The Baby Thief

by Barbara Bisantz Raymond

  6: “Taylor was also . . . children for Georgia”: Interviews with Robert Taylor, 1992, 1993; Press- Scimitar, November 17, 1950, “Taylor, Gianotti Tangle in Tann Investigation.”

  6: “Robert Taylor as investigator”: Taylor was the brother of Peter Taylor, who wrote for the New Yorker, Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Sewanee Review, and Partisan Review. His novels include Summons to Memphis, published in 1985, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

  6: “Even worse, Georgia’s . . . by her attorney”: Taylor, p. 15; Neill, “Adoption for Profit, Part I,” October 1978, p. 51; Interviews with Robert Taylor, 1992, 1993; interview with Ben Goodman, 1993; interview with Vallie Miller, 1993; The Nashville Tennessean, September 12, 1950, “State Prober Charges Baby Records Moved”; Press Scimitar, November 17, 1950, “Taylor, Gianotti Tangle in Tann Investigation.”

  6: “and, of course . . . he wished”: Interview with Hazel Fath, 1993; Press-Scimitar, June 27, 1951, “Others Figure in Tann Case.”

  6: “In 1951 the . . . die in committee”: Neill, “Adoption for Profit, Part I,” October 1978, p. 57; interview with Denny Glad, 1990; interview with Robert Taylor, 1993; Press-Scimitar, March 7, 1951.

  6: “A proposed federal . . . was quashed”: Press-Scimitar, October 22, 1950, “New Angles Develop in Probe of Children’s Home”; The Commercial Appeal, September 25, 1950.

  6: “The sole result . . . should never have made”: State ex rel. Heiskell v. Tennessee Children’s Home Society, No. 53339 R.D. CCh. Ct. (Shelby Co., TN), Consent Decree (n.d.).

  7: “keeping the babies . . . suffocating heat”: Interview with Mrs. Leon Sims, 1994.

  7: “Georgia had refused . . . for the disease”: Press-Scimitar, October 19, 1950, “Tells of Keeping Unmarried Mothers for Miss Tann.”

  7: “virtual prisoners . . . their frantic parents”: Press-Scimitar, October 19, 1950, “Tells of Keeping Unmarried Mothers for Miss Tann”; Miller, V., p. 68.

  7: “they demanded their . . . children remained alive”: Browning papers, Letter from Governor Gordon Browning to Mr. R. B. Kylie, September 16, 1950; Letter from Governor Browning to Alice Decanter, September 16, 1950; Letter from Governor Browning to Mae L. Day, October 25, 1950; Miller, V., p. 52.

  7: “Only two of . . . their birth parents”: The Commercial Appeal, May 17, 1951, “What About Adoption Here?”

  8: “Twenty-three-year . . . to Massachusetts”: Press-Scimitar, October 8, 1950, “Mother Kidnaps Baby at Children’s Home Society”; interview with Josie Statler, 1992.

  8: “But other parents . . . got them back”: Nashville Tennessean (AP), August 4, 1952, “Tennessee Mother Weeps as Court Takes Three Children.”

  8: “ ‘ The children will be . . . for the others’”: The Commercial Appeal, October 5, 1950, “Trio Comes Here to Study Children.”

  8–9: “But state workers disposed . . . three oldest in an adoptive home”: Miller, V., pp. 64-69.

  9: “Georgia had violated . . . Tennessee”: Georgia and her agency lacked the required state license to place children. Georgia also frequently violated a state law requiring that adoptive parents appear before a Tennessee court for the finalization of their child’s adoption. See Nashville Tennessean, September 17, 1950, “Baby Placing Termed Invalid”; Press-Scimitar, March 24, 1951, “Child Placement Illegal, Welfare Chief Asserts.”

  9: “and other states”: Letter from Mississippi State Children’s Bureau to Abe Waldauer, May 4, 1936; Letter from the New Jersey Department of Institutions and Agencies to Fannie B. Elrod, September 24, 1950; The Commercial Appeal, September 22, 1950; Press-Scimitar, October 22, 1950, “New Angles Develop in Probe of Children’s Home.”

  9: “But several politicians . . . through her”: Neill, “Adoption for Profit, Part II,” November 1978, p. 74; interview with Jimmye Pidgeon, 1992.

  9: “they quickly passed . . . her illegal placements”: Tennessee Public Acts 1951, ch. 202, sec. 33.

  9: “But several adoptive . . . had been illegal”: Nashville Tennessean, April 1, 1951, “State to Insure Coast Adoptions”; Miller, V., pp. 59-60.

  9: “Some adoptive couples . . . adoptions annulled”: The Commercial Appeal, September 30, 1950, “California Couple Want to Nullify Adoptions”; Press-Scimitar, March 26, 1951, “Seeking Custody of Three Children,” Miller, V., p. 72.

  9: “In contrast, adoptees . . . had been legal”: Interview with Earlene Phillips, 1992.

  9: “Yet one of . . . a ‘blood heir’”: Interview with Joy Barner, 1993.

  10: “But I understood . . . ever returned home”: Miller, V., pp. 55-56.

  10: “I also learned . . . California and New York”: Neill, “Adoption for Profit, Part II,” November 1978, p. 75.

  10–12: “When Georgia Tann . . . ‘felt like she belonged’”: Interview with Elizabeth Huber, 1992.

  12: “Soon after meeting . . . told me, crying”: Interview with Barbara Davidson, 1992.

  13: “Having conducted largely . . . oblige Barbara”: Interviews with May Hindman, 1992.

  3. Billy

  Sources for this chapter are personal and phone interviews with Billy Hale; Billy Hale’s unpublished manuscript; and Billy Hale’s unpublished journals.

  18: “60 Minutes had produced a segment about her”: CBS News, 60 Minutes, originally aired January 12, 1992, “Black Market Babies.”

  4. The Plague

  21: “a city that . . . seemed blessed”: The Commercial Appeal, August 24, 1958, “The Time Memphis Died”; Allen 1947, p. 213; Weisberger, p. 57.

  21: “Established in 1819”: Allen, pp. 212-213.

  21: “Memphis was strategically . . . century commerce”: Weisberger, p. 57.

  21: “The city emerged . . . relatively unscathed”: The Commercial Appeal, August 24, 1958, “The Time Memphis Died.”

  22: “Trading in wartime contraband . . . the citizenry,” Allen, p. 213.

  22: “But while Memphis . . . was medieval”: Capers 1966, p. 188.

  22: “Six thousand privies . . . business section”: Weisberger, p. 59.

  22: “composed of . . . human excrement”: Press-Scimitar, July 14, 1975, “So New York Thinks It Has a Problem? Ask Memphis About Yellow Fever Epidemic.”

  22: “sloughs of manure . . . hogs and goats”: Weisberger, p. 59.

  22: “Standing water is . . . breeding ground”: Weisberger, p. 58.

  22: “Aedes aegypti . . . of Yellow Fever”: Capers 1966, p. 190.

  22: “Yellow fever, which . . . of New Orleans”: White, p. 2A.

  22: “vicious cycle that . . . killed the insects”: Weisberger, p. 58.

  22: “Memphis had suffered . . . 1850 and 1870”: White, p. 2A.

  22: “During the torrid . . . 2,500 died”: White, p. 6A.

  22: “For the next several years . . . display of fireworks”: White p. 6A.

  23: “But by the time . . . across the Atlantic”: Ibid; Crosby, p. 13.

  23: “‘Yellow Fever here . . . 36 cases’”: Ibid.

  23: “quarantines”: Capers 1966, p. 194; White, p. 7A; Robbins, p. 52.

  23: “cleansed streets and . . . carbolic acid”: White, p. 7A.

  23: “Barrels of . . . on street corners”: White, p. 7A; Robbins, p. 43; Weisberger, p. 61.

  23: “cannons were fired . . . clear the air”: Finger, p. 84; The Commercial Appeal, September 6, 1878, “Guns Brought Here from Helena to Fight the Fever.”

  23: “Desperate citizens invoked . . . evil-smelling plant, asafetida”: White, p. 7A; Robbins, p. 43.

  23: “On July 29 . . . infected mosquito”: White, p. 7A.

  23: “couldn’t prevent . . . through the woods”: Robbins, p. 43.

  23: “In late July . . . by yellow fever”: White, p. 7A.

  23–24: “On August 13 . . . a bloody pool”: Kate Bionda’s illness was the first publicized case of Yellow Fever in Memphis, but there were several previous cases that were not immediately reported: Keating, p. 107.

  23–24: I have ascribed to Kate Biond
a the typical symptoms of yellow fever: Finger, p. 84; Capers 1966, p. 191; Weisberger, pp. 61, 85; Robbins, pp. 39-40; Press- Scimitar, August 7, 1978, “Yellow Fever’s Horror Recalled 100 Years After Its Departure.” For a comprehensive and chilling firsthand account of symptoms by a physician who during the 1878 Memphis epidemic treated 280 patients before contracting the disease himself, see Collins, S. H., Dr., “Original Communications,” The Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic, A Weekly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, New Series, Vol. 1, Whole Vol. XL, 1878, pp. 265-268. See also the J. M. Keating account, A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tennessee, printed for the Howard Association, 1879. Further information can be found in the Yellow Fever Collection in the Memphis Library; in the Mississippi Valley Collection at the University of Memphis; and in the Memphis History Exhibit in the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.

  24: “Some thought it . . . a ‘miasma’”: Weisberger, p. 58.

  24: “Physicians of Kate’s . . . and calomel”: Robbins, p. 44.

  24: “leeches”: Finger, p. 84.

  24: “A doctor from . . . ‘cures that killed’”: Robbins, p. 44.

  24–25: “They assumed incorrectly . . . vomit or bedding”: Weisberger, pp. 58-59.

  25: “Within two days . . . residents fled”: Wiesberger, p. 60.

  25: “to places as . . . New York”: White, p. 7A.

  25: “families escaped in . . . and on foot”: Robbins, p. 39; Capers 1966, p. 195.

  25: “Men shoved aside . . . crowded trains”: White, p. 7A.

  25: “‘The ordinary courtesies . . . an inexpressible terror’”: Weisberger, p. 60.

  25: “Terror was also . . . offering them supplies”: Press-Scimitar, August 7, 1978, “Yellow Fever’s Horrors Recalled 100 Years After Its Departure.”

  25: “This resulted in . . . from cracked lips”: Evening Appeal, December 27, 1932, “Horrors of Plague Live on Through Years.”

  25: “Yellow fever plagued . . . more than twenty thousand people”: Finger, p. 96; Weisberger, p. 58.

  25: “But Memphis, with . . . other towns combined”: White, p. 7A.

  25: “and soon garnered financial . . . over the country”: Robbins, p. 43.

  25–26: “But as Sister . . . ‘hands to wash’”: Finger, p. 84.

  26: “All but two hundred . . . of them died”: Capers 1966, p. 198.

  26: “and suffered a 7 percent mortality rate”: Ibid.

  26: “Between deaths and . . . forty-one to seven”: Finger, p. 84.

  26: “the staff of . . . and Colonel Keating”: Memphis Appeal, September 7, 1978. The Memphis Appeal is now called The Commercial Appeal.

  26: “For a while funeral bells were . . . became too frightening”: Weisberger, p. 61.

  26: “with a silence”: Finger, p. 84.

  26: “the rumble of death wagons”: White, p. 7A.

  26: “and the call . . . ‘your dead’”: Press-Scimitar, April 7, 1932, “‘Bring Out Your Dead,’ Called Yellow Fever.”

  26: “booming cannons”: Weisberger, p. 61.

  26: “Of course some . . . of the sick”: Weisberger, pp. 62-63.

  27: “babies found coated . . . their dead mothers”: Weisberger, p. 61.

  27: “A madam named . . . for the dying”: Weisberger, p. 62; Memphis Appeal, August 29, 1878.

  27: “Relief efforts were . . . ‘our only hope’”: the Charles G. Fisher Papers, the Mississippi Valley Collection, the University of Memphis, telegram sent September 20, 1878.

  27: “as was Sister Ruth . . . had been ‘Sunbeam’”: Finger, p. 87.

  27: “Annie Cook had also succumbed”: Press Scimitar, August 7, 1978, “Yellow Fever’s Horror Recalled 100 Years After Its Departure.”

  27: “Charles Fisher died . . . in New York”: the Charles G. Fisher Papers, the Mississippi Valley Collection, the University of Memphis, telegram to his sister Susie from Luke E. Wright, September 26, 1878; Memphis Daily Appeal, September 27, 1878.

  27: “Colonel Keating, who . . . ‘about to dawn’”: Weisberger, p. 60.

  27: “Finally on October . . . epidemic was over”: Weisberger, p. 63.

  27: “Memphis had lost . . . citizens to death”: The Commercial Appeal, December 8, 1963, “Letter Is Picture of Fear, Death.”

  27: “Most of the . . . St. Louis never returned”: The Commercial Appeal, August 24, 1958; Robbins, p. 46.

  27: “Among those who . . . theater, and industry”: The Commercial Appeal, August 24, 1958.

  27: “Almost all of . . . of the plague”: Miller, W. 1957, p. 6.

  28: “the population dropped . . . to 33,000”: Weisberger, p. 64.

  28: “plunging the city . . . in national rank”: Capers 1966, p. 207.

  28: “for the replacements . . . were poor”: Miller, W. 1957, p. 8.

  28: “They couldn’t afford to pay taxes”: Capers 1966, p. 200.

  28: “civic leaders were . . . the city bankrupt”: Robbins, p. 46.

  28: “Across the country . . . to the ground”: McIlwaine, p. 175.

  28: “Memphians began replacing . . . with pavement”: Weisberger, p. 64.

  28: “wells and cisterns . . . modern waterworks”: Press-Scimitar, September 14, 1975, “So New York Thinks It Has a Problem?”

  28: “But yellow fever returned in 1879”: White, p. 8A.

  28: “Five hundred eighty-three people died”: Weisberger, p. 64.

  28: “So although Memphis . . . in 1893”: Press-Scimitar, September 14, 1975, “So New York Thinks It Has a Problem?”

  28: “Then yellow fever . . . in 1897”: The Yellow Fever Epidemic of Memphis, by Mildred Hicks, Memphis/Shelby County Library and Information Center.

  28–29: “and hundreds of . . . cared for them”: Gordonsville (Tennessee) Gazette, January 27, 1879 (Memphis Correspondent of New York World), “The City Swarms With Helpless Children Whose Parents Are Dead”; interview with Barbara Nikulski, 1993.

  29: “Georgia would also . . . hid from her in attics”: interview with Memphis resident who requested anonymity.

  29: “sixty thousand rural émigrés”: Miller, W. 1957, p. 7.

  29: “he was born in 1874”: The Commercial Appeal, October 17, 1954, “Young Mississippian Worked as Printer and Store Clerk, Then Came to Memphis at 18.”

  29: “plague spread from . . . killing his father”: Press-Scimitar, August 7, 1978, “Yellow Fever’s Horrors Recalled 100 Years After Its Departure”; Miller, W. 1964, p. 12.

  29: “into poverty so . . . at Christmas”: Time Magazine, “Memphis’ Boss Crump: Ring Tailed Tooter,” May 27, 1946; Miller, W. 1964, p. 14.

  29: “At eighteen he moved to Memphis”: The Commercial Appeal, October 17, 1954, “Young Mississippian Worked as Printer and Store Clerk, Then Came to Memphis at 18.”

  29: “the pungent odor . . . raw whiskey”: Street, p. 16.

  29: “sweetly scented lilacs”: Ibid.

  29: “giant wharf rats”: Coppock 1967, p. 2.

  29: “bagnio girls”: Coppock 1980, p. 101.

  30: “Crump had . . . school education”: Leake, p. 7.

  30: “assaulted several men”: Interview with Jerry Gardener, 1992. Crump assaulted her father in a barbershop. See Miller, W. 1964, p. 40 for account of Crump thrashing his boss.

  30: “standing on tables . . . shaking his fist”: Miller, W. 1964, p. 69.

  30: “By 1910 Crump was mayor”: Gunther, p. 69.

  5. Mollie

  Sources for this chapter are interviews with Mollie’s son, Billy Hale; Mollie’s sister, Frances Sylvie; Mollie’s brother, Harrison Moore; and Mollie’s sister-in-law, Stella Moore.

  6. Georgia’s Youth

  37: “She was contemptuous . . . as ‘cows’”: Interview with Vallie Miller, 1992.

  39: “Being in a comparative . . . ‘sleuthing’ for me”: Interview with Hickory resident whom I call “Maisie.” For reasons that will be apparent, I have given her a pseudonym, and have omitted the names of other sources living in or nea
r Hickory, Mississippi.

  39: “She also sent . . . by a local reporter”: Meridian Star, March 25, 1993, “Film Depicts Hickory Native’s Scandal.”

  46: “Her mother, Beulah Yates Tann . . . Second Chancery District Court”: Rowland, p. 545. Bibliographical sketch written by George C. Tann, undated. Mississippi State Archives, Jackson, Mississippi.

  46: “became known for finding homes for orphans”: Interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident.

  46: “The poor, rural . . . with their care”: Williams, pp. 5-6.

  46: “‘I wish I had a’ . . . for temporary care”: Press-Scimitar, July 2, 1935, “Miss Tann Started Early at Home-Finding Career; She’s Given Happiness, Security to 3,000 Children.”

  47: “Rob was born three years before Georgia”: Results of 1920 Census; interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident.

  47: “He was thin; they were heavyset”: Interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident.

  47: “Rob was also . . . ‘he thanked her,’ she said”: Interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident.

  47: “wide brow and . . . resembled him”: Comparison of pictures of Georgia Tann, published in Memphis newspapers, with a picture of George C. Tann, undated, from Mississippi State Archives; interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident.

  48: “Big-boned and . . . clothing for women”: Interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident.

  48: “She wore her hair . . . as a man’s”: Pictures of Georgia Tann that were published in Memphis newspapers; interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident.

  48: “She evinced . . . in marriage”: Interview with May Hindman, 1992; interviews with residents of Hickory, Mississippi, 1993.

  48–49: “George, however, forced . . . ‘girl in the family’”: Press-Scimitar, July 2, 1935, “Miss Tann Started Early at Home-Finding Career: She’s Given Happiness, Security to 3,000 Children”; Nashville Tennessean, October 22, 1950, “Father Favored Music, She Saw Greater Need.”

  49: “Some married, homosexual . . . and considered ennobling”: Faderman, pp. 2-3, 17.

  49: “The first such school was Mt. Holyoke College . . . in 1837”: Faderman, p. 13.