Mother died Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005, at home. My Father had died in 1989. Mother was born Feb. 24, 1926, in Fairview, Tenn., to Wiley and Annie Mangrum. Two of my brothers and I were with her when she passed away and we had taken turns being with her for close to a year while she slowly died from cancer.
Mother meet my Father,J.B. Rose,in Nashville during World War II. Dad was an MP in the Army Air Corp stationed there for the duration. They were married there on March 14, 1944 and older brother George Michael was born in Nashville in the month of February 1945. After the war they moved to the area where Dad was reared and I(Julian Wayne) was born in Ausgust 1946. Then came
Paul Edward in March 1949(shown in sports pic at right) and little brother Jonathan Neal came along in August 1956. I remember first hearing that I was going to have another sibling from my older brother Mike while bouncing a ball on the front porch. I stopped bouncing the ball, poundered that fact and the meaning of life, and then resumed bouncing my ball against the side of the house. After trying his luck as a farmer when the war was over, Dad went to work for the army as a civilian at the Redstone Arsenal located near Huntsville, AL. in the very early 1950's and then transferred over to NASA after it was organized, while Mother became a homemaker to three and then four boys. We grew up in a home that Dad built with little help. The home morphed over the years and eventually came to be about twice it's original size. In the early years of its existence, Mon and Dad's house had no toilet in the bath room - it was outside close to the barn in the outhouse - only a sink and a large shower with a concrete base made up the components of the bathroom. Us three boys would usually take a shower at the same time, there was plenty of room. As I remember it was fun and Mother had to let us know when it was time to get out. In the summer time there was no air conditioning. In the late forties and early fifties, air conditioning in the home was very rare. Mother would always go around in her bare feet along with us boys. I suppose that felt good to her because she had very flat feet with no sign of an arch. She would read comic books to us in the afternoon. She usually lasted about fifteen to twenty good minutes and then she would start falling asleep. It never failed. Her voice would start slurring, and then she was a goner. Thinking back, I know now that she needed that nap because any household convenience at that time was a luxury. Her washing machine was one of those old round ones with a ringer on the top. The stove and refrigerator were primitive, just one step above a wood-burner and icebox. Our heat in the winter was a coal burning stove. I remember very well Mother getting up early on cold mornings and building a fire in the stove from scratch. Later on, about the time my youngest brother Neal was born, she was to start getting the "modern" equipment, such as electric heat and air-conditioning. Even that now indispensible item called a television showed up about 1956 just before the air-conditioner. I know that because I remember in the summer that we would place the television at the front door, pointing out to the front porch and lie on the somewhat cooler concrete porch to watch Your-Show-of-Shows, Toast-of-the-Town, etc.
Mother came from very austere and poor parents. She had two brothers, Alton and Virgil, and one sister, Lucille. Each left home at an early age to try for better things in life. For some reason, as I was told by Mother, they were required by their parents to leave school once they reached the age of 16. The sisters moved to Nashville and stayed with relatives until they met and married service men, one being my father. Aunt Lucille would marry David Gambel who would die in just a few years from cancer after leaving her with a baby daughter Linda. The brothers joined the service. The oldest, Uncle Alton, was with Patton's army in Germany and would stay in the military after the war, switching over to the Air Force. Uncle Virgil would come out. He and his wife Jewel would build a home near my grandparents and have many son's and one daughter. He would die in a car wreck at age 42. At this time Uncle Alton is the sole survivor of Mother and her syblings. He will be 85 next July.
So, Mother left Tennessee and came to North Alabama, going back maybe once or twice a year. Dad(Jimmy as she called him) brought her to the Coxey community about 12 miles west of Athens by Highway 72, called the Florence highway at that time. She was probably about 19 years old when they arrived to stay around late 1945 and she would live the rest of her life a few houses west of Clements High School and Mt Carmel Church of Christ, the church she would attend and depend on for the faith to sustain her later on in life. There were good times and bad times for her like everyone experiences and she was not a physically or emotionally strong person but she made it through life to the age of 79. I will miss her, my brothers will miss her and, as the years pass, she and Dad will linger in our memories.
Mother meet my Father,J.B. Rose,in Nashville during World War II. Dad was an MP in the Army Air Corp stationed there for the duration. They were married there on March 14, 1944 and older brother George Michael was born in Nashville in the month of February 1945. After the war they moved to the area where Dad was reared and I(Julian Wayne) was born in Ausgust 1946. Then came
Paul Edward in March 1949(shown in sports pic at right) and little brother Jonathan Neal came along in August 1956. I remember first hearing that I was going to have another sibling from my older brother Mike while bouncing a ball on the front porch. I stopped bouncing the ball, poundered that fact and the meaning of life, and then resumed bouncing my ball against the side of the house. After trying his luck as a farmer when the war was over, Dad went to work for the army as a civilian at the Redstone Arsenal located near Huntsville, AL. in the very early 1950's and then transferred over to NASA after it was organized, while Mother became a homemaker to three and then four boys. We grew up in a home that Dad built with little help. The home morphed over the years and eventually came to be about twice it's original size. In the early years of its existence, Mon and Dad's house had no toilet in the bath room - it was outside close to the barn in the outhouse - only a sink and a large shower with a concrete base made up the components of the bathroom. Us three boys would usually take a shower at the same time, there was plenty of room. As I remember it was fun and Mother had to let us know when it was time to get out. In the summer time there was no air conditioning. In the late forties and early fifties, air conditioning in the home was very rare. Mother would always go around in her bare feet along with us boys. I suppose that felt good to her because she had very flat feet with no sign of an arch. She would read comic books to us in the afternoon. She usually lasted about fifteen to twenty good minutes and then she would start falling asleep. It never failed. Her voice would start slurring, and then she was a goner. Thinking back, I know now that she needed that nap because any household convenience at that time was a luxury. Her washing machine was one of those old round ones with a ringer on the top. The stove and refrigerator were primitive, just one step above a wood-burner and icebox. Our heat in the winter was a coal burning stove. I remember very well Mother getting up early on cold mornings and building a fire in the stove from scratch. Later on, about the time my youngest brother Neal was born, she was to start getting the "modern" equipment, such as electric heat and air-conditioning. Even that now indispensible item called a television showed up about 1956 just before the air-conditioner. I know that because I remember in the summer that we would place the television at the front door, pointing out to the front porch and lie on the somewhat cooler concrete porch to watch Your-Show-of-Shows, Toast-of-the-Town, etc.
Mother came from very austere and poor parents. She had two brothers, Alton and Virgil, and one sister, Lucille. Each left home at an early age to try for better things in life. For some reason, as I was told by Mother, they were required by their parents to leave school once they reached the age of 16. The sisters moved to Nashville and stayed with relatives until they met and married service men, one being my father. Aunt Lucille would marry David Gambel who would die in just a few years from cancer after leaving her with a baby daughter Linda. The brothers joined the service. The oldest, Uncle Alton, was with Patton's army in Germany and would stay in the military after the war, switching over to the Air Force. Uncle Virgil would come out. He and his wife Jewel would build a home near my grandparents and have many son's and one daughter. He would die in a car wreck at age 42. At this time Uncle Alton is the sole survivor of Mother and her syblings. He will be 85 next July.
So, Mother left Tennessee and came to North Alabama, going back maybe once or twice a year. Dad(Jimmy as she called him) brought her to the Coxey community about 12 miles west of Athens by Highway 72, called the Florence highway at that time. She was probably about 19 years old when they arrived to stay around late 1945 and she would live the rest of her life a few houses west of Clements High School and Mt Carmel Church of Christ, the church she would attend and depend on for the faith to sustain her later on in life. There were good times and bad times for her like everyone experiences and she was not a physically or emotionally strong person but she made it through life to the age of 79. I will miss her, my brothers will miss her and, as the years pass, she and Dad will linger in our memories.
Mother died Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005, at home. My Father had died in 1989. Mother was born Feb. 24, 1926, in Fairview, Tenn., to Wiley and Annie Mangrum. Two of my brothers and I were with her when she passed away and we had taken turns being with her for close to a year while she slowly died from cancer.
Mother meet my Father,J.B. Rose,in Nashville during World War II. Dad was an MP in the Army Air Corp stationed there for the duration. They were married there on March 14, 1944 and older brother George Michael was born in Nashville in the month of February 1945. After the war they moved to the area where Dad was reared and I(Julian Wayne) was born in Ausgust 1946. Then came
Paul Edward in March 1949(shown in sports pic at right) and little brother Jonathan Neal came along in August 1956. I remember first hearing that I was going to have another sibling from my older brother Mike while bouncing a ball on the front porch. I stopped bouncing the ball, poundered that fact and the meaning of life, and then resumed bouncing my ball against the side of the house. After trying his luck as a farmer when the war was over, Dad went to work for the army as a civilian at the Redstone Arsenal located near Huntsville, AL. in the very early 1950's and then transferred over to NASA after it was organized, while Mother became a homemaker to three and then four boys. We grew up in a home that Dad built with little help. The home morphed over the years and eventually came to be about twice it's original size. In the early years of its existence, Mon and Dad's house had no toilet in the bath room - it was outside close to the barn in the outhouse - only a sink and a large shower with a concrete base made up the components of the bathroom. Us three boys would usually take a shower at the same time, there was plenty of room. As I remember it was fun and Mother had to let us know when it was time to get out. In the summer time there was no air conditioning. In the late forties and early fifties, air conditioning in the home was very rare. Mother would always go around in her bare feet along with us boys. I suppose that felt good to her because she had very flat feet with no sign of an arch. She would read comic books to us in the afternoon. She usually lasted about fifteen to twenty good minutes and then she would start falling asleep. It never failed. Her voice would start slurring, and then she was a goner. Thinking back, I know now that she needed that nap because any household convenience at that time was a luxury. Her washing machine was one of those old round ones with a ringer on the top. The stove and refrigerator were primitive, just one step above a wood-burner and icebox. Our heat in the winter was a coal burning stove. I remember very well Mother getting up early on cold mornings and building a fire in the stove from scratch. Later on, about the time my youngest brother Neal was born, she was to start getting the "modern" equipment, such as electric heat and air-conditioning. Even that now indispensible item called a television showed up about 1956 just before the air-conditioner. I know that because I remember in the summer that we would place the television at the front door, pointing out to the front porch and lie on the somewhat cooler concrete porch to watch Your-Show-of-Shows, Toast-of-the-Town, etc.
Mother came from very austere and poor parents. She had two brothers, Alton and Virgil, and one sister, Lucille. Each left home at an early age to try for better things in life. For some reason, as I was told by Mother, they were required by their parents to leave school once they reached the age of 16. The sisters moved to Nashville and stayed with relatives until they met and married service men, one being my father. Aunt Lucille would marry David Gambel who would die in just a few years from cancer after leaving her with a baby daughter Linda. The brothers joined the service. The oldest, Uncle Alton, was with Patton's army in Germany and would stay in the military after the war, switching over to the Air Force. Uncle Virgil would come out. He and his wife Jewel would build a home near my grandparents and have many son's and one daughter. He would die in a car wreck at age 42. At this time Uncle Alton is the sole survivor of Mother and her syblings. He will be 85 next July.
So, Mother left Tennessee and came to North Alabama, going back maybe once or twice a year. Dad(Jimmy as she called him) brought her to the Coxey community about 12 miles west of Athens by Highway 72, called the Florence highway at that time. She was probably about 19 years old when they arrived to stay around late 1945 and she would live the rest of her life a few houses west of Clements High School and Mt Carmel Church of Christ, the church she would attend and depend on for the faith to sustain her later on in life. There were good times and bad times for her like everyone experiences and she was not a physically or emotionally strong person but she made it through life to the age of 79. I will miss her, my brothers will miss her and, as the years pass, she and Dad will linger in our memories.
Mother meet my Father,J.B. Rose,in Nashville during World War II. Dad was an MP in the Army Air Corp stationed there for the duration. They were married there on March 14, 1944 and older brother George Michael was born in Nashville in the month of February 1945. After the war they moved to the area where Dad was reared and I(Julian Wayne) was born in Ausgust 1946. Then came
Paul Edward in March 1949(shown in sports pic at right) and little brother Jonathan Neal came along in August 1956. I remember first hearing that I was going to have another sibling from my older brother Mike while bouncing a ball on the front porch. I stopped bouncing the ball, poundered that fact and the meaning of life, and then resumed bouncing my ball against the side of the house. After trying his luck as a farmer when the war was over, Dad went to work for the army as a civilian at the Redstone Arsenal located near Huntsville, AL. in the very early 1950's and then transferred over to NASA after it was organized, while Mother became a homemaker to three and then four boys. We grew up in a home that Dad built with little help. The home morphed over the years and eventually came to be about twice it's original size. In the early years of its existence, Mon and Dad's house had no toilet in the bath room - it was outside close to the barn in the outhouse - only a sink and a large shower with a concrete base made up the components of the bathroom. Us three boys would usually take a shower at the same time, there was plenty of room. As I remember it was fun and Mother had to let us know when it was time to get out. In the summer time there was no air conditioning. In the late forties and early fifties, air conditioning in the home was very rare. Mother would always go around in her bare feet along with us boys. I suppose that felt good to her because she had very flat feet with no sign of an arch. She would read comic books to us in the afternoon. She usually lasted about fifteen to twenty good minutes and then she would start falling asleep. It never failed. Her voice would start slurring, and then she was a goner. Thinking back, I know now that she needed that nap because any household convenience at that time was a luxury. Her washing machine was one of those old round ones with a ringer on the top. The stove and refrigerator were primitive, just one step above a wood-burner and icebox. Our heat in the winter was a coal burning stove. I remember very well Mother getting up early on cold mornings and building a fire in the stove from scratch. Later on, about the time my youngest brother Neal was born, she was to start getting the "modern" equipment, such as electric heat and air-conditioning. Even that now indispensible item called a television showed up about 1956 just before the air-conditioner. I know that because I remember in the summer that we would place the television at the front door, pointing out to the front porch and lie on the somewhat cooler concrete porch to watch Your-Show-of-Shows, Toast-of-the-Town, etc.
Mother came from very austere and poor parents. She had two brothers, Alton and Virgil, and one sister, Lucille. Each left home at an early age to try for better things in life. For some reason, as I was told by Mother, they were required by their parents to leave school once they reached the age of 16. The sisters moved to Nashville and stayed with relatives until they met and married service men, one being my father. Aunt Lucille would marry David Gambel who would die in just a few years from cancer after leaving her with a baby daughter Linda. The brothers joined the service. The oldest, Uncle Alton, was with Patton's army in Germany and would stay in the military after the war, switching over to the Air Force. Uncle Virgil would come out. He and his wife Jewel would build a home near my grandparents and have many son's and one daughter. He would die in a car wreck at age 42. At this time Uncle Alton is the sole survivor of Mother and her syblings. He will be 85 next July.
So, Mother left Tennessee and came to North Alabama, going back maybe once or twice a year. Dad(Jimmy as she called him) brought her to the Coxey community about 12 miles west of Athens by Highway 72, called the Florence highway at that time. She was probably about 19 years old when they arrived to stay around late 1945 and she would live the rest of her life a few houses west of Clements High School and Mt Carmel Church of Christ, the church she would attend and depend on for the faith to sustain her later on in life. There were good times and bad times for her like everyone experiences and she was not a physically or emotionally strong person but she made it through life to the age of 79. I will miss her, my brothers will miss her and, as the years pass, she and Dad will linger in our memories.
