Fifth Generation

This is either a picture of Jospeh Magruder Tucker Sr. or Joseph Magruder Tucker Jr from Ripley, TN.

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10. Joseph Magruder Tucker was born on June 14, 1883 and died on August 23, 1951. On November 29, 1906 he married Ida Pope Majors. He was the son of William Tucker and Annie Elizabeth Watkins.

I don’t know much about Joseph Tucker’s childhood. I know he attended school, but I don’t know if he went to college. He probably helped his father run his grocery store in Ripley, TN. I have seen this area before. I don’t know what it is like today. The Tucker grocery was nearby Berg and Shafer which might still be in business. The daughter of the owner was Betty Berg, my grandmother’s best friend. They were Jewish and are among the prominent familes of Ripley. I have stayed at Miss Betty’s house which is above the business. The Tucker’s lived in another home which we have a picture of. Joseph, who was known as Joe Tucker married Ida Pope Majors when he was 23. They quickly had 6 children. In 1910 he worked as a mail carrier according to the census. At some point they lived with his brother-in-law in Arkansas, probably to help with his business and then after the brother died, Joe and his small family returned to Ripley where he ran his own business. He either ran or helped run a Lumber Mill and later owned a car lot. My grandmother told me how her father gave her a car when she was only 14 years old. His wife became very ill around 1919 and had to be hospitalized. She gave birth to her youngest child, Frances in 1920. Ida Majors Tucker spent the rest of her life in a hospital. The newspapers of Lauderdale County record that Joe and family went to visit Ida often. He hired a Mrs. Harris to take care of the children in her absence. She died in 1925. Joe Tucker was said to have a great sense of humor. He did a lot of work in his community and became mayor of Ripley, TN. During WWII all five of his sons served in the war doing different kind of work. He died in 1951

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11. Ida Pope Majors was born in Ripley, TN on January 4, 1885. She died on April 11, 1925 in Bolivar, Hardeman, Tennessee. She is the daughter of Marshall Daniel Majors and Ida May Landrum.

Ida’s mother died when she was young and she was raised by her Aunt Minnie Bacon. I still have an original letter written by her to her Aunt in 1898. She wrote well and was well educated. I think she might have learned a little Latin. She lived on her father’s berry farm outside of Ripley, TN and would help pick the berries for supper. She had pets and loved her pet chicken Henry. She had quite an amazing sense of humor and was full of imagination. I don’t know much about her older teen years but I know she attended school. She married Joe Tucker when she was 21 and my family still has a copy of their wedding invitation. She was close to her family and had her brothers live with her or she and her husband would live with them. She had her six children quickly. By the sixth she became so ill that she was put in a hospital. As doctors were unfamiliar with women’s health, she was treated as insane. We still don’t know the full nature of her problem. Joe Tucker tried desperately to help her and probably on the advice of doctors she was put in an insane asylum which was a normal thing to do to women at the time. In the Lauderdale County paper there are reports of other women who were sent to “Bolivar” because they were “ill”. There she contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 40.

My grandmother doesn’t remember her much, but kept a picture of her on her wall. Once when she thought she was dying she kept looking at the picture of her mother and saying first that she would soon meet her mother, and then to her dad’s picture she said, “I will see Daddy again!” Of course she was fine, but I have never seen someone so excited to die. She had a close family and she is the last one left. She can’t wait to see them on the other side and finally get to know her beautiful witty mother, Ida Majors.

The children of Joseph Magruder Tucker and Ida Pope Majors

1. Joseph Magruder Tucker Jr. 1907-1987 Married Agnes Foust

2. Landrum Sylvanus Tucker 1910- 1986 Married Helen Roberts

3. Marshall Majors Tucker 1912-1992 Married Justine Perkins

4. John Randolph Tucker 1915- 1989 Married Cornelia Helen Hill

5. Matthew Tucker 1919-1996 Married Jean Smith

6. Frances Tucker 1920- Married Lt Col Charles Henry Lee Sr.

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4. Charles Henry Lee Sr. was born in 1920 in Atlanta, Fulton, GA and died on the 12th of June 2005. He is the son of Julian McLin Keith and Ruth Hester Fowler and the stepson of Irby Overton Lee. On March 31, 1941 he married Frances Tucker. He is buried at the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, TN because he was a veteran on WWII and was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army.

He was born Charles Henry Keith. He was named after his grandfathers, Charles Keith and William Henry Fowler. He was a serious child and was the only child. He loved military stuff. His neighbors fought in WWI along with an uncle. His mother, Ruth Fowler spoiled him and dressed him in fancy clothes. His father Julian Keith was a handsome charming man according to the few pictures I have seen. They divorced when Charles Henry KEith was a child. Ruth married Irby Lee. During the depression they moved around a lot. They lived in Texas for a while and then to Chatttanooga, TN where his step father owned a furniture store. He never saw his biological father again. Irby Lee adopted Charles Keith and his name was changed to Charles Henry Lee. He grew up Presbetyrian in Chattanooga and went to High School there. He was good with math and science and loved foreign language and boxing. He went to University at the University of Tennessee Knoxville Campus and studied Engineering. He was handsome, but was kind of a nerd and dressed in clothes his mother picked out for him. He met his wife, Frances Tucker, a sorority girl. SHe dated him on a dare but discovered she loved him. They found out they shared a passion in tennis. They eloped to be married after a two month courtship. WWII had begun and my grandfather volunteered to be a pilot, his long dream. He became a pilot and in 1944 flew on a mission to Romania, on the way back he was shot down in Italy and became missing in action for a few months until early 1945. We still have the letters. He came home soon after he was found and moved to Ripley, TN where his wife’s fmaily lived and his father-in-law was mayor. In Ripley, he had his 4 children. He went active duty again and was stationed at Fort Knox, KY. His wife hated it and his son learned how to say curse words there. He then was an architect in Jackson, TN and then moved to Memphis where he worked at the Housing and Urban development. After his childre grew up, he took a job with HUD in Florida where he then retired. Then his parents in Chattanooga became ill and his father Irby Lee died. They moved to Chattanooga to take care of the elderly Ruth Lee. They would still take trips to Florida and Las Vegas with friends and enjoyed life until they became too old. My grandfather has several strokes and bowl problems and lived in pain for many years. He finally passed away when he was 85 years old.

5. Frances Tucker was born in 1920 and is still alive. She was born in Ripley, Lauderdale, TN and is the daughter of Joseph Magruder Tucker and Ida Pope Majors. She had five older brothers and she was the youngest.

Her mother died when she was 5. She loved growing up in Ripley. She was best friends with Betty Berg whose parents owned Berf and Schaeffer. Frances’ father also owned a couple of businesses in Ripley. He worked hard in his community and later became mayor of the town. My grandmother was pretty as a princess, but growing up with all boys, she loved tennis and basketball. She was sent to an all girl’s school along with her good friend Betty. Then she went to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and was a sorority girl. She became scandalous when she began dating the nerdy non frat boy Charles Lee. She and her friends would make fun of Charles as he sat alone in the cafeteria wearing the ugliest sweaters. Her friends dared her to ask him out on a date. They did and she fell in love. Under that ugly sweater was a tall, handsome, intelligent man. In 1942, they eloped to be married. Her husband soon joined the army to become a pilot. She followed him whereever he went to train and even went to Idaho. After he had to leave to go to EUrope, my grandmother drove all the way from Idaho to Tennessee by herself. She stopped in Utah and said she saw the Salt Lake Temple. Her husband was shot down in Europe and was missing in action. This was a scary time for her. She spent the time playing Bridge to get her mind off of her troubles. She was happy when he was found and told him in a letter she would try to lose all of the weight she gained eating while she was worried about him. They lived in Ripley, where her husband worked for her father. She had four children there. She hired a baby nurse even though at first she thought it was a bad idea to do so. She always played bridge and would join social clubs. She loved that sort of thing. She hated it when her husband went to Fort KNox and thought Kentucky was “too Yankee”. She lieved in JAckson where she played bridge and then to Memphis where she did a lot of community type work and was active in church. She always believed in having fun and would regularly play tennis and go to the beaches in Florida to swim. Whereever she lived she would do work in her communities and join social clubs. She loved FLorida and had many friends, but she moved to Chattanooga to care for her mother-in-law. She still kept in touch with Betty Berg who now was married to a man named Herbert. (I can’t remember his last name) THey went to LAs Vegas together. Finally, she got too old. Her husband died in 2005. She is one of the last of her generation alive. She is now living near Knoxville.

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1. My father was born in Ripley, TN in 1956. His name is Charles Henry Lee Jr. He was named after his father, Lt.Col. Charles Henry Lee Sr.His mother is Frances Tucker.

He has one older brother and two older sisters. His father was in the Army reserves and was a pilot who fought in WWII. When he was young they went to Kentucky and were stationed at Fort Knox. Then they lived in Jackson, TN where my father lived around the corner from his future wife. They moved to Memphis when my father was 6. A couple of his uncles lived in Memphis. His mother’s parents were passed away, his father’s parents lived in Chattanooga, TN. They loved to go on trips to Florida and would visit their grandparents in Chattanooga. He also had an uncle in Johnson City, TN and one in Florida. He went to Grandview Elementary, GEorgian Hills Junior High, East High, and then Trezevant High, which he hated. He loved speech class and drama and was supposed to be very good. He loves reciting poems to this day and is an excellent speaker. He grew up Presbyterian and also went to a Baptist church sometimes, but then he met my mother when he was 17. She was LDS. When he was 19 he was baptized into the LDS church. He also attended Memphis State University and studied Accounting. After my mother graduated from High School, they married. One year later, they traveled to Utah to get sealed in the temple. My father dropped out of university when my mother became pregnant with me. After a couple of years he started his own business. He had a glass company. He lived in my grandparent’s house in Memphis after they retired to Florida. He had to pay rent. He was real close to his brother and sisters and would visit them on the weekends. He was also very active in the LDS church and became a second counselor of our ward. When I was around 4, he went back to school and got an Associates degree in Computer Science. He still ran a business on his own at the time. He switched his business when I was older to Property Management and managed 180 properties throughout Memphis. After several years, he decided on a change. The business wasn’t go all well and he did not like the dishonesty of the property owners. He also believed that Memphis wasn’t the best environment for his children. He looked around for jobs, but the economy was bad at the time. He moved his family into his grandmother’s house in Chattanooga. My mother took care of her while my father did what he could to provide for his children. After 6 months, he finally found a job doing computer work. He is still with the company to this day. In Chattanooga, he and my mother took care of his grandmother until she died in 1992 and then they took care of his own parents when they became too ill. He stayed in Chattanooga to care for his parents until his father passed away in 2005. His sister MArsha took over the care of his mother and soon after he bought property in Alabama. He built his dream house. Now he is busy as the Branch President. He is a great example of faith and optimism and taught me to never give up n matter how difficult life becomes.

3. My mother is Patti Etheridge. She was named after a contestant in the Miss Tennessee pageant. She was born in Humboldt,TN in 1956 but was raised in Jackson, TN until she was 16. She is the daughter of James William Etheridge and Nancy Jane Johnson.

When she was two, her parents became members of the LDS church. Her favorite memories are of going to her father’s mother’s home, Lena Burns Etheridge. She was real close to her. She called them Mamaw and Papaw. Her great grandfather was still alive and she called him Papa Burns. They lived in Trenton, TN along with her Aunt Gerry. Her other grandmother lived in Dyer, TN. She wasn’t as close, but she still has wonderful memories of her and loved the way she talked. She also loved seeing her grandfather and staying at her Aunt Peggy’s farm. She loved farms and animals unlike her mother who hated them. My mother was a beautiful child with long black curly hair, white skin, and huge blue eyes. She entered a beauty contest but lost to the mayor’s daughter. My grandmother still kept my mother’s hair from when she was a child and showed it to us. My mother thought that was disgusting. She had two younger sisters and one younger brother. When she was a teen her parents adopted another brother. My mother went all over the United States. They went to Utah to go to the temple and be sealed together as a family. They visited my grandfather’s cousin in Chicago. They still have film of these adventures. When my mother was 16 her family moved to Memphis, where my grandfather had a sound equipment business with his brother. My mother went to Trezevent. There she was great in Biology class and History. She was put in an advanced level Biology class that was equal to a college course and excelled. She met my father at this time. When she was 18 she married my father. She had five children, one girl and four boys. Her dream was to have a comfortable home and this was promised to her in a blessing. She never seemed to have her home. We lived in her parents in law’s house, and then when she and my father bought a house, the neighborhood soon went bad and was unsafe. Then she had to live in her husband’s grandmother’s small 50 year old home with five children. She never gave up her faith that she would someday be blessed with her own home. She was faithful in church and became a great genealogist and helped many people with their genealogy in the Chattanooga Family History Center. She took care of her in-laws even when they weren’t so grateful. She took very good care of her children and protected them as much as she could. Her sons went on missions all over the world and all were married in the temple except the youngest who is too young at this time. He is preparing to go on a mission this year. She is a very intelligent detailed woman who loves to tell you stories about her family. She is an excellent grandmother and wants to be like her Mamaw Lena Burns was and follow her example. She is still very close to her parents who come to visit often. Finally, in 2005 she built her dream home and it is a place of comfort and love for the entire family to gather. The home she was promised was finally given to her.

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Before I talk about the immigrants, which in family meant I will be talking about my family 8 to 10 generations back, I will start with the present and move backwards to the Fifth generation before I start at the beginning and move forward. That is the proper way to do genealogy I have learned. You start with the most present and move backwards. I am still a beginner at this! So I will start with myself, I am 1 and move back.

1. I will not give my full name for privacy purposes but my last name is Lee and I was born in Memphis, TN in 1977 two weeks before Elvis Presley died in the same city. I have no middle name as my parents thought that since I would eventually marry I could use Lee as my middle name. I am the daughter of Charles Henry Lee and Patti Etheridge.
I grew up in the LDS church which was difficult to be in the South. I have four brothers and in Memphis as a child most of my relatives lived nearby except for my father’s parents who lived in Florida. I would see my relatives every week and visit my grandparents in Florida in the summer. We lived in my father’s parents’ house until I was 7 years old. My mother has a sister in California and we would visit her every few years. We would go to my great grandmother’s house (Mildred Warren Johnson) in Dyer, TN for Thanksgiving. My great- grandmother would not cook turkey, but cooked chicken. There I would see all of my great grandmother’s relatives. On Friday’s we went to my Aunt Ida’s house (my father’s sister). She was married to Jimmy Hart who is an entertainer. They had lots of fun things to do at their house. Aunt Ida likes watching scary movies and we would drink coke, eat pizza and popcorn at her house. She would have the best Halloween parties. She moved to Florida by the 1990’s. My dad’s brother Irby moved to LA, California, and MArsha moved to Knoxville when I was very little. We soon started going to her house for Thanksgiving where we would play Nintendo games all day. We moved into our own house when I was 7. My mother’s family still all lived nearby. We would see my mother’s parents on a regular basis. I went to Grandview Elementary School and later went to Craigmont Junior High which I hated. Then when I was 14 we moved to Chattanooga, TN. We moved into my great grandmother’s house, Ruth Fowler Keith Lee. My father’s parents lived 10 minutes away. I went to Tyner High School which was a terrible school, my parents put me into a county school, East Ridge High. I did choir, but I loved history and language and would spend hours reading and studying language. I started University at UT Chattanooga. I started out in International Business. I did soem volunteer work in the ESOL department and decided to get into TESOL. I went to BYU Hawaii campus to study TESOL which has one of the best programs in the nation. I got married, ran out of money, and came back to TN after a year but took enough classes to teach ESOL. I did an internship at Walt Disney World and was in an International Exchange program where I studied at Yonsei University in South Korea. I work on my minor in International Studies there. I finished a degree in English at UTC in 1999. I got a divorce in 2000, and had no children. In 2001, I became an ESOL teacher for Hamilton County,TN. I had met my present husband during that time. He was in New York when 9/11 happened and soon went active duty military. After boot camp he was sent to Hawaii to Schofield Barracks. I joined him soon after and we were married in Hawaii. So, I was married twice in Hawaii. He went to Iraq. He is now in the reserves and we now live near DC. I am a housewife and proud of it and have three small children.

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