 TIM: That's his second wife.
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh.
9 Gene Harris: -- second wife. First wife
10 was Myrtie, Myrtie --
11 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Myrtle.
12 Gene Harris: -- Myrtle? Okay. Myrtle
13 Clemons, C-L-E-M-O-N-S.
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right.
15 Gene Harris: They married November 10th,
16 1930.
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: That might be a mix up
18 when it comes to --
19 Gene Harris: Okay. Your mother was Martha
20 Myrtle Clemons?
21 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Martha Myrtle Clemons.
22 Gene Harris: And we're speaking to --
23 what's your full name?
24 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: My full name?
25 Francis --
1 TIM: Francis Adele --
2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- Adele BOOTH --
3 TIM: Downey(phonetic.
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- Downey.
5 Gene Harris: Okay. Go ahead now.
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: My mother died when I
7 was nine years old. So when he --
8 SPEAKER 3: And he married a Martha
9 Virginia McCoy BOOTH. So we've got two. His first
10 wife was Mar- -- had a Martha in it, and his second
11 wife had a Martha in it.
12 TIM: Martha Myrtle Clemons was the first
13 wife, and Martha McCoy was the second wife. She was
14 from Claremont, right? Wasn't she born and raised
15 in --
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Burrowsville(phonetic)
17 .
18 Gene Harris: Okay. So back to, we're still
19 on Percy Jackson BOOTH. First wife was Myrtle --
20 TIM: Martha Myrtle --
21 SPEAKER 3: Martha Myrtle --
22 TIM: -- Clemons.
23 Gene Harris: -- Martha Myrtle Clemons.
24 TIM: Second wife was Martha McCoy.
25 Gene Harris: -- Martha McCoy. Okay.
1 Continue on to Thaddeus' other children:
2 Oscar Hudson BOOTH, born 7 May, 1895, and he was
3 married to Ruth --
4 TIM: Powell, isn't it?
5 Gene Harris: Powell. P-O-W-E-L-L.
6 -- we know he died in December, but we do
7 not have a year.
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And he didn't have any
9 children.
10 Gene Harris: And Oscar Hudson BOOTH died,
11 no children.
12 John Beverly BOOTH was born the 28th of
13 June, 1898.
14 Reginal A. BOOTH was born 7 June, 1901.
15 And he was married to Thelma Fulcher, F-U-L-C-H-E-R.
16 Next one was Lillian, l-I-L-L-I-A-N, R.
17 Booth, born 21 May, 1903. And she was born to A. Rex
18 BOOTH.
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Another BOOTH, but
20 they were from Tennessee.
21 TIM: Same name.
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She married a BOOTH.
23 Gene Harris: And A. Rex BOOTH was from
24 Tennessee.
25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
1 Gene Harris: Next one is Mary Louisa Booth,
2 who was born 15 September, 1908, and she is married to
3 Floyd Scott.
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Floyd? It's supposed
5 to be Lloyd.
6 Gene Harris: Lloyd. It's not supposed to
7 be Floyd. It's Lloyd, L-L-O-Y-D.
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And they had one
9 child. It's not on there?
10 Gene Harris: No. It's not on here.
11 TIM: Mother has also the occupation of
12 each one on here.
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Nancy --
14 Gene Harris: Uncle Magnus, and that would
15 be?
16 TIM: Magnus Floyd Haines(phonetic) was a
17 farmer.
18 Gene Harris: Was a farmer?
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: He worked for somebody
20 else that owned a big farm.
21 Gene Harris: Okay.
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Hiram, I think he
23 worked for a company in Hopewell.
24 TIM: Worked for a company.
25 Gene Harris: Annie Belle BOOTH was a
1 farmer's --
2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Married to a farmer.
3 Gene Harris: Married to a farmer?
4 Bessie was married to a farmer?
5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Married to a farmer.
6 Gene Harris: Thaddeus Clyde BOOTH, fifth
7 child, was a farmer, isn't that right?
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: No --
9 TIM: Well, it says it right there.
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Is this --
11 Gene Harris: Yes, ma'am. You should turn
12 it off.
13 Well, I want to get everything.
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Because I can't tell
15 you who, what his job was because of --
16 TIM: Well, if you can't, that's all
17 right. It's just, you had it written right there.
18 So....
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I know how he got his
20 income, but I can't tell you what --
21 TIM: Oh, yes, you can, Mother. You can
22 tell that story.
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I cannot.
24 Gene Harris: Yes, ma'am.
25 TIM: He was a moonshiner.
1 Gene Harris: Oh, that's no problem. Half
2 the family were moonshiners.
3 TIM: He sold and made moonshine.
4 Gene Harris: And that was who? Thaddeus
5 Clyde?
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. That's what it
7 is. Thaddeus Clyde BOOTH.
8 TIM: So he was a moonshiner. I mean,
9 we've got moonshiners all through the family.
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Okay. Percy Jackson
11 BOOTH --
12 TIM: -- didn't want to bring any shame to
13 the BOOTH family.
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, I didn't know
15 what he called himself, because he also had a girl, he
16 also had a girlfriend, I presume she was his
17 girlfriend, right across the road from him, where he
18 lived.
19 He married a girl named Ruth, who as a
20 Rogers, whose last name was Rogers before she married,
21 and I understand she, her family owned a lot of land.
22 TIM: Right. We've got a bit cemetery
23 back there with the BOOTHs. You've got pictures of
24 that on the CD also.
25 Gene Harris: I've got no idea where that
1 is. I'd love to see it.
2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: This is in Savage,
3 around Savage. Ruth Rogers on the low plane, and she
4 was a cute brunette with blue eyes, and she had --
5 Gene Harris: Now, Ruth Rogers: Who was
6 she? She was the one that married Thaddeus Clyde
7 BOOTH?
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. And so he sort
9 of became friends with the postmaster that lived
10 across the, right in front of their home, and, and he
11 got mixed up with, when the time of the Depression,
12 and they did do some moonshining or whatever you call
13 it, I guess, because he seemed to have more money than
14 anybody else around.
15 Gene Harris: Okay. Hold, let's stop for
16 just a second.
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Aunt Lillian, when we
18 get down to her, she's the most interesting to me.
19 I asked her when I went to stay with her,
20 she was in her, lived to be 94, I said, Which one of
21 these was the nicest of the seven boys?
22 And she said, Clyde, but just think about
23 it. He, he wasn't on the job all the time. So he
24 could, when my grandmother wanted some help, all she
25 had to do was call Clyde and Clyde came running and --
1 TIM: Right. He wasn't in the field for
2 12 hours a day --
3 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And, and the
4 interesting thing that happened was that he did not,
5 Thaddeus was, I know, from being an alcoholic, the
6 Greyhound Bus ran off of the bridge up there between
7 Petersburg Pike and Hopewell --
8 TIM: You see, this, Mother, this needs to
9 be recorded here.
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- and, and --
11 TIM: -- he jumped in the water to save
12 him.
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Mary, the
14 youngest --
15 Gene Harris: Mary, Mary Louise BOOTH?
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- right. Lived close
17 by and Uncle Clyde, so I was told, Aunt Lin told me,
18 went out to help. It's probably about as far as from
19 here across the street, and jumped in the cold water.
20 And --
21 TIM: The Greyhound bus left the road and
22 went over into the --
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. And he --
24 TIM: -- the river.
25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- got, he died of
1 pneumonia.
2 TIM: He caught pneumonia saving the
3 passengers --
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: From cold water.
5 So he didn't die, evidently, as an
6 alcoholic, he died from that.
7 Gene Harris: So the next one down the line
8 would be --
9 TIM: Percy --
10 Gene Harris: -- Percy Jackson, would be
11 your father.
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Oh. Daddy, Daddy was
13 a merchant --
14 Gene Harris: That's Percy Jackson?
15 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- right. And my
16 mother was a postmaster. They had postmaster and the
17 store together.
18 Gene Harris: Now, what was the store?
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Savage.
20 Gene Harris: Was there a name on it? Did
21 the store have a name.
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, my grandmother's
23 brother, Barrett, had a big old country store like
24 _________________, big old country store, and there
25 was a Savage across, there's an intersection there.
1 So it was a big Savage store there, but
2 Waverly(phonetic). Not Waverly, Barrett, my
3 grandmother's brother, had the post office there.
4 I don't remember in the store, but he
5 retired. So when he retired, my mother took the
6 service and passed it and became postmaster there.
7 So my father started out with a little old
8 garage and then he moved his warehouse up to the big
9 store that had a big floor to it.
10 TIM: Is there a sign on it that says,
11 BOOTH General Store, or --
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Not then. After that
13 my father bought that piece of land, and, and built
14 his own store. And that's when he had his sign, P.J.
15 BOOTH, what do you call it --
16 TIM: General store?
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- pay as you go, you
18 know. There were a lot of blacks that weren't paying.
19 They ________________ in good with him.
20 TIM: Credit wasn't --
21 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: So the post office was
22 moved there, too.
23 And, and besides that, Dad was quite a, a
24 good businessman, because he drove a school bus for
25 years.
1 I said, when he came to live with us, Why
2 did you, why did you drive a school bus from Save to
3 Berrysville(phonetic) which is about 10 miles on a
4 horse during the wintertime when the snow sometimes
5 was 2 feet deep, deep?
6 And he said, To save money. Keep from
7 paying gas.
8 And then rode back. That's how he started
9 out.
10 So he drove a school bus then. And then
11 when they switched schools, he drove one of the first
12 school buses that was a chassis, had a chassis --
13 TIM: Chassis with a body built on it --
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- with a body built
15 on the side, where you just roll up the curtains and
16 so forth. And then when the first school buses that
17 looks like the buses today, was when my mother died,
18 that was 1929. I rode in that school bus, a new
19 school bus. I know that.
20 TIM: And he also drove a dump truck or
21 something, too --
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And anyway, he, he was
23 paid about $100 a month for driving the school bus.
24 And then in the summertime he had two dump
25 trucks. I don't know whether he rented them or how,
1 how it was, but that was when they were fixing the
2 roads.
3 And so he had two, two dump trucks with
4 people working, driving, while he was in the store.
5 So he had three things going at one time.
6 Gene Harris: Okay. How about Oscar Hudson
7 BOOTH?
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Oscar Hudson was a, a
9 big achiever. He, he did not like planting potatoes.
10 Aunt Lin told the story where they would
11 all get out and my grandfather would say, Plant the
12 potatoes with the eyes up, and he was looking up at
13 the sky, whether that's a joke or not.
14 So he was a typical city boy. And he went
15 to, I think he went to Newport News, came to Newport
16 News first, and then got a job, and then every time
17 he'd, and then he would go to school at night.
18 And then he'd get another job, and then
19 he'd go to school at night until he became a lawyer
20 for the city of Richmond.
21 Gene Harris: Oscar Hudson BOOTH was a
22 lawyer for the city of Richmond?
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes.
24 TIM: Uh-huh.
25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: By his, going to
1 school.
2 John, John Beverly BOOTH --
3 TIM: Yes. He was --
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: John Beverly BOOTH
5 was in world war --
6 TIM: He was a World War I soldier. Yeah.
7 This is a very interacting story. Tell
8 it.
9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know if I can
10 tell that story or not, because it's sort of a sad
11 story.
12 Gene Harris: This is all John Beverly
13 BOOTH?
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
15 TIM: That's right.
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: He was, he was, I
17 think it's somewhat of a dirty blonde, like, and we,
18 we, he had a girlfriend when he left. And when he
19 came back, his girlfriend, like a lot of stories, his
20 girlfriend was married. And he, he, the one thing
21 that the war left him with was bad feet because of --
22 TIM: Trench foot.
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- being in the
24 trenches over in England, I believe it was, in deep
25 water.
1 And once in a, so Uncle Clyde, the
2 brother, had a little house there. And Johnny lived
3 in it for a while. And then he started to drinking a
4 little.
5 I remember he came over to my house when
6 my grandmother came to live with us after my mother
7 died, and he was drinking a little bit. And my
8 grandmother said, You go right back to your house and
9 don't come back to see me until you get okay.
10 Gene Harris: That was his mother, Mary
11 Louise Barrett?
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
13 So, so he wasn't a bad guy.
14 And then later someone, I don't know, it
15 was Gary maybe, who said he saw a picture of a
16 base- -- he was good at ba- -- softball or baseball, I
17 guess it was, and it had John's name, John --
18 Gene Harris: He played for --
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- BOOTH in Surry
20 County.
21 TIM: -- a local baseball team in
22 Smithfield that he played some baseball for.
23 Gene Harris: We're still discussing John
24 BOOTH?
25 TIM: Right.
1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh.
2 TIM: He was a, he was a bachelor. He
3 never married the girl that he --
4 He went to the service and went to World
5 War I, went to France. When he came back, however
6 long he was there, she had met someone else and
7 married. And he never married, he never dated or
8 married again, did he? He never dated anybody --
9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know, but my
10 grandmother said that the reason that he did the, the
11 drinking was because of, of the, what they gave him,
12 drug, I guess, what do you call it --
13 TIM: For his feet?
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- for his feet.
15 Yeah.
16 TIM: Uh-huh.
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It started like that.
18 Gene Harris: Okay. How about, let's see.
19 We're now on what, Reginald, Reginald A. BOOTH --
20 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Reginald was --
21 Gene Harris: -- son of, son of Thaddeus
22 Lloyd BOOTH and Mary Louise Barrett.
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Reginald --
24 Gene Harris: -- he's the ninth child.
25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Reginald was a
1 policeman for the city of Hopewell.
2 TIM: We have a picture of him, too. I
3 don't know if you have it here, but --
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I have a good picture.
5 TIM: Yeah. We have a good picture.
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Look over there in the
7 drawer where we found the picture of Uncle Reggie --
8 SPEAKER 4: Where?
9 Gene Harris: Now do, Reginald: Do you
10 remember when he died? Because it doesn't show it on
11 here.
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Let's see. No. It
13 doesn't show it on here.
14 I don't know. It might be somewhere.
15 TIM: We do have a good picture.
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I know that he lived
17 to, to be, I know that he lived, died, I think, with
18 stomach problems. Probably cancer. He had it at a
19 young age, and I know that he was sick for while
20 there, for, like, five or 10 years and we used to go
21 and see him.
22 And, and he was good-looking.
23 And, and then Lillian BOOTH. Aunt
24 Lillian's story is more interesting.
25 Gene Harris: All right. We'll take a break
1 here.
2 (Break.)
3 Gene Harris: Continuing....
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I think that six out
5 of Ms. BOOTH, of Thaddeus BOOTH lived to be 90-some.
6 Gene Harris: Okay. I think the next person
7 is, we stopped with who? Oscar? Did we, or did we
8 stop with John Beverly BOOTH, didn't we?
9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: We're talking about
10 Thaddeus ____________ Family.
11 Gene Harris: Right. Yeah. But we need to
12 see what you remember now starting with Reginal A.
13 BOOTH --
14 TIM: The police officer, Mom, from
15 Hopewell.
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I think, I think he
17 lived to be 94. And I think that that, Daddy was 89
18 or, he lacked but so many months of being 90, so I
19 included him.
20 Bessie Binns BOOTH almost made it to 100,
21 lacking something in months being away from 100. And
22 Annabel did hit 100.
23 Gene Harris: Annabel?
24 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
25 Gene Harris: Annie Belle BOOTH, okay. She
1 lived to be 100?
2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes.
3 Gene Harris: Okay.
4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I think that
5 Ma- -- Uncle Magnus was somewhere in his 90's, because
6 I remember that, I figured there were six of them out
7 of the 11.
8 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, what do you
9 remember about Reginal A. BOOTH?
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: He was a, he was, he
11 was probably the largest built, but he was not overly
12 fat. He was just built like a football player.
13 Gene Harris: Stocky build?
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. And, and he was
15 good looking. And he was a policeman.
16 Gene Harris: Okay. And let's go to the
17 next one, which is Lillian R. BOOTH. Do you remember
18 what Lillian's middle in- -- middle name was?
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Barrett.
20 Gene Harris: Okay. So it's Lillian B.
21 BOOTH?
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes.
23 Lillian Barrett BOOTH.
24 Gene Harris: Okay. And she was born was 21
25 May, 1903?
1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh.
2 Gene Harris: What do you remember of her?
3 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, Aunt, Aunt
4 Lillian, Aunt Lillian taught school. She taught in a
5 one-room school.
6 Gene Harris: Which school was that?
7 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: One-room school down
8 at --
9 Gene Harris: Was that Otterdam School?
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- located at Otter
11 Dam Wall(phonetic).
12 Gene Harris: Okay. So that was the old
13 Otterdam school, then?
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
15 Gene Harris: Old white, white clapboard
16 building?
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. And she drove
18 old Billy, the horse, and her buggy to the school and
19 back again. And she taught a small amount of children
20 between one, first grade and seventh.
21 And each summer she would go to summer
22 school with the money she made teaching school in the
23 winter until she got two years of college, and then
24 later she went, you were required to have four years,
25 so she went to school and got her degree in that.
1 And that's, I knew she was an achiever.
2 There are so many stories about her. Because she, she
3 got into a law course where most of them were guys.
4 And she told me that two of them walked in, and they
5 all started at these two girls in the law course.
6 And, and then when the, they took the
7 exams and so forth, they all were wondering what they
8 were going to get, but only a few of them passed, and
9 she was one of them. And, and she was, she was....
10 Gene Harris: Okay. And what about Mary?
11 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She, she was a
12 crackerjack teacher. She taught school for 40 years.
13 And she told me before she died that she enjoyed every
14 minute of it. I could not believe that, but that's
15 what she said.
16 Gene Harris: Wow. How about Mary Louise
17 BOOTH, who was born September 15th, 1908? Mary
18 Louise BOOTH?
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Mary Louise was the
20 youngest one. And I think that, that she must have
21 acted like she was. (Laughter.)
22 Anyway, she's the only one in the family
23 that had a chance to go to college that the parents
24 paid for, see?
25 And so Mary went at Longwood one year, and
1 then she met Lloyd. And Aunt Lin told me this story.
2 She met Lloyd, fell in love with him.
3 And, and married, eloped to North Carolina and got
4 married. And, and she, I think she regretted it
5 later.
6 And so there was a lot of jealousy sort of
7 between Aunt Lillian and, and Mary.
8 And she, she was a flirt. She looked the
9 part.
10 Gene Harris: Okay. Let's go --
11 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She has a daughter
12 that's still living.
13 Gene Harris: What's her daughter's name?
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Nancy --
15 TIM: Wills.
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- Scott Wills.
17 Gene Harris: Anyone know where she lives?
18 TIM: Yeah. We have a mailing address.
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. I have her
20 address. She's probably the youngest of the cou- --
21 the children.
22 TIM: We sent her this information.
23 Gene Harris: Okay. We need to get her.
24 You can send her something about the --
25 TIM: Okay.
1 Gene Harris: I'll e-mail you then when we
2 end it.
3 Okay. Let's go to Percy Jackson BOOTH,
4 who was born June 6, 1893. He was born in Surry
5 County, Virginia, and he died on March 3rd 1983, and
6 he's buried in Claremont, Virginia, at St. Anne's
7 Church.
8 He was married November 10th, 1930. And,
9 let's see. His first wife was Myrtle --
10 TIM: Martha Myrtle Clemons.
11 Gene Harris: -- Martha Myrtle Clemons, who
12 was born 1900.
13 TIM: Prince George County.
14 Gene Harris: And they were married, it
15 looks like, April 23rd, 1918.
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Prince George County,
17 and they were married in, in my grandfather's home.
18 Gene Harris: Okay.
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I sat in the living
20 room after they restored it.
21 Gene Harris: So they were married --
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- it was a pretty
23 place they were married.
24 Gene Harris: They were married at the
25 Thaddeus Floyd farmhouse?
1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Married at my
2 mother's, the J.W. Clements.
3 Gene Harris: Oh, the Clements farmhouse?
4 Okay.
5 She apparently died the 23rd of January,
6 1929?
7 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right.
8 SPEAKER 4: I thought that Daddy died in
9 1984?
10 TIM: It was '83.
11 MR. DOWNEY: '83.
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: '83? That's what he
13 said.
14 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, let's see. The
15 second wife was Martha V. McCoy, M-C-C-O-Y. She was
16 born September 11th, 1909, in Surry County, Virginia.
17 Her father was Isaac --
18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Oh, wait a minute.
19 Gene Harris: -- Alva McCoy. I-S-A-A-C,
20 Alva, A-L-V-A, McCoy, was her father.
21 And her mother's name was Elva, E-L-V-A,
22 Jane McCoppin, M-C-C-O-P-P-I-N.
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know whether
24 that's correct or not, but I think that Martha was the
25 one that wrote that.
1 Gene Harris: Okay.
2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Because I didn't do
3 that.
4 TIM: It looks like your handwriting,
5 Mother.
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, that, that is
7 not my handwriting.
8 TIM: It's not? It could be hers, then.
9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It's hers. I put
10 something extra in there and squeezed it in, that's
11 probably mine. But somebody else wrote that.
12 Gene Harris: They had, let's see.
13 Percy Jackson had three children: Francis
14 A. BOOTH, Percy Jackson BOOTH, Jr., and Bonnie Beryl
15 BOOTH.
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Beryl is another
17 ______________ BOOTH family.
18 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, were all three,
19 which, which wife were these children by?
20 TIM: This one by the Clemons, that's
21 mother.
22 Gene Harris: Okay. So Francis, you're
23 mother, you're Francis A. BOOTH? And your mother was
24 Myrtle Clements?
25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right.
1 Gene Harris: C-L-E-M-E-N-T-S?
2 The other two children, Percy Jackson
3 BOOTH, Jr., and Bonnie Beryl BOOTH, were by Martha
4 V. McCoy?
5 Francis A. BOOTH was born when?
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: December 6, 1919.
7 Gene Harris: December 6, 1919?
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes.
9 Gene Harris: Okay. Percy Jackson BOOTH,
10 Jr. Do you remember when he was born? I know it was
11 1933, but do you remember what month and day?
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Jackie?
13 TIM: Yeah.
14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: July the, wait a
15 minute. July 27th.
16 Gene Harris: Okay. July 27, 1933. Okay.
17 And how about Bonnie Beryl BOOTH?
18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Bonnie is --
19 Gene Harris: -- she was born in '43.
20 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- 10 years younger
21 than Jackie. And her birthday is September the, wait
22 a minute now.
23 September 1st.
24 Gene Harris: Okay. So Bonnie Beryl,
25 B-E-R-Y-L, BOOTH was born September the --
1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: 1st.
2 Gene Harris: -- 1st, 1943, and all three
3 children were born in Surry County?
4 Now, we're going to drop down --
5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And we don't know
6 where she is.
7 TIM: We haven't heard from her in years.
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She doesn't have
9 anything to do with us.
10 Gene Harris: Oh, she doesn't?
11 TIM: That's the one that worked for the
12 Smithsonian.
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It's always --
14 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, we're going to do
15 something a little bit different.
16 Let's go to Francis A. BOOTH, who we're
17 having a lovely conversation with, on this Saturday
18 the 13th of August, 2005.
19 Now, were you baptized?
20 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes.
21 Gene Harris: And do you remember where you
22 were baptized?
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was baptized in the
24 Episco- -- Brandon Episcopal Church in Burrowsville,
25 Virginia.
1 Gene Harris: Brandon Episcopal Church in
2 Burrowsville, B-U-R-R-O-W-S-V-I-L-L-E, Virginia?
3 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh.
4 Gene Harris: And do you remember when that
5 was, approximately?
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Mother died in 1929.
7 That was her last, one of the last wishes that she
8 had, that my father and I join church. So it had to
9 be somewhere close after she died in '29.
10 Gene Harris: Okay. And you, where did you
11 go to school?
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I went to school in
13 Savage, Virginia, until they moved the school to
14 Denburn(phonetic) High School, and then I went to
15 school in Denburn High School, and then I went to JMU.
16 Gene Harris: Very good. And what, what did
17 you do for a career.
18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Teacher. I was a
19 teacher because you didn't have a lot of choice.
20 At Madison there were only a thousand
21 girls there at that time. And, and you could be a
22 nurse and take a two-year nursing course, or be a
23 stenographer and take a two-year-course.
24 I used to take Home Ec and maybe go into
25 some, some other food, food jobs or something like
1 that. And, but it was basically an educational school
2 supported by the state.
3 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, your husband: Is
4 that Master Sargeant James Downey, Junior?
5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Junior.
6 Gene Harris: It was the United States Army
7 from 15 June, 1934, until 1 July, 1963.
8 James Downey was a former POW on the
9 Bataan Death March, and he was a survivor of that.
10 And I'm looking at numerous ribbons, which
11 one day we'll film and put on the web page.
12 Where did you meet James Downey, Junior?
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Ft. Eustis at a --
14 MR. DOWNEY: Service club.
15 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- at the service
16 club, at a dance.
17 Gene Harris: Tell us about it.
18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, Jimmy, Jimmy
19 didn't come to the States until he was, until after
20 the war and he was 32 years old. And he just come to
21 Ft. Eustis.
22 And I was teaching school. And I wasn't
23 making enough money to have a car. So I rode the, the
24 bus that took the girls to the service club, to the
25 dances.
1 So he was on one end of the dance hall and
2 I was on the other. And I guess that we, he came over
3 and asked me to dance.
4 Gene Harris: Where were you living at this
5 time? What's, what's --
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was living in
7 Hilton.
8 TIM: Hilton, Virginia.
9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was living in Hilton
10 boarding with a lady.
11 Gene Harris: Hilton boarding with a lady?
12 And that was Newport News?
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
14 Gene Harris: So when were you-all married?
15 Do you remember the date?
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: December 17, 1948.
17 Gene Harris: And where were you married?
18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: St. Andrew's Episcopal
19 Church, Hilton Village.
20 Gene Harris: Andrew's Episcopal Church in
21 Hilton Village?
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes.
23 Gene Harris: Which is part of the Newport
24 News subdivision or apartment complex?
25 MR. DOWNEY: Wasn't the priest _________
1 Kratsy?
2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Kratsy, K-R-A- --
3 Gene Harris: Where did you go on your
4 honeymoon?
5 MR. DOWNEY: We went all over. We ended
6 up in Washington, D.C.
7 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It was a cold night
8 and we started to go to Washington.
9 MR. DOWNEY: It was snowing, too.
10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: We went, yeah. It was
11 snowing.
12 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah.
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Did we turn around and
14 come back?
15 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. No. We stayed in
16 the hotel first in Newport News. And then we went up
17 to Washington the next day.
18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Is that the way it
19 was? (Laughter.)
20 Gene Harris: Okay. Jimmy, when were you
21 born?
22 MR. DOWNEY: I was born March 13, 1915.
23 Gene Harris: And where were you born?
24 MR. DOWNEY: I was born in the
25 Philippines.
1 Gene Harris: You were born in the
2 Philippines?
3 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh.
4 Gene Harris: Were your parents in the
5 service?
6 MR. DOWNEY: Yes.
7 Gene Harris: Okay. What was your father's
8 name.
9 MR. DOWNEY: James Snead Dominic.
10 Gene Harris: Okay. And your middle name is
11 Snead?
12 TIM: No. He's James M. Junior.
13 MR. DOWNEY: No. I never carried it.
14 Gene Harris: Okay. And what was your
15 mother's name.
16 MR. DOWNEY: My mother's name was Collette
17 Downey.
18 Gene Harris: Can you spell the first name?
19 MR. DOWNEY: C-O-L-L-E-T-T-E.
20 Gene Harris: Okay. Downey, D-O-W-N-E-Y.
21 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. That's my
22 grandmother's first name, I recollect.
23 Gene Harris: Okay. And what did you do in
24 the military?
25 MR. DOWNEY: First one I was over there I
1 was a small arms expert.
2 Gene Harris: A what now?
3 MR. DOWNEY: A small arm expert.
4 Gene Harris: Were you ever in the infantry?
5 MR. DOWNEY: Part of it, you know, horse
6 cavalry.
7 Gene Harris: Horse cavalry. Okay. That's
8 what I wanted to get.
9 TIM: Dad was a member of the Philippine
10 Scouts, which was an elite --
11 MR. DOWNEY: I was with the Elite --
12 TIM: -- Army outfit. He was trained by
13 --
14 MR. DOWNEY: All our arms -- all West
15 Pointers.
16 TIM: Yeah. Trained by West Pointers.
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I can tell you
18 about that.
19 MR. DOWNEY: General Wainwright was my
20 officer there for a while.
21 Gene Harris: General Wainwright?
22 MR. DOWNEY: Wainwright, yes.
23 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, was this before
24 MacArthur's time.
25 MR. DOWNEY: Yes. And when the Japanese
1 bombed Clark Air Force Base, everybody went up to
2 Bataan, see? That was the last stand --
3 Gene Harris: Okay.
4 MR. DOWNEY: -- till they surrendered.
5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I went to many
6 conventions before I found out what was so great about
7 Philippine scouts.
8 So I said to Jimmy, What in the world is
9 so great about Philippine Scout?
10 Because all of the people that he met that
11 was in that part of the world when the war was going
12 on, they would come, the Americans would come up and
13 shake Jimmy's hand and pat him on the back.
14 Then I found out that Philippine Scouts
15 were a group of elite soldiers trained by the, two
16 West Pointers.
17 Gene Harris: Now you had to be, you were an
18 Army officer at West Point --
19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And --
20 Gene Harris: -- and trained with the
21 Philippine Scouts.
22 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah.
23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: When the war came
24 along, the Philippine Scouts went in first. They did
25 the basic --
1 MR. DOWNEY: They were the first line of
2 defense.
3 Gene Harris: The Philippine Scouts would
4 hold the line against the Japanese?
5 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah.
6 TIM: When the line would start to be
7 pushed to broken, by then the Americans had fallen
8 back and were digging new trench lines, the Filipinos
9 would fall back into the trench lines, the Scouts, the
10 Americans would drop back and start digging another
11 trench line.
12 The Filipinos on that line would get ready
13 to break, the Americans would move back, set up new
14 defenses, and the Filipinos would drop into the trench
15 line and keep fighting.
16 Gene Harris: Okay.
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Jimmy was very
18 active in swimming and athletics.
19 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, let's get back to
20 you, Francis.
21 What were your hobbies?
22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: What were my hobbies?
23 TIM: Your hobbies.
24 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Only that, probably
25 music and dancing. And I don't think I had any
1 hobbies.
2 Gene Harris: Okay. Now that we've had our
3 cake, we're going to go back to recording.
4 Now, Francis, can you tell me a little
5 bit: What was your favorite book?
6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: When I was in school?
7 Gene Harris: No. Later on in life, what
8 was your favorite book?
9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I can tell you my
10 favorite movie is Gone With the Wind.
11 Gene Harris: Okay. Gone With the Wind was
12 a good one. I've seen that a couple times.
13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Sound of Music.
14 Gene Harris: Oh, that was beautiful.
15 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
16 Gene Harris: Now, did you retire from the
17 Army?
18 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. I stayed there 30
19 years.
20 Gene Harris: 30 years?
21 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh.
22 Gene Harris: What did you do after the
23 Army?
24 MR. DOWNEY: I worked at a big department
25 store, Rice's & Nachman for 16 years.
1 Gene Harris: Rices?
2 MR. DOWNEY: Nachman.
3 Gene Harris: How do you spell that?
4 MR. DOWNEY: N-A-C-H-M-A-N.
5 Gene Harris: Where was that.
6 MR. DOWNEY: Here in Newport News.
7 Gene Harris: Newport News? Okay.
8 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. I was a production
9 manager.
10 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, how many children
11 did you have?
12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Four.
13 Gene Harris: Okay. Rather than get all of
14 that down now, we will say that Tim, who is here with
15 us --
16 SPEAKER 5: The baby.
17 Gene Harris: -- is helping us narrate
18 this, is one of the children. And rather than get all
19 that now, what I'm going to do is go ahead and get
20 that from Tim and put it on paper form.
21 TIM: Right.
22 Gene Harris: Addendum: This is information
23 on Francis's father, who, now this was.
24 TIM: Percy Jackson BOOTH.
25 Gene Harris: Okay.
1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: My father, when my
2 father and mother got married, my mother had relatives
3 in Hampton, Virginia, and they came to, my father and
4 mother came to Hampton, Virginia, and they rode the
5 streetcar from Hampton to Newport News for a year, and
6 they had a little boy born, but died the same day it
7 was born. My grandmother said it was probably the
8 cord or something like that, but after that my father
9 moved back to the country.
10 I don't know why, but he always loved the
11 country. And so he moved to Surry County and that's
12 where I was born.
13 Gene Harris: Okay. We're going to go on a
14 sidetrack now and finish up for today.
15 This information is from Talmadge BOOTH
16 in Longview, Texas.
17 He says, The original immigrant was Thomas
18 BOOTH, who came to this country and landed at
19 Jamestown Island in 1620. He had a son named Robert
20 BOOTH, who was a member of the House of Burgesses.
21 Robert BOOTH had a son named Robert
22 BOOTH, Jr, who was also a member of the House of
23 Burgesses.
24 The reference for this is Hennings,
25 H-E-N-I-N-G-S, Statue, is where this information came
1 from.
2 We have everyone on the family database
3 with the exception of Thomas. We were missing Thomas
4 as the original founder that came over to Jamestown.
5 Okay. We're continuing.
6 The following is with Master Sergeant
7 James Downey, Jr., the husband of Francis BOOTH
8 DOwney.
9 And, Tim, would you tell us how many
10 medals he's got?
11 TIM: Dad has a silver start, two bronze,
12 two purple hearts, POW medal, presidential unit
13 citation, and, let's see, Dad, how many? One, two,
14 five campaign medals and several other.
15 What is this one here, Dad? That's the
16 unit- -- presidential unit citation here, too?
17 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh.
18 Gene Harris: That's the ribbon for the
19 purple heart.
20 MR. DOWNEY: It was given to us two times.
21 TIM: No. Not this one.
22 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah.
23 TIM: That's the oak leaf cluster for the
24 presidential citation. Twice. Yeah.
25 Gene Harris: Okay. Now what we're going to
1 do is the -- what was the highest one?
2 TIM: Silver star.
3 Gene Harris: Right. The silver star is one
4 of the highest awards in the Army.
5 How did you get the silver star, sir?
6 TIM: Silver star would be the third
7 highest award in these days' Army.
8 MR. DOWNEY: I was going to this place
9 here where they have these 50 calibre aircool machine
10 guns, run away, they call it, when you press a button
11 it just keeps going and going, see?
12 I told them to take me to re-ammo, every
13 five to 10 rounds, and on the way there the Japanese,
14 you know, it was a bomb corridor, and they still had
15 some bombs left, they dropped in hospitals.
16 Gene Harris: They were dropping bombs on
17 the hospital?
18 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. So that was in time
19 when I went and rescued a lot of these sick people and
20 put them in a safe place.
21 Gene Harris: You were actually being bombed
22 and --
23 MR. DOWNEY: Bombed and -- yeah.
24 Gene Harris: Was this field hospital
25 canvas --
1 MR. DOWNEY: Field hospital, yeah.
2 Gene Harris: -- or was it a brick building
3 or was it a canvas --
4 MR. DOWNEY: Oh, no. It was all canvas.
5 Gene Harris: All canvas? Okay?
6 MR. DOWNEY: Stand the whole thing on the
7 (laughter) --
8 Gene Harris: Okay. Was there something
9 with a fuel truck?
10 TIM: What about the fuel truck, Dad?
11 Outside a fuel truck was burning --
12 MR. DOWNEY: Oh, yeah.
13 TIM: -- the guy was inside and --
14 MR. DOWNEY: That was inside. You know,
15 they got wounded, you know, and I said, Gosh, if this
16 thing blows up, the hospital will get involved.
17 So I put it in gear and drove up under
18 a ravine.
19 Gene Harris: While it was burning?
20 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. And it exploded.
21 Yeah. The guy was already dead, see.
22 Gene Harris: Right. But it was full of
23 fire, it was all on fire --
24 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah.
25 Gene Harris: You took it and drove it away
1 from the hospital --
2 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah.
3 Gene Harris: -- over a ravine so it
4 wouldn't --
5 MR. DOWNEY: Yes. Uh-huh.
6 Gene Harris: Now, where was the lieutenant
7 there when all this was happening?
8 MR. DOWNEY: Oh, he was in the foxhole.
9 Gene Harris: He was in the foxhole?
10 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. I told him to keep the
11 truck going, you know, just in case, you know, if he
12 got involved, he can drive it up out of the way, see.
13 That was Lieutenant Plesko.
14 Gene Harris: The Lieutenant name was
15 "Plesko?"
16 MR. DOWNEY: Plesko, yeah.
17 Gene Harris: P-L-E-S-C-O, I guess?
18 MR. DOWNEY: K-O.
19 Gene Harris: P-L-E-S-K-O.
20 MR. DOWNEY: He was my chief of section.
21 Gene Harris: The?
22 MR. DOWNEY: Chief of section.
23 Gene Harris: Oh, chief of section.
24 MR. DOWNEY: My section. Yeah.
25 Gene Harris: Chief of your section?
1 He went to West Point?
2 MR. DOWNEY: Probably, I don't know.
3 Gene Harris: Okay.
4 MR. DOWNEY: Every time we'd have a repair
5 job, he was always behind me.
6 Gene Harris: Oh, well, that figures.
7 This is now back to the BOOTH family. Go
8 ahead.
9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Lloyd Mills and
10 Maynard BOOTH were two people from West Point that
11 trained the Philippine Scouts. So at one convention I
12 met Maynard BOOTH, and I said, You may be kin to me.
13 And, and he was from Texas and was wearing
14 this big Texas hat and said, Ah, do you have any
15 money?
16 Well, that didn't set to good with me, but
17 I still think that, that he may be --
18 Gene Harris: This is just information for
19 the record to check against the website to make sure I
20 have it.
21 Mary Cornwell, C-O-R-N-W-E-L-L, who was
22 the wife of Beverly BOOTH, was born July 21st, 1871.
23 She and Beverly were married January 25th, 1819, and
24 she died July 2nd, 1855.
25 Beverly BOOTH's father was Robert BOOTH,
1 and Robert BOOTH's wife was Sarah Bailey,
2 B-A-I-L-E-Y.
3 And I believe we already have all this
4 information on the website, but this is just to double
5 check against it.
6 Now, the wife's maiden name is Elizabeth;
7 now, I'm not sure if this is the second wife they're
8 referring to here. But Talmadge BOOTH, when he did
9 this paperwork, said the wife's maiden name was
10 Elizabeth, and I think that's the second wife.
11 So we will go ahead, or the first wife.
12 We don't know what order it is right now until I go
13 back and check on the records.
14 This is now another source for family
15 information. What is the lady's name?
16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Virginia Rawlings.
17 Gene Harris: R-A-W-L-I-N-G-S?
18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. And the family
19 lived between the Methodist Church in Claremont,
20 Virginia, and Sunken Meadow. And Virginia Rawlings
21 lived in Newport News and worked for the Daily Press.
22 I think she retired some time ago, but she still
23 writes an article once in a while for the daily press.
24 Gene Harris: She's married to Norman
25 Douglas Goodrich, or Norman Goodrich?
1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I think that somebody
2 in her family, I think, I thought was married to
3 Norman Goodrich. But Norman Goodrich isn't living
4 now.
5 Gene Harris: Right.
6 TIM: She writes a genealogy paper for the
7 Daily Press, which is our local paper here --
8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
9 TIM: -- once a month on Saturday. And
10 usually, if not always, it has to do with Surry County
11 and that.
12 Gene Harris: And what is her name? I mean,
13 what is the name of the paper?
14 TIM: Daily Press.
15 Gene Harris: Newport News Daily Press?
16 TIM: Uh-huh.
17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.
18 TIM: Virginia Rawlings, her name comes
19 out, like, once every fourth Saturday, something like
20 that.
21 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I've often wanted to
22 talk to her, because I know if I talk to her, she
23 would know who my father was, but I just never got
24 that interested until Tim started getting into it.
25 And it is interesting.
1 She also works with the, I don't know if
2 it's the Mormon Church, but it's another name, but
3 Mormon's go to this church. And not too long ago they
4 had a, she had a two-week class where you could go and
5 find out about your family. And the only charge was
6 $5.00 for the printing of the paper that you print
7 this on. I wanted to do that, but --
8 (tape is cut off)
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16
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18
19
20
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23
24
25
1 2 Gene Harris: THADDEUS FLOYD BOOTH, born 16 3 December, 1854, died July, 1932. He was born at Snow 4 Hill Plantation. He is buried at Claremont, Virginia, 5 at St -- 6 TIM: St. Anne's -- 7 Gene Harris: -- St. Anne's Episcopal 8 Church. 9 TIM: Is that correct? 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. 11 Gene Harris: His wife's maiden name is 12 Mary? 13 TIM: Louise Barrett, Southampton County. 14 Gene Harris: Southampton County. She was 15 born June 28th, 1864. It looks like, Sebrill, 16 S-E-B-R-E-L-L, Southampton County, Virginia. She died 17 March of 1942 at the home of Percy J. BOOTH, in 18 Savage, Virginia -- 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh. 20 Gene Harris: -- and she was buried Sunday, 21 March 8th, 1942, at Claremont, Virginia, at St. 22 Anne's, probably with her husband? 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh. 24 Gene Harris: Okay. Children are: Magnus 25 Floyd BOOTH, borne 25 July, 1883. All births are in 1 Surry County, Virginia. 2 Magnus Floyd BOOTH was born to M-I-N-E, 3 it looks like, Fairfield, F-A--I-R-F-I-E-L-D -- 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Mynee(phonetic). 5 Mynee. 6 Gene Harris: M-I-N-E Fairfield. 7 The next son is Hiram A. BOOTH, who was 8 born 21 January, 1885. He was married to Annie 9 Bailey? 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. 11 Gene Harris: The next child is Annie Belle 12 BOOTH. 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh. 14 Gene Harris: She was married 2 January, 15 1887, to Willie D. Baird. 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. 17 Gene Harris: The next one is Bessie Binns, 18 B-I-N-N-S, BOOTH, born 28 April, 1889 -- 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Ellis. 20 Gene Harris: -- and to Claude H. Ellis, 21 E-L-L-I-S. 22 And she died February 1972. 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know about the 24 dates, but I know who they were married to and that. 25 Gene Harris: Okay. The next one is 1 Thaddeus Clyde BOOTH, born 31 January, 1891, married 2 to Ruth -- 3 TIM: It looks like, Rogue -- 4 Gene Harris: -- Rogue, R-O-G-U-E, Johnson. 5 Next one is Percy Jackson BOOTH, born 6 6 June, 1893, married Martha McCoy -- 7 TIM: That's his second wife. 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh. 9 Gene Harris: -- second wife. First wife 10 was Myrtie, Myrtie -- 11 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Myrtle. 12 Gene Harris: -- Myrtle? Okay. Myrtle 13 Clemons, C-L-E-M-O-N-S. 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. 15 Gene Harris: They married November 10th, 16 1930. 17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: That might be a mix up 18 when it comes to -- 19 Gene Harris: Okay. Your mother was Martha 20 Myrtle Clemons? 21 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Martha Myrtle Clemons. 22 Gene Harris: And we're speaking to -- 23 what's your full name? 24 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: My full name? 25 Francis -- 1 TIM: Francis Adele -- 2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- Adele BOOTH -- 3 TIM: Downey(phonetic. 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- Downey. 5 Gene Harris: Okay. Go ahead now. 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: My mother died when I 7 was nine years old. So when he -- 8 SPEAKER 3: And he married a Martha 9 Virginia McCoy BOOTH. So we've got two. His first 10 wife was Mar- -- had a Martha in it, and his second 11 wife had a Martha in it. 12 TIM: Martha Myrtle Clemons was the first 13 wife, and Martha McCoy was the second wife. She was 14 from Claremont, right? Wasn't she born and raised 15 in -- 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Burrowsville(phonetic) 17 . 18 Gene Harris: Okay. So back to, we're still 19 on Percy Jackson BOOTH. First wife was Myrtle -- 20 TIM: Martha Myrtle -- 21 SPEAKER 3: Martha Myrtle -- 22 TIM: -- Clemons. 23 Gene Harris: -- Martha Myrtle Clemons. 24 TIM: Second wife was Martha McCoy. 25 Gene Harris: -- Martha McCoy. Okay. 1 Continue on to Thaddeus' other children: 2 Oscar Hudson BOOTH, born 7 May, 1895, and he was 3 married to Ruth -- 4 TIM: Powell, isn't it? 5 Gene Harris: Powell. P-O-W-E-L-L. 6 -- we know he died in December, but we do 7 not have a year. 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And he didn't have any 9 children. 10 Gene Harris: And Oscar Hudson BOOTH died, 11 no children. 12 John Beverly BOOTH was born the 28th of 13 June, 1898. 14 Reginal A. BOOTH was born 7 June, 1901. 15 And he was married to Thelma Fulcher, F-U-L-C-H-E-R. 16 Next one was Lillian, l-I-L-L-I-A-N, R. 17 Booth, born 21 May, 1903. And she was born to A. Rex 18 BOOTH. 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Another BOOTH, but 20 they were from Tennessee. 21 TIM: Same name. 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She married a BOOTH. 23 Gene Harris: And A. Rex BOOTH was from 24 Tennessee. 25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. 1 Gene Harris: Next one is Mary Louisa Booth, 2 who was born 15 September, 1908, and she is married to 3 Floyd Scott. 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Floyd? It's supposed 5 to be Lloyd. 6 Gene Harris: Lloyd. It's not supposed to 7 be Floyd. It's Lloyd, L-L-O-Y-D. 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And they had one 9 child. It's not on there? 10 Gene Harris: No. It's not on here. 11 TIM: Mother has also the occupation of 12 each one on here. 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Nancy -- 14 Gene Harris: Uncle Magnus, and that would 15 be? 16 TIM: Magnus Floyd Haines(phonetic) was a 17 farmer. 18 Gene Harris: Was a farmer? 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: He worked for somebody 20 else that owned a big farm. 21 Gene Harris: Okay. 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Hiram, I think he 23 worked for a company in Hopewell. 24 TIM: Worked for a company. 25 Gene Harris: Annie Belle BOOTH was a 1 farmer's -- 2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Married to a farmer. 3 Gene Harris: Married to a farmer? 4 Bessie was married to a farmer? 5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Married to a farmer. 6 Gene Harris: Thaddeus Clyde BOOTH, fifth 7 child, was a farmer, isn't that right? 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: No -- 9 TIM: Well, it says it right there. 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Is this -- 11 Gene Harris: Yes, ma'am. You should turn 12 it off. 13 Well, I want to get everything. 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Because I can't tell 15 you who, what his job was because of -- 16 TIM: Well, if you can't, that's all 17 right. It's just, you had it written right there. 18 So.... 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I know how he got his 20 income, but I can't tell you what -- 21 TIM: Oh, yes, you can, Mother. You can 22 tell that story. 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I cannot. 24 Gene Harris: Yes, ma'am. 25 TIM: He was a moonshiner. 1 Gene Harris: Oh, that's no problem. Half 2 the family were moonshiners. 3 TIM: He sold and made moonshine. 4 Gene Harris: And that was who? Thaddeus 5 Clyde? 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. That's what it 7 is. Thaddeus Clyde BOOTH. 8 TIM: So he was a moonshiner. I mean, 9 we've got moonshiners all through the family. 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Okay. Percy Jackson 11 BOOTH -- 12 TIM: -- didn't want to bring any shame to 13 the BOOTH family. 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, I didn't know 15 what he called himself, because he also had a girl, he 16 also had a girlfriend, I presume she was his 17 girlfriend, right across the road from him, where he 18 lived. 19 He married a girl named Ruth, who as a 20 Rogers, whose last name was Rogers before she married, 21 and I understand she, her family owned a lot of land. 22 TIM: Right. We've got a bit cemetery 23 back there with the BOOTHs. You've got pictures of 24 that on the CD also. 25 Gene Harris: I've got no idea where that 1 is. I'd love to see it. 2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: This is in Savage, 3 around Savage. Ruth Rogers on the low plane, and she 4 was a cute brunette with blue eyes, and she had -- 5 Gene Harris: Now, Ruth Rogers: Who was 6 she? She was the one that married Thaddeus Clyde 7 BOOTH? 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. And so he sort 9 of became friends with the postmaster that lived 10 across the, right in front of their home, and, and he 11 got mixed up with, when the time of the Depression, 12 and they did do some moonshining or whatever you call 13 it, I guess, because he seemed to have more money than 14 anybody else around. 15 Gene Harris: Okay. Hold, let's stop for 16 just a second. 17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Aunt Lillian, when we 18 get down to her, she's the most interesting to me. 19 I asked her when I went to stay with her, 20 she was in her, lived to be 94, I said, Which one of 21 these was the nicest of the seven boys? 22 And she said, Clyde, but just think about 23 it. He, he wasn't on the job all the time. So he 24 could, when my grandmother wanted some help, all she 25 had to do was call Clyde and Clyde came running and -- 1 TIM: Right. He wasn't in the field for 2 12 hours a day -- 3 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And, and the 4 interesting thing that happened was that he did not, 5 Thaddeus was, I know, from being an alcoholic, the 6 Greyhound Bus ran off of the bridge up there between 7 Petersburg Pike and Hopewell -- 8 TIM: You see, this, Mother, this needs to 9 be recorded here. 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- and, and -- 11 TIM: -- he jumped in the water to save 12 him. 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Mary, the 14 youngest -- 15 Gene Harris: Mary, Mary Louise BOOTH? 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- right. Lived close 17 by and Uncle Clyde, so I was told, Aunt Lin told me, 18 went out to help. It's probably about as far as from 19 here across the street, and jumped in the cold water. 20 And -- 21 TIM: The Greyhound bus left the road and 22 went over into the -- 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. And he -- 24 TIM: -- the river. 25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- got, he died of 1 pneumonia. 2 TIM: He caught pneumonia saving the 3 passengers -- 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: From cold water. 5 So he didn't die, evidently, as an 6 alcoholic, he died from that. 7 Gene Harris: So the next one down the line 8 would be -- 9 TIM: Percy -- 10 Gene Harris: -- Percy Jackson, would be 11 your father. 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Oh. Daddy, Daddy was 13 a merchant -- 14 Gene Harris: That's Percy Jackson? 15 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- right. And my 16 mother was a postmaster. They had postmaster and the 17 store together. 18 Gene Harris: Now, what was the store? 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Savage. 20 Gene Harris: Was there a name on it? Did 21 the store have a name. 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, my grandmother's 23 brother, Barrett, had a big old country store like 24 _________________, big old country store, and there 25 was a Savage across, there's an intersection there. 1 So it was a big Savage store there, but 2 Waverly(phonetic). Not Waverly, Barrett, my 3 grandmother's brother, had the post office there. 4 I don't remember in the store, but he 5 retired. So when he retired, my mother took the 6 service and passed it and became postmaster there. 7 So my father started out with a little old 8 garage and then he moved his warehouse up to the big 9 store that had a big floor to it. 10 TIM: Is there a sign on it that says, 11 BOOTH General Store, or -- 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Not then. After that 13 my father bought that piece of land, and, and built 14 his own store. And that's when he had his sign, P.J. 15 BOOTH, what do you call it -- 16 TIM: General store? 17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- pay as you go, you 18 know. There were a lot of blacks that weren't paying. 19 They ________________ in good with him. 20 TIM: Credit wasn't -- 21 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: So the post office was 22 moved there, too. 23 And, and besides that, Dad was quite a, a 24 good businessman, because he drove a school bus for 25 years. 1 I said, when he came to live with us, Why 2 did you, why did you drive a school bus from Save to 3 Berrysville(phonetic) which is about 10 miles on a 4 horse during the wintertime when the snow sometimes 5 was 2 feet deep, deep? 6 And he said, To save money. Keep from 7 paying gas. 8 And then rode back. That's how he started 9 out. 10 So he drove a school bus then. And then 11 when they switched schools, he drove one of the first 12 school buses that was a chassis, had a chassis -- 13 TIM: Chassis with a body built on it -- 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- with a body built 15 on the side, where you just roll up the curtains and 16 so forth. And then when the first school buses that 17 looks like the buses today, was when my mother died, 18 that was 1929. I rode in that school bus, a new 19 school bus. I know that. 20 TIM: And he also drove a dump truck or 21 something, too -- 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And anyway, he, he was 23 paid about $100 a month for driving the school bus. 24 And then in the summertime he had two dump 25 trucks. I don't know whether he rented them or how, 1 how it was, but that was when they were fixing the 2 roads. 3 And so he had two, two dump trucks with 4 people working, driving, while he was in the store. 5 So he had three things going at one time. 6 Gene Harris: Okay. How about Oscar Hudson 7 BOOTH? 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Oscar Hudson was a, a 9 big achiever. He, he did not like planting potatoes. 10 Aunt Lin told the story where they would 11 all get out and my grandfather would say, Plant the 12 potatoes with the eyes up, and he was looking up at 13 the sky, whether that's a joke or not. 14 So he was a typical city boy. And he went 15 to, I think he went to Newport News, came to Newport 16 News first, and then got a job, and then every time 17 he'd, and then he would go to school at night. 18 And then he'd get another job, and then 19 he'd go to school at night until he became a lawyer 20 for the city of Richmond. 21 Gene Harris: Oscar Hudson BOOTH was a 22 lawyer for the city of Richmond? 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. 24 TIM: Uh-huh. 25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: By his, going to 1 school. 2 John, John Beverly BOOTH -- 3 TIM: Yes. He was -- 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: John Beverly BOOTH 5 was in world war -- 6 TIM: He was a World War I soldier. Yeah. 7 This is a very interacting story. Tell 8 it. 9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know if I can 10 tell that story or not, because it's sort of a sad 11 story. 12 Gene Harris: This is all John Beverly 13 BOOTH? 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. 15 TIM: That's right. 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: He was, he was, I 17 think it's somewhat of a dirty blonde, like, and we, 18 we, he had a girlfriend when he left. And when he 19 came back, his girlfriend, like a lot of stories, his 20 girlfriend was married. And he, he, the one thing 21 that the war left him with was bad feet because of -- 22 TIM: Trench foot. 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- being in the 24 trenches over in England, I believe it was, in deep 25 water. 1 And once in a, so Uncle Clyde, the 2 brother, had a little house there. And Johnny lived 3 in it for a while. And then he started to drinking a 4 little. 5 I remember he came over to my house when 6 my grandmother came to live with us after my mother 7 died, and he was drinking a little bit. And my 8 grandmother said, You go right back to your house and 9 don't come back to see me until you get okay. 10 Gene Harris: That was his mother, Mary 11 Louise Barrett? 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. 13 So, so he wasn't a bad guy. 14 And then later someone, I don't know, it 15 was Gary maybe, who said he saw a picture of a 16 base- -- he was good at ba- -- softball or baseball, I 17 guess it was, and it had John's name, John -- 18 Gene Harris: He played for -- 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- BOOTH in Surry 20 County. 21 TIM: -- a local baseball team in 22 Smithfield that he played some baseball for. 23 Gene Harris: We're still discussing John 24 BOOTH? 25 TIM: Right. 1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh. 2 TIM: He was a, he was a bachelor. He 3 never married the girl that he -- 4 He went to the service and went to World 5 War I, went to France. When he came back, however 6 long he was there, she had met someone else and 7 married. And he never married, he never dated or 8 married again, did he? He never dated anybody -- 9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know, but my 10 grandmother said that the reason that he did the, the 11 drinking was because of, of the, what they gave him, 12 drug, I guess, what do you call it -- 13 TIM: For his feet? 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- for his feet. 15 Yeah. 16 TIM: Uh-huh. 17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It started like that. 18 Gene Harris: Okay. How about, let's see. 19 We're now on what, Reginald, Reginald A. BOOTH -- 20 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Reginald was -- 21 Gene Harris: -- son of, son of Thaddeus 22 Lloyd BOOTH and Mary Louise Barrett. 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Reginald -- 24 Gene Harris: -- he's the ninth child. 25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Reginald was a 1 policeman for the city of Hopewell. 2 TIM: We have a picture of him, too. I 3 don't know if you have it here, but -- 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I have a good picture. 5 TIM: Yeah. We have a good picture. 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Look over there in the 7 drawer where we found the picture of Uncle Reggie -- 8 SPEAKER 4: Where? 9 Gene Harris: Now do, Reginald: Do you 10 remember when he died? Because it doesn't show it on 11 here. 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Let's see. No. It 13 doesn't show it on here. 14 I don't know. It might be somewhere. 15 TIM: We do have a good picture. 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I know that he lived 17 to, to be, I know that he lived, died, I think, with 18 stomach problems. Probably cancer. He had it at a 19 young age, and I know that he was sick for while 20 there, for, like, five or 10 years and we used to go 21 and see him. 22 And, and he was good-looking. 23 And, and then Lillian BOOTH. Aunt 24 Lillian's story is more interesting. 25 Gene Harris: All right. We'll take a break 1 here. 2 (Break.) 3 Gene Harris: Continuing.... 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I think that six out 5 of Ms. BOOTH, of Thaddeus BOOTH lived to be 90-some. 6 Gene Harris: Okay. I think the next person 7 is, we stopped with who? Oscar? Did we, or did we 8 stop with John Beverly BOOTH, didn't we? 9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: We're talking about 10 Thaddeus ____________ Family. 11 Gene Harris: Right. Yeah. But we need to 12 see what you remember now starting with Reginal A. 13 BOOTH -- 14 TIM: The police officer, Mom, from 15 Hopewell. 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I think, I think he 17 lived to be 94. And I think that that, Daddy was 89 18 or, he lacked but so many months of being 90, so I 19 included him. 20 Bessie Binns BOOTH almost made it to 100, 21 lacking something in months being away from 100. And 22 Annabel did hit 100. 23 Gene Harris: Annabel? 24 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. 25 Gene Harris: Annie Belle BOOTH, okay. She 1 lived to be 100? 2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. 3 Gene Harris: Okay. 4 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I think that 5 Ma- -- Uncle Magnus was somewhere in his 90's, because 6 I remember that, I figured there were six of them out 7 of the 11. 8 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, what do you 9 remember about Reginal A. BOOTH? 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: He was a, he was, he 11 was probably the largest built, but he was not overly 12 fat. He was just built like a football player. 13 Gene Harris: Stocky build? 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. And, and he was 15 good looking. And he was a policeman. 16 Gene Harris: Okay. And let's go to the 17 next one, which is Lillian R. BOOTH. Do you remember 18 what Lillian's middle in- -- middle name was? 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Barrett. 20 Gene Harris: Okay. So it's Lillian B. 21 BOOTH? 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. 23 Lillian Barrett BOOTH. 24 Gene Harris: Okay. And she was born was 21 25 May, 1903? 1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh. 2 Gene Harris: What do you remember of her? 3 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, Aunt, Aunt 4 Lillian, Aunt Lillian taught school. She taught in a 5 one-room school. 6 Gene Harris: Which school was that? 7 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: One-room school down 8 at -- 9 Gene Harris: Was that Otterdam School? 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- located at Otter 11 Dam Wall(phonetic). 12 Gene Harris: Okay. So that was the old 13 Otterdam school, then? 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. 15 Gene Harris: Old white, white clapboard 16 building? 17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. And she drove 18 old Billy, the horse, and her buggy to the school and 19 back again. And she taught a small amount of children 20 between one, first grade and seventh. 21 And each summer she would go to summer 22 school with the money she made teaching school in the 23 winter until she got two years of college, and then 24 later she went, you were required to have four years, 25 so she went to school and got her degree in that. 1 And that's, I knew she was an achiever. 2 There are so many stories about her. Because she, she 3 got into a law course where most of them were guys. 4 And she told me that two of them walked in, and they 5 all started at these two girls in the law course. 6 And, and then when the, they took the 7 exams and so forth, they all were wondering what they 8 were going to get, but only a few of them passed, and 9 she was one of them. And, and she was, she was.... 10 Gene Harris: Okay. And what about Mary? 11 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She, she was a 12 crackerjack teacher. She taught school for 40 years. 13 And she told me before she died that she enjoyed every 14 minute of it. I could not believe that, but that's 15 what she said. 16 Gene Harris: Wow. How about Mary Louise 17 BOOTH, who was born September 15th, 1908? Mary 18 Louise BOOTH? 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Mary Louise was the 20 youngest one. And I think that, that she must have 21 acted like she was. (Laughter.) 22 Anyway, she's the only one in the family 23 that had a chance to go to college that the parents 24 paid for, see? 25 And so Mary went at Longwood one year, and 1 then she met Lloyd. And Aunt Lin told me this story. 2 She met Lloyd, fell in love with him. 3 And, and married, eloped to North Carolina and got 4 married. And, and she, I think she regretted it 5 later. 6 And so there was a lot of jealousy sort of 7 between Aunt Lillian and, and Mary. 8 And she, she was a flirt. She looked the 9 part. 10 Gene Harris: Okay. Let's go -- 11 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She has a daughter 12 that's still living. 13 Gene Harris: What's her daughter's name? 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Nancy -- 15 TIM: Wills. 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- Scott Wills. 17 Gene Harris: Anyone know where she lives? 18 TIM: Yeah. We have a mailing address. 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. I have her 20 address. She's probably the youngest of the cou- -- 21 the children. 22 TIM: We sent her this information. 23 Gene Harris: Okay. We need to get her. 24 You can send her something about the -- 25 TIM: Okay. 1 Gene Harris: I'll e-mail you then when we 2 end it. 3 Okay. Let's go to Percy Jackson BOOTH, 4 who was born June 6, 1893. He was born in Surry 5 County, Virginia, and he died on March 3rd 1983, and 6 he's buried in Claremont, Virginia, at St. Anne's 7 Church. 8 He was married November 10th, 1930. And, 9 let's see. His first wife was Myrtle -- 10 TIM: Martha Myrtle Clemons. 11 Gene Harris: -- Martha Myrtle Clemons, who 12 was born 1900. 13 TIM: Prince George County. 14 Gene Harris: And they were married, it 15 looks like, April 23rd, 1918. 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Prince George County, 17 and they were married in, in my grandfather's home. 18 Gene Harris: Okay. 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I sat in the living 20 room after they restored it. 21 Gene Harris: So they were married -- 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- it was a pretty 23 place they were married. 24 Gene Harris: They were married at the 25 Thaddeus Floyd farmhouse? 1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Married at my 2 mother's, the J.W. Clements. 3 Gene Harris: Oh, the Clements farmhouse? 4 Okay. 5 She apparently died the 23rd of January, 6 1929? 7 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. 8 SPEAKER 4: I thought that Daddy died in 9 1984? 10 TIM: It was '83. 11 MR. DOWNEY: '83. 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: '83? That's what he 13 said. 14 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, let's see. The 15 second wife was Martha V. McCoy, M-C-C-O-Y. She was 16 born September 11th, 1909, in Surry County, Virginia. 17 Her father was Isaac -- 18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Oh, wait a minute. 19 Gene Harris: -- Alva McCoy. I-S-A-A-C, 20 Alva, A-L-V-A, McCoy, was her father. 21 And her mother's name was Elva, E-L-V-A, 22 Jane McCoppin, M-C-C-O-P-P-I-N. 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I don't know whether 24 that's correct or not, but I think that Martha was the 25 one that wrote that. 1 Gene Harris: Okay. 2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Because I didn't do 3 that. 4 TIM: It looks like your handwriting, 5 Mother. 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, that, that is 7 not my handwriting. 8 TIM: It's not? It could be hers, then. 9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It's hers. I put 10 something extra in there and squeezed it in, that's 11 probably mine. But somebody else wrote that. 12 Gene Harris: They had, let's see. 13 Percy Jackson had three children: Francis 14 A. BOOTH, Percy Jackson BOOTH, Jr., and Bonnie Beryl 15 BOOTH. 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Beryl is another 17 ______________ BOOTH family. 18 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, were all three, 19 which, which wife were these children by? 20 TIM: This one by the Clemons, that's 21 mother. 22 Gene Harris: Okay. So Francis, you're 23 mother, you're Francis A. BOOTH? And your mother was 24 Myrtle Clements? 25 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Right. 1 Gene Harris: C-L-E-M-E-N-T-S? 2 The other two children, Percy Jackson 3 BOOTH, Jr., and Bonnie Beryl BOOTH, were by Martha 4 V. McCoy? 5 Francis A. BOOTH was born when? 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: December 6, 1919. 7 Gene Harris: December 6, 1919? 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. 9 Gene Harris: Okay. Percy Jackson BOOTH, 10 Jr. Do you remember when he was born? I know it was 11 1933, but do you remember what month and day? 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Jackie? 13 TIM: Yeah. 14 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: July the, wait a 15 minute. July 27th. 16 Gene Harris: Okay. July 27, 1933. Okay. 17 And how about Bonnie Beryl BOOTH? 18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Bonnie is -- 19 Gene Harris: -- she was born in '43. 20 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- 10 years younger 21 than Jackie. And her birthday is September the, wait 22 a minute now. 23 September 1st. 24 Gene Harris: Okay. So Bonnie Beryl, 25 B-E-R-Y-L, BOOTH was born September the -- 1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: 1st. 2 Gene Harris: -- 1st, 1943, and all three 3 children were born in Surry County? 4 Now, we're going to drop down -- 5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And we don't know 6 where she is. 7 TIM: We haven't heard from her in years. 8 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: She doesn't have 9 anything to do with us. 10 Gene Harris: Oh, she doesn't? 11 TIM: That's the one that worked for the 12 Smithsonian. 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It's always -- 14 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, we're going to do 15 something a little bit different. 16 Let's go to Francis A. BOOTH, who we're 17 having a lovely conversation with, on this Saturday 18 the 13th of August, 2005. 19 Now, were you baptized? 20 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. 21 Gene Harris: And do you remember where you 22 were baptized? 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was baptized in the 24 Episco- -- Brandon Episcopal Church in Burrowsville, 25 Virginia. 1 Gene Harris: Brandon Episcopal Church in 2 Burrowsville, B-U-R-R-O-W-S-V-I-L-L-E, Virginia? 3 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Uh-huh. 4 Gene Harris: And do you remember when that 5 was, approximately? 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Mother died in 1929. 7 That was her last, one of the last wishes that she 8 had, that my father and I join church. So it had to 9 be somewhere close after she died in '29. 10 Gene Harris: Okay. And you, where did you 11 go to school? 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I went to school in 13 Savage, Virginia, until they moved the school to 14 Denburn(phonetic) High School, and then I went to 15 school in Denburn High School, and then I went to JMU. 16 Gene Harris: Very good. And what, what did 17 you do for a career. 18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Teacher. I was a 19 teacher because you didn't have a lot of choice. 20 At Madison there were only a thousand 21 girls there at that time. And, and you could be a 22 nurse and take a two-year nursing course, or be a 23 stenographer and take a two-year-course. 24 I used to take Home Ec and maybe go into 25 some, some other food, food jobs or something like 1 that. And, but it was basically an educational school 2 supported by the state. 3 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, your husband: Is 4 that Master Sargeant James Downey, Junior? 5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Junior. 6 Gene Harris: It was the United States Army 7 from 15 June, 1934, until 1 July, 1963. 8 James Downey was a former POW on the 9 Bataan Death March, and he was a survivor of that. 10 And I'm looking at numerous ribbons, which 11 one day we'll film and put on the web page. 12 Where did you meet James Downey, Junior? 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Ft. Eustis at a -- 14 MR. DOWNEY: Service club. 15 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- at the service 16 club, at a dance. 17 Gene Harris: Tell us about it. 18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, Jimmy, Jimmy 19 didn't come to the States until he was, until after 20 the war and he was 32 years old. And he just come to 21 Ft. Eustis. 22 And I was teaching school. And I wasn't 23 making enough money to have a car. So I rode the, the 24 bus that took the girls to the service club, to the 25 dances. 1 So he was on one end of the dance hall and 2 I was on the other. And I guess that we, he came over 3 and asked me to dance. 4 Gene Harris: Where were you living at this 5 time? What's, what's -- 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was living in 7 Hilton. 8 TIM: Hilton, Virginia. 9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was living in Hilton 10 boarding with a lady. 11 Gene Harris: Hilton boarding with a lady? 12 And that was Newport News? 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. 14 Gene Harris: So when were you-all married? 15 Do you remember the date? 16 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: December 17, 1948. 17 Gene Harris: And where were you married? 18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: St. Andrew's Episcopal 19 Church, Hilton Village. 20 Gene Harris: Andrew's Episcopal Church in 21 Hilton Village? 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. 23 Gene Harris: Which is part of the Newport 24 News subdivision or apartment complex? 25 MR. DOWNEY: Wasn't the priest _________ 1 Kratsy? 2 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Kratsy, K-R-A- -- 3 Gene Harris: Where did you go on your 4 honeymoon? 5 MR. DOWNEY: We went all over. We ended 6 up in Washington, D.C. 7 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It was a cold night 8 and we started to go to Washington. 9 MR. DOWNEY: It was snowing, too. 10 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: We went, yeah. It was 11 snowing. 12 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Did we turn around and 14 come back? 15 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. No. We stayed in 16 the hotel first in Newport News. And then we went up 17 to Washington the next day. 18 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Is that the way it 19 was? (Laughter.) 20 Gene Harris: Okay. Jimmy, when were you 21 born? 22 MR. DOWNEY: I was born March 13, 1915. 23 Gene Harris: And where were you born? 24 MR. DOWNEY: I was born in the 25 Philippines. 1 Gene Harris: You were born in the 2 Philippines? 3 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. 4 Gene Harris: Were your parents in the 5 service? 6 MR. DOWNEY: Yes. 7 Gene Harris: Okay. What was your father's 8 name. 9 MR. DOWNEY: James Snead Dominic. 10 Gene Harris: Okay. And your middle name is 11 Snead? 12 TIM: No. He's James M. Junior. 13 MR. DOWNEY: No. I never carried it. 14 Gene Harris: Okay. And what was your 15 mother's name. 16 MR. DOWNEY: My mother's name was Collette 17 Downey. 18 Gene Harris: Can you spell the first name? 19 MR. DOWNEY: C-O-L-L-E-T-T-E. 20 Gene Harris: Okay. Downey, D-O-W-N-E-Y. 21 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. That's my 22 grandmother's first name, I recollect. 23 Gene Harris: Okay. And what did you do in 24 the military? 25 MR. DOWNEY: First one I was over there I 1 was a small arms expert. 2 Gene Harris: A what now? 3 MR. DOWNEY: A small arm expert. 4 Gene Harris: Were you ever in the infantry? 5 MR. DOWNEY: Part of it, you know, horse 6 cavalry. 7 Gene Harris: Horse cavalry. Okay. That's 8 what I wanted to get. 9 TIM: Dad was a member of the Philippine 10 Scouts, which was an elite -- 11 MR. DOWNEY: I was with the Elite -- 12 TIM: -- Army outfit. He was trained by 13 -- 14 MR. DOWNEY: All our arms -- all West 15 Pointers. 16 TIM: Yeah. Trained by West Pointers. 17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I can tell you 18 about that. 19 MR. DOWNEY: General Wainwright was my 20 officer there for a while. 21 Gene Harris: General Wainwright? 22 MR. DOWNEY: Wainwright, yes. 23 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, was this before 24 MacArthur's time. 25 MR. DOWNEY: Yes. And when the Japanese 1 bombed Clark Air Force Base, everybody went up to 2 Bataan, see? That was the last stand -- 3 Gene Harris: Okay. 4 MR. DOWNEY: -- till they surrendered. 5 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I went to many 6 conventions before I found out what was so great about 7 Philippine scouts. 8 So I said to Jimmy, What in the world is 9 so great about Philippine Scout? 10 Because all of the people that he met that 11 was in that part of the world when the war was going 12 on, they would come, the Americans would come up and 13 shake Jimmy's hand and pat him on the back. 14 Then I found out that Philippine Scouts 15 were a group of elite soldiers trained by the, two 16 West Pointers. 17 Gene Harris: Now you had to be, you were an 18 Army officer at West Point -- 19 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And -- 20 Gene Harris: -- and trained with the 21 Philippine Scouts. 22 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. 23 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: When the war came 24 along, the Philippine Scouts went in first. They did 25 the basic -- 1 MR. DOWNEY: They were the first line of 2 defense. 3 Gene Harris: The Philippine Scouts would 4 hold the line against the Japanese? 5 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. 6 TIM: When the line would start to be 7 pushed to broken, by then the Americans had fallen 8 back and were digging new trench lines, the Filipinos 9 would fall back into the trench lines, the Scouts, the 10 Americans would drop back and start digging another 11 trench line. 12 The Filipinos on that line would get ready 13 to break, the Americans would move back, set up new 14 defenses, and the Filipinos would drop into the trench 15 line and keep fighting. 16 Gene Harris: Okay. 17 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Jimmy was very 18 active in swimming and athletics. 19 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, let's get back to 20 you, Francis. 21 What were your hobbies? 22 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: What were my hobbies? 23 TIM: Your hobbies. 24 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Only that, probably 25 music and dancing. And I don't think I had any 1 hobbies. 2 Gene Harris: Okay. Now that we've had our 3 cake, we're going to go back to recording. 4 Now, Francis, can you tell me a little 5 bit: What was your favorite book? 6 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: When I was in school? 7 Gene Harris: No. Later on in life, what 8 was your favorite book? 9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I can tell you my 10 favorite movie is Gone With the Wind. 11 Gene Harris: Okay. Gone With the Wind was 12 a good one. I've seen that a couple times. 13 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Sound of Music. 14 Gene Harris: Oh, that was beautiful. 15 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah. 16 Gene Harris: Now, did you retire from the 17 Army? 18 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. I stayed there 30 19 years. 20 Gene Harris: 30 years? 21 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. 22 Gene Harris: What did you do after the 23 Army? 24 MR. DOWNEY: I worked at a big department 25 store, Rice's & Nachman for 16 years. 1 Gene Harris: Rices? 2 MR. DOWNEY: Nachman. 3 Gene Harris: How do you spell that? 4 MR. DOWNEY: N-A-C-H-M-A-N. 5 Gene Harris: Where was that. 6 MR. DOWNEY: Here in Newport News. 7 Gene Harris: Newport News? Okay. 8 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. I was a production 9 manager. 10 Gene Harris: Okay. Now, how many children 11 did you have? 12 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Four. 13 Gene Harris: Okay. Rather than get all of 14 that down now, we will say that Tim, who is here with 15 us -- 16 SPEAKER 5: The baby. 17 Gene Harris: -- is helping us narrate 18 this, is one of the children. And rather than get all 19 that now, what I'm going to do is go ahead and get 20 that from Tim and put it on paper form. 21 TIM: Right. 22 Gene Harris: Addendum: This is information 23 on Francis's father, who, now this was. 24 TIM: Percy Jackson BOOTH. 25 Gene Harris: Okay. 1 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: My father, when my 2 father and mother got married, my mother had relatives 3 in Hampton, Virginia, and they came to, my father and 4 mother came to Hampton, Virginia, and they rode the 5 streetcar from Hampton to Newport News for a year, and 6 they had a little boy born, but died the same day it 7 was born. My grandmother said it was probably the 8 cord or something like that, but after that my father 9 moved back to the country. 10 I don't know why, but he always loved the 11 country. And so he moved to Surry County and that's 12 where I was born. 13 Gene Harris: Okay. We're going to go on a 14 sidetrack now and finish up for today. 15 This information is from Talmadge BOOTH 16 in Longview, Texas. 17 He says, The original immigrant was Thomas 18 BOOTH, who came to this country and landed at 19 Jamestown Island in 1620. He had a son named Robert 20 BOOTH, who was a member of the House of Burgesses. 21 Robert BOOTH had a son named Robert 22 BOOTH, Jr, who was also a member of the House of 23 Burgesses. 24 The reference for this is Hennings, 25 H-E-N-I-N-G-S, Statue, is where this information came 1 from. 2 We have everyone on the family database 3 with the exception of Thomas. We were missing Thomas 4 as the original founder that came over to Jamestown. 5 Okay. We're continuing. 6 The following is with Master Sergeant 7 James Downey, Jr., the husband of Francis BOOTH 8 DOwney. 9 And, Tim, would you tell us how many 10 medals he's got? 11 TIM: Dad has a silver start, two bronze, 12 two purple hearts, POW medal, presidential unit 13 citation, and, let's see, Dad, how many? One, two, 14 five campaign medals and several other. 15 What is this one here, Dad? That's the 16 unit- -- presidential unit citation here, too? 17 MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. 18 Gene Harris: That's the ribbon for the 19 purple heart. 20 MR. DOWNEY: It was given to us two times. 21 TIM: No. Not this one. 22 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. 23 TIM: That's the oak leaf cluster for the 24 presidential citation. Twice. Yeah. 25 Gene Harris: Okay. Now what we're going to 1 do is the -- what was the highest one? 2 TIM: Silver star. 3 Gene Harris: Right. The silver star is one 4 of the highest awards in the Army. 5 How did you get the silver star, sir? 6 TIM: Silver star would be the third 7 highest award in these days' Army. 8 MR. DOWNEY: I was going to this place 9 here where they have these 50 calibre aircool machine 10 guns, run away, they call it, when you press a button 11 it just keeps going and going, see? 12 I told them to take me to re-ammo, every 13 five to 10 rounds, and on the way there the Japanese, 14 you know, it was a bomb corridor, and they still had 15 some bombs left, they dropped in hospitals. 16 Gene Harris: They were dropping bombs on 17 the hospital? 18 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. So that was in time 19 when I went and rescued a lot of these sick people and 20 put them in a safe place. 21 Gene Harris: You were actually being bombed 22 and -- 23 MR. DOWNEY: Bombed and -- yeah. 24 Gene Harris: Was this field hospital 25 canvas -- 1 MR. DOWNEY: Field hospital, yeah. 2 Gene Harris: -- or was it a brick building 3 or was it a canvas -- 4 MR. DOWNEY: Oh, no. It was all canvas. 5 Gene Harris: All canvas? Okay? 6 MR. DOWNEY: Stand the whole thing on the 7 (laughter) -- 8 Gene Harris: Okay. Was there something 9 with a fuel truck? 10 TIM: What about the fuel truck, Dad? 11 Outside a fuel truck was burning -- 12 MR. DOWNEY: Oh, yeah. 13 TIM: -- the guy was inside and -- 14 MR. DOWNEY: That was inside. You know, 15 they got wounded, you know, and I said, Gosh, if this 16 thing blows up, the hospital will get involved. 17 So I put it in gear and drove up under 18 a ravine. 19 Gene Harris: While it was burning? 20 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. And it exploded. 21 Yeah. The guy was already dead, see. 22 Gene Harris: Right. But it was full of 23 fire, it was all on fire -- 24 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. 25 Gene Harris: You took it and drove it away 1 from the hospital -- 2 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. 3 Gene Harris: -- over a ravine so it 4 wouldn't -- 5 MR. DOWNEY: Yes. Uh-huh. 6 Gene Harris: Now, where was the lieutenant 7 there when all this was happening? 8 MR. DOWNEY: Oh, he was in the foxhole. 9 Gene Harris: He was in the foxhole? 10 MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. I told him to keep the 11 truck going, you know, just in case, you know, if he 12 got involved, he can drive it up out of the way, see. 13 That was Lieutenant Plesko. 14 Gene Harris: The Lieutenant name was 15 "Plesko?" 16 MR. DOWNEY: Plesko, yeah. 17 Gene Harris: P-L-E-S-C-O, I guess? 18 MR. DOWNEY: K-O. 19 Gene Harris: P-L-E-S-K-O. 20 MR. DOWNEY: He was my chief of section. 21 Gene Harris: The? 22 MR. DOWNEY: Chief of section. 23 Gene Harris: Oh, chief of section. 24 MR. DOWNEY: My section. Yeah. 25 Gene Harris: Chief of your section? 1 He went to West Point? 2 MR. DOWNEY: Probably, I don't know. 3 Gene Harris: Okay. 4 MR. DOWNEY: Every time we'd have a repair 5 job, he was always behind me. 6 Gene Harris: Oh, well, that figures. 7 This is now back to the BOOTH family. Go 8 ahead. 9 FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Lloyd Mills and 10 Maynard BOOTH were two people from West Point that 11 trained the Philippine Scouts. So at one convention I 12 met Maynard BOOTH, and I said, You may be kin to me. 13 And, and he was from Texas and was wearing 14 this big Texas hat and said, Ah, do you have any 15 money? 16 Well, that didn't set to good with me, but 17 I still think that, that he may be -- 18 Gene Harris: This is just information for 19 the record to check against the website to make sure I 20 have it. 21 Mary Cornwell, C-O-R-N-W-E-L-L, who was 22 the wife of Beverly BOOTH, was born July 21st, 1871. 23 She and Beverly were married January 25th, 1819, and 24 she died July 2nd, 1855. 25 Beverly BOOTH's fath
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