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Note: Bess Alethia Gready had the following comment about her mother. Bessie Emmett Adair was born August 27, 1894. She lived in the parental home with her brothers and sisters until the tragedy of losing both parents changed all their lives. He mother, Alethia (Minnie) Adair died after an appendectomy, result of a wrong diagnosis. She had a tumor. This must have been quite a blow to Bessie and the other childre. The Adair family had a housekeeper to look after the family. From what my mother told me, this housekeeper was either a very superstitious type or used this tactic to scare the children. The house at 8 Water Street was haunted, sounds of dishes falling out of the cabinet were heard, and the like. My theory, based on this background, might have been the influence that urged four of the sisters to visit fortune tellers and spiritualists. This was not unusual for the decades of the 20s through the 50s. Such actions faded out as new means of 'entertainment' came along.
The next blow to the family was the death of Captain Adair. Bessie was 14 years old. By this time the older sisters and brother Lewis were married. Bessie was sent to live with Nettie and her husband, A.L. Moisson, and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Leonie. For a short time Bessie lived with the Eudora Welch family, prior it is presumed to staying with the Moissons. Bessie was 10 years older than Elizabeth and 12 years older than Leonie. The living situation was apparently satisfactory all around as Bess (she dropped the 'ie'), Nettie, and nieces were fast friends all of her life. Bess went to work as a bookkeeper for Haverty Furniture Company. It was here that she met James Rodolph Gready, a furniture salesman, her future husband. They were married October 17, 1917 in Grace Episcopal Church with Rev. William Way officiating. She had a happy time as a young woman; parties, the walks and singing on the way home, the good times on the boat Didi, trips to the Isle of Palms via the ferry and the street car.
To her, day by day living in that era of her life seemed calmer, uncomplicated, and safer, but it might just be restropective nostalgia. as is common to every generation. Bess and Rodolph took off for their honeymoon to Savannah, Georgia, on the Atlantic Coastline Railroad, at the Charleston Union Station. Their first home was on Kenilworth Avenue in the Northwest section of Charleston. 1917 was the year the U.S. entered World War I. Rodolph was exempted because he was married. 1918 was the year of important events__ a world wide influenza epidemic (pandemic) of which Rodolph was a victim, and their first child, Bess Alethia Gready, was born November 10, 1918. She ingratiated herself at an early age with the neighborhood grocer, Mr. Edwin Ruus of H. Buck and Son at the N.W. corner of Spring Street and Ashley Avenue. It is said that she picked up all the beans thrown on the floor by less tidy tots. At the age of three she also entertained (?) visitors with the singing of 'Peggy O'Neil', complete with curtsey.
At this time the family lived at 211 Ashley Avenue. There was usually a helpful domestic in the Gready household. During the early years of Bess' life there was Maude Venning. She took young Bess for walks (Bennetts Rice Mill) and made her breakfast waffles shaped like locomotives and other shapes. From Ashley Avenue the family moved to 81 Beaufain Street. The houses in that part of the block between Logan and Smith Sixth Streets__ many years subsequent, were torn down to make way for a low cost housing project.
Bess was about six years old in November 1924, but this celebration was preceded by another, the arrival of Ethel Julia Gready on September 27th. Bess started first grade 1A at Crafts School the following February 1925. Her friends and playmates at this time were Jane Hasell and Corinne Skinner. One afternoon while swinging on Jane's grandmother Simmons' porch, Bess didn't like how high she was being pushed and jumped out. Wham! The back ofthe swing caught her on the chin on it's underside and required stitches. The scar is still there. The next week, Bess put a sucker in her mouth while plasying ball. The ball hit the sucker and her throat required stitches.
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