The immediate years after World War II were a time for Voil and Annie's children to get married and get back to normal life. The Webbs had four weddings in fairly close order: Robert Webb with Anna Louise Koontz on March 24, 1945; Leonard Webb with Dolores Grace Kidwell on Aug. 26, 1945; Richard Webb with Teresa Lusby on (DATE?); and Wah Ni Tahe Webb with William Albert Baker. More than a dozen children soon followed. There's a family story that it was during Robert and Anna's wedding that Leonard and Dolores announced they were engaged and Richard met Teresa. (Teresa supposedly was brought to the wedding by Dan Webb, who never married.)
Voil continued to live rather quietly. Aside from doing masonry jobs, he produced bricklayers' levels as a hobby. He died in January 1961 and is buried at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Va., above his name are a pair of builder's squares used in bricklaying and construction.
Annie moved back into the city, living mainly in the Belvedere Apartments at 1301 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Today that's a fairly gentrified area, but when Annie lived there it was tumble-down and scarred from the 1968 riots when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. She lived there until her death in December 1976. She is buried next to Voil at National Memorial Park.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Reconstruction (DC, 1929-1945)
Heading North
At the start of 1929, Grady Voil Webb was 41 and entering what ought to have been what financial analysts would call his prime earning years. He was a successful contractor in a bustling city, as well as an official with the local Bricklayers Union (where his brother-in-law was president). He had built his own home and business, had four children and, by all accounts, owned a pretty nice car. His wife, Annie, had reason to feel proud.
Then came the stock market crash and the Great Depression. Within a year, the life of Voil, Annie, and their children changed dramatically.
The first big shift occurred when Voil decided to seek work in Washington. There was so little construction going on in Atlanta that it made sense to go to a city that, because of the federal government, wasn't ever going to go out of business.
According to Voil's son Robert Webb, Voil came up to D.C. when he heard that a headquarters for the Commerce Department was being built. His brother-in-law and sometime business partner G. Leonard Tarrant was from Washington, and Voil knew an executive on the project named Dick Martin, whom he had befriended at an earlier time when Martin needed a job. This time the shoe was on the other foot, and Martin put Voil to work, probably as a bricklayer.
Robert continued: "In 1930, Grandma Webb (Voil's wife Annie) brought up all the kids in a red Buick sedan. He didn't expect them. They stayed until [Robert's sister, Margarette Wah Ni Tahe Webb] was born." That was on Sept. 28, 1930.
How Wah Ni Tahe (or just 'Nita, as she was known in the family) got her name isn't exactly clear. One joke was that her brother Richard named her after having driven up 14th Street in Washington--at that time an entertainment hotspot--and saw a marquee for an exotic dancer with that name. Wa Ni Tahe also might have represented a bow to Annie Stephens' (as-yet unproven) Indian heritage. Family records haven't turned up any other Webbs or Stephens with the names Margarette or Wah Ni Tahe.
After the birth, it appears that Annie and the kids then returned to Georgia. There, according to Robert, his mother had given away so many family possessions that the family decided to move into the home of "Aunt Meg." That's probably Maggie Stephens, the second-oldest sibling of Annie's family. By this time, Maggie had married a tailor named Robert Stuart (sp?) and lived about two blocks from the state Capitol. Those children who were of school age began attending classes in Georgia that fall of 1930. Maggie helped keep them clothed by taking scraps from her husband's shop and creating clothes. At Robert's funeral, a story was told about how a teacher tossed young Robert out of elementary school one day because he showed up in knickers made of some fancy material when other children were struggling to afford denim. Likewise, Robert's brother Leonard recalled wearing playclothes made of sateen.
Meanwhile, Voil had a cousin who helped him find work in New York. When that project ended, Voil returned to Washington and drove a taxicab.
Annie and the children spent the summer of 1931 in commerce at the home of Martha Lucinda Wills Webb. ("Grandma was a sweet old lady," Robert recalled.) The family stayed in Commerce that fall and didn't return to Atlanta until it was early winter, Robert says. Then, around April 1932, the children and Annie moved to D.C. for good.
Thin Mortar
Voil never achieved the business success in Washington that he enjoyed in Atlanta before the Crash. One could dare say that he spent the rest of his life a broken man. The family lived in a series of rented hoses during the 1930s and early 1940s, most of them in a working-class area of northeast Washington close to the H Street business corridor. Voil's children have told stories about how their father rarely got fulltime work, and that the family stayed afloat in part because eldest son Richard by then was old enough to contribute economically. There also are stories that Annie never forgave her husband for slipping into poverty, and so she strove to show there wasn't a Depression at her household. "Granny would give away the food on the table to make it appear as if she were a big deal," Robert said. She also was said to have regularly rifled money from Richard's pants pockets while he was asleep.
This existance continued for at least a decade. One popular tale recounts how Robert was getting ready to graduate from Eastern High School but lacked the suit that graduating boys would wear in that era. Eventually he got his diploma wearing a suit borrowed from the family bookie.
(Note: When I first heard this story, I asked my father Leonard: "How could we have had a family bookie? We were Baptists! Leonard replied that the games were extremely minor, such as betting a few pennies on the last three digits that the Washington Post would declare in the next day's paper as its latest circulation. I have since learned that in those days before credit cards and overdraft allowances, bookies were a common source of small, short-term loans. Thus, a bookie was no doubt a good person to know.)
The family rarely went back to Georgia. Dr. Charles Owen, a nephew of Voil and son of Blondine Webb, says Voil came to visit Blondine just one time that Charles could recall. When he did, he repaid the hospitality by bricking up a back wall of Blondine's house.
"He was a small fellow and had a Webb look--a double chin," Owen said. "I've never seen a dumb Webb. They're all smart."
Washington Goes to War
Washington snapped to attention following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. The war effort ended the Depression, and most of the Webb children found work--particularly Richard, who remained a mainstay of the family despite having lost his sight in one eye. Annie also took up work during the war years, running a cash register at the Hamilton Hotel at 16th and K Streets NW in Washington. Son Dan worked there as a bellman, as did a young woman named Teresa Lusby.
Voil found himself at the age of 53 competing with much younger men for rough, heavily manual labor jobs. He continued to work sporadically from job to job.
The Webbs' war service varied markedly. Richard stayed stateside. Robert served in the U.S. Army Air Force as a B-17 bomber pilot stationed in North Africa and Italy. He flew 51 combat missions. There are stories that the "Flying Fortress" he piloted was the only one in a particular mission to return to base, while on another mission he was the only person in the B-17 to come back alive. For his service, he was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses and a Medal of Valor.
Dan enlisted but was discharged just over a month later. That short stay proved crucial to him in later years, for it qualified him for extensive medical care at a Veterans Administration hospital near the end of his life as well as for burial in a military cemetery. Leonard left high school prior to graduation, entered the Coast Guard Academy, but washed out. He joined the merchant marines. While officially a civilian, his jobs mainly involved carrying goods for the war effort to faraway places; it was the kind of service that led to many, many casualties, particularly when German U-boats attacked ships in the north Atlanta. Leonard sailed as far as India. He was well past retirement before the government recognized this service and the federal government began making merchant marines eligible for veterans' benefits.
At the start of 1929, Grady Voil Webb was 41 and entering what ought to have been what financial analysts would call his prime earning years. He was a successful contractor in a bustling city, as well as an official with the local Bricklayers Union (where his brother-in-law was president). He had built his own home and business, had four children and, by all accounts, owned a pretty nice car. His wife, Annie, had reason to feel proud.
Then came the stock market crash and the Great Depression. Within a year, the life of Voil, Annie, and their children changed dramatically.
The first big shift occurred when Voil decided to seek work in Washington. There was so little construction going on in Atlanta that it made sense to go to a city that, because of the federal government, wasn't ever going to go out of business.
According to Voil's son Robert Webb, Voil came up to D.C. when he heard that a headquarters for the Commerce Department was being built. His brother-in-law and sometime business partner G. Leonard Tarrant was from Washington, and Voil knew an executive on the project named Dick Martin, whom he had befriended at an earlier time when Martin needed a job. This time the shoe was on the other foot, and Martin put Voil to work, probably as a bricklayer.
Robert continued: "In 1930, Grandma Webb (Voil's wife Annie) brought up all the kids in a red Buick sedan. He didn't expect them. They stayed until [Robert's sister, Margarette Wah Ni Tahe Webb] was born." That was on Sept. 28, 1930.
How Wah Ni Tahe (or just 'Nita, as she was known in the family) got her name isn't exactly clear. One joke was that her brother Richard named her after having driven up 14th Street in Washington--at that time an entertainment hotspot--and saw a marquee for an exotic dancer with that name. Wa Ni Tahe also might have represented a bow to Annie Stephens' (as-yet unproven) Indian heritage. Family records haven't turned up any other Webbs or Stephens with the names Margarette or Wah Ni Tahe.
After the birth, it appears that Annie and the kids then returned to Georgia. There, according to Robert, his mother had given away so many family possessions that the family decided to move into the home of "Aunt Meg." That's probably Maggie Stephens, the second-oldest sibling of Annie's family. By this time, Maggie had married a tailor named Robert Stuart (sp?) and lived about two blocks from the state Capitol. Those children who were of school age began attending classes in Georgia that fall of 1930. Maggie helped keep them clothed by taking scraps from her husband's shop and creating clothes. At Robert's funeral, a story was told about how a teacher tossed young Robert out of elementary school one day because he showed up in knickers made of some fancy material when other children were struggling to afford denim. Likewise, Robert's brother Leonard recalled wearing playclothes made of sateen.
Meanwhile, Voil had a cousin who helped him find work in New York. When that project ended, Voil returned to Washington and drove a taxicab.
Annie and the children spent the summer of 1931 in commerce at the home of Martha Lucinda Wills Webb. ("Grandma was a sweet old lady," Robert recalled.) The family stayed in Commerce that fall and didn't return to Atlanta until it was early winter, Robert says. Then, around April 1932, the children and Annie moved to D.C. for good.
Thin Mortar
Voil never achieved the business success in Washington that he enjoyed in Atlanta before the Crash. One could dare say that he spent the rest of his life a broken man. The family lived in a series of rented hoses during the 1930s and early 1940s, most of them in a working-class area of northeast Washington close to the H Street business corridor. Voil's children have told stories about how their father rarely got fulltime work, and that the family stayed afloat in part because eldest son Richard by then was old enough to contribute economically. There also are stories that Annie never forgave her husband for slipping into poverty, and so she strove to show there wasn't a Depression at her household. "Granny would give away the food on the table to make it appear as if she were a big deal," Robert said. She also was said to have regularly rifled money from Richard's pants pockets while he was asleep.
This existance continued for at least a decade. One popular tale recounts how Robert was getting ready to graduate from Eastern High School but lacked the suit that graduating boys would wear in that era. Eventually he got his diploma wearing a suit borrowed from the family bookie.
(Note: When I first heard this story, I asked my father Leonard: "How could we have had a family bookie? We were Baptists! Leonard replied that the games were extremely minor, such as betting a few pennies on the last three digits that the Washington Post would declare in the next day's paper as its latest circulation. I have since learned that in those days before credit cards and overdraft allowances, bookies were a common source of small, short-term loans. Thus, a bookie was no doubt a good person to know.)
The family rarely went back to Georgia. Dr. Charles Owen, a nephew of Voil and son of Blondine Webb, says Voil came to visit Blondine just one time that Charles could recall. When he did, he repaid the hospitality by bricking up a back wall of Blondine's house.
"He was a small fellow and had a Webb look--a double chin," Owen said. "I've never seen a dumb Webb. They're all smart."
Washington Goes to War
Washington snapped to attention following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. The war effort ended the Depression, and most of the Webb children found work--particularly Richard, who remained a mainstay of the family despite having lost his sight in one eye. Annie also took up work during the war years, running a cash register at the Hamilton Hotel at 16th and K Streets NW in Washington. Son Dan worked there as a bellman, as did a young woman named Teresa Lusby.
Voil found himself at the age of 53 competing with much younger men for rough, heavily manual labor jobs. He continued to work sporadically from job to job.
The Webbs' war service varied markedly. Richard stayed stateside. Robert served in the U.S. Army Air Force as a B-17 bomber pilot stationed in North Africa and Italy. He flew 51 combat missions. There are stories that the "Flying Fortress" he piloted was the only one in a particular mission to return to base, while on another mission he was the only person in the B-17 to come back alive. For his service, he was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses and a Medal of Valor.
Dan enlisted but was discharged just over a month later. That short stay proved crucial to him in later years, for it qualified him for extensive medical care at a Veterans Administration hospital near the end of his life as well as for burial in a military cemetery. Leonard left high school prior to graduation, entered the Coast Guard Academy, but washed out. He joined the merchant marines. While officially a civilian, his jobs mainly involved carrying goods for the war effort to faraway places; it was the kind of service that led to many, many casualties, particularly when German U-boats attacked ships in the north Atlanta. Leonard sailed as far as India. He was well past retirement before the government recognized this service and the federal government began making merchant marines eligible for veterans' benefits.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Acts of Commerce (Georgia and more, 1910-1960)
The years between 1910 and 1920 also saw Voil's brother Gilder leave the nest. According to the census, he began the decade running a "pressing club"--what we would call a laundry and cleaners. Robert Webb said he had heard years ago that Gilder from time to time would borrow clothes from the pressing club when he needed something nice to wear. Robert said he didn't think much of the story until one time decades later, while down in Jackson County, he happened to run into some elderly ladies who remembered the young Gilder. "Oh, he was such a fancy dresser!" one of them said.
Gilder's son, Martin Gilder Webb Jr., said his father remained in school until about the eighth grade. He said his father had always wanted to join the Navy and tried to enter before he was old enough to enlist. He finally got in in 1915, just before the United States entered World War I.
An undated newspaper clipping, probably from the Commerce newspaper in 1919, reports: "The Observer received a letter this week from Gilder Webb, who is 'Somewhere at Sea' on the battleship Kansas. The letter contained a money order for $3.00 for the extension of his subscription to The Observer. Owing to the strict censorship pass on all correspondence of soldiers and sailors, Gilder could not express himself freely in regard to his activities and experiences. However, he states that Uncle Sam had an efficient fleet and that the Kaiser would have a lively time trying to show anything to Uncle Sam's sea-fighting craft. Gilder is a son of Mrs. M.L. Webb of this city. He joined the Navy about three years ago since which time he has seen a good portion of the world and encountered many thrilling experiences. In his letter he asked us to extend his regards to all the people of Commerce. His address is 6th Division Engineers, USS Kansas, care of Postmaster, New York."
Reality might not have been quite so glamorous, as it appears one of his main jobs was shoveling coal to power the ship's steam engines. According to an e-mail from Martin Gilder Webb Jr., "Dad was a coal passer on the USS Wisconsin on July 15-16, 1915, when it and the two other ships of the Naval Academy Practice Squadron--the USS Missouri and USS Ohio--were the first battleships to pass through the Panama Canal. The squadron was on its way to San Francisco, which I believe was the site of a world's fair." (He's right on that count: It was called the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.)
Gilder's travels also took him to Philadelphia, where in the suburb of Germantown, 25-year-old Edith Quay decided to keep up military spirits by writing to a serviceman. She did, thinking that her new penpal was somewhere in Europe. Instead, she got a phone call the next day from Gilder. Son Gilder Jr. says Edith didn't think much of him at first, but eventually was won over by the quality of his writing. On Christmas Day 1918, after being together fewer times than you could count on one hand, Gilder Webb and Edith Quay were married.
Gilder remained in the Navy until 1923, when he was discharged as a Machinist Mate First Class. He remained in the Philadelphia area the rest of his life. Aside from Gilder Jr. (born in 1924), he and Edith also had a daughter born a few years later named Helen Edith ("Edie"). The elder Gilder is remembered in part for his high spirits, and Voil's stern visage appeared to melt on those rare occasions when they got together.
Blondine and Gertrell remained in Commerce after Voil and Gilder left. Blondine attended a "Normal School" (as teachers' colleges often were called then) and by 1920 was teaching at a public school. Gertrell took the same route and by 1920 also was a public school teacher. Blondine eventually married Marvin Pierce Owen and settled in Barnesville, Ga., where she taught manual arts and drawing while raising two children, Marvin Pierce Owen Jr. and Charles Edison Owen. Marvin Jr. died in the Korean War in February 1951. He was a University of Georgia graduate, as Charles was. The latter also went to the University of Tennessee, where he became a dentist and built a career in Georgia. Blondine died in 1966 of arteriosclerosis.
Gertrell remained with her mother until Martha Wills Webb's death in 1933. Then, according to nephew Charles Owen, Gertrell worked for a physician and after that took up with Joseph Crews, an insurance agent from Tampa, Fla. Eventually they sold the store and moved to Florida, only to move back north years later and settle in Rome, Ga. That's where Gertrell died in March 1979.
(A personal note: It was during a visit to Georgia with my parents in 1970 that I met Gertrell for the first and only time. She told me about the family history she was working on, and because I was interested in radio at the time, I tape-recorded her as she read from her notes. Those notes are the foundation of this family history.)
The least-known of Voil's siblings is Alton Americus Webb. He lived in the Atlanta area, married a woman named Mattie Mae (Pat) Elrod Matthews, and died of a heart attack in 1958. According to a February 1961 letter from Blondine to sister-in-law Annie Webb, Alton died "when a whole artery bursted open from his heart down through his leg."
Gilder's son, Martin Gilder Webb Jr., said his father remained in school until about the eighth grade. He said his father had always wanted to join the Navy and tried to enter before he was old enough to enlist. He finally got in in 1915, just before the United States entered World War I.
An undated newspaper clipping, probably from the Commerce newspaper in 1919, reports: "The Observer received a letter this week from Gilder Webb, who is 'Somewhere at Sea' on the battleship Kansas. The letter contained a money order for $3.00 for the extension of his subscription to The Observer. Owing to the strict censorship pass on all correspondence of soldiers and sailors, Gilder could not express himself freely in regard to his activities and experiences. However, he states that Uncle Sam had an efficient fleet and that the Kaiser would have a lively time trying to show anything to Uncle Sam's sea-fighting craft. Gilder is a son of Mrs. M.L. Webb of this city. He joined the Navy about three years ago since which time he has seen a good portion of the world and encountered many thrilling experiences. In his letter he asked us to extend his regards to all the people of Commerce. His address is 6th Division Engineers, USS Kansas, care of Postmaster, New York."
Reality might not have been quite so glamorous, as it appears one of his main jobs was shoveling coal to power the ship's steam engines. According to an e-mail from Martin Gilder Webb Jr., "Dad was a coal passer on the USS Wisconsin on July 15-16, 1915, when it and the two other ships of the Naval Academy Practice Squadron--the USS Missouri and USS Ohio--were the first battleships to pass through the Panama Canal. The squadron was on its way to San Francisco, which I believe was the site of a world's fair." (He's right on that count: It was called the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.)
Gilder's travels also took him to Philadelphia, where in the suburb of Germantown, 25-year-old Edith Quay decided to keep up military spirits by writing to a serviceman. She did, thinking that her new penpal was somewhere in Europe. Instead, she got a phone call the next day from Gilder. Son Gilder Jr. says Edith didn't think much of him at first, but eventually was won over by the quality of his writing. On Christmas Day 1918, after being together fewer times than you could count on one hand, Gilder Webb and Edith Quay were married.
Gilder remained in the Navy until 1923, when he was discharged as a Machinist Mate First Class. He remained in the Philadelphia area the rest of his life. Aside from Gilder Jr. (born in 1924), he and Edith also had a daughter born a few years later named Helen Edith ("Edie"). The elder Gilder is remembered in part for his high spirits, and Voil's stern visage appeared to melt on those rare occasions when they got together.
Blondine and Gertrell remained in Commerce after Voil and Gilder left. Blondine attended a "Normal School" (as teachers' colleges often were called then) and by 1920 was teaching at a public school. Gertrell took the same route and by 1920 also was a public school teacher. Blondine eventually married Marvin Pierce Owen and settled in Barnesville, Ga., where she taught manual arts and drawing while raising two children, Marvin Pierce Owen Jr. and Charles Edison Owen. Marvin Jr. died in the Korean War in February 1951. He was a University of Georgia graduate, as Charles was. The latter also went to the University of Tennessee, where he became a dentist and built a career in Georgia. Blondine died in 1966 of arteriosclerosis.
Gertrell remained with her mother until Martha Wills Webb's death in 1933. Then, according to nephew Charles Owen, Gertrell worked for a physician and after that took up with Joseph Crews, an insurance agent from Tampa, Fla. Eventually they sold the store and moved to Florida, only to move back north years later and settle in Rome, Ga. That's where Gertrell died in March 1979.
(A personal note: It was during a visit to Georgia with my parents in 1970 that I met Gertrell for the first and only time. She told me about the family history she was working on, and because I was interested in radio at the time, I tape-recorded her as she read from her notes. Those notes are the foundation of this family history.)
The least-known of Voil's siblings is Alton Americus Webb. He lived in the Atlanta area, married a woman named Mattie Mae (Pat) Elrod Matthews, and died of a heart attack in 1958. According to a February 1961 letter from Blondine to sister-in-law Annie Webb, Alton died "when a whole artery bursted open from his heart down through his leg."
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