My Southern Hero

by Deborah S. Burris

As children, we all had our heroes. Some heroes were real, and some were fictitious heroes we watched Saturday mornings on television. Nonetheless, we cherished our heroes and loved them with all our being. Heroes give a young person someone or something to idolize. For me, that person is my grandmother, Bridget Jenkins; to this day, I still consider her my personal hero. My grandmother lived through World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, desegregation and, of course, probably the most trying—my youth. I never realized she was my hero until I grew up and learned to appreciate everything that she had gone through in order for me to flourish. I admire her for everything that she has endured and I thank her for teaching me to be who I am and not to try to be someone I am not.

My grandmother was born Bridget May Elliott on May 3, 1934. A midwife delivered her; as Granny says, “Hospitals is where you went if you had money.” She was the seventh child of nine born to my great-grandparents Matthew and Josephine Elliott. Although once she married, she and her family lived in the surrounding counties; my grandmother spent the majority of her life right here in Moore County, North Carolina. Growing up in a large family my grandmother learned the true meaning of sharing, she says. “We were by no means rich, but my papa worked at the sawmill, and my mama stayed home with us kids.” My grandmother told me she remembers that when she was small, everyone had a job—no matter how small—from taking care of the chickens to feeding the pigs to tending the garden. “We all had chores to do around the house. We grew our own food. We ate lots of vegetables, [but we] also had pigs and chickens” -- a smile formed on her face as she continued -- “a long time ago we had some ducks and guineas too.”

My granny worked around the house and helped her parents, but that was not her only job. She tells me that she was very young when she first started working, although she doesn’t give a specific age, and her first job was working in a tobacco field. “As far back as I can remember, it was handing ‘bacca at the ‘bacca barn.” My grandmother rarely uses slang during our talks. “I don’t know if there were more of them [whites] or more of us [blacks] working back then.” Grandma goes on to tell me about her education. Although her mother stayed home with the children and it was not common for young black children to get a proper education, my grandmother attended school up to the tenth grade when she met and married her first husband, my grandfather. “Most of our education we received at home from Mama. We learned the Bible first and foremost.” Being from the South, religion is a big part of who my grandmother is. She stated, “Mama read the Bible to us kids every night,” which is probably why my grandmother instilled deep religious beliefs into her children and grandchildren. Granny does not soon let us forget that we live in the Bible Belt.

I wondered what development in the American South had the greatest effect on my grandmother because she is African American. I thought for sure she would say segregation or the Civil Rights Movement; however, to my surprise, she said World War II. “It affected everybody. My oldest brother Fredrick was in the war. I had a brother over. . . .” She sank back in her seat a little and then continued, “Other than that it really didn’t affect me.” Grandma was only about five when WW II began. “Except for having a brother over there. . . I mean the war did affect everybody, but I was worried about him.” My grandmother always speaks so highly of her brother Fredrick, and I have a great respect for him, although I did not know him. I asked her if segregation had a big influence on her life. She answered with an emphatic “No.” I was surprised. Grandma Bridget straightened in her chair and then looked me directly in the eyes. “I don’t remember segregation being such a big deal like some people talk about it being. We lived in a mostly white neighborhood, but it was no big hullabaloo.” Grandma went on to explain that blacks and whites all worked together, the kids played together; at the end of the day, the blacks went to their houses, and the whites went to theirs. Listening to my grandmother, I found myself transported back in time. I could see the younger kids playing and the older ones priming tobacco.

Finally, I asked my grandmother about the most important lesson she had learned in her youth that she passed down to her children. Cocking her head to the side, she looked at me and said, “Education and common courtesy come first. Always be courteous and get your education.” Then she grinned, showing all of her teeth, and finished with, “Also, keep your mouth shut and listen. You’ll learn more that way. Y’all talk to too much; nobody just sits and listens anymore.” Heeding Grandma Bridget’s advice, I kept my mouth shut and listened as she went on to say that education is the most important goal a person can have. Although she went to only the tenth grade in high school, she later got her GED, attended college, became a nurse, and retired nearly fifteen years ago. I remember my granny being especially tough on me when I was in high school, and at the time—like any teenager—I resented it, but now that I have children of my own, I understand exactly why she did and said what she did. “Nobody can take your knowledge away from you. Once it’s in here,” she pointed to her temple, “it’s yours and nobody can ever take that way.”

At age 76, my grandmother is such a wealth of information, and I feel truly blessed that she has allowed me to share in her knowledge and, as a result, I can pass that knowledge on to my children. I can see my Southern heritage in my grandmother’s eyes when I visit, and I hear it in her voice when we talk. She is my connection to the past and the gateway to my future -- a past I have only read about in books, yet she brings it to life for me with her childhood stories. She did not live the exact same history as what we generally learn in school; her life is unique. I never realized when I was younger that the most influential person in my life was not someone most kids would think of as their hero. Growing up in the South my heroes were Bo and Luke Duke, Wonder Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man. Now that I am grown up, I realize that my grandmother has had the most positive influence on my life.

Work Cited

Jenkins, Bridget. Personal interview. 9 Sept. 2010.


Note: Deborah S. (Debbie Burris), who lives in Aberdeen, NC, is a journalism major at Sandhills Community College where she is pursuing an associate in arts degree.