I just want to let people know, that's listening to this tape that Mrs.
Annie Bell Cheatham, she was awarded the gold star award, at Belltown
Creek Church, because for her outstanding and her, for her missionary,
and the mission she done to her church. She's the most outstanding
missionary and lady in her church for 1995, and she was, she got the
gold award, and she deserved the whole thing, Mrs. Cheatham and I, I
guess you wonder why we having so much fun, I met Mrs. Cheatham in 1974,
when I went into the NAACP when I moved back to Oxford, Mrs. Cheatham
was the secretary, and we, and Mrs. Cheatham would tell us about when so
and so, when so and so, and we, I asked Mrs. Cheatham, Mrs. Cheatham, I
said, how long you been in NAACP, she would say ever since Mrs. Lester
was secretary, I was assistant secretary. So I said, Mrs. Cheatham, how
long that is, she said I don't know, you ask somebody else, Mrs.
Cheatham knew, but she didn't want me to know she had been in NAACP that
long. So, Mrs. Cheatham started NAACP, we guessing, around 1954, she
started out, she was down at Bell Town, the went to Creedmoor, and they
came back to Oxford, and we, we got awarded together,
Page 41 Mrs. Cheatham and I, for twelve years serving under the previous
administration that we served, and we been dealing with it, we been
carrying on our shoulder ever since we got in it, and we took it
serious, Mrs. Cheatham is a serious person. She be at meetings on time,
she always dress like my mother, she don't go out of the house, if she
don't have a hat, and a scarf and be dressed, that mean if she go to the
grocery store. Now, I'm might get back to talk to Mrs. Cheatham again, I
hope, but we having so much fun, but I just want to let you know that
Mrs. Cheatham and I, we are friends, more than friends, we can talk
about things, and we won't hurt, and she treats me like a son or
whatever, I, I'm just as much a son as there is anybody else, 'cause
when she, she just feels that way, and she can talk about anything, and
she's truthful, and a loving lady, and I won't find a better person to
work with, than Mrs. Cheatham, she's church-going lady, and she's
serious. What she do, she's serious about. She don't play. If she got to
be in an organization, you got to put her to work, or she's not going to
join. I, I don't join an organization just to say I'm in one. I'm like
Mrs. Cheatham, if I'm going to be in an organization, I'm going to work,
if I can't work, there is no need in even being in it. And I'm. . . .
So, Mrs. Cheatham, we'll move on now, and let's talk about your kids,
when they start going home, going away. . . .oh, no we just getting
started, tell me about your children when they started going away up
north, and come on, let's go.