Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 9 August 2007 — Page 10

Page 10 • The Muncie Times • August 9, 2007

continued from page 7 Burks Jr. (Margaret’s son) - Sonny was a Bearcat through and through. Handsome (as all my male cousins) and dapper down to a fine art. Sonny gave me the name Huckle Buck as a kid because I liked to dance. I greatly admired his love and devotion to his parents and family. One outstanding moment in the history of our family and this community is the stand taken by residents of the Whitely neighborhood in response to the infamous 1930 Marion lynchings. My grandfather Anderson Blair, great uncle, Isaac Wingfield, with Trooper Taylor riding shotgun, joined the mortician of Johnson’s funeral home, Reverend J. E. Johnson,

to retrieve the bodies of the two young men who had been lynched in Marion, In. bringing them to Muncie to prepare for burial. The neighborhood residents took up arms in their homes and at Shaffer Chapel A.M.E. Church to guard against any further violence or possible retaliation at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). This writer, some years later had the privilege of covering the governor’s pardon of the late Mr. James Cameron, founder of the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the sole survivor of that horrendous act of hatred.. It’s been great sharing just some of my family recollections and with the Muncie Homecoming

The “Cousins” at Carolyn’s 5th birthday party. From Left - Right: Jayne Ann, Carolyn Gonda Jean, Joyce Ann and Judith Ann.

Festival, I’m sure there is good and perfect is will be more to enjoy and already established for pass on to subsequent your life. Possess it generations. To all of my through the Lord and family, I love you. Savior Jesus Christ. Continue to walk with God and everything that On behalf of our family.

we honor those who have exchanged time for time eternal: Isaac and Alice Wingfield Anderson and Amy Blair Isaac, Randolph and John Wingfield Sara Priestly Inez Wingfield Luella Blair Alyce and Clem E. Findley Sr. Marion Blair Louis Blair Charles Blair Evelyn Blair John Blair Jacqueline Blair Mary Alice Clemens William Blair Ester Owen Burks Sr. Jayne Ann Burks Bruce Anthony Blair Ester Owen “Sonny” Burks And to the memory of all our Muncie families and friends. God bless you.