Margaret Ruth SLEDGE

Mama (on the right) and her sister, Mable Roy. Aunt Edna said she was about 12-13 years old in this picture.

PROFILE:

Name: Margaret Ruth SLEDGE

Known AKA: Ree, Reese, Red, Lil Margaret

Surname Variations: SLUDGE, SLUDG

DOB: 21 Feb 1950 in Macon, Noxubee, Mississippi, USA

DOD: 27 Oct 2006 in St. Louis, Florissant, Missouri, USA

Father: Sam WILLIAMS Sr

Mother: Lillian C. SLEDGE

Siblings from her father and Mattie Lee: W00dr0w/Woodie, Earnest, Lee, Sam Jr, Hardie, Odell “Red/Pain”, James, Ruth O., Olivia (all siblings have the surname WILLIAMS)

Siblings from her father and Ida Frierson: Florence Jean/Jean

Siblings from her mother: Mable Roy BELL, Oliver “Fat” BELL, Edna Z. BELL, William Lloyd “Cot” BELL, Wade SLEDGE, Jean/Gene, Carlene

Spouse: Curtis Allen GREGORY (divorced in 1987)

Children: Billy, Tara, Tina, William 

TIMELINE:

21 Feb 1950: birth in Macon, Noxubee, Mississippi, USA (United States Social Security Death Index http://bit.ly/Qosa3u)

1950-1968: Resident of Macon, Noxubee, Mississippi, USA

1972: marriage to Curtis Allen GREGORY

1987: divorced from Curtis Allen GREGORY

1968-2006: Resident of St. Louis, Missouri, USA

27 Oct 2006: death in St. Louis, Florissant, Missouri, USA (Social Security Death Index http://ancstry.me/M514t1)

Headstone for Margaret Gregory nee Sledge in Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

4 Nov 2006: burial in Calvary Cemetery (St. Louis, Missouri, Burial Index, Archdiocese of St. Louis, 1700-2010,
Inter #: 512253, Cemetery: Calvary, Name: Gregory, Margaret R (female), Burial Date: 4 Nov 2006, Age: 56, Sec: 033, Lot: 0182, http://bit.ly/N6KQQU) and Find A Grave (Birth: unknown, Death: Nov., 2006, Note: Age 56, Burial: Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum, Saint Louis, St. Louis City, Missouri, USA, Plot: 33,, 182, Created by: T.V.F.T.H., Record added: May 24, 2010, Find A Grave Memorial# 52805669, http://bit.ly/MVBVoH)

FUNERAL PROGRAM:

Margaret Ruth Gregory February 21, 1950 – October 27, 2006. Birthplace: Macon, Mississippi. Resided In: St. Louis MO. Funeral Home: Austin Layne Mortuary [7239 West Florissant Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63136, E-mail: info@laynemortuary.com, Web Site: www.laynemortuary.com. Visitation: 4-7pm, November 03, 2006. Service: 9am, November 04, 2006. Cemetery: Calvary Cemetery [5239 W. Florissant Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63115, 11:15am, November 04, 2006]. Margaret Ruth Gregory was born on February 21, 1950 to Lillian Sledge and the late Sam Williams, in Macon, Ms. She departed this life on October 27, 2006. Margaret was educated at Macon High School, in Macon, Mississippi. Margaret enjoyed her school career, often mentioning the pride she felt at being named valedictorian in junior high school. Showing her athletic ability, Margaret played basketball for Macon High School and also played in neighborhood softball games when she could. An equal fan of nature, Margaret remarked on the numerous adventures she had during the spring and summer months. Margaret confessed hope in Christ at an early age at Second Baptist M.B. Church of Macon, MS. In later years, she continued her faith at St. Peter’s A.M.E. Church in St. Louis. Margaret was a devoted reader of Scripture and loved to sing, especially gospel. In March of 1966, Margaret gave birth to her son, Billy Johann Sledge. In 1968, she and Billy made the journey to St. Louis, Missouri. During this time, one of her first jobs was a ‘carhop’ at White Castle. It was there she met her soon to be husband. Margaret Ruth Sledge and Curtis Allen Gregory were married on March 24, 1973. Curtis was very proud to become the father of Billy and soon all three welcomed the births of Tara Renee Gregory in January of 1975 and Tina Nicole Gregory in March of 1976. Margaret’s life was full of loving and nurturing her children. She worked diligently as a housewife to make sure that they had the necessary comforts in life, often doing without them herself. Margaret also worked in the retail industry and volunteered at her children’s schools. In later years, Margaret’s volunteer work in the field of education turned employment. This led to a lifelong love of helping and creating joy in the life of each child she met. Margaret worked for Emerson Family YMCA and also Normandy School District. Although divorced from Curtis, she was saddened by his death in 1994. Margaret’s love of people knew no bounds. If you talked to her for five minutes, you knew her and she never forgot you. She felt that three of her greatest accomplishments were her children and she shared tremendously in their success, watching each one graduate from college. Her latest joy was being able to help raise her first grandchild, Omar Nafel Alenazi. Margaret leaves to mourn her passing: a loving mother, Lillian Sledge of Macon, Ms; three children, Billy of St. Louis, MO, Tara of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Tina of St. Louis, MO; her grandson, Omar of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Five siblings (born to Lillian Sledge), Jean Holman and William Bell of Memphis, TN, Carlene Graham and Wade Sledge of Macon, MS, and Edna Davis of St. Louis, MO; also leaves, siblings born to her father, Sam Williams a multitude of aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. (http://bit.ly/zO4MHB) (No known obituary is available for my mother).

NOTES:

Mama grew up in the small town of Macon, Mississippi where everyone knew your business before you did. She loved to tell stories of life in the old days. She and her cousins had an amazingly carefree life coming of age in the Jim Crow South. They swam and fished in the creeks, eating turtle and frog legs (yuck). They played softball in the fields where she broke her wrist. It was an even less than memorable occasion because her father was passing by at the time and at the moment when she broke her wrist, she said “shoot” and he thought she said, “sh*t” so he whupped her for that. My favorite recollection of Mama’s childhood memories was of her picking cotton. A truck would come to pick them up at dawn before school to take them to a cotton pickin’ farm. They would put rocks at the bottom of their bags to make it weigh more and get more wages. While it was not an honest way to make extra cash, I understand how they could do it in the context of survival. Farmers just did not compensate them enough for their hard earned labor and some probably cheated them too. Mama’s favorite subject in high school was math and she wanted to go to college to play the piano and be a singer. She was on the basketball team. By 1967, Mama was a young teen mother with a second child, William, born prematurely and deceased. The man she was living with (I can’t recall his name for the life of me), was the father of William. His estranged wife (or were they divorced?) was jealous of her. I think she was a relative of Mama’s, not sure. Anyway, this woman encountered Mama on the road while walking and confronted her about the relationship. She also threatened to do bodily harm to Mama. After that, Mama had to get out of town with her sister, Edna, and this is the story of why she migrated to St. Louis, Missouri. She got a job working at White Castle as a car hop and met daddy this way. They were married 14 years before divorcing. To this union were born three children and a painful miscarriage before I was born. She died of pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Mama had a beautiful voice and if I close my eyes now, I can still hear her singing. She was always a beautiful person, inside and out, kind, caring and forgiving. She was also a people person with a great sense of humor, just like my father, and was quite the talker. Many a time she cracked us up with her sayings, of which there are way too many to list here. Family was dear to her and she kept in touch with hers and my father’s. There are two holes in my heart that can never be patched up, one for my father and one for her.

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Calvary Cemetery

Find A Grave

Funeral Program PG1

Funeral Program PG2-3

Funeral Program PG4

TRANSCRIPTION:

United States Social Security Death Index, Margaret R Gregory, 2006
Source: Family Search

http://bit.ly/Qosa3u

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About this collection
first name: Margaret
middle name: R
last name: Gregory
name suffix:
birth date: 21 February 1950
social security number: 587-28-8471
place of issuance: Mississippi
last residence: Florissant, Saint louis, Missouri
zip code of last residence: 63032
death date: 27 October 2006
estimated age at death: 56

Source Citation
“United States Social Security Death Index,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VS9G-G2F : accessed 24 Aug 2012), Margaret R Gregory, 27 October 2006; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

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