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The Baby Thief

Page 25

by Barbara Bisantz Raymond


  49: “Martha Washington College . . . would graduate”: Press-Scimitar, July 2, 1935, “Miss Tann Started Early in Home-Finding Career.”

  49: “By 1880 forty thousand . . . colleges and universities”: Faderman, p. 13.

  49–50: “A study cited . . . women in general”: Faderman, p. 14.

  50: “Many female professors . . . partnerships with other women”: Faderman, pp. 21-22.

  50: “What were considered . . . were ubiquitous”: Faderman, p. 19.

  50: “after graduating in 1913”: Records of Martha Washington College, Abingdon, Virginia.

  50–51: “taught school briefly in Columbus, Mississippi”: George C. Tann, handwritten note, Mississippi State Archives; Rowland, p. 545, bibliographical sketch written by George C. Tann, undated, Mississippi State Archives, Jackson, Mississippi.

  51: “Charity work was . . . local poor”: Nashville Tennessean, October 22, 1950, “Father Favored Music, She Saw Greater Need.”

  51: “‘Hours later,’ Georgia . . . the baby home”: Press-Scimitar, July 2, 1935, “Miss Tann Started Early at Home-Finding Career; She’s Given Happiness, Security to 3,000 Children.”

  52: “This incident . . . young, neglected children”: Ibid.

  53: “mothers she called ‘cows’ ”: Interview with Vallie Miller, 1992.

  53: “An incident that . . . maintain his composure”: Press-Scimitar, July 2, 1935, “Miss Tann Started Early at Home-Finding Career; She’s Given Happiness, Security to 3,000 Children.”

  53–54: “Around 1906, when . . . ‘made the most of it’”: Ibid.

  54: “Referring to this . . . ‘her life’s work’”: Press-Scimitar, December 6, 1946, “Years Ago She Found a Career.”

  55: “When a young mother . . . ‘good homes [and] splendid educations’”: Probate Court of Shelby County, No. 41796-R45, Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, Grace Gribble, Petitioner, vs. Tennessee Children’s Home Society and Miss Georgia Tann.

  55: “In a May 1935 . . . ‘wealth can give’”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to the Honorable G. C. Moreland, May 23, 1935.

  56: “Over 460 orphanages . . . between 1890 and 1910”: Nelson, p. 96.

  57: “Georgia obtained employment . . . as field agent”: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/gpakt/pamsfamily/MamawR/mamaws.htm.

  57: “Mississippi residents, however . . . inherit from them”: Williams, p. 7.

  58: “One spring morning . . . Rufus’s brother, Clyde”: Interview with Helen Greer, 1992; interview with Regina Hines, 1992; interview with Andre Bond, 1992; Mississippi Press, July 22, 1992, “Adoption Scandal: Answers to Family Ties May Be In Moss Point.”

  58: “Georgia’s father, George . . . an abandoned child”: Interview with Helen Greer, 1992; interview with Regina Hines, 1992; Mississippi Press, July 22, 1992, “Adoption Scandal: Answers to Family Ties May Be In Moss Point.”

  58: “She was run out of town”: Interview with Vallie Miller, 1992; interview with Hickory, Mississippi resident, 1993.

  58: “Her father had friends in Memphis”: Nashville Tennessean, October 23, 1950, “Miss Tann Played for Political Favors.”

  58: “After working briefly for a Texas orphanage”: Press-Scimitar, December 6, 1946, “Years Ago She Found a Career”; Press-Scimitar, July 2, 1935, “Miss Tann Started Early at Home-Finding Career; She’s Given Happiness, Security to 3,000 Children.”

  7. Georgia’s Memphis

  Page 59: “He didn’t rid . . . stay in business”: The Commercial Appeal, August 1, 1976, “How Crump Lost a Round with the Private.”

  Page 59: “providing black residents . . . and athletic fields”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 3, 1938, “Ed Crump The Boss of Memphis.”

  59: “free milk”: Biles, pp. 44-45.

  59: “young professionals with political positions”: Biles, p. 46.

  60: “money collected into . . . by city workers”: Interview with Alfred Andersson, 1992.

  60: “provided a . . . slush fund”: Leake, p. 51.

  60: “The fund . . . from city workers”: Gunther, p. 71.

  60: “Within hours he . . . citizen had voted”: Aspero, pp. 21-22; Daniels, p. 50; Street, pp. 16, 28.

  61: “even by night . . . quickly having it repaired”: Leake, p. 66.

  61: “And those who . . . lives so easy”: Leake, p. 82.

  61–62: “When a young attorney . . . ‘whole bigger world’”: Interviews with Roswell Stratton, 1995; Press-Scimitar, May 15, 1941, “Stratton, County Court Clerk, Breaks with Crump”; Press-Scimitar, May 16, 1941, “It Can Happen Here”; Press-Scimitar, May 26, 1941, “Story Behind Break with Crump”; Press-Scimitar, July 31, 1942, “Stratton Forced by Ill Health To Step Out of Race.”

  62: “The Machine’s base . . . municipal workers”: Leake, p. 69.

  62: “attend nightly rallies”: Interview with Robert Taylor, 1992.

  62: “young attorneys who . . . speeches for Crump”: Leake, pp. 69-70.

  62: “For thirty years”: Leake, p. 68.

  62: “bloc of state . . . however he wished”: The Commercial Appeal, October 17, 1954, “Influence of Crump in State Had Waned.” “Mr. Crump’s power extended into the Legislature, enabling him to name speakers and leaders and to decide what bills should be enacted. His trusted lieutenants were on the scene in the halls calling the signals dictated by telephone from the man in Memphis.”

  62: “like the union . . . in the Mississippi”: Interview with Jenny Gardner, 1992.

  62: “legislation passed by . . . office of mayor”: Daniels, p. 22.

  63: “He resigned instead contests elected county trustee”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 2, 1938, “Ed Crump the Big Boss of Memphis.”

  63: “mastermind 102 political contests without defeat”: Hinton, p. 15; Newsweek, October 25, 1954, Crump obituary.

  63: “In 1922 he . . . power was confirmed”: Street, p. 28.

  63: “With elections this . . . needed to campaign”: Leake, p. 63.

  63: “But Crump’s hold . . . than physical”: Daniels, p. 50.

  63: “So even during . . . raising money”: The Economist, p. 236.

  63: “Crump also capitalized . . . for his candidates”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 2, 1938, “Ed Crump the Big Boss of Memphis.”

  63: “Local reporters attempting . . . not post bail”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 2, 1938, “Ed Crump the Big Boss of Memphis”; The Commercial Appeal, August 3, 1928, “Picture of a Memphis Election”; “Ed Crump: Public Enemy No. One,” published by the Loyal Tennesseans League, undated.

  64: “asleep even when they were awake”: Daniels, p. 23.

  64: “Crump fire a . . . with a jury”: “Ed Crump: Public Enemy No. One,” published by the Loyal Tennesseans League, undated, p. 8.

  64: “‘It always was a Crump man’”: Leake, p. 45.

  8. The Little Wanderers

  66: “Infanticide was practiced . . . and Plato”: Brace, p. 14.

  66: “‘exposed,’ abandoned . . . on hillsides”: Ibid.

  66: “forced into slavery or maimed for exhibition”: Ibid.

  66: “by the Middle . . . in Zittau, Germany”: Forman, p. 43.

  67: “According to Rachel . . . the eighteenth century”: Forman, p. 44.

  67: “An orphan asylum . . . the sixth century”: Brace, p. 21.

  67: “The first orphanage . . . in 1727”: Olsen, p. 89.

  67: “But such institutions were rare”: New York Times, August 6, 1874.

  67: “including legislation . . . born outside marriage”: Acts of North Carolina, 1741, Ch. 14, Sec. 10, as quoted in Scott Edward, Laws of the State of Tennessee Including Those of North Carolina Now in Force in This State from the Year 1715 to the Year 1820 Inclusive. Knoxville: Heiskell and Brown, 1921, I, 55-57.

  67: “Several states passed . . . from their mothers”: Kunzel, p. 127.

  67: “With trepidation I read of . . . in 1793”: Holt, p. 24.

  67: “the murder of . . . on the hand”: Shannon, pp.
47-48; Holloran, p. 20.

  68: “Indentured children worked . . . or any land”: Sory, p. 8.

  68: “Four indentured youngsters . . . Plymouth winter”: Patrick et al., p. 27.

  68: “Lacking sufficient employees . . . with neglect”: O’Hagan, p. 313.

  68: “Those discovered alive . . . religions and names”: O’Hagan, pp. 311-312.

  68–69: “An infant found . . . Cherry Hill”: O’Hagan, p. 312.

  69: “Infants whose discovery . . . witnesses, or perpetrators”: Ibid.

  69: “sent to poorhouses”: New York Times, April 9, 1922, “Bargains in Babies.”

  69: “with infant mortality . . . on average”: Reports of State Board of Charities of New York, “The Review of Reviews”, July 1929, p. 50.

  69: “and, in places . . . 124 babies died”: O’Hagan, p. 313.

  69: “Baby farms were . . . to raise them”: Coulter, p. 1.

  69: “some farmers starved”: New York Times, “The Baby-Farming Case,” August 4, 1878.

  69: “baby farms whose . . . of their charges”: Zelizer, p. 119.

  69: “an 1895 New York . . . ‘to inhuman crimes’”: New York Times, October 15, 1895.

  69–70: “exposing babies . . . skin blackened”: New York Times, September 16, 1873.

  70: “cracking their skulls against walls”: New York Times, July 16, 1925.

  70: “One baby farmer . . . seven-year sentence”: New York Times, July 23, 1925.

  70: “the number of . . . in Boston”: Holt, p. 74.

  70: “on steps, in filthy cellars”: Brace, p. 91.

  70: “the iron tubes . . . in Harlem”: Brace, p. 100.

  70: “or jostle for . . . underground presses”: Ibid.

  72: “‘feeble-minded’ . . . ‘depraved’ morals”: Kammerer, p. 235.

  72: “The author of . . . and ‘misshapen’”: Ibid.

  72: “A physician writing . . . ‘equipped sexually’”: Mental Hygiene 4. October 1927. “The Unmarried Mother: A Sociopsychiatric Viewpoint,” Henry C. Schumacher, M.D., p. 777.

  72: “a 1918 study . . . or epileptic”: Kammerer, pp. 235-237.

  72: “‘probable epileptics’”: Ibid.

  72: “Their babies . . . their worst traits”: Kaplan, p. 35.

  72: “‘It is well known . . . an insane condition’”: Brace, p. 43.

  72: “Referring to . . . ‘irresistible effects . . .’”: Ibid.

  72: “who he believed . . . all of society”: Brace, p. 92.

  73: “Between 1853 and . . . were ‘resettled’”: O’Conner, p. 149.

  73: “Notices were posted”: Holt, p. 103.

  73: “Brace, who believed . . . ride the Train”: Brace, p. 266.

  73–74: “‘On a given . . . in comfortable homes’”: Holt, p. 55.

  74: “Most were headed . . . heard of”: Patrick, et al., p. 53.

  74: “the Train made several stops”: Holt, p. 49.

  74: “church, or opera house”: O’Conner, p. xvi.

  74: “Farmers examined . . . their muscles”: Ibid.

  74: “to tell . . . acrobatic stunts”: Holt, p. 49.

  74: “Robert Petersen . . . quasi-legal son”: Patrick, et al., p. 128.

  74: “Interviewed in the . . . remain their maid”: Patrick, et al., p. 53.

  75: “One little girl . . . ‘see my mother’”: The Orphan Trains, documentary, produced by the American Experience and PBS by Janet Graham and Edward Gray, aired in the fall of 1995.

  75: “Reformers took note . . . child workers”: Zelizer, p. 64.

  75: “Child labor . . . seem wrong”: Zelizer, p. 210.

  75: “With less emphasis . . . valued as children”: for a thorough discussion of the changing attitude toward children, see Pricing the Priceless Child, Viviana A. Zelizer, New York, Basic Books, 1985.

  75: “Between 1850 and . . . a century before”: Zelizer, p. 11.

  75: “Some contemporary accounts . . . to tight corseting”: Foreman-Peck, p. 6.

  76: “The earliest such . . . ‘wrath of God’)”: Sorosky, et al., pp. 28-29.

  76: “Over the previous . . . ‘an infernal lie’”: New York Times, February 5, 1921, “Adopts ‘Triplets’, Calls Them Her Own: Fooled Even Her Husband.”

  77: “article published in . . . ‘order for a child’”: Sunset, the Pacific Monthly, February 1921, “Adopting a Baby,” p. 83.

  77: “But in 1926 . . . ‘break in life’”: New York Times, May 21, 1925, “Wife Admits Child ‘Born’ at Baby Farm Was Bought for $75.”

  78: “that the number . . . 1934 and 1944”: Zelizer, p. 190.

  78: “and if you adopt . . . and culture”: Interview with Karen Wickham.

  78: “Even as she . . . ‘more than inheritance’”: Nashville Tennessean, October 23, 1950, “Miss Tann Played for Political Favors.”

  78: “she falsified children’s records”: Kefauver Hearings, pp. 195-196; interviews with Christine Nilan; Linda Meyers; Joe Wilkerson; and Robert Taylor; Press Scimitar, March 25, 1951, “Placing of Children Described as Illegal.”

  79: “And Georgia virtually . . . ‘select the home’”: Press-Scimitar, July 2, 1935, “Miss Tann Started Early at Home-Finding Career.”

  79: “But by 1935 . . . and South America”: Press-Scimitar, December 2, 1937, “A Christmas Gift for You—A Baby.”

  83: “And I’d read an article in the . . . ‘the trouble begins’”: “The Life of An Adopted Child,” Martha Vansant, American Mercury, February 1933.

  84: “Writing to Georgia . . . ‘her own unworthiness’”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Mrs. Thorne Deuel, March 9, 1943.

  84–85: “There were 1,700 . . . had been only 200”: Solinger, p. 170.

  85: “‘With tears in . . . child be placed’”: Solinger, p. 173.

  85: “‘Please help me . . . to try to live’”: Letter from Mary Owens to Mrs. O’Conner, May 21, 1940, letter in possession of author.

  9. Georgia’s Methods

  90: “she visited merchants . . . benefits of adoption”: Interview with Virginia Simmons, 1992.

  90: “She mentioned the tax . . . arranging two thousand adoptions’”: The Commercial Appeal, September 29, 1939, “TCHS — Memphis Recognized As Legal Adoption Agency by the State.”

  90: “heading a national child-placing monopoly . . . ‘available for adoption’”: Press Scimitar, May 21, 1949, “Miss Tann Says Public Orphanages Support Black Market in Babies.”

  90: “But she had realized . . . in the country”: Press-Scimitar, September 15, 1950, “Miss Tann Dies During Inquiry.”

  91: “Georgia delivered speeches . . . major cities”: Press-Scimitar, June 15, 1947, “A Caution from Miss Tann”: AP, December 21, 1948, “Memphis Woman to Head Children’s Association”; Press-Scimitar, June 5, 1947, “Weigh Adoption Bill Carefully.”

  91: “lauded by a national . . . ‘in adoption laws’”: Press-Scimitar, September 15, 1950, “Miss Tann Dies During Inquiry.”

  91: “Eleanor Roosevelt sought . . . child welfare”: Denny Glad, 1991, pp. 4-5.

  91: “President Truman invited her to his inauguration”: Letter from Abe Waldauer to Phillip W. Haberman, January 18, 1949.

  91: “Pearl Buck asked . . . book about adoption”: Press-Scimitar, September 15, 1950, “Miss Tann Dies During Inquiry.”

  91: “Georgia garnered national notice . . . ‘boarding school at the same time’”: New York Times, September 19, 1929, “Says Orphanage Put Negroes on Hot Stoves.”

  91: “collecting boarding money . . . she had already sold”: Interview with Louise Loop, 1993.

  92: “‘Her narrowed eyes . . . warning ringing in their ears’”: Nashville Tennessean, October 26, 1950, “Georgia Tann Campaigned Against Baby Rackets.”

  92: “She had won Crump’s support”: Nashville Tennessean, October 23, 1950, “Miss Tann Played for Political Favors”; Nashville Tennessean, September 26, 1950, “Injunction Halts All Adoptions at Shelby Home.” See also pp. 100–101 of text, whic
h discuss laws supported by Crump-affiliated legislators that enabled Georgia. See pp. 154–155 of text, which describe a law passed at the insistence of reputable social workers that required boarding homes for children to be licensed and regulated, but that exempted boarding homes used by Georgia’s adoption agency. A further indication that Georgia had Crump’s support is that a judge he consistently backed for election provided children to Georgia. Other judges supported by Crump uniformly ruled for Georgia in habeas corpus suits. Another indication of Crump’s support is that one of his lieutenants served as the attorney for Georgia’s Home. Perhaps the most important indication of Crump’s support is that Georgia, who after a brief period as social worker in Mississippi was run out of the state for her child-placing practices, was able to operate her black-market baby ring in Memphis for twenty-six years, until her death.

  92: “constantly reminded citizens . . . to her wishes to him”: Nashville Tennessean, October 23, 1950, “Miss Tann Played for Political Favors”; Bates, p. 6; letter from Abe Wal dauer to William Shoaf, undated (c. 1944).

  92: “Police officers . . . she had stolen”: See Prologue for discussion of Alma Sipple’s futile attempt to get police officers to help her find her kidnapped child.

  92: “Judges also approved . . . sixteen in a single day”: Taylor, p. 2.

  92: “But the judge most useful . . . of their children to Georgia”: Nashville Tennessean, September 24, 1950, “State Investigator Says Force, Persuasion Used in Memphis Baby Racket”; for discussion of Camille Kelley’s collusion with Georgia Tann, see Neill, October 1978, p. 52; interview with Robert Taylor, 1992.

  92: “Kelley provided Georgia . . . Georgia placed for adoption”: Neill, November 1978, p. 74.

  92: “A former court worker . . . ‘vulture’ in Kelley’s courtroom”: Neill, October 1978, p. 38, p. 52.

  92–93: “Marie Long witnessed . . . ‘to be adopted’”: Interview with Marie Long, 1992.

  93: “‘Her business . . . campaign coffers’”: Interview with Dr. Charles Carter, 1993.

  93: “And it’s true that Crump extorted kickbacks”: Interview with Roswell Stratton, 1993.

  94: “An elderly social worker . . . of the substitution”: Interview with Mildred Stoves, 1992.

 

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