• General Notes

  Social Security Death Index <http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693&enc=1>  about Grace C. Adams
  Name:    Grace C. Adams    
  SSN:    428-68-1816     
  Last Residence:    35640 Hartselle, Morgan, Alabama, United States of America    
  Born:    21 Jun 1929    
  Died:    Jan 1995    
  State (Year) SSN issued:    Mississippi (1954 )    
  
  Source Citation: Number: 428-68-1816;Issue State: Mississippi;Issue Date: 1954.
  
  Cause of Death: Lung Cancer
  
  Medical Information: She suffered a stroke in her fifties that affected her speech for the rest of her life.  She also had a bout with colon cancer in the 1980's.
  
  Memories of Grace Coon Adams, by her daughter Mary Hutchinson Adams:
  
  Know as "Grace" to most, and "Sister" to her dad and siblings, she was born in the Mississippi delta and lived in the area until she went to college.  Her father did very well during the depression, and the family did not suffer the same troubles as most of their neighbors.
  
  The school system at the time was not very good, so during her high school years, she attended a boarding school in Vicksburg, MS, St. Alaouis. [editor's note:  must be referring to All Saints Episcopal School, a boarding school operating from 1908-2006.  Saint Aloysius High School is a Catholic school in Vicksburg, MS and is not a boarding school.  But editor could be mistaken -- maybe it was back then!]  From there, she went to Mississippi College for women and later Mississippi State.  She received her B.S. in education and her M.R.S. in Bill Adams.
  
  During her time at state, there were three men by the name of Bill Adams -- blonde Bill Adams, black headed Bill Adams, and wild Bill Adams.  Grace started dating wild Bill Adams.  Their courtship got off to a rocky start when Bill ordered sardines and onions for dinner, then took her parking.
  
  Their college years revolved around football games and band events.
  
  Upon graduation, they moved to Jackson, and Grace began teaching a number of public elementary schools.  After her first child, she quit working to take care of the house and kids.  They bought a two bedroom house on the west side of town at 112 Clinton Circle.  It was a neighbor of starter homes and filled with young families and kids.  The yard was 1/2 acre and featured a giant oak tree that would become home to tree house and play.
  
  Dealing with a house and kids alone was simply not done in Mississippi in the 60's.  Grace hired a series of black women to help her cook, clean and chase kids.  They would arrive on the early bus and leave late in the afternoon, while Grace got her hair done, shopped, or just stayed in her room behind closed doors.
  
  When all the kids were in school, Grace started teaching again.  She landed a job at a small private school called Council # 2.  It was part of a public school system that was established by John Birch Society members and dedicated to white supremacy.  She taught a class of 13 sixth graders and enjoyed having such a small group.  The kids loved her and they finished the school material early in the spring.
  
  Mid-year, her oldest daughter, who was also in sixth grade, began having health problems.  Those problems were traced to her teacher (who was later institutionalized) so she was placed in her mother's class.  Grace never talked about how tough that much have been.
  
  For a few years, only Mary attended the private school with Grace, but in 1968, when segregation was forced on Jackson, the school exploded with growth. [editor's note:  integration came to Jackson public schools in 1968, not segregation] During the Christmas break, the school went from 150 students to 1500, with metal buildings and travel trailers set up as temporary classrooms.  The rest of Grace's kids started traveling with her to the private school, a 20 minute trip in her old VW bus.
  
  About that time, she discovered a small home for retarded and wheel chair bound adults called Haven Hall.  The house would have been condemned today -- but then it was home to a few dozen adults that ranged greatly in mental and physical abilities.  The house was dirty, in bad repair, the staff was few and basic needs ignored.  Grace made them her project for a number of years.  She developed a slide show of the home and the girls and spoke where ever she could to raise support to fix the building.  She would take our church youth group there to do small repairs and little things like paint the girls’ nails.  On Sunday nights, she'd load three of the girls --Betty, Dolly and Lucy - and their wheelchairs into her bus and take them to church.
  
  Church was also a big part of Grace's life.  She made sure the kids went to Sunday School, Church, youth group, Evening services and even the Wednesday night service.  She had a few hymns that were favorites (No. 153, Love, Mercy and Grace in the Methodist hymnal); and sang with joy as badly off key as humanly possible.
  
  She was promoted to principle of the elementary school, and loved her job.  She chaperoned band trips and helped raise money for the football team.  Life for her and her kids revolved around the school activities, but her husband was never part of that world.
  
  On October 13, 1970, she and Bill announced to the kids that they were getting a divorce.  Coming a little over a year after building their dream home -- a six bedroom house at 2021 Alta Woods Blvd., it was a shock, but in many ways not a surprise. In fact, Grace had gone back to school and earned her Master's Degree at Mississippi College because she feared she would be the lone breadwinner.
  
  The divorce hit Grace hard.  Whit left for college, Tommy opted to live with his dad "so he wouldn't be alone".  Finances became strained.   Her depression finally led to her losing her job, and a very dark time in her life.
  
  A number of years later, she seemed to be bouncing back.  Her cousin Howard Netterville had become a close friends and dinner companion.  She took up needlework and began selling and teaching it. 
  
  Then when she was only 55 years old, she suffered a number of strokes, the final one left her unable to talk.  It occurred while she was in the hospital, and no one was ever able to explain how she walked in to the hospital barking instructions to the dietitian, and was wheeled out unable to talk a few days later.
  
  Whether the divorce, lifestyle, or her recent roommate "mean ole Aunt Rena" caused the strokes, no one knows, but she never got better.  She lost her nice apartment, moved to a trailer behind Aunt Lula's house [Lula Coon Harris] for a season, and then to a home in Clinton for people with disabilities.
  
  In October of 1994, she went to the hospital with a terrible back ache.  They soon found it was cancer, and in January 1995, she died at Whispering Pines Hospice, surrounded by all four of her children.
  
  She asked to be cremated, and we could only assume it was because she had no one to be buried beside.  Her ashes were left on the old family property in Woodville, Mississippi, beneath a magnolia tree.

Details of Eula Grace's family with William Whitman Adams