Linda Grace Morris: Baltimore Boomer Tales from the Hood

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I have my good friend, the late Maxine Richardson, to thank for my career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Maxine was the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Officer at the National Cancer Institute when she hired me in 1980 as an EEO Specialist. I was working for the Baltimore Field Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at the Rotunda in Roland Park, and this was my entry position into the Federal Government. Maxine took me under her wing to mentor me about the politics of the NIH, as well as how to maneuver the complexity of the organizational structure. It wasn't long before we were friends and sharing information about our families. Maxine and her husband, Wendell, both became very dear to me. In this episode, Maxine's daughter shares her memories of growing up in a blended family. She is the spitting image of her Mom!

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If you were just meeting Dr. Vivian Pinn today, you might think that she was someone of Hollywood fame. She says that at one point in her very young life, she wanted to be a singer or dancer--except for the fact that she could neither sing nor dance. Fortunately for us, she found her calling in the world of medicine. Listen to how this child of rural Halifax County, Virginia, found her way from her doting grandparents' farm to the mighty halls of the world's premier biomedical research establishment, the National Institutes of Health.

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Serina is the first guest I have interviewed remotely by cell phone. It took a few minutes to get everything working together, but the wait was worth it. Someone referred her to me as having an interesting story, and she certainly does. I'm not just saying that because there are a lot of similarities with our stories. Listen as Serina's story unfolds.

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Linda Wade and her brother, William, were fortunate enough to grow up in Turner Station, a community in the shadow of the Bethlehem Steel plant in Sparrows Point, Baltimore County. I say fortunate because residents of Sparrows Point and Turner Station had the highest per capita income in the country during the war years into the 1970s. It should be noted that Linda and William's father, Dr. William Wade, Sr., who referred Mrs. Henrietta Lacks, a Turner Station resident and considered the mother of modern biomedical research because of her immortal cell line, to Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment of her cervical cancer. 

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In this episode, you will hear from another member of the iconic Luck family. Season 1, episodes 10 and 25 featured descendants of a slave in Danville, VA, freed at the end of the Civil War, Jerry Luck. Jerry valued education because the law forbade him from obtaining it. He was determined that all of his children would have a good education. He and his newly freed wife, Luvenia, had six children who became doctors, lawyers, and educators. This truly is an American family saga.

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Kai Jackson is the most down-to-earth television personality that you ever will meet. I should have known this because we have been chatting over the past few years about me helping him with a project on Cherry Hill. A native of Washington, DC, he grew up in the Glen Arden section of Prince George's County. Kai was born in 1964, so he just did make it into the Boomer generation. Listen as he shares his story.

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Betty Baze lives and breathes Cherry Hill. She was born in Cherry Hill, and with the exception of three years when she was traveling with her husband in the military, she has lived in Cherry Hill her entire life. She credits her mother as being her role model for advocacy because her mother was always active in the community. As you listen to this episode, you will see how hard it is to get Betty to talk about herself. For her, everything is about her beloved Cherry Hill.

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Sarah is 90 years old, but she remembers details like it was yesterday. She was a hard-working little girl because she was the oldest of four sisters. She helped with diapers and bottles as soon as her sister Mable was born 2 years after her. She was cooking by the time sisters Helen and Gracie came along when she was 5 years old. She always wanted to be helpful. Maybe that's why she became what used to be called a licensed practical nurse. She graduated from high school, got married a couple of years later, and soon left her home in Nassawadox on Virginia's Eastern Shore to make her way in nursing. Hear her very colorful story.

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Helen Harmon Rowley is a loyal daughter of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Born in Nassawadox of Northampton County in 1939, she has always wanted to live there. She had a very colorful journey to becoming a successful career educator despite deficiencies that could have made that impossible. In her early adult years, she desired a government job. However, along the way, she bypassed an interview for a Federal job because of falling in love with teaching. Helen's eagerness to see young people learn and be impacted by her teaching brought her much delight and fond memories.

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Deborah Butler Johnson is another Cherry Hill success story because of the "village" that affirmed, supported, and loved on us. When Deborah was six-years-old, she was as tall as her Mother. At about that age, she was becoming aware that her Mother was a little person, at the time called a dwarf. Throughout her life, Deborah has learned that her Mother's height was not determinative of the Mother's heart that God provides to everyone He entrusts with the care of His precious children. Listen as Deborah shares her story and how the events of our time as Baby Boomers affected her.

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