Dream A Little Dream Of Me: Those Two Ronnie's

Stars shining bright above you

Night breezes seem to whisper, I love you
Birds singin' in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me

I sat singing those words of the song over and over again. A song I had not heard in a very long time sung by The Mama’s and The Papa’s with Mama Cass Elliott. 

Dream a little dream of me.

Why am I singing these words over and over throwing in a hum or two?  (I can’t get that tune out of my head)

In all actuality, the question already had the answer

Ronnie: James and Jessie Daviss Boggess son

My cousin is named Ronnie. His mother and my father were brother and sister from Navasota in Grimes County Texas. 
While at work he passed out and was taken to the hospital. After initial testing he was air lifted to another hospital where they have an excellent Trauma Center.

The doctors did all they could do. They placed him in a semi coma state which included life support.  The determination was made that Ronnie would not get any better and the family needed to gather and make a decision.

Several days later my cousin called and told me that night a decision was made to disconnect the machine the next afternoon. 

That Night: The Dream

I was watering my front lawn when I looked up and saw my brother Ronnie walking up the sidewalk. He stopped to talk and in the process told me that he had just left seeing our sister June and was on his way to see our mama. He was looking young, tall and handsome like he did in his younger days. 

I told him that mama was over that way, and I pointed to the right in an upward position. I also told him that John, June's ex husband was up there too.

Ronnie, in a very loud voice said "WOW"

That's when I awakened and sat straight up. 

I swear, that dream tripped me out because my sister June, my mom and John were all deceased. I did not see them in the dream nor was there a mention of my other two brothers who also were deceased and gone on to Glory.

As I was thinking how weird this dream was, I came to the conclusion that it was all about cousin Ronnie and that the thought process was given to me just before I retired for bed and it just stuck.

I looked up at the clock and wondered if cousin Ronnie was having trouble and quietly thought about the doctors taking him off the life support machine.  Since I had not received a phone call I dismissed the troubling thought out of my head. 

Later that morning I told my daughter about my dream and what I thought the dream may have meant. She said since I had dreamed about her uncle mabe I should look for him as I had so often done.

Ronnie: Frank and Zepher Dones-Burks Williams son

My brother Ronnie was the one brother that was somewhere out there in the elements. A wandering soul who never stayed anywhere stable. All his wanderings came about later in life and we as his family never understood when or why his life took a turn. After all we were all raised the same and very much loved by our mother who doted over us.

Oh we expressed our concerns to each other but the truth of the matter lay only within the confines of him. 
We just knew that our love for him never wavered and wished that he would show up one day. 

Over the years I regularly looked for Ronnie on the Social Security Index and figured that as long as his name did not come up he was alive and hopefully taking care of himself. 

It was about eight years that we had not seen Ronnie. One day, he showed up. I called my brother Bruce who drove down that week-end to see him.  We were elated and knew for sure now that he was alive.

Ronnie stayed around for several months. He lived with me for awhile and then moved in a trailor in the back of a car wash that his nephew and some other guys operated. 

Ronnie was a very witty person. Full of funny comments and very intelligent. Then at times he could be troubling. This meant that the rules in place at the car wash had to be adheared to. In Ronnie's eyes he told his nephew Anthony that they had too many rules. 

He packed up his blanket and walked away. That was in the summer of 2010.

I took my daughters advice, turned on the computer then googled the Social Security Death Index. I entered his name and hit enter.

Screaming at me as if coming out of the page I saw his name, date of birth and date of death!!!

I could not describe how I felt. I was numb and in a state of total shock. 
December 24, 2011 leaped out at me. My brother has been deceased since 2011. How could I have not known this. I always check the index. Not only that, I put my phone number and address in various places in his wallet just in case.

I told my daughter what I had found and through her tears she called Anthony.

Perhaps we did have too many rules for his liking and he figured my dream would do to show his exit.

Perhaps, just perhaps Ronnie and cousin Ronnie are rooming together. (After all, Cousin Ronnie came into the world in December and brother Ronnie left this world in December.)

Perhaps the good Lord picked the same day for two families who are intwined to know how blessed they are to have had those Ronnie's in their lives.

Sweet dreams, till sunbeams find you
Gotta keep dreaming, leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams, whatever they be
You gotta make me a promise
You'll dream a little dream of me

Ronnie Evans Boggess and Ronald Louis Williams know that you were loved, that you are still loved, and will always be loved.

Rest in Perfect Peace you two.

Caught In The Middle Of A Name

Oh Aunt Hettie, I just found out your middle name!

It's Lorraine just like a cousin of mine on my paternal Daviss side. That name even suits you to a tee now that I think about it. Nat King Cole even recorded a song called Sweet Lorraine
He sings in the song how he can't wait to marry Sweet Lorraine. I can imagine Uncle Shug felt that same way when he popped the question to you years ago.

I won't show the image here where I saw your middle name due to privacy concerns but I did find you in the census with your parents John and Mary Dove Johnson in Harrison County Texas for verification of my records.



click to enlarge or view excerpt




I remember the time when I was small visiting Marshall with my mom. We went to your house to
see you and Uncle Shug. I stayed there for a couple hours while mom and your son C.W. went to find Morton Jr.

I don't remember spending the night but I do remember you sitting in the kitchen churning butter. Of course curious me sat down next to you instead of playing with the cousins. I wanted to do what you were doing, and ease my mind on how you could make butter like that.

You gently told me from start to finish the process. I wish that I had been older and had a camera to take a picture of those strong wonderful hands. I can see visions in my head now of those yellow flecks, and also the toppings that later became buttermilk.

When it was time for me to leave as I was going out the door, I looked right and left for that cow who started all that business that you went through and finished.

Aunt Hettie Lorraine you were awesome then and remain so in my memory.


Not to let my paternal side get off free, I also found out in my researching my Aunt Bernice's middle name. I had always known the initial was a C but never knew what it stood for.

I even thought it was Cooper for awhile because Uncle Owens middle name was Cooper.
Now that is a story within itself. Owens after his mom's maiden last name and Cooper after his grandmother's maiden name.


My cousins and I went on a research trip to Anderson Texas several years ago and one of the gems we found was the Delayed Birth Certificate of Aunt Bernice. A great resource when you had to have proof to being born for mainly legal purposes.

Now this is a record I can use for verification because the person who attested was present at the birth.

Bernice Cordelia Daviss! I wonder where this name came from. I did see a 1910 census where my grandparents were seen several living houses down from the Bassetts.

The way the make up is of the land is and how the enumerator took the census, they could very well be living next door to each other. I am so quick to believe that Cordelia Bassett was the person she was named after even though more research is needed to verify that.

Here is the excerpt from Ancestry

Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Grimes, Texas; Roll: T624_1555; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0027; ; FHL
microfilm: 1375568.

Aunt Bernice and I never got to meet in person but oh what good stories I have heard about her. I did talk to her over the telephone on several occasions and for that I am eternally grateful.


You know me, I wanted to see if anyone had the name Middle and guess what! I found a young man, son of Minnie Adams with the middle name of Middle in Caddo County Louisiana in the 1900 census.


click to enlarge or view excerpt:



Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Police Jury Ward 5, Caddo, Louisiana; Roll: 559; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0032; FHL microfilm: 1240559.

Not to be undone I thought I would look for someone whose first name was Middle. What do you know, I found her in Oklahoma.

Middle is the eleven month old daughter of Walter and Mable Freeman.


click to enlarge or view excerpt:



Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Armstrong, Nowata, Oklahoma; Roll: T625_1478; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 59; Image: 264.

I guess next time I will look for someone whose first name is First with a middle name Middle. LOL (Just playing)

My initial thinking in all of this was the hope that I could find out the maiden name of one of my great grands.

After looking at all the familiar first and middle names that my greats named their children, I went though the area my ancestors lived in the 1880 census and tried matching those names with my peeps.

Although I came up empty, my next stop is the 1870 census Harrison County Texas.

Gently On The Tree: Zepher's and Zephyr's

The Texas Zephyr was a train that ran the Denver to Ft Worth Route. (Museum of the American Railroad in Dallas Texas)


The Lincoln Zepher was a beauty of a car built back in the early 30's


I was talking with an AfriGeneas chatter friend Seventies Soulchild who is travelling to Mississippi for a reunion and to do some research. My thoughts went back to the day I found anotherZepher to add to my tree.


One summer in the late seventies, I went to Dallas Texas to visit my brother Richard. I had the chance to get in touch with my uncle Harry who came to the house, picked me up and took me back to his house to spend the day.

I loved talking to Uncle Harry because he always filled me in on family goings on. I did not grow up around my paternal family but always had the thirst for knowledge about the who, what, when where and whys.

Uncle Harry had this booklet that someone had given him that detailed the story of a celebration at the Fanthrop Inn. The name of the booklet was Fanthrop Days. I wish I had made a copy to take home with me. Years later after Uncle Harry passed away I inquired but no one seemed to know where it was or had ever recalled seeing it.
Henry Fanthrop was the proprietor of the Inn which was also a stagecoach stop for weary travellers and is now an historical site in Grimes County Texas.


Uncle Harry believed that Fanthrop should have been the name that we may have carried because of the association with the Inn. After all he said, it was in the days of slavery. He told me that his great grandfather used to take care of and doctor on the horses.
I automatically thought he was talking about James "Jake" Daviss because he ended up becoming a doctor after attending Meharry in 1891.

Many years later did it hit home who he was referring to.

While Uncle Harry was talking he told me that there another child who was sold off in Mississippi and that after freedom his great grandfather had a chance to go get her and bring her home to Grimes County. Uncle Harry mentioned also that this daughter had fell for this man from Mississippi, married and went back with him to his home state, but eventually came back to Grimes County Texas with their children.
Here I go with my assuming self that we were still talking the Daviss line so I looked and looked and looked for this estranged Daviss sister to no avail.

One night while I was searching the Texas Death Records one by one for Grimes County I ran across this name. I smiled rather melancholy because it was my mothers first name. My mother was named Zepher and she was just that,a cool gentle breeze and My heart of hearts.

As I clicked on the link and started to read,the name that caught my eye was
J.P. Daviss, Navasota Texas, my grandfather!! He was the informant on this death certificate.

My first thought was that since he was a minister he was perhaps helping someone with the heartbreaking chore of filling out the form.

Reading further was the name Lydia Zepher, daughter of Louis Cooper!!!.

Uncle Harry was right, there was another daughter. This daughter was not a Daviss but a Cooper. Louis Cooper was the father of Sallie White Cooper Conway my Uncle Harry's grandmother and his great great grandfather.

This is a picture of Sallie Conway and her husband James Conway in Navasota. I always chuckle when I see this picture because those yard birds look like they don't have a care in the world or either they figure there was no use in running when someone came near them.


Her birth date was 1851 according to the Death Certificate. So Uncle Harry was right again about her being born in slavery.

Lydia was buried in Millican Texas in Brazos County so I went searching for her and her Mississippi Husband.

Bingo there was Isham and Liddy in the 1900 census. They were married March 24,1892 in Bryan Texas.
(To get a bigger view and browse the entire page click on census)
Here they are again still living in Brazos County in 1910

This 1930 census tells me that hubby Isham is still alive when the enumerator came around but on her Death Certificate she is a widow. I am looking desperately for his record.


I am not sure if her nephew, my grandfather, went and got her to live out her days with him and my grandmother Gertrude Sims Daviss. The address on the certificate said near Piedmont and that was where my grandparents lived. I do know now that the puzzle was solved about the oral history that was told to me.

The only puzzle now was why the death certificate had a blank for the mother. My next chore was to find Lydia.link her to Mary White Cooper, Louis's Cooper's wife and my 2nd great grandmother.

I have only been able to find Mary Cooper in the 1880 census so I went back to study it over again.

Several doors down is a Lydia age 27 married to a Parham. I found an index where Robert and Liddy Cooper were married on August 30,1875. (I also found an indication that Robert had also married again after several years so it was not through death.) so I am sure this Lydia is the same person who is on the death certificate and also the same person who married Isham Zepher.

You never know how oral history plays in your plans and what route it will have you go. Its a good thing I eventually went down the right road after playing the assumption game in my head. I don't want to say that Uncle Harry wasn't clear because he could have told me the right great grand in the first place. From now on I need to carry a good pen,listen with a good ear and ask the right questions.

Plate to the Circuit: Chitlin That Is!

I love me some chitlins! Throw some Maws in the pot too Um mm,Um mm Good!
Traditionally in my house when I was growing up, come New Years we always had a pot of Chitterlings. However, Lol we use the term just like everyone else in african american terminology "Chitlins".

When slaves were bought here from Africa they were given the least choice or the scraps of food to eat. Chitlin's was one of those choices in order to survive. I can imagine one of my ancestors threw in a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make them taste good. Ingredients like pepper, onions and spices.


Sprinkle some Louisiana hot sauce over them and I can go to town. As for sides, collard greens and potato salad will do. Now for bread, it can either be cornbread or hot-water cornbread. Then to wash it all down I prefer a cold glass of lemon aid or sweet tea.


If I were say in my twenties back in the early 1900's I may would have visited what blacks called the "Chitlin Circuit".
It was a huge list of clubs where black singers,bands and comedians performed during and after segregation. Good music, soul food such as chitlins and a place to see their favorites perform.

Artists like BB King, Ray Charles, Etta James, Lena Horne and so many others went that route. They came from Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama all wanting to play the blues and to be heard.

Comedians like Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley also worked the "Chitlin Circuits". Other artists like Ike and Tina,and Al Green worked those small country circuits too.
They sure made a name for themselves once they got the chance to cross-over.

Bo Diddly sang and played the guitar like no body's business


Another Guitar Player was Chuck Berry. He played small nightclubs with bands and singers like Muddy Waters.

He could sure play a mean guitar, sing and do that soulful strut across the stage. However this next man is my Navasota "Spotlight Man"

I have never heard or seen him play but I know he's a Texas Man and have read that he was one of the best, and has some of the best blues reviews from those in the music industry.

Many a small home town club or country porches deep in the heart Texas saw the likes of Bowdie Glenn"Mance" Lipscomb!


Lipscomb was born April 9,1895. My oldest living cousin Thelma on my fathers side stated that they were all good friends of the Lipscombs, especially the younger ones. They went to school together,chopped cotton together and played together.

In 1870 Mance's father Charles were found in Anderson in Grimes County as an eleven year old living with his parents George and Betsy. George was an Alabama slave that was sold to the Lipscombs in Texas. (click to enlarge)


Lipscomb spent most of his life working as a farmer in and around Grimes and Brazos County Texas. In fact Mance was known locally for his music talents playing his guitar early on in life. Mance's father Charles was also know as an excellent fiddler and he and Mance would play together.

Nationally he was a late bloomer as far as being discovered for his talents and making recordings.
Mance taught himself how to play the guitar and had a style all his own to compliment the way he sang the blues. He played in small venues all around Houston when he lived and worked there. He played with other greats such as Lightning Hopkins and Blind Willie Jefferson before moving back to Navasota.

It has been said that Mance had a friend by the name of Emancipation and when he passed away he chose to name himself Mance after him. I often wonder if he legally changed his name.

In this 1900 Brazos County Texas census Body is age 4 living with his parents Charles and Jane Pratt Lipscomb along with brother Charley and sisters Alice and Annie. (click to enlarge)


Mance passed away in 1976 leaving his wife of 69 years Eleanor Crimm Lipscomb. He is buried in Navasota Texas, the place where my paternal folks are from.


In Navasota Texas they have a yearly Blues Fest that is named in Mance Lipscombs honor. In fact the Texas State Legislature named Navasota as the official blues capitol of Texas. If you are in the mood for some good blues and you are in Grimes County in August, head over to Navasota.