Alexandria Patterson interview recording, 1994 August 12
-
Download
- Rights
- Files (2)
-
MP3
Part 1
-
MP3
Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
- Share
Loading the media player...
Transcript
- Download transcript as:
-
Text
-
PDF
-
WebVTT (includes timecodes)
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | I'd like to begin by saying that even though for a period of time we were sort of cut off from the main part of South Carolina and transportation was very, very limited between here and Savannah or any nearby places, that we had a high quality of living on the island and saying that in terms of not that we were wealthy but that our four parents were visionary parents and they had the culture dating back from the experiences as slaves from being a part of the Union Army during the Civil War, from the Mitchellville area where there was a town or era where there was a town. | 0:05 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And also some of us migrated or had relatives who migrated to Savannah, to New York City who return each year and share their culture with us and the missionaries from the North who were influential in helping us to get an education. To begin with my particular family, Maryanne Patterson was a native of Hilton Head Island. My great-grandparent and my grandmother, I did not know her. She died, Maryanne, but my grandmother was very close to me. She lived with us for a period of time until her death. She was a sort of philosopher. She was a reader. She sort of served as a consultant to the people of the island, both Black and White or Afro-American and Caucasian, and many times to the officials of Beaufort. | 1:10 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | She instilled in us and I guess in our father, the value of education, the value of reading. My mother was very influential in that she urged us to make the best of ourselves. She urges the importance of work. You did mention about the community rearing the or helping to rear the children. That was true here too. However, much of the work, it was a family type work because during my period of time, and you'll find that during the history of the island, maybe there's a different story for each period and some might even contradict a previous period because things had changed from that time to the next. | 2:28 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | But farming at that time was the main occupation of the people and the family participated with the farm according to the age level. The smaller children maybe work with feeding the chickens and watering the chickens or watering the horses, the cows, and maybe helping in the house, maybe cooking. And then as we get older, we work in the fields so that it was a togetherness there. However, anywhere you were, any parent felt a responsibility to make sure that you were behaving yourself. | 3:28 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | We had high moral values and that was the island as a whole. The church was the focal point, and at that time, transportation was limited and it was difficult for pastors to get to the island so that we did not have the every Sunday worship as we do now, that I believe at that time the churches met every three months. There were different churches, about two churches meeting once each month and everyone went whatever church was in session at the time, everyone went to their church. But in the meantime, there was Sunday school for the children, and I attended Sunday school mostly at the Oak Road Baptist Church that is the church on Matthew Drive. It was located a little farther up on Mathew Drive nearer to the cemetery there at that time. | 4:08 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | But that was close to us, so we attended that even though St. James Baptist Church was a family church. The superintendent of the Sunday school, there was Mrs. Byner Porter. She was a part of the Ferguson Family. Bill Ferguson knows, but she always had at least one children production a year. It was usually in the summertime when it was light so that we could reduce after everyone had done the field chores. But she instilled at us the importance of speaking well. And through the work with her, we gained confidence in our ability to do things from the home and in education we had one room school and we did not have a wider curriculum as today, but we had solid training in the core subjects so that we were competitive with other educational institution when leaving the island here. My teacher was Mr. Solomon Camel. | 5:13 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Oh, he was I guess the great-grandfather or related to the Camel and Morris, and he was an excellent teacher. He used to ride from Spanish Wales down to the schoolhouse was that building right on the corner, [indistinct 00:06:53] Road and on the other side of the cemetery. At that time, that's where the school was. And he would ride on his horse to school and he taught us sometimes he would use the psalms and teaching us from the Bible. So in a way we were learning the Bible as well as learning. I'm getting an education. We were very well disciplined and that went throughout and the teacher never had to be harsh with us, because we knew from home we were supposed to behave. And if didn't, our parents knew that was a different story. Plus anyone had permission to discipline us at that time. | 6:37 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Again, getting back to my family is kind of hard part where I started. Our parents wanted us to be educated and at that time we didn't have money where we could just pick a school, voting school or somewhere. But there were people in Beaufort, they were relatives of friends and Savannah who permitted the children to maybe come and maybe working home help maybe their kids in exchange for room and mode. One of my brothers, William Patterson, went to Georgia State for a while and then to Benedict College, and he served for a period of time, took his retirement as an engineer at the DeSoto Hotel in Savannah, Georgia. Another brother, John Patterson, who is the father of Johnny Mitchell, he also attended Georgia State College. And at that time the colleges went from the grade school all the way up. He spent some time away, but then he returned to Hilton Head and he was a businessman here on the island. | 7:43 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | My sister, Mary Patterson Houston attended math school in Beauford, her BS degree from Spelman in Atlanta, and then her graduate degree from the city college in New York. She married Reverend Charles Houston from Louisville, Kentucky who pastored in Tuckahoe, New York. And she taught for the city of New York in the Bronx until her retirement. What's the next order? My next brother, Alexander Patterson Jr. attended Robert Smalls for a while and then Penn School and did some study at Georgia State College. He was a veteran of World War II, serving oversea duty. | 9:11 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | He worked with the core of engineer in Savannah, retired and came home and worked as a businessman part-time. The next sister Lily Patterson attended Robert Smalls in Beaufort, Hampton Institute in Virginia and Catholic University in Washington. She just retired as a library specialist from the city of Baltimore. She is also a writer of children books. These are some of her books. Miss Liberty, Oprah Winfrey Talk Show Host and Actress, Washington, Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King In a Piece. Okay. Several of those. But she is now completing one on, what's his name? The union man. Oh gosh. | 10:48 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | I can't recall his name right now though I know it very well. I'll think of it before you leave. All right. And that comes down to me. I attended elementary school on Hilton Head at that time because prior to that time the children went away, but as the grades were added so that we had, it was still the one room schoolhouse, but we did have go through sixth grade. I went to Savannah and attended Cuyler-Beach Junior Senior High School, Cuyler, C-U-Y-L-E-R, hyphen, B-E-A-C-H, Junior Senior high school. And that's in Savannah. That was many of the schools back that time did not exist today. But then I went to South Carolina State College, majored in business administration, and then I got my SS degree from School of Business Administration University. | 12:51 |
| Sally Graham | Was the one room schoolhouse— What was the Chaplein community? What was the name of the that school? | 14:07 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Chaplein School. | 14:12 |
| Sally Graham | Chaplein School. | 14:18 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | C-H-A-P-L-E-I-N. That area was called Chaplein in the school, was named after the area. | 14:18 |
| Sally Graham | Okay. | 14:24 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | My goal was to be a CPA, but I had difficulty at that time getting an internship, which was a requirement to take the examination. And backtrack just a little bit my first year after graduation and because of that time, my major was business. So in fact, there was no opening for business in the area here. So my first year I taught at Mather school, I taught business there and served as registrar. And then I went to New York, did my graduate work. And while I was doing my graduate work, I worked as a clerk typist and as a clerk stenographer for the Navy Yard in Brooklyn. And then I worked as secretary for the home missions councils there. | 14:28 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And then I worked for a brokerage house who took care, or I guess an investment broker, the name of Nathan [indistinct 00:15:40], who administered the accounts of the original heirs to [indistinct 00:15:47] and Company, which was very interesting work. But I wasn't getting farther to my goal. So just by accident, because my name was on file with the university and I was cleaning out and I came across something they had sent me concerning work in St. Louis, Missouri. And I just answered it for the heck of it. And it so happened that the personnel director for the city of St. Louis Public Schools depended upon the Graduate School of Education for teachers of business because at that time the universities in Missouri did not teach business courses. And of course when he saw my name immediately, he sent a telegram to me to come and they didn't say we're Black. | 15:25 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | So I went and when I got there, I was assigned to a school, which was I guess the second top school in St. Louis. That was during the days of segregation. And I looked at the why, but I enjoyed being there. And of course I needed to get some more courses in education in order to qualify to teach in the city of St. Louis. But that was not difficult to do because there were many universities right there. And then I went one summer to get my methods and so I taught and I could use my business background because I served as department chairman. We had good relationship with the business there. And then for the last 10 years, I served as instructional coordinator for a magnet school and I was an administrative position and I had the opportunity to design and our focus has always been— And St. Louis has always had a good school system who was up to date on current trends and was very innovative and made meaningful changes when necessary. | 16:46 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And it so happened while I was in St. Louis, I took courses at the Washington University and St. Louis University. I also participated in two international studies, one through Northern Illinois University, which was in conjunction with the International Business Education Association and another with the Michigan Central Michigan Ann Arbor and I had the opportunity of studying tourism in the business and various cultures in Spain, Paris, Switzerland, Austria, France, England, Spain, should be another one. I can't remember them all. But anyway, I had experiences in foreign countries studying there. I retired in '86 and returned home, and now I am working in real estate. | 18:11 |
| Sally Graham | When you were trying to find a job and you went to the Mather School and then you went to New York, what did you see as different being in New York as opposed to being in the south? | 19:48 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Well- | 20:01 |
| Sally Graham | At the time. | 20:02 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Number one was opportunity because it was not difficult getting a job up to the secretarial level, but it was just beyond that and a higher level that it was difficult. And of course, being a larger place, there were more opportunities to get a variety of jobs. The biggest thing, I think New York, and particularly at that time in itself, living in New York is an educational experience. It's one of the greatest experience. I think it's something that everybody should experience. I mean, just the pace of life. And at that time, there was no fear of people or anything that you could decide to do anything you wanted to do at any time or going out in the evening. You didn't have to worry about being afraid or anything to go to the theater. And many, many time you go out to the theater, you end up going out to breakfast and you ended up going to work. And that was just a casual atmosphere that people did. | 20:04 |
| Sally Graham | Just up all night. | 21:23 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yeah, well, sometimes New York is such a big place. Sometimes if you were visiting people in Brooklyn, you visiting France in the Bronx, it took you an hour to get home from work, maybe an hour to get back then. So that almost, if you go out in the evening, it's way up in the evening before you get home. But I think it's just a great place, the pace, the people and what you can do. Just many, many things, a variety of things there. | 21:24 |
| Sally Graham | Did you stay with family or friends when you went to New York or did you- | 22:03 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yes. Well before I went there for a graduate study, I used to during college at one of when that was a customer at that time, because again, there wasn't money. The faith that our parents had in getting back to the church, the faith that we just went and hoping that something would happen so we could stay there. It wasn't that everything was planned, that you knew you had all your intuition or whatever it was, and things just work out. You maybe got a job. And in the summer we went to New York and we had to get jobs where you could live in because if you had to pay room and board, you didn't make any money where your money was kind of free. | 22:08 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | The first year I went and the first summer I worked for a family or I started working for a family. But I mean the work that shit and I had not done that before. I was not experienced, but I was supposed to cook, clean up and take care of the kids, and she had a tremendous house. It was just impossible for me to do that. It was the first day I [indistinct 00:23:27]. At the end of the day, my hands were swollen, but I was good with the kids because I was young myself, because I think she thought I was older than I was, and maybe I had to pretend I was older than I was in order to get the job. But it was a nice relationship because I didn't have any place to go and she needed somebody with the kids and I could with the kids. | 22:53 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | So she tolerated me until the agency found me another job and she found another person to do that. The second the job then that I got was in Bronxville, and the lady wasn't quite as rigid. She had four children and I helped with the children. I did not have to cook. I helped maybe prepare the food like pea and potatoes and things like that. And then most time they went to the beach that it wasn't a hard taxing job. So then the next summer I worked with my aunt in Brooklyn. She had a restaurant, so I helped in the restaurant and I stayed with her while I was in school and helping her. And then when I got full-time employment, I helped her on the weekend. But for a period of time I lived at the Y in Brooklyn. And then I moved in an apartment in Brooklyn where I lived until I moved, went to St. Louis. | 23:53 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And then I went back and forth to New York. Of course, during that time, we always came home during the summer. That was a family tie throughout, no matter where we were working. And usually August was the month we came down in August. And so I'm back home. Now, also, I mentioned with Maryanne because during that time, and I recently, and as we were looking through the family history, found out that Maryanne, the two of her kids had gone away to school in the Atlanta area. One settled in Cartersville. Now, when we were coming up at one time, when I was going to school here, I knew a correspondent with one of her grandchildren, I guess at that time. It was a grand generation there, and my grandmother always spoke about her, but because of transportation and funds too, visiting was very limited. And I know we had never met her. I don't know whether the sister had returned to Hilton Head since she left. And I believe my grandmother had visited her once. | 25:10 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | One of the sisters settled in Beaufort, so we visited her. She was the person that my sister stayed with to go to Robert Smalls, but the sister there, and I want to say it was the sister's children in Beaufort at that time that I knew. And of course I was at Rosalie Passant is the granddaughter of one of the sisters. Rosalie is the founder and director of the Gullah Festival. So my brother here, Alexander Patterson, Jr. when he had the opportunity to work in an era, he had visited Cartersville and the family. So that was the link, but except through correspondence. And then in moving around so much, we kind of lost touch, except with Alec, he visited. So after the island developed, some of the family members came to Hilton Head and look him up. And in the summer of '86, it just happened by coincident that all of the grandchildren of the sister that went to Cartersville were here on vacation. | 26:45 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And it was a month of August, at the same time, all of our side of the children were here. And that was Homecoming and St. James Church, which we had in common, what the great grandmother in common to all of us. And she was one of the founding members of St. James Baptist Church. And St. James Baptist Church had its anniversary on the first Sunday. And we rotated with a family being the host and planning an afternoon program. And it so happened that that was the year we were hosting the program, and Rosalie from Beaufort came with some of her children to participate. So that was the first time that the, let's see what we said, the grandchildren of the three sisters that we can identify so far were all together and met. | 28:15 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | So then, and the next generation of kids decided that they were going to undertake a project to plan a family reunion and maybe dig deeper into the history. And this past first Sunday, they were 50 of the relatives from Cartersville who came to Hilton Head, and we spent the weekend together. And it was really the first time that most of us had met, but they were just so, so delightful. It was just as if we were or had known one another all of our lifetime. It was the most beautiful experience I have had. | 29:30 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | It was just such a thrill and such a joy that here we were, people that we were writing to and thinking about but we had never met and we were all here. Now, the island in itself has always been growing because the people who were here appreciated the beauty of the island. They were just as proud of their corn fields and their bean fields as the people now are of the Gulf courses to make sure that they were no weeds anywhere it shouldn't be. And they were beautiful. And they sort of had a contest each year to see who had the best looking field. | 30:15 |
| Sally Graham | And when was that? When were the- | 31:06 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | During the summer. | 31:06 |
| Sally Graham | Was there an actual contest or was- | 31:09 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Well, look, they didn't say give actual pride, but they selected, they rode around the fields. They had a certain day where they met, and I believe it was July, around the 4th of July where they rode around all the fields and rated them. And then what's similar to what we have in Spring Fest here, the opening of vacation season, we had what was called the 27th. There was an organization that always had an observance, and they started at the church, which was Oak Grove Church. And they would have a parade down to now, the hall was right opposite where Oak Grove Church currently is, and there would be a parade down there, and then there'd be lots of food to sell, lemonade and cake. But they had a lot of pig feet was one of the things at that time, ice cream and things, which we didn't normally have all the time. And then there would be a dance. So that was just a big event that everybody looked forward to. | 31:10 |
| Sally Graham | Were Blacks and Whites at- | 32:12 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | No, no, no, no. This was before what was 54. But what I'm saying, we lived in a segregated society and that was never the case. Now the Whites on the island, they were two White family and yes, who were considered noted the Tumors and the Hudsons, and I mean so far as work relationship and day-to-day contacts. And my father had a small store and say the sales people who came from Savannah, and this was probably by this time the era of the fury. And perhaps you probably have a lot of data on Mr. Simmons and his transportation. That was the first major form of transportation from the Islanders point of view. | 32:15 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | We had people who built boats and boats were used to take the main [indistinct 00:33:20] were the watermelons and butter beans and peas and things like that. They were the major, they might have been some other things, but they took them by boats to Savannah market them and then returned home. And they were good navigators. I mean, they were specialists in [indistinct 00:33:36] because they knew the tides and they knew when they had to leave here and to connect with the tide going into Savannah. And they weren't scheduled coming back when they said they'd be back, they would be back. | 33:12 |
| Sally Graham | And your family farm also? | 33:49 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yes, yes. But that was the thing. Everybody either farm or maybe if they didn't have enough land to farm or means to farm, then they worked with the people who were farmers as wage. And then others, as I said, went to Savannah to work. But say the people who were here, farming was the main— They were the oyster factories in the winter, but that's just for a short period of time. And then it was a prawn factory in the summer. But again, this was just for a short period of time. And it was money, but it was not a whole lot of money, just shucking off shoes or peeling shrimps or prawns they called the big ones. | 33:51 |
| Sally Graham | And did your family own land? | 34:39 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yes, yes. | 34:43 |
| Sally Graham | Okay. How many acres would you say did they owned? | 34:44 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Let's see. I would say this is just a guess. I would guess about 75 acres at least of land. But I would think it is very large percentage of the people here owned the land where they lived, and they did farming around the land. My father also for a period of time still served what they called the postmaster. He would meet the, I think there was some boat that came and brought the mail partway, and he had to pick it up there. | 34:47 |
| Sally Graham | How often would the island get mail, do you remember? | 35:46 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | No, I don't. I would not be able to say exactly with that. Also, there was a large boat that went from Savannah to Beaufort three times a week. It was stopped at the island at three different points in Spanish whale area. The main dock was Jenkins Island, and then in the Seabrook area, which would I guess be where Palmetto Hall is, somewhere between Palmetto Hall. But for those stops, if people were getting off or going on, they would go out in a battle to meet the boat, but it actually docked at Jenkins Island. And that's where you'd say if you had big things that had to be shipped or were being shipped, so that those were the days that you could go to and from Savannah or Beaufort. And they were nice, nice boat. | 35:50 |
| Sally Graham | [indistinct 00:36:59]. | 36:52 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | But change, the island was moving forward and progressing. It did not just start during the '50s when the bridge was built so that people began to know more about the island and began to appreciate its beauty and moved here. And very little is being said about the people who lived before the bridge, but they I felt had accomplished as much with their limited education, that limited resources to have brought the island thus far as today where you have a tremendous amount of wealth, resources, power, and everything else. But if this was not just an island with people who were ignorant waiting for people come to make a way, they were carrying the island forward. | 36:59 |
| Sally Graham | So the being sort of cut off on the mainland was more of having more self-determination for the people who lived on the island themselves? | 38:08 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | I would say so. I would say it probably helped us because we were not contaminated by outside influences. The influences that we had from the outside were all positive, but our people were skilled or semi-skilled, at least semi-skilled in that, I guess way from slavery where people learned how to work and pass it on to their children. And as I said, during the work with the army or whatnot, they were people who were skilled enough that with the skills they had, they could learn other skills or they were innovated enough to use these to create other ways of doing things. That we had someone who could make monuments for the graveyards, people who could do carpenter, people who could build houses. And whatever was needed, there was somebody who could rise to the occasion to do it. | 38:20 |
| Sally Graham | Since there are few Whites on the island, were there signs of segregation that you've see in history books now? Like the Colored, only the Whites, only those kinds of signs, like in the '40s and the '30s? | 39:28 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Well, there wasn't anything here to put that sign on. You know what I meant, it was just say the two White families and other us. But we had our own schools, we had our own churches. So you just knew the law of the land. And as I saying, there wasn't that much mingling to even necessitate putting signs up. But I started to say the relationship when sales people from Savannah coming to market, what they had say, they were nice and to the people. I mean, there was that say, not on the street, no, but say to come to my father, to Sal, to bring their wears. They were very nice and very kind, and they sat down and talked with my father because there weren't many place else to sit, restaurants and things. | 39:40 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And when you came to the island there was no place where you said, just go the places where you were, the place where you did business. But then it was just the way things were then. The same people you see someplace else as if you'd never seen them at all. And that was just the way it was. I don't think that everybody got [indistinct 00:41:13] I would never want to speak to you, but that was just accustom at that time. | 40:49 |
| Sally Graham | Was there much violence towards Blacks here on the island? | 41:18 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | No, because there wasn't any need for that. So the two White family who were here, we were not hostile to one another because we didn't meet that much. They had their own schools. And my father also the Tumors, Mr. Tumor had a big store in the Stony area, was like a general store, but he had limited education. I don't know whether he could read or write. My father was extremely good in math, and he manages a store for him until his children got old enough and they went to school and they took over. But the relationship was okay. I guess the owners who came to hunt or fish occasionally, well they came to do that and they had some of us working for them when they were here, but they didn't come into contact with the others of us. And of course, they didn't show any hostility. Maybe they might have passed somebody by or anything like that. But the setting in itself didn't give rise to that kind of situation. | 41:22 |
| Sally Graham | How was it different when you were going to school in Beaufort? Were there more instances of violence or intimidation by Whites towards Blacks as part of that period of segregation? | 42:54 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Well, I cannot speak about Beaufort, but I guess in Savannah, and again, as I said, segregation with segregation, you did not have that much contact. So maybe where you really felt it was if I were going away on the train, you had a section over here for Blacks and a section over there for Whites, and you had to wait until Whites were served. And then maybe say when after the Whites were served, people might just chat and talk kind of, even though you are waiting, that kind of thing. Or maybe going to the stores, maybe sometimes they might throw a change at you or something like that. But I don't recall any severe I don't think— Well, there might have been hostility, say today we are more vocal in what we do, that things were more subdued in that way in some areas. But where I have been here, even in Orangeburg during school, say in the stores, the people were concerned about making money so that they were very kind in treating you. | 43:12 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And this buried from store to store, from section to section. But I mean, I have had, I don't know, except for this occasion where somebody might have kind of threw a change back at you, but they were trying to make a sale and they'd been backwards to try to buy what you wanted and that kind of thing. But here that was in a store environment, again, outside, you had to go to the back of the bus or stand up on the bus that type thing. And here we didn't have buses to have that. And then when I stayed in Savannah, [indistinct 00:45:21] ride the bus. So except that it is a thought that that was the case. And since it was the case, I preferred not to put myself into that position. | 44:44 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And I don't particularly care to ride the bus, but [indistinct 00:45:46] has always been a neat place where people tried to get along, people tried to work together. And I think for the most part, Afro-American people have been more outgoing maybe to welcome Whites and working for Whites to give a four days work for four days pay. And I think the attitudes of Whites, for the most part to their employees have been very good on that basis so far as- | 45:35 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | — Together, and people who were looking for a better way of life, people who wanted their kids to have a better way of life. And I think that's [indistinct 00:00:08] that it's being projected more, maybe that we were kind of poor neighborhood, [indistinct 00:00:20] poor, but with the resources and education that we had that we did a tremendous job in bringing the time forward and in educating our children. Because long before Hilton Head had became the Hilton Head of today, there were people all over the world, descendants from Hilton Head, who are making a contribution to where they are, which is not even a part of the history here. | 0:02 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And even here, the tremendous amount of— Because we have many college graduates here at the school. We have Mrs. Grant, the reporter here. We have [indistinct 00:01:16] House and [indistinct 00:01:21]. These are island people who were doing that. We have Exxon Station, Dodge, and [indistinct 00:01:26]. And he had the service station for a long time that he rented it out. But I mean, who are models for anybody who wants to achieve, but I don't think we built ourselves up that much that we were here. We did this before. | 0:58 |
| Sally Graham | Right. I think that pretty much covers it. I just have a few questions. | 1:48 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | And I mentioned working for a relative in Brooklyn, but she and her husband left Hilton Head and they had limited education because at that time we didn't even have a elementary school education at that level. But they went to New York and during the war years they had a very thriving restaurant business there. And that is just one of many people who have left the island and have made contributions. | 1:59 |
| Sally Graham | We've talked to some people who had relatives. It seems like everybody has had a relative that's left and done well. Can I just get your current address? Is it 1 Beachwood? | 2:36 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yeah, 1 Beachwood and that's B-E-A-C-H, and that's Hilton Head Island, South Carolina 29928. | 2:46 |
| Sally Graham | Okay. Your mother's maiden— Your mother's name? | 3:00 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | My mother's name was Mariah, M-A-R-I-A-H. Robinson Patterson. | 3:09 |
| Sally Graham | Robinson was her maiden name? | 3:17 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yeah. | 3:19 |
| Sally Graham | And when was she born? | 3:24 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | I don't have that date. Okay. | 3:27 |
| Sally Graham | What about her the day of death or how old was she when she died? | 3:30 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | She was 77 when she died. I don't remember the exact date of [indistinct 00:03:46]. | 3:37 |
| Sally Graham | Okay. Both your parents were Hilton Head on both sides? | 3:48 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yeah. She was a native of Hilton Head, yes. | 3:52 |
| Sally Graham | Okay. And did she work outside of the home besides, I guess working in the field or on the land? | 3:57 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | She worked in the field and worked in the oyster factory, but other than that, I had no knowledge of her working elsewhere. | 4:05 |
| Sally Graham | Okay. And your father? | 4:16 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Alexander Patterson Sr. | 4:18 |
| Sally Graham | And what was his date of birth? | 4:27 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | He was— | 4:28 |
| Sally Graham | That's fine. | 4:33 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | But he was 82 when he died. | 4:34 |
| Sally Graham | Okay. Did you remember what year he died? | 4:37 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | No, but they died. They died together so, almost when my mother died and then the day my mother died, he went to coma and he died that night. But I don't know if— [indistinct 00:05:03]. I don't know about the birthday because it's so many things. Her records were destroyed. But that time it's- | 4:44 |
| Sally Graham | You married? | 5:12 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | No. | 5:13 |
| Sally Graham | Divorced? Widowed? | 5:13 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | No. | 5:15 |
| Sally Graham | Single? Did you have any children? | 5:16 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | No. I'm single. | 5:17 |
| Sally Graham | What's your date of birth? | 5:20 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Do I have to say my birth? I'd rather not. | 5:23 |
| Sally Graham | You'd rather not? That's fine. And you're the youngest? | 5:27 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Yes. | 5:32 |
| Sally Graham | 3, 4, 5. | 5:32 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | So let's see, there were two other brothers, Freddy and Luther. Freddy died before I was born. So he was nine when he died. Luther was 21 when he died. But he went to New York and he worked in Buffalo, New York. | 5:37 |
| Sally Graham | When was William Patterson born? The oldest. | 6:18 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | I don't recall offhand any of the [indistinct 00:06:27]. He is deceased. He died. And are you going to be in the area long? | 6:21 |
| Sally Graham | No, we're leaving this afternoon—. Well, tonight. Yeah. | 6:34 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Because he died recently. He died about two years ago. He was 82 when he died. I meant 84 because he was older than my father. And John is deceased, my brother. And again, I don't know the dates, I could look up the things, but [indistinct 00:07:12] off-hand. | 6:41 |
| Sally Graham | And any honors awards, certificates that you've gotten, just your highlights of ones that stand out? | 7:15 |
| Alexandria Anne Patterson | Well, since I've been back to Hilton Head, this is— | 7:27 |
Item Info
Related Items
The preservation of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the Duke Digital Repository programs are supported in part by the Lowell and Eileen Aptman Digital Preservation Fund