Today would have been Grandma Carroll’s 108th birthday. It’s easy math for me as she was 50 years and 5 days older than me. It’s also the anniversary of her grandma’s death. My 2x great grandma, Nancy Hendricks, died on this day in 1967, one year before I was born.
I’ve written a few different posts about Grandma Hendricks, but this is the first bio for Grandma Carroll. If you haven’t yet, please read about Grandma Hendricks on these posts:
Grandma Hendricks and Deer Creek
Wannita Eileen Radcliff, aka Grandma Carrol, was the first born daughter of Nancy’s first born daughter, Bessie and her husband Elmer Radcliff. 17 year old Elmer and 19 year old Bessie had eloped to Nickolsville Kentucky, near Cincinnati, on 16 Sep 1915, sending letters home to their families in Danvers after the wedding. They remained in Kentucky util October 22nd according to Newspaper accounts.
Nine months after their return Bessie gave birth to her first child, Charles Howard Radcliff in July of 1916. The newspaper reported Bessie had fallen ill with the measles in April of 1917. This would have been about the time she fell pregnant with her first daughter.
Wannita Eileen Radcliff was born in Danvers 30th of January 1918. World War I was still raging in Europe and Illinois was paralyzed by back to back winter storms that brought 31 inches of snow temperatures as low as -20. Just the day before her birth the Illinois Central railroad faced severe disruptions due to ice jams breaking on the Tennessee River damaging boats near Cairo, Illinois. There were saloon bans in place and an influenza pandemic.
The family moved around often as Elmer moved from laborer job to laborer job. Grandma often told the tales of her and her siblings being evicted to sleep in out buildings when Bessie gave birth to the next sibling. They slept outside when it was hot and huddled together indoors when it was cool, hauling water up to the house from nearby streams, as they did not have indoor plumbing. The didn’t lived in rural locations near Danvers, Deer Creek, Mackinaw and finally Spring Bay, where Bessie died after her 12th home birth to at the age of 38. She had 3 pregnancies back to back in 2 years. The newspaper blamed her death on pneumonia.
Nita was 17 years old when Bessie died and often told of how this occasion meant she had to quit school before graduating from 8th grade (the highest grade most students of that time reached) to take care of her siblings. She also often told of how her father was a mean drunk that was abusive of her mother and her siblings. She often said that if a man hits you once that’s on him. But if he hits you twice that’s on you. She said she hadn’t let her father hit her twice, implying her mother had and she was still angry with her for that. For a school project when I was in grade school I was told to interview a grandparent. I chose Grandma and she told me about what it was like growing up without the things I took for granted, like running water, toilets, store bought – well anything store bought. She made many of her own clothes and those of her children, grew the food they ate. The project was centered on the twenties through the depression. She said she did know of a neighbor who operated a still in the country near where they had lived during prohibition. She said it smelled horrible. She said they were dirt poor during the depression, but that it was all she had ever known so she didn’t see it as unusual.
Two years after Bessie died Nita married John Carroll when she was 19.
Her siblings were sent off to live with various relatives, the youngest, Robert came to live with her and her new husband for several years. John was a farmer, as was his stepfather, in rural Tazewell county and graduated from Deer Creek high school. A year after they were married she gave birth to her first daughter, Ruth Eileen Carroll in June of 1938.
John junior was born three years later and then my mother, Mary two years after that. They lived on a farm near Deer Creek, the kids going to Deer Creek schools and later Danvers. Grandma Hendricks lived in Deer Creek and the local newspaper reported her visit with her in May of 1951 alongside her Aunt Mary.
John and Nita moved from rural Deer Creek to a house they bought in rural Danvers in the early 50s. John had started to work in Peoria at the Caterpillar Tractor company in 41. In 1961 they moved to a new home in rural Carlock, the home my dad still lives in today.
Nita raised her kids, then after John retired from Caterpillar she took jobs in the school cafeteria and babysitting to supplement their income. She and John became foster parents to three children during the 60s for a short time. When their daughter Ruth got divorced they took in her son Steve for a few years until he graduated from high school in 81. The Carroll home was often the site of family get togethers. Once a year in August her siblings from across the county would return to the area for the Hendricks family reunion. Nita made the trip to California to visit her siblings who relocated out there twice over the years.
After John retired from Caterpillar in 1974 he spent most of his day at Junior’s gas station in Congerville, leaving Nita in rural Carlock. She did not like the isolation. She often babysat her grandchildren and worked in her gardens, and knitted dozens of afghans but she didn’t like being out there alone most days. In 1982 they decided to move to a condo in Congerville down the road from Junior’s gas station. Nita enjoyed having neighbors within walking distance. Her granddaughter Mary and her family moved in next door for a time and she enjoyed spending a lot of time with all her grandchildren and all her great grandchildren. She suffered from arthritis in her spine and had difficulty getting out more and more as she aged. She attended the Mennonite Church in Congerville when she was up to it, otherwise listening to the sermons on tape. John was diagnosed with cancer in 1990, eventually needing dialysis and then in March of 1997 he suffered an aneurism in his brain that killed him as he stood up to walk across their living room.
After John’s death Nita moved to an assisted nursing facility in Eureka. She was transferred to full time care due to a broken hip and then to the hospital in Eureka where she died in February of 2001 at the age of 83. She’s buried in Stout’s Grove Cemetery next to John.