Washburn, Doug

Description

Blessed with good health and with the loving care of five generations of descendants, Helen Stansbury still lives independently at the age of 98. Born in 1911, she has lived through WWI and II and the Great Depression, and seen transportation change from the horse and buggy to putting men on the moon. Although her life story could be said to track more true with the Civil War era, she has lived to see a black man be elected President of the United States. Mrs. Stansbury's mother was a black lady working as a domestic for a family in Philadelphia shortly after the turn of the 20th Century. She became impregnated by the "master of the house" and expelled by the "lady of the house". Her mother moved to the Churchville area of Harford County and Mrs. Stansbury was born here. She attended Asbury Colored School on Asbury Road (between MD 22 and MD 136, south-west of Churchville). After she married Charles Stansbury, a black man, and started her own family, she walked her children to the Swan Creek Colored School, just east of Aberdeen, and had to pass the Halls Cross Road school for whites as she escorted them. Deceased in 1958, Mr. Stansbury worked on the train at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Mrs. Stansbury's fair complexion allowed her to pass for white, permitting her to travel on the bus and train in the area, and work at the Aberdeen Diner. Had she been viewed as a black lady, this...

Record Contributed By

Harford County Public Library

Record Harvested From

Digital Maryland