Blanche Cecelia Ellis (Shelby)
My
mother was born to Amalie and Clovis Rufus Ellis on July 4, 1921, in Mobile,
AL.(birth
certificate) According to my grandmother, a 4th of July picnic was
planned for that day, but their was a different celebration. She died June 28,
2006.
Obituary
She married Sam Shelby September 12,1942, They had 3 children: Gregory (Greg) Ellis born July 14, 1945; Richard (Dick) Edward, born February 23, 1947; and Esther Marie, (a tribute) born Oct18, 1949, and died February 11, 2018.
In
the hundredth year of her birth, my mother’s old senior year high school
yearbook lies on my desk after being read with an old whiskey to
accommodate the thoughts of what her life was like then. Here is a picture of my mother walking down Dauphin St. around 1940, probably
just before she met my father.
Bishop Toolen High School Class of '39 album and high school
year book page.
I'm not sure when my father moved from St. Louis to Mobile, but he was still in St. Louis during the April 2,1940, census. He was dating my mother when he lived in a boarding house at 700 Fulton Rd., which is now Dauphin Island Parkway, May 24, 1941. After my parents married, they lived in the back room of my grandparent's house. Later, they borrowed money from my great-aunt, Laura Franelich, and bought their first house at 12 Pine Street. It wasn't long until they paid my great-aunt back after getting a mortgage from a bank. According to a 1950 census, they were living there March 3,1950. My father worked as a "freight assistant/travel line" for the GM&O railroad. Later that year my father was transferred and the family moved to Birmingham.
My mother worked as a clerk for the GM&O RR in the Superintendent of Transportation's office when she met my father. She left after she married and started their family; she was a full time mother until Esther went to college, and then, with little to do at home, she went back to work.
This
picture of my mother in my jeep best represents her attitude on life and
personality. During a visit to our house in Jupiter, Florida, in the summer around 2002, I offered her the use of either
of our cars so she could get around
during the day since my wife and I were working. She had a choice
between my new Infinity Q45 sedan or my wife's new infinity QX4
SUV. She
looked in the garage and said, "I want the Jeep."
My father (more
information) transferred from Mobile to Birmingham around 1950 but always wanted to get back
to the Mobile area and live on Mobile Bay after he retired. One day,
while he and I were drinking a beer(s) on the backyard patio, he told me
when he retired he wanted to live on Mobile Bay. I told him to let me
know when you and mother are ready; I will build you a house. Several years later I was
living in Riviera Beach, Florida, when he called and told me he wanted his house. I moved to Mobile
and found them 2 connecting 1/2 acre lots on the Mobile Bay. After they came
down and bought those lots, I immediately started cutting trees and
clearing the land. I then laid out the locations of the house,
utilities, yard, driveway, and where the temporary mobile home they
would live in while building the house would be. I drew the
Floor Plans for the house and started work. Looking back through my life, that year building
their house was the 
most rewarding and self-satisfying time of my life. My brother and sister came down with their family on the weekends to help
when they could.
Pictures of the house under construction at various stages and
"time off."
I left home first, then Greg, leaving only Esther, and she was away in college. Esther was on summer break and my mother took her around so she could find a job and work until school started. At one place, Goodall-Brown, a dry goods store in downtown Birmingham, the owner was so impressed with my mother he said I can't use any temporary help, but I'll hire you for a permanent position. My mother said she was surprised at first but warmed up to the idea and after talking it over with my father she accepted his offer. She enjoyed her work there until they moved to Mobile Bay. My father moved down first and we lived together in the mobile home while my mother continued working in Birmingham—she wasn't excited about living in the mobile home.
When I came back from Viet Nam, my neighbor picked me up at the airport and took me home, my father and mother were working. I was just going to hang out and have a couple of beers, but when I called my mother she was so excited she wasn't going to wait for my father to get off to take her home, she was going to take a taxi. The owner of the company offered to drive her home and did. I'll never forget that site of seeing her coming up the driveway to greet me. I was just happy to be home, but that changed when I saw her. I saw the worry of everything that could have happened to me in Viet Nam was written in her face. Many years later, when she left the bay house for an independent living apartment in Fairhope, she gave me every letter I wrote home while in the Marine Corps in Viet Nam. She never mentioned them and I had no idea she saved them until that time. I still have them, but they are like that dark, locked room at the end of the hall nobody goes into.
After my sister died, Greg and I had this tombstone installed at our parent's grave site.
