I hope to start adding more to this blog in the future.

Paw and Mama in Germany

This photo was taken in Germany. It has Paw, Mama, and Art Tyler. The other person was a friend of Art’s. They were all at a club in Karlsruhe.

Family Photo About 1943

This photo was taken about 1943 at White Plains. White Plains is south of Piedmont and east of Anniston and Jacksonville. Starting from the right, the people in the photo are Lois, Emory Nichols (Lois's husband), Grandma Gray with Gladys Tyler, Grandpaw Phillips (Grandma Gray's dad) with Billy Snook, Louise, Bill, and Paw standing on the car bumper in the rear.

If I mis-spell anyone's name, please bring it to my attention and I will correct it.

Paw, Lois, and Grandpaw Gray Visit Emmett in Biloxi

During World War II, Uncle Emmett was drafted into the Army. He served in the Army Air Corps. He did his training in Biloxi, Mississippi. While stationed at Biloxi, Paw, Grandpaw Gray, and Lois traveled by bus to Biloxi to visit Emmett. They took the bus from Anniston, Alabama and traveled overnight to Biloxi.


Click here to hear Paw tell about the photo.

Happy Birthday, Paw!!

On June 30, Paw celebrated another birthday. He turned 78. The people in the video, besides Paw, is Crystal, my daughter, her friend, Jeff, my friend, Debbie, and me. We had a great time.

Short video of Paw's birthday, last June 30. Happy 78th, Paw.

You Can Download the Pictures and Videos

You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

You can download any picture or video on this blog to your computer. To download the photos, right click on the photo and select "Save Picture As". After downloading it, you can put in on a disk or CD and take it to Wal-Mart and have a copy made.

You can save video or audio files by right clicking on the link and selecting the "Save Target As" option. Just follow the prompts.

Hans

Grandpa and Grandma Gray

This photo is one of two that I have that shows Paw's dad, William Sargent Gray. In the picture you also have Paw's mother, Missouri Faye Gray. Standing next to Grandpa Gray is Louise. Emmett is squatting down holding Marie. Next to him is Billie and in front of Billie is Larry (left) and Robbie (Robert Charles).

In the short video, Paw mentions that there were ten children, but he only names eight. Two of the children died while still babies and their graves are at Ten Island.

Later, I will get Paw to tell us a little more about Grandpa and Grandma Gray. I know that Grandma Gray’s maiden name was Phillips.

This picture of Grandma Gray was taken in Gadsden in the early ’60. You can date the picture by the car behind her. I think Paw bought that Ford new in 1960.

Click here to launch a short video of Paw telling about Missouri and William Gray.

Larry Joe Nichols

Larry Joe Nichols is my cousin. He is the son of Lois, Paw's sister. He was a year or two older than me. I kind of looked up to him and always enjoyed visiting with him in Anniston.

I remember one time he came to stay with us for a while (for about a week I think) in Rainbow City. He was helping Paw cut pulpwood. Paw would work a shift at the steel plant and then go out and cut and haul pulpwood for the rest of the day.

Behind the house and down the hill from where we lived there were a series of ponds in which I sometimes went fishing. One day while Larry was waiting for Paw to finish work at the steel plant, he caught a lizard, took his fishing pole, and went down to the lake. When I got home from school, I saw the biggest fish (a bass) I had ever seen flopping around in the sink. Paw and Larry had already gone off to cut pulpwood and Mama was getting ready to clean Larry's fish for supper.


I remember Larry was real proud of that ’57 Ford Fairlane he owned. Now this picture is not Larry and this is not his Ford, but this is what it looked like.

I also remember that Larry had a hard time getting into the Army. He had a problem with a kidney if I remember right. He first joined the Navy reserve and then requested a transfer to the regular Army. His first duty station was Hawaii. From there he went to Vietnam. We wrote each other regularly and I kept his letters for many years, but somewhere during my divorce and moving, I lost them.

One story I remember from his letters concerned an incident while on patrol. Larry was a machine gunner on an armored personnel carrier. In the letter he wrote that they were taking a break and were sitting outside the vehicle when a sniper started shooting at them. Larry jumped up and crawled up to the machine gun turret to send some rounds off in the direction of the sniper’s fire. When he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. Larry learned later that his squad leader had unloaded his machine gun for some reason.

Larry was killed in Vietnam. His death and funeral were memorable to me for the following reason. Aunt Lois called Paw one day saying she was worried about Larry because he had not written is several days or weeks. Larry had always been good about writing regularly. Then a few days later, Aunt Lois called again and told Paw to come to Anniston as quickly as he could.

When we got there, she showed us a copy of a Grit Newspaper (Grit was a national paper, somewhat like USA Today. It is still in publication.). On the front page was a color photo of a GI on a stretcher being carried across a rice paddy. Aunt Lois swore that the GI on the stretcher looked like Larry. I think is was the next day, or a couple of days later that the officer from Fort McClellan came to Aunt Lois’s house to tell her that Larry had been killed in action. That was really strange!


The following is from Judy Goode, sister of Larry.

That is pretty much the way I remember it too. Mother was really upset. She said she had dreamed that he was in trouble and she wanted to go over there. She told Benny too. Then we got the news that he was wounded. While the men from the fort were at the house talking to her, Deanie carried Lisa, Tommy, and me out on the back porch. We walked to Jimmy Gallager’s house and Deanie told them what was going on. That was on March 31. Then they came back and said that he had died. I think that was on April 3. We had the copy of the news mag. until the house burned. I think it was lost in the house fire. Do you remember that they had run out of enbalming fluid and that is why his body was swollen and the casket had to be sealed. Someone had to sit with the body while it was at the house because there could not be any jarring. Mother kept the body at home over on Pelham Street until the day of the funeral. The funeral was at Ten Island. Brother Howard and the preacher from Moore Avenue Baptist Church did the funeral. He had a 21 gun salute. That is about all I remember I think he was the first in Calhoun County to be killed in the war. There's a monument on Quintard Ave. and his name is on the Vietnam Wall in the new park on Quintard.

Comments from Ronald Gray

(The following post comes from Ronald Gray. Ron went to Etowah County High School with Rob and I. Robby and I graduated in 1966, and Ron graduated in 1967. Ron presently lives in Pensacola, Florida, and is a professor at the University of West Florida. We have always wondered if our families were related. There are several possible connections – the names Theodore and William occur in his family too, and both Gray families, his and ours, come from the Carolinas. Ron's picture was scanned from our 1966 yearbook. You can reach Ron at rgray@uwf.edu.)

My Great-grandfather was Memory Theodore Gray born 1867 and died 1947. He was known as "Mem." However, Mem was the son of William Gray born 1828 in SC who in turn was the son of yet another William Gray born 1792 in SC and died 1857 in DeKalb County, AL--his probated will is in the county courthouse at Ft. Payne. My family "entered" or homesteaded Cherokee Cession Land in 1838 (this after the forced removal of the Cherokees from northeast AL as part of the Trail of Tears) at the federal land office located in Lebanon, DeKalb County (Lebanon then being the DeKalb county seat--it subsequently moved to Ft. Payne when the railroad line was constructed). I have no reliable information as to exactly where this family of Grays originated in SC. Some years ago, I researched SC US Census records and I discovered that there were numerous William Grays who "went West." It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so I became frustrated and quite. Evidently, a very large percentage of the SC population chose to move West in the 1830s to new lands--"Gone to Texas" was common term used in SC to describe families who moved westward.

I discovered a Gray family in SC that might be related to mine. This family was descended from Frederick Grau (Gray) who was known as the "Old Hessian" who settled near Newberry, SC in 1757. This man received a land grant from King George II ("German George, House of Hanover, father of King George III). Frederick was reportedly from Potsdam and served in Frederick William I's army--father of Frederick the Great. Frederick Grau had a son George Gray who in turn had a son Frederick Gray who served in the Revolutionary War and subsequently the SC state legislature. This Frederick Gray was born 1758 in SC and buried at Calhoun Falls, SC located on the SC/GA border. When Frederick Gray died in 1837 his son William Gray was named in his will as executor. This William was born at the right time and moved west at the right time. So, it maybe he was the William Gray who appeared for the first time in the 1840 US Census in DeKalb County, AL--indicating he was born in SC in 1792. But, I have no conclusive proof to support this speculation.

Now, where your SC family ties in to this history, I have no clue. The US Census records are replete with SC Grays. But, I wager, we are cousins at a great distance.

More on Jesse Berry Gray?

(This information comes from Judy (Nichols) Goode. Judy is the daughter of Lois (Gray)Frazier. Judy lives in Anniston, Alabama. )

I was told that he (Jesse Berry Gray?) sold Mohawk mountain for around $800.00 after donating the land for the church and the cemetary. He sold out because of the boweavel in the crops. He then moved to Sand Mountain where his brother was living. It would be interesting to do a study of the land in the area. I also have several pictures that would add to this.