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AACHM Oral History: Henrietta Edwards

When: March 7, 2019

Henrietta Edwards was born in 1919 and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma before moving to Ann Arbor in 1941. She and her husband worked at the Willow Run Bomber Plant during World War II, and owned two filling stations—one downtown at N Fourth Avenue and E Ann Street, and one on Highway 23. She celebrated her hundredth birthday with family, friends, and former coworkers and patients from St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where she worked as a pediatric nurse for 32 years.

Transcript

  • [00:00:12.69] INTERVIEWER: So, Mrs. Edwards, I want to first of all say thank you for agreeing to interview with us.
  • [00:00:19.44] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: OK.
  • [00:00:20.16] INTERVIEWER: So we're going to be doing four parts. The first part of the interview is going to be demographics and family history. Then we're going to do memories of childhood and youth. The third part will be adult, marriage, and family. The fourth will be work and retirement. And the fifth will be historical events.
  • [00:00:41.69] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: OK.
  • [00:00:42.30] INTERVIEWER: OK. So I'm going to start with demographics and family. Please say and spell your name.
  • [00:00:50.61] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Henrietta Edwards. H, e, n, r, i, e, t, t, a. E, d, w, a, r, d, s.
  • [00:01:03.66] INTERVIEWER: What is your date of birth?
  • [00:01:05.29] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: January the 28th, 1919.
  • [00:01:10.68] INTERVIEWER: I understand you just had a birthday.
  • [00:01:12.21] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I did.
  • [00:01:13.56] INTERVIEWER: And you turned how old?
  • [00:01:16.27] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: 100.
  • [00:01:18.12] INTERVIEWER: What a blessing. Did you have a celebration?
  • [00:01:21.90] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yes, I did.
  • [00:01:22.84] INTERVIEWER: OK, how was that?
  • [00:01:23.97] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Lovely.
  • [00:01:24.87] INTERVIEWER: OK. That's how I heard about you. I heard about this wonderful party.
  • [00:01:28.29] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, did you? Yeah.
  • [00:01:30.78] INTERVIEWER: How would you describe your ethnic background?
  • [00:01:34.67] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Baby?
  • [00:01:35.55] MALE SPEAKER: Ethnic. Are you--
  • [00:01:37.41] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Huh?
  • [00:01:39.45] INTERVIEWER: Are you Caucasian? Are you African-- black? Are you--
  • [00:01:42.63] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I'm Afro-American.
  • [00:01:44.44] INTERVIEWER: OK.
  • [00:01:44.73] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Is that what you want?
  • [00:01:45.46] MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:01:47.04] INTERVIEWER: What is your religion, if any?
  • [00:01:48.98] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I'm Methodist.
  • [00:01:49.92] INTERVIEWER: Methodist?
  • [00:01:50.52] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Mm-hmm.
  • [00:01:51.03] INTERVIEWER: I'm Methodist, also.
  • [00:01:52.49] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, OK.
  • [00:01:54.69] INTERVIEWER: What is the highest level of formal education you have completed?
  • [00:02:01.17] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I finished, you know, high school-- 12th grade. But I also took up a-- baby. Y'all have to bear with me.
  • [00:02:13.54] INTERVIEWER: That's fine. High school?
  • [00:02:14.78] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Nurse assistant-- a PNC.
  • [00:02:17.85] INTERVIEWER: Oh, very good.
  • [00:02:18.75] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yes, I have that. And generally nursing. That PNC was the main thing.
  • [00:02:28.16] INTERVIEWER: OK. What is your marital status?
  • [00:02:31.44] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Married one time. And to--
  • [00:02:36.71] INTERVIEWER: All right.
  • [00:02:37.26] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: --my husband.
  • [00:02:40.46] INTERVIEWER: How many children do you have?
  • [00:02:41.87] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I only have one.
  • [00:02:43.05] INTERVIEWER: One?
  • [00:02:43.95] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Uh-huh.
  • [00:02:44.81] INTERVIEWER: Oh. So he's an only child?
  • [00:02:47.61] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: That's right.
  • [00:02:49.13] INTERVIEWER: How many siblings do you have?
  • [00:02:52.55] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I think I got about 17.
  • [00:02:54.41] MALE SPEAKER: No. OK, not the grandchildren. Your sisters.
  • [00:02:57.49] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh.
  • [00:02:57.88] MALE SPEAKER: Sisters.
  • [00:02:58.29] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: My sisters?
  • [00:02:59.58] MALE SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:03:00.35] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, just five of us. Four sisters, I only have four sisters. Is that what you want?
  • [00:03:07.70] INTERVIEWER: Right, that's good.
  • [00:03:08.98] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Four sisters.
  • [00:03:12.20] INTERVIEWER: At what age did you retire?
  • [00:03:16.19] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: 62.
  • [00:03:20.24] INTERVIEWER: OK, that completes part one. Now we're going to go on to part two, which is memories of childhood and youth. What was your family like when you were a child?
  • [00:03:33.44] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: As far as I know, I remember my father. My mother died when I was-- I don't remember her. I just see pictures of her, and what they tell me of my mother. But I had a lovely childhood, because my daddy was strict. Is that what--?
  • [00:03:57.51] MALE SPEAKER: Mm-hmm.
  • [00:03:57.99] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And well, he raised us, my daddy did. And I come up very nice.
  • [00:04:07.13] INTERVIEWER: So your father raised the five girls?
  • [00:04:10.97] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yes.
  • [00:04:11.63] INTERVIEWER: He had his hands full, huh?
  • [00:04:12.89] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yeah, everybody told him that, but this is what he wanted to do.
  • [00:04:16.55] INTERVIEWER: OK.
  • [00:04:17.00] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Choose his girls, yeah, it-- what else, baby?
  • [00:04:22.22] INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little bit about your father.
  • [00:04:24.44] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, I wish I had a picture of him. My daddy was from Little Rock, Arkansas. I knew that. And I knew he married my mother, I think, when she was 16, I think he said. I'm going by what I hear. I don't know, but I've heard.
  • [00:04:49.51] But coming up with my father is from grade school, I remember things better. When he sent us to school, take us to school, pick us up from school. And as far as my mother, I can't tell you nothing about her too much. She died when she was 28 years old.
  • [00:05:17.68] INTERVIEWER: OK. She was young.
  • [00:05:20.56] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And--
  • [00:05:25.29] INTERVIEWER: So what sort of work did your father do?
  • [00:05:28.30] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: My father was the first I know of, he was the first black postman-- Afro-American postman there in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He's from Little Rock, but we came-- he came to Muskogee, Oklahoma when he married my mother. And we were all born in Oklahoma, all five of us girls. When my daddy came here, met his wife, my mother, and-- what was I talking? I forgets real quick.
  • [00:06:06.24] INTERVIEWER: That's OK.
  • [00:06:06.89] MALE SPEAKER: He was a postman.
  • [00:06:08.40] INTERVIEWER: So we'll go on to some other things, here.
  • [00:06:10.65] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, OK, honey.
  • [00:06:12.30] INTERVIEWER: Were there any special days, or events, or family traditions you remember from your childhood? So did you do any kind of special things when you were growing up for holidays and stuff like that?
  • [00:06:24.93] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We were always active in school, all five of us, because our daddy made us stay in school until I finished high school. He was very strict. And so I enjoyed how we did-- in pageants, you know, the plays in school. I can't talk too plainly, y'all.
  • [00:06:45.81] INTERVIEWER: Oh, you're doing fine.
  • [00:06:49.06] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And a lot of things-- school and church is where I was really raised up in. Coming up with my father until I was 16 years old, and my older sister [INAUDIBLE], she from then on, our sisters, they were-- three years older than me, I believe she was. She raised us up, too, with my daddy. And I stayed with her and her husband, because my daddy married again. And--
  • [00:07:24.56] INTERVIEWER: So you had a stepmother?
  • [00:07:25.80] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I had a stepmother. Uh-huh. But he still kept us, you know.
  • [00:07:34.29] INTERVIEWER: So what kinds of things did you do? You said you were in pageants in school. What other kinds of things did you do in school?
  • [00:07:42.28] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I'm really a seamstress and a nurse. But I went-- got as far-- PNC in the nurse practical--
  • [00:07:52.95] INTERVIEWER: Practical nurse.
  • [00:07:55.35] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: In nursing. My field was nursing, really, was the first. And sewing. I done a lot of sewing. Seamstress. So my--
  • [00:08:07.16] INTERVIEWER: Go ahead.
  • [00:08:07.74] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: --mother was a seamstress, they said.
  • [00:08:11.04] INTERVIEWER: OK. So what kinds of things did you sew?
  • [00:08:15.14] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: What kind of things?
  • [00:08:16.23] INTERVIEWER: Did you sew?
  • [00:08:19.29] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: What'd she say?
  • [00:08:20.19] MALE SPEAKER: What kind of things did you sew?
  • [00:08:21.78] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, I sewed for people after I finished school. I finished the sewing in high school.
  • [00:08:34.59] INTERVIEWER: OK. Now you said you were active in school and you were active in church when you were growing up. What kinds of things did you do in church?
  • [00:08:43.77] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, I was singing. We'd be just-- in BYPU, everything we went, all the children.
  • [00:08:56.23] INTERVIEWER: So when you say used to sing, did you have a good voice?
  • [00:08:59.25] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: [NODS] I was alto.
  • [00:09:00.40] INTERVIEWER: Alto, OK.
  • [00:09:01.09] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yeah, in the glee club in school, in high school, I was in glee club. But I was an alto. And we sang in church, all five of us. Besides, I had four sisters. We always sang in church. They were better singers.
  • [00:09:21.39] INTERVIEWER: They were better than you?
  • [00:09:22.53] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Uh-huh.
  • [00:09:23.55] INTERVIEWER: OK. All right.
  • [00:09:25.75] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: But I was an alto.
  • [00:09:27.39] INTERVIEWER: OK, great. You're doing good. We're going to continue with some more questions about childhood memories. Did you play any sports or join any other activities outside of school?
  • [00:09:50.60] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: In church, like, I was a secretary of the Pastor's Aid and the Nurses Guild in the Methodist Church. 62 years, I was secretary.
  • [00:10:04.07] INTERVIEWER: Long time.
  • [00:10:05.68] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: But those are the practical nurse-- I mean the nursing. With the Pastor's Aid, I was 64. Secretary, though. And I stayed there.
  • [00:10:21.88] INTERVIEWER: So what kind of things did you do as the secretary? What kind of things did you do in that position?
  • [00:10:29.24] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Well, whenever the pastor would go to different churches, we would always go and assist him, the pastor. And we used to, you know, do things for his family, his wife. Clean their house, cook, you know, it was just a group of us. About-- maybe it was 10 of us were members. But that's what we done.
  • [00:11:03.41] INTERVIEWER: OK. So you took good care of your pastor, huh? OK.
  • [00:11:07.88] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We did, all of them.
  • [00:11:09.21] INTERVIEWER: All of it. OK. Very good.
  • [00:11:11.32] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I was the last one.
  • [00:11:12.43] MALE SPEAKER: And she played high school basketball, she said.
  • [00:11:15.14] INTERVIEWER: OK. Did your family have any special sayings or expressions during this time? Sometimes people have like a scripture from the Bible, or--
  • [00:11:25.22] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Well, you thinking about my family?
  • [00:11:29.42] INTERVIEWER: Right, yes.
  • [00:11:32.73] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We'd have pictures of them. Pictures of my mother and father. And my mother-- my daddy, he sang in the choir.
  • [00:11:47.63] INTERVIEWER: He had a good voice?
  • [00:11:47.72] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I remember him. He lived-- he died in 1960.
  • [00:11:52.41] MALE SPEAKER: Mm-mmm, that was my--
  • [00:11:53.36] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: '51.
  • [00:11:54.29] MALE SPEAKER: That was my daddy in '60. Oh, I'm sorry. OK.
  • [00:11:57.96] INTERVIEWER: That's OK.
  • [00:11:58.95] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Papa died in 1950.
  • [00:12:00.98] MALE SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:12:01.66] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Mm-hmm.
  • [00:12:02.15] INTERVIEWER: All right.
  • [00:12:03.79] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And--
  • [00:12:07.21] INTERVIEWER: OK. That's good. You're doing good. We're going to ask some more questions now about-- you lived during the era of segregation. So during that time, you know, the blacks and whites were separated. Can you talk anything about that experience, growing up during segregation?
  • [00:12:26.81] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I can remember I was raised, really, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. And we never did-- I never did-- we didn't mix, period.
  • [00:12:38.45] INTERVIEWER: Not at all?
  • [00:12:39.02] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I was-- mm-mmm. Our school was a manual training high school. It taught us everything from shoe repair-- you know, women, all of us. It was a manual training high school.
  • [00:12:53.35] I never saw whites too much. Very few of them. They stayed on a different side of Muskogee, you know, the city, that I recall. We stayed on the other-- we went to the all-black school, you know. And they went to the white.
  • [00:13:12.44] We didn't come in contact with each other much. I don't remember coming in contact with them much. We stayed on the north end, mostly black people. You know, Negro people-- whatever.
  • [00:13:25.96] INTERVIEWER: Black, African-American, Negro.
  • [00:13:27.69] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yeah. And we stayed-- but we were very independent. We had our own dance halls downtown. Most of the Afro-American [INAUDIBLE]-- you know, I never saw them too much. Only time I really gelled with them was when I worked for them. Was when I worked for white people.
  • [00:13:55.23] They didn't come to our schools. We didn't go to theirs. We had everything we were-- during the day. All the dances, anything that came to Oklahoma. Count Basie, all of that. We went to all that good stuff. But we didn't have to deal with it.
  • [00:14:15.46] MALE SPEAKER: The Klan.
  • [00:14:15.66] FEMALE SPEAKER: Then you got the Ku Klux Klan.
  • [00:14:17.33] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I'm not talking about [INAUDIBLE].
  • [00:14:18.93] MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:14:19.76] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I love-- I have a white family. Only time-- we just didn't-- well, in those days, you didn't come in contact. We didn't mix. They didn't want us in [INAUDIBLE].
  • [00:14:35.54] But after-- was it Martin? Martin Luther King, I believe, after that, they started going with and marrying Afro-American girls. They started getting married to them. Came in, and-- very few Afro-American girls would marry the whites. Most of them were getting married with black people. Girls, you know. That's the way they'd come in. And--
  • [00:15:06.74] INTERVIEWER: Tell me about your school. So you were separated. The blacks was here, and the whites was here. So your school was all black as well?
  • [00:15:14.45] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: All black.
  • [00:15:15.59] INTERVIEWER: What about your teachers?
  • [00:15:17.25] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Black.
  • [00:15:18.04] INTERVIEWER: You had black teachers.
  • [00:15:19.57] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Black teachers. During that year, I finished in 1938.
  • [00:15:23.96] INTERVIEWER: Right.
  • [00:15:24.86] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, you know, they were all-- well, we'd-- we just didn't mix in Oklahoma-- Muskogee. I don't know what the other thing is, but Muskogee, we didn't-- lived in Indian Territory. Saw a lot of Indian people.
  • [00:15:42.89] But in my part, they didn't come around us much. We didn't, but we got along. We know what we had to do. They knew what they had to do. We just didn't mix.
  • [00:15:56.50] INTERVIEWER: So let me ask you, when did you come to Michigan?
  • [00:15:59.06] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Hmm?
  • [00:15:59.84] INTERVIEWER: When did you come to Michigan?
  • [00:16:00.90] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I came to Michigan in 1941.
  • [00:16:05.09] INTERVIEWER: So when you came to Michigan in 1941--
  • [00:16:07.62] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I married in 1940.
  • [00:16:09.29] INTERVIEWER: 1940?
  • [00:16:10.22] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Uh-huh. And I came to Michigan in '41.
  • [00:16:12.50] INTERVIEWER: And so where did you live at in Michigan?
  • [00:16:15.71] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I stayed in-- Ann Arbor, Michigan's where, when I first left Oklahoma and came here with my husband, we lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That's where I am from now. I can't hardly talk.
  • [00:16:29.50] INTERVIEWER: You're doing fine. You're doing good.
  • [00:16:31.32] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Ann Arbor, Michigan is where-- I really know more about Ann Arbor than I know Muskogee. I know I was born in Muskogee, went to school. But Ann Arbor, Michigan is where I've lived, here. I just got away from there-- come to live with my son.
  • [00:16:49.70] INTERVIEWER: So when you lived in Ann Arbor, where did you live?
  • [00:16:52.85] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I stayed on North 5th Avenue.
  • [00:16:55.46] INTERVIEWER: And was that a predominantly black area at the time?
  • [00:16:58.01] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: It wasn't segregated that much.
  • [00:17:02.27] INTERVIEWER: OK. So I've often heard people talk about that area had black businesses. And there was the Dunbar Center and all of that. Are you familiar with that?
  • [00:17:16.50] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We had the Dunbar Center. I stayed right on the corner up from the--
  • [00:17:20.97] INTERVIEWER: From the Dunbar Center?
  • [00:17:23.37] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: All of that, I used to-- Dunbar Center. I went to-- Central High School was the white, you know, it was beautiful. But they just had that school. We had ours.
  • [00:17:39.74] And there was a manual training high school. It was a big school. We done everything. They taught us everything in manual training. That's where I got my sewing certificate.
  • [00:17:53.97] MALE SPEAKER: Certificate.
  • [00:17:55.46] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Certificate. And then I went to Ann Arbor in '41.
  • [00:17:59.54] INTERVIEWER: OK.
  • [00:18:00.18] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: When I married--
  • [00:18:01.47] INTERVIEWER: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
  • [00:18:02.86] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: No, that's OK.
  • [00:18:04.16] INTERVIEWER: So when you came to Ann Arbor, you were married?
  • [00:18:07.16] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Ann Arbor.
  • [00:18:07.64] INTERVIEWER: You were married when you came to Ann Arbor?
  • [00:18:09.69] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Just married.
  • [00:18:10.77] INTERVIEWER: All right. And so what was it like in Ann Arbor in terms of blacks and whites?
  • [00:18:18.39] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: My lips are dry.
  • [00:18:18.95] INTERVIEWER: That's OK.
  • [00:18:20.90] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: As far as I'm concerned, it was beautiful. I was brought up separately from white people. We were brought up that way, all five of us. We would work for other people. Loved the-- they loved-- The people that worked for whites, they didn't [INAUDIBLE] for it. You know, they treated us-- right when I worked for them. I didn't see no difference. It was just a color. That's all.
  • [00:18:53.10] INTERVIEWER: So I think that there's a question about did you run into any situations with the Ku Klux Klan?
  • [00:19:00.28] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I remember that.
  • [00:19:02.15] INTERVIEWER: You want to tell us about that?
  • [00:19:02.66] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I was quite young. But my daddy used to-- whenever the Ku Kluxers come around through town in Muskogee, now--
  • [00:19:12.92] INTERVIEWER: All right.
  • [00:19:13.34] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: That's when he would-- we would hear the truck coming, you know. He would gather us up and put us in the house. We'd know they'd come by every evening, those Ku Klux Klan people.
  • [00:19:25.89] That's what they used to do. We were not on the streets. But we couldn't get along with them, period. They didn't like us, because they'd just as soon get out of the truck and whip you. They'd see a colored boy or man on the street, they'd get out and just whip you. It was just mean.
  • [00:19:47.65] INTERVIEWER: So they would just--
  • [00:19:49.81] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Ku Klux Klansmen.
  • [00:19:52.90] INTERVIEWER: So the idea is that your father was protecting you by making sure that you were in the house before dark?
  • [00:19:59.78] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: He'd always gather us up. We'd go in the house til they passed. They'd come by every evening in the truck. And we'd know they were coming here. He'd get us all. We'd go in the house. They would just see us out, and they'll whip you.
  • [00:20:17.56] I remember when I was in Ann Arbor when I first came it was-- prejudice was there. Real there. I was standing on the corner. A big old army truck came through from Fort Knox, I believe it was. I was standing on the corner. They threw something out at me. They didn't like to see some of my [INAUDIBLE]. Those-- We just stayed in our places.
  • [00:20:45.41] INTERVIEWER: OK. So in terms of that experience, how did that make you feel? With the Ku Klux Klan the way they were, how did that make you feel?
  • [00:20:57.55] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: What?
  • [00:20:58.75] INTERVIEWER: Ku Klux Klan?
  • [00:20:59.89] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, I was quite young. I don't know too much about it. I know my daddy used to gather us up, take us in the house. But I was young, then, and I don't remember too much about the Ku Klux Klan. Only that they come riding through the city in the evening. They'd come in the evening, and we'd all get off the street. You know.
  • [00:21:28.38] INTERVIEWER: So let's move to Ann Arbor. Go back to Ann Arbor, now. So once you got to Ann Arbor, where did you attend church? What church did you attend in Ann Arbor?
  • [00:21:40.22] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I was [INAUDIBLE]
  • [00:21:42.71] INTERVIEWER: So you say you're a Methodist? Did you go to a Methodist Church in Ann Arbor?
  • [00:21:47.65] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I want to think about-- I'm thinking about Oklahoma. Every church was a Methodist church. When my mother-- when I first went to Ann Arbor, it was Methodist.
  • [00:21:56.89] INTERVIEWER: It was Methodist? All right. So now, when you moved to Ann Arbor, where did you work?
  • [00:22:03.13] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, I worked all over, everywhere. The first job we had, me and my husband, we first came here in '41. We worked at the bomber plant.
  • [00:22:16.39] INTERVIEWER: Oh, the bomber plant?
  • [00:22:17.59] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: The bomber plant. I helped build those B-52 bombers.
  • [00:22:21.36] INTERVIEWER: That's awesome.
  • [00:22:21.91] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I was a countersinker and a riveter of little rivets. But I worked there until it was closed down-- in the bomber plant in Ann Arbor. But the bomber plant was in Ypsilanti. That's [INAUDIBLE] But I worked there until they closed.
  • [00:22:43.42] And after that, I worked with sororities, fraternities, clothing stores, Montgomery Ward, Sears, a big restaurant where I worked for years. So [INAUDIBLE] college and I worked for-- it was the university restaurant. I was just a block or two from the university. And we all worked for it.
  • [00:23:10.44] Clear up until my baby was born, I was working for a doctor. I cooked dinner, you know, and everything. I helped take care of the kids. So many of them still know me. They love me, too.
  • [00:23:26.38] INTERVIEWER: I'm sure they do.
  • [00:23:26.79] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: The kids do. All my children love me.
  • [00:23:32.65] INTERVIEWER: Well, you had a lot of different jobs that--
  • [00:23:35.06] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I did.
  • [00:23:35.80] INTERVIEWER: That's great.
  • [00:23:37.47] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: But the last one I had was at the hospital-- St. Joe Hospital.
  • [00:23:45.44] INTERVIEWER: In Ypsilanti?
  • [00:23:45.83] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: It was Catholic. I worked at the university for a year, hospital, in that [INAUDIBLE] lab. I worked there for a year. And I got out of that, and I went to St. Joe as a PNC, a practical nurse's assistant for the-- nurse's aide. So I did that until '61.
  • [00:24:15.02] He was born in '51. In '52 I started working at St. Joe. So I just quit St. Joseph's in 1984.
  • [00:24:25.21] INTERVIEWER: You had a long career, didn't you.
  • [00:24:27.28] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I worked there 32 years. Midnights. And yeah, I just got out of St. Joe.
  • [00:24:38.71] INTERVIEWER: So I'm going to go back for a minute to the bomber plant. And what did you do there again?
  • [00:24:45.16] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I was a countersinker. You know? They drilled the holes. And I countersink them. You probably know what that is, a countersinker.
  • [00:24:55.60] INTERVIEWER: I think I do.
  • [00:24:56.40] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: It was so the riveters could make-- flatten. On one side, they drill the hole. I'm on this side, countersinking so the riveters can link that. Then there was one that would rivet, you know.
  • [00:25:10.29] INTERVIEWER: Now, there's a group of women that get together, and they're called--
  • [00:25:14.86] MALE SPEAKER: Rosie the Riveters.
  • [00:25:15.85] INTERVIEWER: Rosie the Riveters. So you were one of those?
  • [00:25:19.06] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Am I?
  • [00:25:20.24] INTERVIEWER: I think you are.
  • [00:25:21.76] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh.
  • [00:25:22.35] INTERVIEWER: OK, and we're going to follow up on that. OK?
  • [00:25:25.38] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yeah, we done everything.
  • [00:25:27.16] INTERVIEWER: All right.
  • [00:25:27.43] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And during the war, the women done the work at that bomber plant. They excused the men for-- they were sending them off. You know, still sending them to war. Well, we done most of the work.
  • [00:25:40.57] We done all the riveting, the countersinking. Rigging cables, I done that, too. I've done so much. And then worked all of that out, and I got out of the bomber plant.
  • [00:25:55.89] INTERVIEWER: OK. We're going to have to get you listed as one of those women. We'll see what we need to do. Yeah. Now, let me go back a little bit to adulthood, marriage, and family life. So tell me a little bit about your husband.
  • [00:26:13.94] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I met my husband-- do you want me to say how? Anyway, I met him through my brother-in-law. He came from Memphis, Tennessee. Except Muskogee, he had an uncle, there. Lloyd Edwards died.
  • [00:26:32.62] He came to Oklahoma to see about some property. I met him there, and he stayed. That's the time I met my husband.
  • [00:26:41.32] INTERVIEWER: He stayed because of you?
  • [00:26:45.00] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: He just liked Oklahoma. I guess he liked Muskogee. But he was-- I was probably his first girlfriend. I was only 18.
  • [00:26:57.58] INTERVIEWER: So what did he do for employment? What was his career?
  • [00:27:06.39] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: He was a Jack of all trades. He came out of politics. He campaigned a lot for the juries in Ann Arbor-- the lawyers. He did that for a long time, but he worked right along in the-- me and him worked together in the bomber plant.
  • [00:27:27.08] INTERVIEWER: Oh, he was in the bomber plant as well?
  • [00:27:28.35] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We worked right with the-- we worked in the big restaurant together, he and I. We had two jobs, I know, together like that. We were nine years in the bomber plant, or how long is it? Five years, or whatever. Nine years in the restaurant, me and my husband worked together. He worked at Benedict's. I think that's all he would do, where they make cars, or something.
  • [00:27:57.96] INTERVIEWER: So, now how long were you married?
  • [00:28:00.55] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: 19 years, until he died. I'd probably be still married. As far as I'm-- I don't believe in separation.
  • [00:28:09.28] INTERVIEWER: OK. Well, that's good.
  • [00:28:12.20] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I remember marriage, then.
  • [00:28:13.93] INTERVIEWER: All right, OK. So you told me you lived-- when you moved to Ann Arbor, tell me again where you lived when the two of you moved to Ann Arbor? Where did you live? What street did you live on again?
  • [00:28:24.79] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I lived on North 5th Avenue when we first lived there in '41. '42 is when we bought the house, baby. And then I lived there until I came to live with him. We bought our house in '52. And we stayed in that one house on 5th Street until 2000--
  • [00:28:51.43] MALE SPEAKER: 2012.
  • [00:28:52.51] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: 12. I stayed there-- my husband died. And just me and my son, and my mother-in-law. I had my in-laws come live with me. But I stayed on 5th Avenue until 2012. Then I come and live in a-- living now with my son.
  • [00:29:12.49] INTERVIEWER: Your son.
  • [00:29:13.38] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And his wife.
  • [00:29:14.38] INTERVIEWER: So, a good son and daughter-in-law, huh?
  • [00:29:16.33] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Mm-hmm.
  • [00:29:17.11] INTERVIEWER: Good. That's great. OK, we're going to talk a little bit more about work and retirement.
  • [00:29:24.71] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: OK.
  • [00:29:25.38] INTERVIEWER: You already told me quite a bit. What do you value most about what you did for a living? You had several different jobs. But what do you value most?
  • [00:29:35.92] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I liked my nursing. I liked that better. And I liked the sewing. I sewed for a lot of people. I wish I could show you. Only one in Ann Arbor who was sewing during that time.
  • [00:29:50.70] I sewed for the Eastern Star, the Elks, all the uniforms. I was taught the sewing from high school. In manual training high school's where I learned all the sewing. You know? And the nursing. Those two, I did take from Ann Arbor-- I mean, from Muskogee.
  • [00:30:14.23] INTERVIEWER: You learned it there, but you also used it in Ann Arbor as well?
  • [00:30:17.86] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I used it in Ann Arbor-- most in Ann Arbor.
  • [00:30:19.93] INTERVIEWER: Most in Ann Arbor.
  • [00:30:21.83] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Stayed in Ann Arbor more than I did in Muskogee. I was born in Muskogee. But Ann Arbor, I've been there longer.
  • [00:30:30.35] INTERVIEWER: So when you say sewing, did you sew for people in your church? Or did you just-- people that you knew? Who did you sew for?
  • [00:30:38.03] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Anybody that'd come, knew that I was a seamstress, bring your stuff, I'd make dresses. I sewed for people-- for people, period. You know?
  • [00:30:50.88] They wanted their clothes made. Schools, church, anywhere-- I was just a seamstress. They knew of me being a seamstress, they'd-- most people'd come to me, want this made, and I'd make it. I didn't-- you know.
  • [00:31:07.75] INTERVIEWER: So you were good.
  • [00:31:08.96] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Hmm?
  • [00:31:09.65] INTERVIEWER: So you were good?
  • [00:31:10.97] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I guess I was pretty good. Seemed like I was at that time, because I was the only seamstress in Ann Arbor. Because when I first reached Ann Arbor, it was segregated too. We had a time. But I was the only seamstress. Everybody would bring their clothes to me. I don't have my pictures, but.
  • [00:31:30.36] INTERVIEWER: So now when you say everybody would bring you things to make, was that black and white, or just blacks?
  • [00:31:37.60] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Blacks.
  • [00:31:38.56] INTERVIEWER: Just blacks, OK.
  • [00:31:39.52] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We lived on one side of town.
  • [00:31:41.34] INTERVIEWER: Right.
  • [00:31:41.77] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: They lived in central. We was on the north and on the south end. The Central High School and all that was like in between. We north, the other south. And they were central-- the white people, central. Central High School was their main school. Right there in the center. We owned the north and got the south.
  • [00:32:07.33] INTERVIEWER: So what about Ann Arbor? How was that divided? Do you remember how that was divided?
  • [00:32:12.13] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: This is the way it was-- this is the way it was divided. I knew nothing about Muskogee too much. I knew I was born there, and I finished high school.
  • [00:32:21.55] INTERVIEWER: OK. OK. That's good.
  • [00:32:23.53] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I finished my school, there, but in 1940 I came to Ann Arbor, and I married in '41.
  • [00:32:33.79] INTERVIEWER: So how did you like living in Ann Arbor?
  • [00:32:36.18] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Hmm?
  • [00:32:37.06] INTERVIEWER: How did you like living in--
  • [00:32:38.29] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I loved it. I loved Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor was just wonderful. I worked at a sorority house, a fraternity--
  • [00:32:47.89] INTERVIEWER: Up on campus? OK.
  • [00:32:50.09] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: When I first came here. I loved it. Everybody was beautiful. We was just-- to me-- my mouth is dry.
  • [00:32:59.51] INTERVIEWER: OK.
  • [00:33:00.36] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: [INAUDIBLE] is what. They were just a sweet-- we was just a big family until on the first place, I'm-- But after so long working at the hospital, everything's just the same. You couldn't tell one from another. They loved us. Looked like we loved them.
  • [00:33:20.32] INTERVIEWER: So tell me a little bit about your-- I'm going to go back a little bit. Tell me a little bit about your 100th birthday celebration. Who were some of the people that came to your birthday celebration?
  • [00:33:32.47] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Who was?
  • [00:33:33.17] INTERVIEWER: Who were some of the people that came that helped you celebrate your 100th birthday?
  • [00:33:38.20] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I had a lot of my nurses, that I worked at St. Joe--
  • [00:33:41.29] INTERVIEWER: That's what I was wondering about.
  • [00:33:43.87] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Most of the nurses, they came to the party. And all my church people, all of them were there. And other people in there now, was, you know. There was around-- most of the-- they were--
  • [00:34:01.87] INTERVIEWER: They came, though. That's how I heard about you. I heard about this wonderful birthday. And they said, you need to interview her. So.
  • [00:34:09.90] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I love them.
  • [00:34:11.00] INTERVIEWER: OK.
  • [00:34:11.83] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Well, I just love-- we were all just like that at St. Joe. We couldn't [INAUDIBLE] Retta. They called me Retta.
  • [00:34:21.19] INTERVIEWER: They called you Retta?
  • [00:34:21.91] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And they still do. Baby, I raised up a million babies. Because I worked in pediatrics. That was my field. That's our-- 62 years in PEDs. A pediatric-- with babies. Sick babies and children you know, up to maybe around 12 years old.
  • [00:34:42.92] But I worked with them. I didn't work-- and then when they needed me in the hospital, somebody wouldn't come in, the adult floor. I knew all about adults, too. I was just taught nursing in my manual training high school. It was training.
  • [00:35:02.50] INTERVIEWER: It was so many children. So you're saying a lot of them still remember you, huh?
  • [00:35:06.59] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Huh?
  • [00:35:06.94] INTERVIEWER: A lot of the children that you helped in the hospital, they still remember you?
  • [00:35:11.62] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, yes. They were at my birthday party.
  • [00:35:14.41] INTERVIEWER: They were at your birthday party.
  • [00:35:15.28] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Michael--
  • [00:35:17.71] INTERVIEWER: OK. When people show up like that, that means they love you.
  • [00:35:22.45] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yeah. I have pictures. I don't care. They all-- I'd be the only one, sometimes. I was the only one working pediatrics, only one working there over midnights. I worked 32 years, straight midnights.
  • [00:35:36.59] I never laid off. Not once to just be laying off. I never had a leave of absence or anything like that. And I loved them.
  • [00:35:46.81] The nuns, when I first started working at St. Joe, they were prejudiced. The nuns were. But I never saw a man in there. They were all nuns.
  • [00:36:01.51] But after we-- they built the new hospital in Ann Arbor. I guess it's in--
  • [00:36:08.37] MALE SPEAKER: Ypsilanti.
  • [00:36:08.49] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: In 1972, I think, they built that new hospital that St. Joe got now, and then it changed.
  • [00:36:18.37] INTERVIEWER: So when you said you were working at the hospital and you were the only one, were you referring to being the only black on the shift?
  • [00:36:26.89] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: [NODS] Only one for 32 years in pediatrics. St. Joe.
  • [00:36:31.00] INTERVIEWER: St. Joe.
  • [00:36:31.67] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I worked with the babies. That's why everybody know me-- the mothers, the fathers, they all grew up knowing me, because I take care of the children. I was the only one. When I left there in 19-- when I retired at 60-- I was 62 when I retired in '84, or something like that, when I retired-- my mouth's dry.
  • [00:36:59.02] INTERVIEWER: It's OK. You've been retired for quite a while, then, since you're 100 right now. You retired at 62?
  • [00:37:04.14] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I retired in '84. I was 62 years old when I retired.
  • [00:37:10.30] INTERVIEWER: So you've been retired for a little while?
  • [00:37:12.59] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yeah. Yeah.
  • [00:37:14.29] INTERVIEWER: So what did you do with all that retirement time?
  • [00:37:18.10] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I sewed.
  • [00:37:19.10] INTERVIEWER: You sewed?
  • [00:37:20.96] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: That's what I done, mostly, was sewing. All of my sewing-- I sew clothes at church, Eastern Star, Elks, every organization. Mostly, they're in Ann Arbor. If you need a uniform or anything, I make them. I wish I had the pictures.
  • [00:37:38.73] INTERVIEWER: So you made uniforms, too? That sounds really difficult--
  • [00:37:40.55] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I made the capes. I made capes for the nurses. At church, I'm talking about now. I made capes. I made dresses. I just sewed whatever you had to wear. I sewed for a lot after I left the hospital.
  • [00:37:56.83] MALE SPEAKER: Travelled.
  • [00:37:57.70] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And I sewed, I'll say that. Ann Arbor was the last job I was on there. When I quit working in Ann Arbor, it was from sewing.
  • [00:38:09.53] INTERVIEWER: OK. Well, I understand you also traveled. Where did you travel to?
  • [00:38:13.24] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, I traveled. I didn't travel much.
  • [00:38:16.26] INTERVIEWER: OK. But where did you travel to? Where'd you go?
  • [00:38:21.08] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oklahoma.
  • [00:38:22.15] INTERVIEWER: You went back to Oklahoma?
  • [00:38:23.71] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I just traveled there, because my people was still there.
  • [00:38:26.61] MALE SPEAKER: California.
  • [00:38:27.19] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: My mother's sister, my uncle, and you know. They were still there. And then, California. I have sisters still out there in California. And I would go from Muskogee, Oklahoma to California-- to Oakland. Los Angeles, so those are three. But I didn't go much. I worked-- my husband, he died when he was young. He was 49.
  • [00:38:54.16] INTERVIEWER: Oh, he was young.
  • [00:38:55.42] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I was 39. We were 10 years apart. But I loved to work. We were owning our home at the first-- everybody was around. I used to say, we was about the first Negroes to own a home. When I went to Ann Arbor, you had to get a room, apartment, because people didn't own-- colored people didn't own homes.
  • [00:39:19.18] INTERVIEWER: They wouldn't sell blacks homes?
  • [00:39:21.55] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: They didn't really own their homes like we do now.
  • [00:39:24.16] INTERVIEWER: Right.
  • [00:39:24.82] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: But we were actually one of the first ones that bought our home-- big home right there on 5th. I stayed there until I left in 2012. But we were about the only ones had really bought a home. [INAUDIBLE]
  • [00:39:41.86] INTERVIEWER: That was a big accomplishment.
  • [00:39:43.48] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And then my husband was very smart in his way. We owned a filling station right downtown there on the 4th Avenue and Ann Street. First, I have to say, Afro-American, the first ones.
  • [00:40:01.00] When I went there, it was segregated. Well, me and my husband, we had two filling stations. One out on Highway 23, and one right in town. And I-- he was very smart. He was really smart that way. He liked that kind of-- He never-- political, you know? Like workers, and juries, just getting them, you know what I'm talking about. I've never seen him work in the dirt.
  • [00:40:29.65] INTERVIEWER: And he never worked in the dirt?
  • [00:40:31.49] [LAUGHTER]
  • [00:40:33.39] I can relate.
  • [00:40:34.32] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: He was always-- no, he was-- he says he liked that. Same way.
  • [00:40:41.56] INTERVIEWER: Same way as your son. Is your son the same way?
  • [00:40:43.78] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I never seen him work in the dirt, either. He was always educated. Because I put him through school. He done the rest. You know, like school, his jobs, and everything. That's what he like.
  • [00:40:55.79] INTERVIEWER: Well, listen, tell me more about those filling stations. So you had one downtown Ann Arbor?
  • [00:41:00.37] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Uh-huh. And then one out on-- I think it was Highway 23. Do we have a--?
  • [00:41:06.76] MALE SPEAKER: Yes. 23.
  • [00:41:08.27] INTERVIEWER: OK. So you all bought and owned two service stations-- filling stations, let me get the name straight.
  • [00:41:15.79] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: When we first went to Ann Arbor.
  • [00:41:18.45] INTERVIEWER: Did you work at the filling station, or just your husband?
  • [00:41:20.49] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: When I come in from the bomber plant, me and my husband, we sent for his brother to come in here to run the filling station, with the gas in [INAUDIBLE] And we sent for his brother to come do that. And when me and my husband get up in the morning, we'd take over. I used to put gas in the car. I'd do everything.
  • [00:41:42.45] We owned that. We owned our home. We owned a lot.
  • [00:41:47.15] INTERVIEWER: Well, you all did very well. So you had two at the same time. So who ran the second one? Did you have to hire somebody to run the other service station?
  • [00:41:56.51] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: His brother-- his brother and his wife, they ran the one out on 23. But during the time that we first got our filling station, just me and my husband had it, we'd go to work and he was working midnights. I was working afternoon.
  • [00:42:17.76] He was working days. He'd hire-- you know, you hire somebody to put the gas in the car. But we sent for his brother from Memphis, Tennessee to run the filling station while we were working at the bomber plant.
  • [00:42:33.41] INTERVIEWER: And about how long did you keep both of those filling stations? For a few years, or--
  • [00:42:41.00] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, no.
  • [00:42:42.21] INTERVIEWER: No?
  • [00:42:42.81] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We had it for-- we kept it for a long time.
  • [00:42:46.88] INTERVIEWER: Did you?
  • [00:42:47.34] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: When my mother-in-law came she stayed upstairs in an apartment. We kept it until my husband died in '60. When he passed in '60, we were still in the filling station in 1960-- from '41, I'll say, to 1960.
  • [00:43:06.33] INTERVIEWER: And so tell me the location of the one in Ann Arbor again? What was the one in Ann Arbor? What street was the one in Ann Arbor on?
  • [00:43:12.78] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: What street?
  • [00:43:13.53] INTERVIEWER: Right.
  • [00:43:15.21] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: The filling station was on Ann Street.
  • [00:43:17.80] INTERVIEWER: Oh, Ann Street.
  • [00:43:18.62] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Now that's downtown, right on the corner. 4th and Ann. That was that one.
  • [00:43:25.77] I stayed a block down on North 5th Avenue. I stayed a block down from town, from the city market. And our home was right there. And the Baptist church, and all of that.
  • [00:43:40.24] MALE SPEAKER: You didn't have the filling station that long, though.
  • [00:43:42.41] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: What are you saying?
  • [00:43:43.88] MALE SPEAKER: Not in 1960, you didn't have it, because I was born. And dad-- you didn't have the service station then.
  • [00:43:49.46] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: No.
  • [00:43:49.89] MALE SPEAKER: No.
  • [00:43:50.49] INTERVIEWER: But you had it for a while. You had it for a little while.
  • [00:43:55.76] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: When-- so we-- in 1951, I probably had it. Then your daddy used to have you down on Ann Street.
  • [00:44:07.29] MALE SPEAKER: Maybe then, but not '60.
  • [00:44:09.72] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, not '60. He passed in '60.
  • [00:44:12.69] INTERVIEWER: So you were a homeowner, and you were a business owner, and you worked at the bomber plant? You were busy.
  • [00:44:21.15] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Well, I'll tell you the truth, I don't know much. I haven't been around much. I didn't get to go with my husband on any kind of vacation. We worked all the time. But he promised me he'd take me to-- what'd I tell you that?
  • [00:44:38.68] FEMALE SPEAKER: Niagara Falls.
  • [00:44:40.11] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: What?
  • [00:44:40.83] FEMALE SPEAKER: Niagara Falls.
  • [00:44:42.69] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Niagara Falls. We never got there, because he died before he took me. But he worked, we both worked.
  • [00:44:49.46] INTERVIEWER: Retired.
  • [00:44:50.17] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: We both had to work to keep what we had. And I kept it till about 2012. I still own 5th Avenue, but this-- I bought this one. I paid cash for this place for these two.
  • [00:45:07.54] INTERVIEWER: That was wonderful.
  • [00:45:08.90] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yeah, they don't have to worry about the old one, here, but-- I bought this. I paid cash for this one, here.
  • [00:45:16.11] INTERVIEWER: OK. Well, that's wonderful. So let me go back a little bit.
  • [00:45:20.33] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: OK.
  • [00:45:21.29] INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little bit about your sisters.
  • [00:45:23.75] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh.
  • [00:45:24.13] INTERVIEWER: Tell me about each one of them.
  • [00:45:27.04] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Well, my oldest sister-- I'm going to go as far as I know, because I'm the fourth one. Five girls, and I was the fourth. We were brought up very protected.
  • [00:45:41.46] I didn't court until-- you know, those days, if people wanted to-- my daddy, he raised us up, but we come up the hard way, courting. I was really glad I finished high school so I could marry. Because during those school days, I didn't court too much.
  • [00:46:02.85] And my oldest sister, either. So she married-- she had to kind of get out. Still to this day, still is ready to go.
  • [00:46:12.58] INTERVIEWER: So now, tell me where'd your sisters end up? They end up in California? And what did they do for a career?
  • [00:46:20.00] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: One of them was a-- the baby girl, she just died in 2018. Did she get married?
  • [00:46:28.30] MALE SPEAKER: Mm-hmm.
  • [00:46:29.14] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Uh-huh. She is a policewoman.
  • [00:46:31.15] INTERVIEWER: Oh, police.
  • [00:46:32.57] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: On the street.
  • [00:46:33.20] MALE SPEAKER: Traffic.
  • [00:46:35.51] INTERVIEWER: What about the other one?
  • [00:46:36.26] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: My oldest sister died in 1962. She was a house-- you know--
  • [00:46:43.86] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:46:44.78] Maid. Uh-huh. She had worked within the family. And I had one sister that didn't work. Her husband didn't want her to. The second-oldest one. She kept her kids.
  • [00:46:57.44] INTERVIEWER: Well, that was a job-- working in the home, right?
  • [00:47:00.73] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yes.
  • [00:47:01.15] INTERVIEWER: Mm-hmm.
  • [00:47:01.89] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: They all died young.
  • [00:47:04.13] INTERVIEWER: Did they?
  • [00:47:04.48] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Mm-hmm. And the fourth-- I'm the fourth one.
  • [00:47:08.37] INTERVIEWER: You're the fourth.
  • [00:47:09.14] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I'm still here. I've done--
  • [00:47:11.42] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:47:13.10] Glad I already got a job, you will recall. And I said-- maybe I've said that-- I always say that the Lord got me here for a purpose.
  • [00:47:23.18] INTERVIEWER: That's true. It's a blessing.
  • [00:47:25.73] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yes, it is.
  • [00:47:26.41] INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
  • [00:47:27.30] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: It really is.
  • [00:47:28.31] INTERVIEWER: My mom is 92.
  • [00:47:30.06] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, is she?
  • [00:47:30.73] INTERVIEWER: She is. She's 92.
  • [00:47:32.06] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, is she.
  • [00:47:32.72] INTERVIEWER: Yeah, so. OK, I'm going to do a little historical stuff with you now. First of all, I want you to tell me what your thoughts were about having our first African-American president. What'd you think about that?
  • [00:47:48.11] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Well, I thought it was a beautiful, wonderful-- because I was brought up that way, honey. I love others, all nationalities, but I was brought up-- I wanted him to be a president, the first black president. That was beautiful. Because I didn't think it would ever get to be. I'm going to tell you.
  • [00:48:11.75] INTERVIEWER: You got to see it, right?
  • [00:48:13.06] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I seen it.
  • [00:48:14.00] INTERVIEWER: That's right.
  • [00:48:14.57] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I didn't think it would ever get to be. And then, here you are. So everybody was happy. Everybody loved his wife. And loved it-- that was the first one we ever had.
  • [00:48:26.76] INTERVIEWER: How do you think he did in office? Do you think he did--
  • [00:48:28.91] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I thought he done good.
  • [00:48:30.41] INTERVIEWER: He did good?
  • [00:48:30.87] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Go in and do his job.
  • [00:48:32.75] INTERVIEWER: All right.
  • [00:48:33.08] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: They didn't want-- they didn't seem like they wanted to push him out, like they do some presidents I've seen. No. And his wife, they love her still. Everything has changed, sure enough.
  • [00:48:51.53] INTERVIEWER: It has changed. Yeah. So I'm going to wrap this up in a couple of minutes. But I want you to tell us any special thing you want to share with us that you haven't had a chance to share. Any advice you want to give all us-- these young people, here.
  • [00:49:12.08] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh. I tell all my young people, do what your mind tell you to do. I've never done what people told me. I guess that's why I'm here. I go by my own mind.
  • [00:49:32.88] But how is it-- whatever. If you feel that you're right, stick to your way. Stick to your rightness. I'm right, she could be just as-- more right as the other person. If she says she's right, like me, I don't listen to nobody. I always go by my--
  • [00:49:52.25] INTERVIEWER: Just follow your own mind, huh?
  • [00:49:54.65] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I do what I want to do. I did that working. That's why the nuns loved me. When I'd go there, and I'm going to school, they said we wasn't supposed to do certain things.
  • [00:50:06.07] When I get over to the job, Retta, do this. I said, I'm not going to do that. I'm not supposed to. And I wouldn't do it. But they kept me. They loved me, too, when I speak up for myself.
  • [00:50:18.32] INTERVIEWER: And they respected you, as well.
  • [00:50:20.30] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Yes, they did.
  • [00:50:20.87] INTERVIEWER: When you stand up for yourself.
  • [00:50:21.53] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I wouldn't do nothing that I wasn't supposed to do. But I tell everybody, be your own self, honey. That's me. That's why I'm here. And I'm blessed. I don't worry about nothing. I've got a home.
  • [00:50:37.27] INTERVIEWER: Among that family and friends.
  • [00:50:39.89] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Oh, I pray for my babies though. My 17 great-grandbabies.
  • [00:50:45.47] INTERVIEWER: Oh you have 17? She has 17?
  • [00:50:48.99] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Compared to my mama. How many I got, baby?
  • [00:50:51.11] MALE SPEAKER: 15 and two on the way.
  • [00:50:52.80] INTERVIEWER: One on the way?
  • [00:50:53.42] MALE SPEAKER: Two on the way.
  • [00:50:54.57] INTERVIEWER: Oh, two on the way?
  • [00:50:56.08] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I pray-- I just pray for them.
  • [00:50:58.31] INTERVIEWER: OK.
  • [00:50:58.64] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I love my children. This is my heart. These are--
  • [00:51:04.91] INTERVIEWER: These are your heart.
  • [00:51:06.11] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: And I'm about to holler for y'all. What can I do with it? Can't take it with you. At 100 years old? No. I can't do nothing much now, honey. I might be able to get 105 or something.
  • [00:51:20.52] INTERVIEWER: We're hoping you will. We'll be back.
  • [00:51:22.22] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I don't know. But I don't want for nothing. I don't want them to want for nothing.
  • [00:51:29.32] INTERVIEWER: OK. So your advice to young people is--
  • [00:51:32.76] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Be your own self, honey.
  • [00:51:33.78] INTERVIEWER: Be your own self.
  • [00:51:34.67] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: Be your own self, whatever you believe in. I go by what I believe. Can't nobody tell me nothing. I think that's why I've been here so long. They don't tell me, I do my own.
  • [00:51:46.49] Even when I'm working. Do things in a nice way, but I'll tell them I'm not supposed to, and I wouldn't do it. And they kept me and loved me--
  • [00:51:56.40] INTERVIEWER: Right. I can see why.
  • [00:51:57.83] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: --because I was more honest with them. I didn't do nothing.
  • [00:52:01.88] And now, I don't do nothing but live for my children. Hoarding money for him and his beautiful wife. He got one.
  • [00:52:12.29] INTERVIEWER: Yes, he does.
  • [00:52:13.13] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I'm sitting here, like-- I prayed it.
  • [00:52:16.58] INTERVIEWER: He did good, huh?
  • [00:52:17.78] HENRIETTA EDWARDS: I don't mind who hear that. I pray that she stay with him and keep him well.
  • [00:52:23.50] INTERVIEWER: So-- well, listen, that's going to wrap up the interview.