The only things I knew about my parent’s wedding was that my mother wore blue and they were married at Plymouth Congregational Church. My parents separated when I was eight years old and apparently the clippings that my grandmothers must have saved, disappeared.
When I found an archive for the Detroit Tribune Newspaper, published by my publishing poet cousin James McCall, I was hopeful that I would find an article that described the wedding. And I did! Unfortunately the article is so faded as to be almost blank. To say this was frustrating, is an understatement. The archive is housed at the Library of Congress – Chronicling America. Maybe one day Newspapers.com will add The Detroit Tribune to their collection and find better copies.
Here are the pieces I found. The first one, about a before the wedding event.
“Doris Graham is being feted, because Wednesday evening she will say “I do” to Todd Cleage, after which they will go to Lexington, KY. The local chapter of Iota Boule fraternity honored Doris Graham and Todd Cleage Friday night at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Gamble on Willis street. Among those who came with heart loads of good wishes were: Mr. and Mrs. Henderson, Dr. and Mrs. James Moore, Mr. and Mrs. M. Graham, Atty. and Mrs. P. Piper, Dr. Lloyd Bailer, Mr. and Mrs. H.S. Dunbar and their petite daughter Margie, Dr. and Mrs. Peyton Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Winburn and Dr. and Mrs J.A. Moore and others.”
“These young people composed the bridal party of the Graham-Cleage wedding which was solomnized at Plymouth Congregational Church Wednesday evening, Nov. 17. They are left to right – Mrs. Frank Elkins, Jr. matron of honor; center the bride and groom, the Rev. and Mrs. Albert B. Cleage, and Dr. Louis Cleage, best man.”
I found this little blurb from the Michigan Chronicle, the other black newspaper at the time. So, I at least know it was a beautiful candlelight ceremony!
Oh how frustrating! But now you know the article exists. Let’s imagine a readable copy is already on its way to you!
That is just what I am hoping! I did find some other articles that my grandmother saved but that had missing lines or words and I can now complete the blurbs underneath. I will be posting those over the next few weeks.
So cool Kris!
I guess the grandmothers destroyed the articles after the divorce. Or my mother sought them out and did. I found one about Henry’s first marriage too. I will be posting that soon. It’s readable, although the photo is pretty bad.
Oh Kristin, I loved reading this. Even the unreadable article was thrilling. As the first commenter said, there must be another better copy of it somewhere. So many traces out there for a sleuth like you to follow up and track down.
It strikes me that one or both of your families must have been relatively prominent for their wedding to be written up in the papers at all. Or was that a common practice in the community?
This paper, The Detroit Tribune, was published by my mother’s mother’s first cousin. The paper featured the black community in Detroit on the Social pages. My father’s father was a doctor, so they were among the small group of black professionals. None of these items would have been written up in the white Detroit papers.
I hope another copy turns up!
Keep On! …
… Keeping On!!
You are a jewel!
gem!
I just found your blog. That is sad it is so unreadable. I also want to comment about the haplogroup you had from 2013. I am in the same haplpogroup according to 23 and Me.L3e2a1b1
That was my grandmother Pearl’s haplogroup. So maybe way back in the misty past, our ancestors were part of the same group. Unless you have more recent ancestry from Lebanon, Marion County, Kentucky, then we should look into it 🙂