Fannie Mae Wheelock Upchurch was a ticket taker for Southern Railway. She died from a ruptured appendix in 1915. Francis "Fannie" left 3 sons and a husband, Robert Malcolm Upchurch. The oldest son, did not go to the orphanage, but Ruth Rose Upchurch Brown, who was 8 at the time, and her brother, Malcolm Wheelock Upchurch, possibly 5 yrs of age were taken to the Baptist Children's Home near Birmingham by their 2 uncles. The oldest son lived with his father in Birmingham. The children were told that their father died in an airplane accident and their brother ran away and joined the Navy at age 16. It is unknown if the family did not approve of Robert Malcolm and took the youngest two from him or if the father did not want the responsibility of the two young children. The eldest son worked on Indian Motorcycles in Birmingham for years and didn't join the Navy until the start of WW II. The father stayed in Birmingham for a while, then moved to South Carolina, remarried and had 2 more sons. Fannie Mae's father was Charles Franklin Wheelock and allegedly committed suicide in September 1915, shortly after his daughter died. The family was rather impoverished, hence Fannie Mae having a job. She was in the first female graduating class from the University of AL, only the female part had a different name then.
Contributor: Pete Mohney (48755434)

2019 - When I made the memorial in 2016, I wanted so badly to make sure she was remembered. Her gravestone was one that we took folks to see as we toured around customers for sales. The older sections of the cemetery only had a few singles, but seeing the tour of the cemetery was something we all loved. There were so many wonderful markers and stories and guesstimate stories.

I will get the below edited and mostly removed - but it is what was written originally when i made the memorial that started the process that led to the great volunteer Pete Mohney giving Fannie back her wonderful story.

FROM Cherie 2019: I cannot remember Fannie's surname. It might have been Underwood or something like that or maybe my memory of that is name totally wrong.

I took this in the mid 1970s when I worked at Elmwood. And one of the salesmen and Elmwood history buff, James Jim Dunn, took me around the cemetery for the unusual grave stone tour, when I became a salesperson there.

If I remember at all, looking at the cemetery from above and from the street at the main entrance, the block would be to the right of the office and back in a ways - maybe.

But Jim Dunn and maybe some cemetery workers now know this grave also, I would hope a new generation of workers do know all these special as different graves.

The first grave was I think an Annie??? but I can't get my memory around her surname. But she was the first burial and a little girl.

But from the records for Fannie, we knew her husband bought the stone after her death. Now knowing how to for genealogy I am sorry I don't know more.

But memory serves maybe before 1950s, maybe then, maybe???

block 17 - on straight side, middleish, four rows in.
William D Matthews in adjoining grave 189299398. But everybody know that Floyd Bush used to sell empty graves when he thought there was no one to be found.

There used to be info in the grave file.