Ruth

Like her husband, Ruth was born in 1921 into farm life. She, however, was born and raised in Bladen County, North Carolina. Like all farmer’s children, Ruth had not only her chores, but her schoolwork. And like all large families, she had younger siblings to help tend to.




On Sunday’s there was church, and a day of rest, only for it to all begin again on Monday. But they worked as a family, all eventually growing up to have their own families. Ruth graduated from high school, continuing to work on the family farm. She also sold magazines to help make ends meet. It was around this time that she met her future husband, who she married in November of 1941. She and Odis settled down to raise a family and tobacco.




By the Fall of 1942 they were expecting their first child when Granddaddy was unexpectedly drafted. Ruth moved back in with her parents after Granddaddy left for Fort Bragg, staying there until after Linda was born. Six months later, the pair moved to Paris, Texas, where Granddaddy was stationed – likely at Camp Maxey. Years later, Grandmama told stories of her time there, including sharing a home with multiple families but only having one kitchen. They moved from there on a rainy day, and she recalled accidentally dropping clothes in a muddy hole. She said that on their way home to North Carolina, soldiers helped take care of the baby.



After Granddaddy was discharged from the Army, they renewed their life together, having a total of five children – four girls and a boy. Grandmama was not one to be scared off by a little hard work. While living in Bladenboro, she worked for Bladenboro Cotton Mills to supplement the income Granddaddy received from farming and driving a truck. Her commitment to her family was foremost, however, as she didn’t go to work until after her younger children were almost in high school.





After moving to Charlotte, she went to work as the manager of Myers Park Elementary School’s lunch cafeteria. On Sunday’s she and her two youngest girls would go to the school to take inventory and bake cookies. Later she was a snack bar manager at Zayre and at Woolco.

It seems food and cooking was something Ruth loved. Her grandchildren recall Ruth serving Sunday lunches, Southern style, and good old fashioned Thanksgiving meals. Home canned tomatoes and okra lined her basement shelves.

Grandmama loved her family, and had a strong sense of Christian faith. She knew the difficulties of large families, however, and shared those difficulties with me when I was expecting my fifth child. She never wanted her grandchildren and great-grandchildren to have to make what she felt were sacrifices her family had to endure.


Ruth’s last years were spent in a nursing home in Gastonia, North Carolina. She died there in 2007,  just weeks before I learned I was expecting my last child. Despite Grandmama’s concerns, her love of family and her ability to handle adversity was part of what inspired me to have a large family. Ruth was 85 years old.

Grandaddy

Linda’s father, Odis Cain, was born into a family of farmers in Appling County, Georgia in 1921. He was the second boy of nine children, and likely carried a large share of the workload on their portion of the family farm.

Odis and his siblings attended a small, rural school, in this Southern Georgia County. Unfortunately, at that time educational standards were lacking, and even though he attended school for many years he was only able to attain a second grade education. Granddaddy related years later to his daughter, Carol, that the schoolteacher didn’t like him and basically just ignored him in favor of the other students, refusing to promote him. This likely made Odis’s early life difficult, and probably played a factor in his decision to continue the farming tradition.

Odis’s grandfather had migrated to Georgia from Bladen County, North Carolina during the late 1800’s. North Carolina must have been in the family blood, though, because sometime between 1935 and 1940 Odis’s older sister and her husband had returned to Bladen County, Odis not far behind.
It’s unclear exactly why Granddaddy left Georgia – rumors fly, but the truth may never be known. However, once there he began working on a farm, possibly working with his brother-in-law who was a share cropper. Eventually Granddaddy met Ruth Russ and settled down to start a family and a farm. Unfortunately, the world disrupted this simple farmer’s life.



Grandaddy was drafted into the U.S. Army, and his service began in November of 1942, a year after marrying Ruth. He entered the Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina as a part of the 394th Regiment of the 99th Division of the Infantry. The division stayed stateside until September, 1944, when they were deployed to the European Theater. This Division was nicknamed the “Battle Babies” due to their lack of combat experience. They weren’t considered babies for long, however, as the unit played a pivotal roll in the Battle of the Bulge. This is where Granddaddy was taken a prisoner of war.
Somewhere around December 19, 1944, he was captured by the Germans. He and other prisoners were eventually transported to Stalag IV-B Mühlberg, Germany. He was repatriated three months later, and discharged from the Army at Fort Lewis, Washington, in November of 1945. This time of his life was a rare topic at home for nearly fifty years.



Settling into civilian life was difficult for Grandaddy. He had missed not only the birth of his oldest child, but was also not a part of her home life for most of her first three years. Eventually, however, they became a family again, and he became a tenant farmer in North Carolina. The family crop was tobacco, and like Odis himself, his children carried a portion of the workload before and after school. Tobacco was a part of Odis’s life; he even has a niece who recalls him making paper wreathes out of folded Lucky Strike cigarette packs.



During the Winter months Granddaddy drove a truck relaying newspapers from Charlotte to Southeastern North Carolina. Eventually he accepted a job driving the first leg from Charlotte, and moved his family there.

His time in the Army was beneficial to his education, and he eventually enrolled in math courses at a Charlotte area school. He received training as a welder and got a job at Wilmat making small machinery parts, following the company to Bessemer City when it was relocated.

Grandaddy remained in the Gastonia area for the remainder of his life, raising grapes and spending time with his grandchildren on his side porch or rocking in his chair in his living room.


Granddaddy once told his great grandson that he didn’t consider himself a hero – he had a job to do in Europe, and he did it. But to us, and to millions of Americans, he was a hero. And the fact that he didn’t wear the hat of a hero makes him a hero all the more.

Granddaddy passed away in 2005. And he is missed.

Your sacrifices are not forgotten.