User:Jausan/James Lee Adams Sr.

James Lee Adams Sr. was born on November 18th, 1897 in the city of Holcomb, Mississippi. He was the son of Thomas Adams a (share-cropper) and housewife Mollie Brown. He grew up during an era of stark segregation in the South. He had four brothers, R.T, Loin, Edgar, and Buddy. In the 1920's he had taught himself to read and write developing an extensive vocabulary while attending the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. J. L. Adams cultivated his reading and verbal skills to assist other African-Americans at Tuskegee-NormalInstitute in Tuskegee, Alabama. W.E.B. Dubois impacted his impression of how African-American men should behave instead of the stereo-type of an ignorant African-American male. Years later he met wife Molly, and they had a daughter Essie Mae Adams, (1920-1983). She married Rufus King Young, (1911-2004) after becoming a licensed minister in the 1920's. They gave James his first grandchild Essie Mae Laura Elizabeth, 1942 - present, along with Rufus King Young Jr. James Robert Young, Ellen Ameatha Young, Allena Ann Young later. Essie Mae remained the only child for several decades after James received his college diploma and eventually became a postal carrier in Jackson, Mississippi. He excelled at the position, developing good relationships with the Governor, and State Representatives on his mail route.

Molly eventually died from diabetes in the late 50's and James was left alone at age 62 until meeting Doris Mamie Mozelle Watson, a 22 year-old secretary at Security Life Insurance in Jackson, Mississippi. On March 8, 1962 at 7:30 am on a stormy morning, James Lee Adams Esq. was born at Jackson Memorial Hospital. J.L. Adams succumbed to the debilitating eye disease glaucoma after retiring from a 45 year postal career. By 1968 Doris and J.L. Adams divorced. J.L. Adams relocated to his daughter's Essie's home in Little Rock, Arkansas where he remained until her death in the 1983. He was then relocated to Grenada, Mississippi where he fell ill in the Fall of 1983 due to a cerebral accident. James Lee Adams Sr. died shortly thereafter upon reuniting with his family James Lee Adams Jr. and Doris M. Adams-Jackson at his bedside. Today, he rests in a cemetary in Jackson, Mississippi.