Mershell Cunningham Graham Jr was born at 7:45 pm on June 10 in 1921, a Friday, He was the first son and second child of Mershell and Fannie (Turner) Graham. He was delivered at Dunbar Hospital by Dr. Turner. Mershell was a big baby, weighing 8 1/2 pounds. He joined older sister, 14 month old Mary Virginia. Twenty months later his younger sister, my mother Doris, was born.
Mershell was an active boy, falling down the clothes chute and breaking a window during a game of “who can hit their head against the window the hardest” with his younger sister, Doris. In family photographs, he shows no fear of the ferocious puppy or the family chickens.
On November 1, 1927, he was hit by a truck on his way back to school after lunch. He died just after midnight on November 2. My sister, cousins and I grew up with warnings to be careful crossing the street and to remember what happened to Mershell.
My mother wrote on the page of practice writing above “Mother teaching him to write his name.”
Related links – Births, Deaths, Doctors and Detroit Part 1; 1940 Census – the Grahams – Supplemental Material
This entry is so sad, Kristin. Who wrote the “killed by auto”, and was that in a book? Of course your mother and aunt would never stop reminding you children to pay attention. It’s so easy to strike a life down that it’s a wonder so many of us manage to life to adulthood.
It was written by my grandmother right under his birth information. She wrote it all on the blank pages of her personal Bible.
Goodness. So tragic. I didn’t expect that.
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter – Living the Twenties
Yes, very tragic. He was so full of life, from my mother’s descriptions.
Oh my god! Poor Mershell 🙁 Such a fearless little boy.
The Multicolored Diary
Yes, unexpected and terrible the way life tragedies happen just like that.
Such a sad story. Poor Mershell.
Tasha 💖
Virginia’s Parlour – The Manor (Adult concepts – nothing explicit in posts)
Tasha’s Thinkings – Vampire Drabbles
If he just hadn’t broken away and run out in the street.
Tragedies like that really do have a lasting impact on a family. It colors the whole way they live, I think. =(
Black and White (Words and Pictures)
That is so true. It’s what has been on my mind since I posted this last night. I am sure it changed the lives of the whole family. Especially as they lost another son several years later.
He looks so happy in all the photos. His baby photos are beautiful. Such a sad story though.
That broken window story shows he was quite full of beans.
Your mother must’ve missed him terribly after his passing.
Yes, he seems to have had lots of energy. And my mother did miss him. They all did.
So sorry for his loss. He was a vibrant part of the family and then just gone.
So sad to read about his early death.
I especially love the picture of him with the puppy – the family photographer had a good eye!