Mother

My mother, Mary Dorothy Cecil, was born on June 21, 1922 in Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Roland Edward Cecil and Zella Irene Raleigh Cecil. Her parents had a very short-lived marriage. Another child was born to this couple and named Roland Edward Cecil III who was born and died in March 1926. Mother never said anything about this sibling so I am sure that she never knew of his birth.

When mother was very young, she went to live with her paternal grandparents: Roland Edward Cecil and Mary Hulda Dyer Cecil. She loved her grandparents dearly and she has many fond memories of living on their farm.

When she was five, her father, once again, took her from loved ones. Her Dad decided to take her to Detroit and she never knew why. He got a ride with some men and she said that they wound up in Indiana. Her Dad was soused and the poeple at the motel found her playing in the parking lot; singing and whistling. The ladies in the kitchen fed her and played with her for 3 days until her Dad sobered up.

After she arrived in Detroit, at some point, her father developed Tuberculosis and with his illness was unable to take care of such a young daughter. Mother was sent to a convent school/orphanage in Detroit. She hated it! Her grandparents and loved and coddled her and suddenly she was on her own at 5 to fend for herself. She said that the nuns were mean and she said that the experience probably made her mean and very strong. Mother often drove us by the orphanage and talked about her life there. She once told me a story that they were not permitted to have any sweets while in the orphanage. The nuns liked apple butter and ate it often. They would throw away the jars in the trash. Mother and the other orphan girls would sneak into the trash and get the apple butter jars. They would chase out the ants that also loved the sweet taste and use their fingers to clean the jars of every last morsel of the apple butter. She said it was heavenly! I cannot eat apple butter today without thinking of that story.

When she did finally go back to live with her Dad and they resided in a duplex in Detroit City. He always had girlfriends and she would get in the way. She said she use to ride the Trolley to school and try to stay away as much as possible. Her father sent her to Grosse Isle to work for a Jewish family tending their kinds and do ironing. This is how she made money. She quit school in the seventh or eighth grade so she could work. Her father married for the second time in 1934 to Miss Mizie Walker. Mizie's family was from Canada and she was working as a maid in Detroit.

Gramma told me she met Papa when he and Wales, his cousin, came to pick up the girl that Wales would eventually marry. I think her name was Marge and she lived next door to Gramma. Papa had the car, so he drove Wales from Plymouth to Detroit to get his girl. Gramma took one look at papa and said I'm going too!!!! She ran next door to get dressed and slipped and fell in a snowbank. Papa told me it was love at first sight. He said that 'she haad alot of spunk'. He also said she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Gramma bought Papa a new set of tires and they ran away to ohio to get married. As gramma was underage, they wouldn't let them get married, so they had to spend the night in a gravel pit. She told me about those tires over and over. She was quite proud that during such a hard financial time, she was able to make enough money to give Papa that big of a present. When she told her Dad about wanting to get married, he was glad because at least she would be out of the house, or so she felt anyway. He gave them some old furniture and that was that. She was hurt that they never even offered her and Papa a cold drink and Papa told Gramma we don't need them any way. Grampa Cecil's wife Gramma Mise was very jealous of Gramma. She was a tightwod Gramma would say and didn't want her husband to spend a dime on Gramma."

Added comments by Carol Robertson White - daughter to Dorothy Cecil Robertson

"Barbie's story above is very true! As it was related to me, Daddy had a date with another girl that night and they were suppose to pick her up after they picked up Wales' girl. However, one look at mother and daddy stood up his other date. They ran away to get married, I believe with Wales and Marge. However, only Wales and Marge were able to get married as mother was underage. They did spend the night in the gravel yard and we often teased mother about spending the night with a man before they married, but she assures us nothing happened! Right!

Mother and Father, however, did get to marry. They were married on June 3, 1929 in a little church in lower Plymouth, Michigan. (near where Uncle Jim lived). I often visited this little church and saw little sweet purple crocuses blooming in the church yard. Leona took me there during my last visit to Michigan and I took recent photos of the church; see the photo section of this site.