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Note: Dorphus Moody was born on February 22, 1895 in Jackson, North Carolina to Rebecca Jane Moody and Bill Rival. He was Cherokee and Irish. He began his life with the absence of his father who moved to Boston, Massachusetts while his mother was pregnant with him. He was the second child. According to the 1900 Census of North Carolina-Occoneeche Township, his mother met a man named William Gary, the son of Solomon and Sallie Gary, they were married in 1900. William Gary changed the man of his two step-children, Sidney and Dorphus to Gary. He married Emma Elizabeth Parker on March 6, 1916 at Parker Baptist Church in Jackson, North Carolina. They were married by her father, the Rev. Jessie Burton Parker. They began their marriage by living in a home build in the entrance of the property owned by her mother, Minnie, and step-father, Harrison Moody. They had sixteen children. The oldest child was Dorphus Gary, Jr. who died of diphtheria when he was a little baby. On August 27, 1916, James Authur Gary was born. The third child, Roger was born on September 12, 1917. The oldest daughter, Lenora was born around 1920. They decided to move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dorphus worked at Bethlehem Steel while in Pittsburgh. They had a daughter, Margie, on October 28, 1924. They returned to Jackson because they needed to return to the farm and get away from the city life they didn't like at all. They had a daughter, Clementine, who was named after Emma's sister who disappeared ten years earlier, on December 26, 1926. In 1928, Samuel Gary was born. On September 1, 1930, Dorothy Mae was born. Two years later, Minnie Mae was born. The children were born every year thereafter. Chester, Wilson, Ida, Shirley, Rosemary. Two children must have died when they were children but only the names of 14 are known. In 1937, Dorphus and Emma moved to Boston with the hope that Dorphus could find his father, Bill Rival. The youngest three children, Ida, Shirley, and Rose were born in Boston was a supervisor at a department store in Boston, according to his daughter, Dorothy Mae Gary Newsome. They lived in Boston for over 11 years in a place called Dorchester, west of Boston. Emma decided to take the children back to North Carolina, upon the death of her mother, Minnie Moody, who left the land to her children. Dorphus continued to stay in Boston to make the money. He would come home on holidays and in the summer for his vacation. He returned to Jackson after he became sick. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on March 6, 1966 at their home in Seaboard, North Carolina. While attending the animals on the farm, he had a heart attack and died on September 16, 1967. He was buried in the Moody Cemetery on September 22, 1967. He was a hard working man who was faithful to his wife and took good care of his children. He was mixed with Irish and Cherokee but always considered himself as a black man. In some cases he could go for white which made it possible for him to get some of the jobs that some blacks couldn't get. He took full advantage of this fact. I love my great grandfather for his willing to go the extra mile for his people and family. He will be forever missed.[Darryl Eley I2.FTW]
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