The Wedding of Pete and Shirley Dudley Richardson

The Wedding of Pete and Shirley Dudley Richardson
Photo Courtesy: Roman Richardson

Pete Richardson was the son of Alexander and Melissa Wheat Richardson. Shirley Dudley was the daughter of O.D. Dudley and Maggie Lee Brumfield Dudley. Standing to the left of the bride is Pete's brother Samuel Richardson and Earline Davis on the end. One the right is Katie Johnson and Walter Boykins.

O.D. and Maggie Lee Brumfield Dudley of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana

O.D. Dudley
Photo Courtesy: Roman Richardson

O.D. Dudley was born in 1916 to Mose and Idella Williams Dudley, he died in 1980  at home in Amite, Louisiana. He married  Maggie Lee Brumfield Dudley, the love of his life." O. D. loved him some Maggie, says Roman." They were the parents of Shirley Mae Griffin,  Ann Deloris Williams, Mildred Ann Ricard, and Norma Jean Richard. 

Maggie was born around 1918 and died in 1999 in Amite, Louisiana. She was one of the cooks at West Side School in Amite, Louisiana. That was the days with food was home-cooked by grandmothers and mothers who knew nothing about process food. I remember as a child, smelling the food cooking in the cafeteria. We couldn't wait until lunch because we knew we were end for a treat. Homemade peach cobbler, cake, red beans and rice, greens, vegetables, meat loaf, freshly made yeast rolls just to name some of the good foods we had.

Mr. Dudley was a custodian and bus driver. Matter of fact,  I rode his bus and remembered on Fridays after school he  purchased ice cream cones for all the children on the bus. Mr. Dudley was a nice person with a welcoming smile and hello as we got on the bus every day.  He worked in the lunchroom at Westside School and managed the candy vending machines at the school. Mr. Dudley was a member of Little Bethel Baptist Church in Amite, Louisiana. He was one of deacons at the church. 

Roman was reflecting on so many memories of his grandfather and how he was a stern and fair man. My grandpa kept guns  in very corner of every room of the house. That came about from his childhood. When grandpa was a young man, a white girl accused him of looking at her. He ran home as fast as he could. When he made it back, he told his father and the Dudley men what happened. The white men came to the house and wanted them to bring out my grandpa. My grandpa said all you could hear in the house was the sounds of shotguns and guns clicking. My great-grandfather told the

Maggie Lee Brumfield Dudley
Photo Courtesy: Roman Richardson

white men that they weren't sending O.D. out of the house. One of the white men said we'll see you later and they all left. My grandfather O.D kept guns in the corner of each room of his house  after that incident.

Grandpa was a strong man who took care of his family and grandchildren until he passed away. When grandma Maggie got sick, grandpa wanted to do everything for her, although he was ill himself. My grandma was much taller than my grandpa, and that didn't mean anything. He stood tall and did what any man who called himself a man would do for his family and the community. 

He uses to go hunting and bring the wild game home, and grandma would cook it, nothing but love went in those pots. "One day grandpa had so friends to come over to the house, and the men were sitting outside, and grandpa pulled out her best china to serve them coffee. That's the kind of woman she was," says Roman. We all miss them so much.

Collins "Mick" Hookfin and Mary Mixon Hookfin

Collins and Mary Mixon Hookfin

Collins Hookfin was born around 1876 in Louisiana. He died in 1957 in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. He is buried in Fluker, Louisiana. Collins was married to Mary Mixon. Mary was born abt 1874 and died in 1958.

Photo Courtesy: Ronald Atkins

Bertha Green Coleman Remember the Day Her Brother Hammondee Green Was Killed

Bertha Green Coleman
Photo Credit: Dr. Antoinette Harrell

Bertha is one of nine children born to Aldophus and Ella Corean Jackson Green in St. Helena, Louisiana, in 1931. She recalled a specific event that happened to her brother in 1956 in Amite, Louisiana. Bertha was at her mother's house when she received the news about her brother Hammondee Green's death. The tragedy is encoded in her memory forever. Eighty-nine years old Bertha can't erase how her brother died in Amite, Louisiana. 

"He was home on a furlough when it all started, " said Bertha. My brother wouldn't say yes'mam and no' mam. He went into the cleaners to get his clothes, and this is where it all started, she said. It wasn't until he came home from the services that things got worse.

For the first time sent, he was killed in 1956, his only living sister Bertha, his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews gathered to commemorate this death. They placed flowers on his grave and talked about some of the things they heard some of the older folks in the community said. 

His family members were dressed in royal blue tee shirts with white carnation flowers to lay on his grave. Some with tears rolling their eyes and other faces that reflect the pain they feel just knowing that their ancestors were brutally murdered. His grandson said my grandfather put his life on the line for this county, only to come home and be killed.

We never said anything because mama told us to be quiet and not  to say anything because she was afraid that others in her family would be killed,  said Bertha. Mama didn't want to lose any more of her children. When the funeral home called his mother to come and identify his body, his mother Ella didn't go. She sent her two sons and grandson Aldophus to go to the funeral home.  Aldophus was only eleven years old at the time, but he recalled seeing his uncle lying on the table with a bullet hold in his forehead and burned marks on his body. Hammondee had been castrated and his testicles stuffed in his mouth, according some of the older people in the community.

"I didn't get a chance to meet my grandfather," said Robert Jackson. He did a chance to meet his great-grandchildren. Robert and his nephew wrote a poem for their grandfather. Everyone was silent and listened to what was being said.  Major Colman, Jr. noted that people in the community told him how they were told the story. We're here today because of what some of our family members had to go through said Coleman.