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Biography

"My mother is really special to me. I guess I never thought about it 'till I started doing my family history. She remembers so much. And we take things for granted. Because I never thought about her growing up without a mother." 
--Julia Stubbs, daughter of Augusta

My name is Julia Stubbs and I want to tell you about my mother.

Augusta Marie Ray was born December 26, 1925 in Echols, Kentucky to Alex and Marguerette McReynolds Ray. She was their second child. Their first child, a boy, was named Howard Lawrence Ray.

My grandmother, Maggie, as she liked to be called, was 17, and my grandfather was 20 when they married. My grandmother died of TB when she was 20 years old. [wedding photograph]

My mother was raised by her great-aunt, Laura Ray. My mother moved to Indianapolis with her father when she was 5 years old. She graduated grade school # 42 when she was 15 years old, and Crispus Attucks High School in 1944. She then attended Tennessee State College for a while.

I always loved hearing the stories my mother told me about when she was growing up. Like when she was away at college and sneaking into the dorm after hours. And being down south she was around a lot of racial prejudices. She once told me about when they had separate water fountains for blacks and whites, and how she once drank from a white-only water fountain.

We lived in Lockfield Gardens, and that was a special time too. You always had lots of friends. And summers were always the greatest. I remember playing kickball, learning to skate, playing Jacks, and sometimes my mother would play with me.

My favorite food was a butter and sugar sandwich that she would fix for me for a snack. On summer nights we would all sit in the courtyard and tell stories. Our parents would build a fire of old rags to keep the mosquitoes away.

My mother always watched the soap operas. We would come home and have lunch and we always knew what time to leave cause the soaps only stayed on for 15 minutes. First, it was Search for Tomorrow and then The Guiding Light.

My mother liked to visit the clubs on Indiana Avenue. It was really hopping then. All the big band leaders would come and play. My mother liked to do this dance called the Jitterbug.

She also loves to crochet. She has a good friend named Bert (they always called each other Bonehead) and we would visit her home so Ma and her could crochet together. She lived on the south side. That was the first time I had seen an outhouse. My mother tried to teach me to crochet, but I guess I just don’t have the patience. I can do the basic chain stitch.

I loved it when my mother took me and my sister downtown. We always rode the streetcars, and would eat at McCroys 5 and 10 cent store. She would always order a ham salad sandwich on toast. On Saturdays we would go to my grandfathers house and he always had Ovaltine for me to drink.

When I went to high school I was lucky to have my locker right underneath my mother’s picture. She graduated in 1944. I always thought she was real smart because she finished in three years.

My mother has had a few jobs in her time. She worked at Methodist Hospital and St. Vincent’s, before it moved to where they are now. When the hospital moved, she then started work at L. S. Ayres. Wherever my mother worked, she always made lots of friends. She still keeps in touch with people she has worked with. Even when they move out of town.

She never meets a stranger. She and a bunch of friends started a club called the Dainty Dolls. I never knew what they did. All I know is they would meet at someone’s house and there would be food.

She never forgets a birthday, anybody’s birthday, even to this day, and she is 81! There is this cake I love. Just a plain yellow cake no icing. And she bakes me one for my birthday every year. When I was in Ivy Tech we only had class a half day on Friday. So I would take her to lunch at the Best Steak House on Washington Street. That was our time together.

I also remember that on her birthday I would always buy her red fingernail polish. One time I had some extra money and I bought her some perfume and, even though it didn’t smell good, she wore it anyway.

I remember going to Friday night choir rehearsals with her. She had such a beautiful voice. My youngest daughter got that trait from her. We have always have Christmas at her house.

My mother is really special to me. I guess I never thought about it 'till I started doing my family history. She remembers so much. And we take things for granted. Because I never thought about her growing up without a mother. My mother has a pet name for me and I feel just like I was 10 years old again.