I was notified in February 2005 of the death 0f my first cousin Violet "Vi" Johnson Anthony at her home in Greensboro, NC, in January. Vi was the youngest child of my mother's oldest sister, Katie Lou, and was born in Elberton in 1923. Vi occasionally visited us and I saw her in Elberton frequently. I remember that on a visit to Washington about 1932 Vi and I went to a carnival and rode the Ferris wheel. Perhaps two years later in 1934 I was having lunch at Vi's house in Elberton when it was announced that Marion Reeves Patterson, an older sister of Mother's, wanted to adopt Vi and take her to Greensboro, NC, to live. This was agreed to and they left shortly. On June 23, 1936, I went to Greensboro for a visit with Marion, Vi, and Vi's sister Katherine. We went in Marion's 1934 Packard. I remember that Mother and my brother Jimsie came up within a week or so, and that Daddy came up to bring us home on July 23. I went back to Greensboro the next two summers for visits of a week or so. Marion and her husband, Dr. Fred Patterson, lived well and Vi benefitted from the move. Vi graduated from college in North Carolina and married Jimmy Anthony. They had two children, son Pat and daughter Kay. I seldom saw Vi, except for a few funerals.
posted by W T Johnson @ 8:35 PM
I recently found this photograph of Vi's "Uncle Fred" Patterson at the time he was a sergeant in the 30th Division during World War I. He was wounded September 12, 1918, in the battle of St. Mihiel, causing him to lose a leg. This cut short his plans for an athletic career and led to him becoming an MD. I talked to his namesake today, Fred Patterson "Patt" Anthony, Vi's older child, and he told me he understands "Uncle Fred" died in 1974 and was buried in Concord, NC.
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