Book Excerpts

Preface

To prepare for this journey, let me identify the primary characters that will be involved.

I was the first child born of Tommie Ellis Walters (6/21/96—7/19/55) and Lizzie Lee Grantham Walters (8/6/98—12/21/83) on December 20, 1919. They had six children in this order: me, Hilton, Christine, Louise, Pressley and Mildred. Pressley died at 18 months from a childhood disease. Brother Hilton died in July 2004. All the other siblings are still living. My father was honorably discharged from the army at Fort Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina, on 12/10/18.

My partner on the journey for the last 60-plus years, Donna Lucile Hall Walters, was the third child and first born girl of Horace M. and Kathern Violet Wixon Hall of Yale, Michigan.

While the Walters family never had very much in a material way, from the beginning we were taught honesty, integrity, and the rewards of hard work. Also, we were taught to believe in God and to live and work in accord with biblical advice. I have never abandoned these principles and they stood me in good stead through ordeals that I faced at various times.

Donna’s family was more affluent than the Walters. Her Dad was an electrician and later a farmer. Initially, the Halls lived in the city of Detroit. During the depression, Mr. Hall bought a farm near Yale, Michigan, and moved the family there while he continued to do electrical work in Detroit. Living in Detroit, the family enjoyed cars, heated home, inside plumbing, electricity, and telephones. Upon moving to the house in Yale, there was no electricity and no inside plumbing. Quickly, her Dad remedied that by installing inside electricity, plumbing, and party-line telephone. And the Hall family always had personal automobiles, something the Walters did not have until I left home for college.

There were many changes to be met during our journey. We lived in an age of much advancement: automobiles, radio, telephones, television and computers, and the space age. Just think of the adventures in space! Miraculously, we have sent individuals (male and female) into space, with some of them walking on the moon and returning to earth! During this time, we advanced from lowly activity on farms to high positions in government! All of this is fantastic and rewarding. We hope and pray that we have justified our good fortune. If we have not, we hope that our children and grandchildren will.

Donna and I have been blessed with four wonderful children. First came Donna Dianne (Dee Dee), now married to Michael Gent of Sparks, Nevada. Next came Lizbeth Kathern (Betsy), married to Kenneth (Ken) Kukorowski of Detroit, Michigan (now living in Raleigh, North Carolina). Third came son Hilton Horace (Red), married to Sharon Kruschwitz of Tampa, Florida (now living in Oklahoma City). Finally came son John Roy (J. R.), married to Chris George of Spartanburg, South Carolina (now living in Irmo, South Carolina).

In addition to our regular family, we merged two others into our extended family. One is Linda Hall, a daughter of Donna’s brother Russell, who spent a good bit of time with us in New York and later. She became a world traveler and a teacher in the New York State Education System. She married Victor Rojas, a native of Costa Rica and a professor in the New York State Higher Education System. They now are retired and spend a good deal of time in Costa Rica, Mexico and other foreign countries.

The second merged family member is “our little French daughter Chantal Cavanna.” She came to us in McLean as a foreign exchange student and we never released her. She married an American but, after daughter Pauline was born, the marriage failed. Chantal and Pauline live in Paris, Chantal’s native home, where she is an accomplished artist. Our two daughters, Dee Dee and Betsy, and their husbands plan to visit the Cavanna family in Paris in May 2011.

Dee Dee and her husband Mike have one son Christopher John (C.J.), a Marine who served two tours in Iraq. He and his wife Ashley Lynn live in Sparks, Nevada, and have a son, Molakai. Betsy and Ken have one son Andrew Karl (Drew). After graduating from the University of Maryland in philosophy, he did graduate work in philosophy at Tufts University in Boston. He now is a student at the Law School of the University of North Carolina. Red and his wife Sharon have three children: Ryan, a graduate of Central Oklahoma University, is teaching Special Education in a public school, working with UPS in Oklahoma City, and attending Chef’s school; daughter Erin, a graduate of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, is married to Corey Robinson, now in the Air Force Reserves, lives in Little Rock, Arkansas and works as an Art Director in a Little Rock firm; and daughter Kelsey, recently graduated from Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas, and has a contract to play professional soccer in Iceland. J. R. and his wife Chris have two sons: John Westlund, an Irmo High School graduate, now at Appalachian State University studying engineering, and William, a senior at Irmo High School and planning to attend Clemson University to study engineering.

With doubt that this writing will interest anyone other than those named above and possibly their descendants, I write primarily for them. Our journey through life has been quite exciting, interesting and rewarding; therefore, hopefully it will be inspirational to the readers.

Let me set one thing straight at the very beginning. When I say “our journey” has been interesting and rewarding, I do not say that it has been totally satisfying. While I admit that my journey has been good and satisfying in many respects, I am not totally satisfied with my accomplishments. I should have accomplished considerably more by setting higher goals. While I have worked to accomplish what I have, I fear that I have drifted too much. Drifting is not good and does not lead to real accomplishments, although some folks say “drifting” turns up opportunities that otherwise might not have arisen! We have achieved a reasonably comfortable station in life but we have not accomplished all that we should have.

Writing this little book has been a real chore. I have drifted in doing it. I could not have completed the task without the advice and help of two of my former secretaries, Barbara Weatherford and Clara Harbin. Their assistance has been invaluable and I thank them. Also, my friend from high school, Tom Rogers, voluntarily agreed to read the rough draft and critique it. He made many suggestions for change and I have incorporated most of them. I could not adopt all because to do so would have made the book too long. I am grateful to Tom for his help. Also, my good friend, Jim Pitts, the former Furman University Chaplain and son of Milton Pitts, the former White House Barber to Presidents (along with many other staff) has been particularly helpful with the editing and printing of the book. I appreciate and thank him. His former secretary, Shirley Smith, also has been quite helpful by typing drafts and editing in preparation for printing. I am grateful to all of them.