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Note: Census: 1920 Alexander City, Tallapoosa County, AL, ED 164, sheet 4A (3 yr - living with parents); 1930 19 First St., Alexander, Tallapoosa County, AL, ED 3, page 1A; 1940 346 Seventh Way, Alexander, Tallapoosa County, AL, ED 62-7, page 5B. He was employed at Russell Manufacturing Co. in Alexander City, AL from 1932 to 1942 as a weaver and loom fixer. He was in the U.S. Army from Oct 1942 to Aug 1943 as a telephone switchboard operator. He moved to Anniston, Calhoun County, AL in 1943. From Sept 1943 to about 1966 he was self-employed as a radio and TV repairman. Also from Nov 1946 to 1977 he was a weaver at the Anniston Manufacturing Company. He wrote about his childhood: "I was born on April 21, 1916 about 3:00 a.m. I understand or was told that my mother was in labor for about six hours. There were no hospitals back then. We lived in a small town called Alexander City in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. My father died just 15 days before I was six years old with his third stroke of paralysis at the age of fifty-four. My mother died at the age of ninety-two, I think from arthritis. I attended school in the building that housed a church and school together. I don't think I ever saw one like it anywhere. It was a company building. The company payed the teachr's salary and everything, I think. That was for the low grades, one through six, I think. They later built a larger building for higher grades. I liked a little finishing the ninth grade. I had to go to work in the weave mill at the age of 14 years old. I worked half time and went to school half time. They worked twelve hours a day then. I worked six hours and then went to school, till I was sixten. And then I went to work full time twelve hours a day for one dollar a day. I was glad to get that, but things began to get better and better, and up and down. My mother married again when I was about nine years old. I was saved by the grace of God at the age of twelve or thirteen. My mother and step-father were church-goers. I met my wife Laura at a revival in Talladega, AL. And I had an old model Ford raodster, and I went back and forth from Alexander City to Talladega to court her. The roads were crooked and were not paved. We were married about six months later on Dec. 23, 1938. Laura worked in a cotton mill just outside Talladetga. in a place called Bemiston. She quit there and went to work in a mill at Alexander City. We left Alex City--in 1942. We went to Talladega for a few months and then went on to Anniston in late 1943 right after our first child was born. Ronnie LaWayne was born Sept. 4, 1943. We had another child on Sept. 19, 1945. We named him Robert Wallace. When we went to Anniston, we moved into a brick store building. And I ran a radio repair service and built us a house to move into. We moved into our new house in January, 1946. And were we proud we had our own house. That was 42 years ago, and we are still here by the grace of God. We are still saved and looking for the Lord to return."
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