Tag Archives: #Dee Dee Elkins

G – GARDENING

A-Z Challenge 2023, , , ,

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

garden
My grandfather working in his garden with my cousin Dee Dee. 1945
My mother looking at her corn at the first Old Plank Garden in 1961.
Me in my garden 1994

The Real Garden

Kristin Cleage

Our garden this year has been great, best I’ve had in years. Jim Tulani, James and Cabral got up a fence in early June that keeps the dogs from rolling around in the beds. Jim brought several pickup loads of horse manure from a local horse owner soon after the fence went up. He also roto-tilled several planting beds that were over grown and made a large double bed for the corn.

I got it planted soon after, before weeds could take over again and mulched everything heavily…the hay was here on time. We got all of this done pretty much before I started working. The beginning of the summer was hot and dry, so I watered. It soon changed to hot and wet, wet, wet. Now it’s cooling off and raining pretty well.

We’ve been eating summer squash, plenty of green beans (freezing some too.), collards, broccoli, swiss chard. The corn is tassling and there’s enough of it this year that you can hear it rustling in the wind. The pumpkins and winter squash may make it before frost if they hurry. Lots of green tomatoes, onions and red beans. The only down side so far is that the beans I planted with the corn (I even let the corn get up good before I planted them this year.) turned out to be bush beans and not Kentucky Wonder climbers. Looks kind of strange having those bush beans growing around the bottom of the corn.

I plan to put in lettuce, mustard, turnip and transplant kale as soon as the beans give out and by putting plastic over the pipes I bent over them, to eat from the garden up until Thanksgiving.

And next year with the fence already up, maybe I’ll really get some plants started and out early and have potatoes. The tomatoes Ayanna started this year look good. I did dream we had a killing frost a few nights ago, but I hope it was just a dream, I mean, it’s only August? No killing frost in August, even in the North woods, right?

The Ruff Draft May/June 1994 page 5

Today I did two G posts, unawares. The other is G- Glimpses in Detroit’s Mirror!

#AtoZChallenge 2023 letter G

Thanksgiving 1949

Detroit, Grahams, , , ,

Time passed and ten years after yesterday’s 1939 Thanksgiving dinner, we find that Jennie Turner is in a wheelchair, having broken her hip in a fall. Her sister, Abbie Allen Brown is in town, the Graham’s are there with their daughter Mary Virginia, her husband and two children.

Mershell Graham & granddaughters
Fannie, Mary Vee, Barbara & Dee Dee
Jennie Turner’s house on Harding
The Detroit Tribune, Dec 3, 1949

“Three generations were present at the festive board of Mrs. Jennie Turner on Harding ave. A delicious Thanksgiving dinner was served, which Mrs. Turner who has been an invalid for several years, enjoyed in her wheel chair, while surrounded by her daughters, Misses Daisy and Alice Turner, and her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Graham; granddaughter and son, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Elkins, and their two children, and Mrs. Turner’s sister, Mrs. A. Brown.”

Actually Four generations were present – my great grandmother Jennie Turner and her sister Abbie, her daughters (which included my grandmother), my aunt Mary V and her daughters DD and Barbara. My mother Doris and her family (including me) were in still living in Springfield, Mass, and missed this dinner.

Doris Graham Cleage with daughters Pearl and Kristin (me) in Springfield, MA

Christening of Doris Diane Elkins- 1944

Grahams, News Items
Elkins Family photo- Mary Virginia holding Doris Diana, Frank Elkins .

Another item I found in the Detroit Tribune. My cousin Doris Diane was christened at our great grandmother Turner’s house in 1944.

Fannie and Mershell Graham
Detroit Tribune July 22, 1944
Sunday, four generations were represented at the christening of Doris Diane Elkins, the small daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Elkins of McDougall. The ceremony took place at the home of the baby’s maternal great grandmother, Mrs. Jennie Tuner, of Harding avenue. Her paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Graham, also her paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Elkins, Sr.; her aunts, Misses Daisy and Alice Turner, and Mrs. Elizabeth Roberts were present to witness the event. The baby’s godparents, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Franklin, of Oakland, Calif, sent their godchild a beautiful bonnet for the christening.
Doris Diane wearing her bonnet. 1944.

Barbara on a Bike

Detroit, Grahams,
My cousin Barbara on a bike around 1949. Her older sister Dee Dee is holding her up.
“1949  Dee Dee 5 1/2 and Barbara 16 months.”  On the porch of their 4 family flat on McDougall and Hunt Streets in Detroit.
The Elkins Family in 1949. Mershell and Fannie Graham's backyard.
The Elkins Family in 1949. In my grandparent’s (Mershell and Fannie Graham) backyard on Theodore.

My cousins  lived upstairs in a 4-family flat on the corner of McDougall and Hunt Street on the East Side of Detroit. Their mother, Mary V. Graham Elkins, was my mother’s sister. She worked as a secretary at the County Building.

Their father, Frank “Bud” Elkins, graduated with honors from Cass Technical high school in the late 1930s. As an electrician, he tried to join the Electricians Union but as a black man was barred.  He set up his own shop as an independent Electrician.  He drove a truck with “Elkins Electric Company” on the side. I remember riding in it a few times. There were not seats for all and we sat on the floor.

mcdougall-hunt
Their building is gone, but it looked very similar to these houses that still stand on that corner.
bird-view-mcdougall
A birds eye view of the corner of McDougall and Hunt streets. The house was on one of the now vacant corners. Both of these photos are from Google Maps.

Some other stories about this family:

Remembering Barbara Lynn Elkins

Old County Building and Mary V Elkins

The Frank and Mary Elkins Family in the 1940 Census

More Sepia Saturday if you CLICK!
More Sepia Saturday if you CLICK!

“Where Are Our Leaders?” – Dee Dee Sings

Grahams

where_can_our_leaders_beToday I’m going to share the recording, Where Can Our Leaders Be? by my talented cousin, Dee Dee McNeil.  Dee Dee started writing as a child. I remember many holidays spent up in Poppy’s room practicing her plays with my sister and cousins. After dinner we would perform for our parents and grandparents. I don’t know if we sang her songs for “our public” but I do remember a few of them, especially “Ho, ho, the little bear skating”, which I can still sing.

In 1970 Dee Dee left Detroit and moved to Los Angeles to seek her fortune. She connected with the Watts Prophets soon after and became part of their group, appearing on their album, “Rappin Black in a White World” and sang “What Is A Man” on that album. She also penned and sang the title song of the album “Black In A White World” co-written with fellow Detroiter, Marthea Hicks.  Hicks would later die in the Jim Jones Guyanna massacre along with her son, nephew and younger sister. Dee Dee improvised the entire musical score on the original album, playing piano and performing “live” without overdubs. She also recorded several original poems along with the other three male poets who completed the group. She has written songs for several iconic Motown artists including Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, The Four Tops (who originally recorded “What Is A Man”), Edwin Starr, Nancy Wilson, David Ruffin,  Rita Marley and many more.  I don’t quite get what the visual is about on this YouTube version of “What Is A Man” , but the singing is wonderful.


I found this short, professional biography on Dee Dee’s website.  The website also has links to a radio interview, song writing credits, poetry, songs and much much more.

Dee Dee McNeil and Dwight Dickerson Quartet Perform at AUS

Students, faculty and members of the public enjoyed a captivating performance by Dee Dee McNeil and Dwight Dickerson Quartet held at American University of Sharjah (AUS) yesterday, February 17th 2010. A multi-talented vocalist, singer, songwriter, poet, journalist, producer, playwright and educator, Dee Dee McNeil has won renown for her art all over the world. As a contract songwriter for Motown Records in her native Detroit, Michigan, many legendary artists have recorded her music including: Diana Ross and The Supremes, Gladys Knight and The Pips, David Ruffin, Edwin Star, The Four Tops, Nancy Wilson, Rita Marley, Kiki Dee, Jonah Jones, Side Effect, and the rapper ‘Styles.’ She was a contributing member of the historic rap group, The Watts Prophets, now recognized as one of the major forerunners of contemporary hip hop music. She was one of the first women to rap in the late ’60s and early 70’s, speaking up as an articulate champion for women’s rights. One of her raps about respect for women was used as the televised theme song during New Zealand’s Miss Universe Contest in 1983. The plays she has written are based on historic figures and their musical contributions.

Where Can Our Leaders Be?

 

Idlewild 1945 – En route to Springfield

Cleages, , , , ,

My Aunt Gladys sent word this weekend that my parents did, indeed, spend some time in Michigan before moving on to Springfield.  These photographs are in an album and labeled “En Route to Springfield.” Most of them were taken in Idlewild, at my Uncle Louis’ cottage. There were only a couple taken in Detroit, all of my cousin Dee Dee and her mother, Mary Vee in my Graham grandparents yard. My father may have been taking the photographs in Idlewild, because he doesn’t appear in any of them. Henry and Hugh are not in the photos because, I suppose, they were still on the farm.

Grandfather Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr.

Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother Doris, Aunt Gladys, Lillian Payne (family friend), Aunt Barbara, Aunt Anna

Uncle Louis, Aunt Gladys, my mother Doris in the boat “Sassy Suzy”

Idlewild, Mich. 1945 Anna, Doris, Gladys, Louis, Paul, Barbara

Idlewild, Mich. 1945 Doris, Anna, Lillian Payne. Lillian was Paul and George Payne’s sister.

My mother, Doris

The Idlewild Clubhouse

In Detroit my cousin Dee Dee reads to her mother Aunt Mary Vee Elkins

The 7 Year Old Photographer – Wordless Wednesday

Grahams, Wordless Wednesday, , , ,

Photographer DeeDee behind worried Barbara, Poppy with Pearl & me (Kristin) laughing.

My cousin Dee Dee is the seven year old who took the photograph for Three in a Wagon.  This photo was taken the same day in my grandparents backyard.  Barbara still has her pistol and Pearl is still holding her pad and pencil plus Barbara’s boot which is hanging open by her right side. I seem to have traded the doll for a tin of powder?