A Wonderful Reunion

     after a separation of 42 years!!

F - Judy, Peggy and Gladys

B -   Jerry and Willard 

(The above picture and the following article were taken from the Macon County Times, published December 22, 1983.) 

Hold the Presses!

The last one of the siblings to be located was Jerry Lee Martin, a resident of far-away New Mexico.  Martin, who was located by the Tennessee Dept of Human Services in early December and notified that his half-brother and sisters were looking for him, had been an infant when the family was split up.  He'd been adopted by two schoolteachers who moved first to Texas and then to New Mexico.

Now, for the first time in nearly forty three years, all five brothers and sisters are reunited, and in time for Christmas!  We're very happy for them and wish them a wonderful holiday together.

 Below are pictures of the three sisters at ages 4, 7 and 9, taken AFTER their separation

     Judy, age 4

     "LAMON"

  Peggy, age 7

   "LORENE"

  Below:

                  Sisters are Reunited after 43 (42)  Years Apart

   Their tears flowed much more easily than had the 43 years they were separated.  The three women were strangers to each other despite their shared parentage.   

    Today is a time to catch up on lost years, to talk about moments stripped from them by Macon County welfare officials who declared their mother unfit to raise them.

   The last time Gladys House saw her sisters, Lorene and Lamon, she was a mere 6 (8) years old. Because she was the oldest child, she remembers the most.  It was a warm day in May 1941 when the three sisters and a 13 day old brother were separated for what almost turned out to be forever. 

   But Mrs. House never surrendered the search for her family.  Her only sadness now is that their mother didn't live to see her family reunited.  Beadie Coley Crook died in 1968, 14 years after she and Mrs. House were reunited.

Mrs. House was the subject of a Press-Scimitar feature last October about her efforts to locate her family.  This weekend, she found her two sisters.

   Lorene Crook, renamed Peggy Jo Wilson Hurst, and Lamon, now Judy Wilson Cleckler, drove to Memphis from Chattanooga Sunday to see the sister they barely remember.  Mrs Hurst was 5 (6)  and Mrs. Cleckler 4 when the family was divided.

   "I knew I had to find them before I died," said Mrs. House, now 49."  "This is the best week of my life.  I feel like I've been reborn."

   "It's like I told Judy.  I feel like my life is complete now," said Mrs. Hurst, a Chattanooga bookkeeper and mother of three.  "We're at peace."

   Aside from the physical resemblances, the three sisters have interests, such as the piano and singing.  They now have a common goal as well ---to find their younger brother, Edward Crook.

   Mrs. House's efforts to find her family began 31 years ago.  Just when her search appeared to reach a dead-end, she received legislative help. 

   She sent a copy of the Press-Scimitar article about her to Charles O'Brien, longtime friend and former Memphis attorney.  O'Brien passed it on to his wife, Anna Belle Clement O'Brien, state senator from Crossville.  She was so moved by Mrs. House's search that she co-sponsored a bill to aid the searches of adopted and foster children.

The bill, which was in effect only from May 17 to June 17, 1983, allowed the court to request the state department of Human Services to conduct a search for siblings in adoption cases more than 26 years old.  It also provided that a non-adopted adult, such as Mrs. House, could petition the court for information on adopted siblings.  Mrs. House was never adopted by her foster parents.

   Mrs. House took her case to court and on Oct. 17, Circuit Judge William O'Hearn signed an order to release information on Mrs. House's siblings.

   "I got a letter from the Human Services people in Nashville on Saturday saying Gladys was looking for us," said Mrs. Cleckler.  "I called Peggy right away."

   The two were accompanied to Memphis by their adoptive mother, Mrs. Mary Wilson of Chattanooga.  Mrs. Wilson and her husband,  Sidney, adopted the two girls from the Tennessee Childrens Home in Nasvhille in 1941.  "I would have taken all three of them if I had known about it."  she said, "I wouldn't have ever separated those children."  

   Since their arrival, the family has been swapping pictures and sharing stories about their upbringing and their own children.  Mrs. House is the only one who has pictures of their mother.  They can't eat or sleep because of their eagerness to make up for lost time.

A half-brother, Willard Coley Clanahan of Bowling Green, KY is driving to Memphis tonight to be reunited with his half-sisters.

   Mrs. Hurst and Mrs. Cleckler always wondered about their lost kin, but didn't know how to find them.  Mrs. House, through the help of The Right To Know, a support group for adoptees and their families, knew how.  It just took her 31 years.

   "This is the happiest I've ever been in my life," said the Bartlett woman. "I've finally found my family."

                                   MORE to COME LATER!