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And your full birth name? ETHELENE McCABE ALLEN: Beulah Ethelene McCabe. I didn't have a birth certificate. There was a midwife that delivered me. Doctors delivered the rest of them. But she had had one and I think it might have been ten dollars to deliver - for the doctor to come out and deliver and it was five dollars for a midwife, so she saved money by having the midwife come and deliver me. I grew up with dark eyes. The others had blue eyes and I had the dark – the brown eyes, like Daddy, and a little darker skin. I tanned easily; it was fair skin, but yet it was – Maverene and the others had the light enough skin that they freckled slightly and I never had a freckle on my face. I just had really smooth skin and no blemishes, except that little tiny mole above the lip. They said the reason I was dark is because the black woman delivered me.

BARBARA C. ALLEN:

The midwife? ETHELENE McCABE ALLEN: The midwife. She was a black lady in the community that did that. She was known as a midwife. She didn't make out a birth certificate for me. Mama didn't realize it was that important at that time. The rest of them got birth certificates but I didn't.

BARBARA C. ALLEN:

So all the rest were delivered by doctors? At home? Not in a hospital? ETHELENE McCABE ALLEN: By doctors at home. Not in a hospital. The doctors came out to the home.

BARBARA C. ALLEN:

And the doctors were all males – white males? ETHELENE McCABE ALLEN: Yes.

BARBARA C. ALLEN:

Who would make that comment about you being darker because of - ETHELENE McCABE ALLEN: Oh my brother Cecil probably started it. He loved to pick and aggravate and do anything he could to -

BARBARA C. ALLEN:

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