THE HISTORY OF THE SCURRYS TOLD TO ME AS

THE HISTORY OF THE SCURRYS TOLD TO ME AS A CHILD
Prepared for the Franklin Family Reunion
August 7—9, 2009
Lillie C. Scurry was born 18 and 98 ( this how she tell you her year of birth) to Sally and Robert Franklin, Sr.  I believe that she was born in Lawtey, Florida.  Today, I am not sure of anything.  To hear things from the prospective of a child is not the same as hearing it at age 70.  This is what she told me:  Lillie was her father’s favorite and her mother’s irritant.  She tells the stories of slipping into the dance halls.  When the band leader would yell:  “You are not dancing until you show your drawers!”  She would reach down to pull her petticoat up and her two big brothers would be right there to pick her up and deliver her home.

Her father, adored her even though he was a preacher, farmer, and had a high degree with the Masons.  She thought his knowledge was supernatural since every time she would be getting herself in trouble, she could feel his eyes on her.  When he went away on his business trips she would sneak into his secret place and try to look the Masonic paraphernalia.  She never got a look because it as if he was standing right there next to her.  During his absences, Sally, her mother would tie her up in the rafters and beat her until the “blood would run down”.  She was not allowed to tell her father.

So, she decided to run away.  In walked the Devil, his name was Thomas Brice.  She had to call him Mr. Tom.  So he stole her heart and she married him at thirteen years old and he was forty-five.  Soon after the marriage, she realized her mistake since Mr. Tom was mean, authoritarian and physically abusive.  She ran back home.  Sally told her:  “You have made your bed, you will lie in it.”  She put her into the buggy and carried her right back to Mr. Tom.

She told Mr. Tom that she was with child, on a cold moonlit, night so he took her outside the house by the chimney, and beat her until the child was expelled.  He jerked her up and took her into the house, leaving the fetus on the ground.  The next morning when he was gone to work, she found the child covered with ants.  She buried it.

Then, Mr. Tom started seeing the older woman across the street, who had two daughters Lillie’s age or a bit older.  One faithful day, he told her that he was leaving her.  She went into hysterics.  She screamed and begged him not to leave her.  As they were pulling away, she was letting herself fall off the high porch hoping to break her neck.  She could not see how she could live without him.  After all, she now had neither family nor a husband.  She was in a terrible place.  What did she have left?  She had a heritage and an unflinching belief in God.  She had qualities yet untapped and strengths yet untested.

She finally left that place where he had left her.  She had a steamer trunk that she dragged from one end of Florida to the other.  She made her living by pretending to be a practicer of the magical arts.  Yes, witchcraft.  She knew how to use herbs and plants to heal.  In the thirteen years on the farm, she had been taught well.  She knew how to read and reason.  All of you who knew her,  will agree that she knew how to treat people.


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Here is how she would work it.  She would go into a town and ask around about the sick and dying.  She would single out the richest family there who were usually white.  She visited their loved ones to see if she could help.  If so, she would say that the sick one had been “touched” meaning hexed.  Assuring them that she could cure the victim and turn the evil back onto the enemy.  Thereby, she had a job.  She would make up the medicine and nurse the sick one to health.  The grateful family would give her a place to stay, money and great respect.  Let me be clear:  Lillie Scurry was not a witch.  How do I know?  Well, when I was a little girl, some members of the family would go to see the fortune tellers in the community to find who stole things from them; the bolita numbers, money, jewelry or any other things.  Well, she would whisper to me:  “Baby, don’t go to fortune tellers or root doctors because they all are of the Devil.  God don't like that, its right here in the Bible” (Deut.18:9-13)

She set such an example for us by reading the Bible everyday.  When her breakfast was done; house cleaned, she would sit on the porch and read the Bible. 

She must have met Morgan sometime after the war began in 1914.  Willie was born in1917, Morgan, Jr.1919 and Aretha, my mother in 1920.  Next James, Henry, Clarence, and Edna Mae were born.  In 1938, the year that I was born, Morgan, her husband died.  She taught Morgan to read by using the Bible as their text.  He gained local prominence by his missionary zeal.  He preached to everyone on the street, in the stores, at church.  Everyone had a story about Morgan for years after his passing.  He is still remembered by some as: "Bible Scurry".  These children proved to be super intelligent, talented and flawed.  Their personalities as individuals and as a family are legend in our area.  People like them. They like each other and delight in being Scurrys.  Lillie and Morgan did a good thing.

This is a coincidental kicker:  Years later, Morgan and Lillie met Mr. Tom and his new wife (not the lady with whom he had left Lillie).  His new wife was called: “Booker”.  She was Morgan’s first wife.

Lessons Lillie taught me:

Depend on God for all things and see if His hands won’t work for you.  Be thankful when it does.
Be good to people in what you say and do. 
If you are sick, pert up for company don’t make them feel bad.
Don’t do housework when you have company; be gracious; give them your whole attention.
Remember the bridge that took you across, you will need it again.
Don’t repeat what people tell you, be a peacemaker.
Think before you share.
“A dog that will bring a bone, will take one back.”


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Never leave conversations unfinished, misunderstandings develop from dropped conversations.  Always bring people back to what you were saying and finish it.
Friends and family have to leave openings for someone to talk about you.
So, if a close friend tries to tell you some gossip about yourself, they had to have had a part in it.  They left an opening.
Don’t whip children when you are mad.
Don’t hit them with ironing cords, sticks.
Don’t allow them to rule.  You are the parent.
My mother Aretha said:  “I am not raising a child other people don’t like.  And I am not raising a child that won’t benefit other people.”  We all accept and live by this rule of conduct which comes from Lillie.

They didn’t entertain “bored” children.  “You can’t help a bored person. They said.
So, they would say; “Go get a book and read.  Sing from the songbook.  Entertain yourself.”
When I a teen, I loved to stay out late, my curfew was 9:00 p.m.  Well, I would stay out at the recreation center looking at the starry night and talking with friends.  It was exciting.  When I would go home, I would get her clock and set it back to 9:00 and before she got up a 5:00 a.m., I would set it again at the right time.  One day, we were sitting on the porch and she said:
“Earthene, you know I have been young too.  I know how much fun it is to stay out late and as the night gets older it is sweeter.  But I will tell you this; it will damage a young lady’s reputation.” 
I was so shocked that the jig was up!  She knew!  I never stayed out again.  Also, I will be eternally impressed how she handled the situation.  It was like being played by a skilled musician. So, my loving family, I want to thank you for letting me share this mini-history of your beloved Lillie and my grandmother.  We here, who represent her today, salute you.  May I introduce her family present?  First of all the youngest of the group: My aunt Edna Scurry, her daughter, Millicent. 


By Earthene Fleming, Granddaughter
Mother: Aretha Olivia Scurry
Father: Carl Virginius Cannon