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George Ruffin, my father, was born August 26, 1912 to William and Jeanette Williams Ruffin. He was the third child born in this family.  There were six of them.  The oldest was his sister, Priscilla, followed by John, George, Haywood, Bessie and Arguster.  Their mother, Jeanette, died when they were young.  All of the children were given to relatives to raise.  He went to live with his mother's sister, Caroline (Aunt Carrie) and her husband, John (Uncle John) Pugh. 

When my father was in his mid-teens he left home seeking work.  He used to talk about how he jumped trains going from town to town working with the carnival.  He was a very hard worker.  He was still looking for employment, when he found a job in Edgecombe County on a farm.  He was working in Edgecombe County when he met my mother, Minnie Lee Pender.  They fell in love and were married when Minnie Lee was 15 years old.  They married in December 1934.

My mother, Minnie Lee Pender Ruffin, was born March 30, 1919.  She was the youngest daughter of Elizabeth Brown (Whitehurst).  When she was three days old, her grandmother, Sarah Brown, gave her to Louise Pender and her husband John Pender.  Louise and John had just recently lost their only child to influenza and were still grieving.  They took her and raised her as their very own.  There was a lot of love between them.  Minnie Lee attended the Old Roberson Elementary School.  She completed the eighth grade.  When she was twelve years old, she met her biological mother, Elizabeth Brown Whitehurst.  She learned about her two sisters (Annice and Beulah) also. They became very close. 

During her teenage years Minnie Lee began having seizures.  Her parents took her to the doctor for this condition.  Nothing seemed to help.  She had seizures so regularly, she knew exactly when she was going to have one.  The doctor told her parents that if she were married, her seizures would stop.  She was fifteen years old when she got married in December 1934 to my father, George Ruffin (I don't remember the date, but around Christmastime). 

When George and Minnie Lee got married, they lived with her parents, Louise and John Pender. I was their first child.  I was born on my mother’s eighteenth birthday, March 30,1937.  At the time of my birth, my mother was 18 and my father was 26 years old.  We continued staying with her parents (Louise and John), and about two and a half years later, Minnie Lee and George had their second child, my brother Joseph Lee, on August 13, 1939. 

When Joseph Lee (Joe) was a little over a year old, we moved to our own house.  We moved to a farm owned by Tom Taylor near Roberson School.  In this house my parents had their third child, Minnie Ruth.  Ruth was born with a lot of allergies.  She could not drink any milk.  She also had problems with her skin.  When Ruth was only a few months old, George was sentenced to time in jail for his involvement with corn whiskey.  When he returned home, a few months later, Minnie Lee’s father died.  Later that year, we moved back with Minnie Lee’s mother and her mother's sister, Sallie.  They worked on the farm.  The owner of the farm closed in the screened porch to make room for us (George, Minnie Lee, Mary Ethel, Joseph Lee and Minnie Ruth).  We lived in this house until I was twelve years old.  Here we had a nice garden with lots of vegetables.  We had chickens, hogs, cows and also mules for tending the crops.

My parents, George and Minnie Lee had more children:  John Henry, Elizabeth Louise, Elnora Evonne and George.  They were all born while living on the Taylor farm. 

When Elnora was six or seven months old, our mother had rheumatic fever.  She was bedridden for a good while.  Soon after she recovered, our brother George was born.  He lived seven months.  He was stricken with seizures on a Sunday in August while we were in Sunday school.  He died later that same day.  Later that year we moved to the Coakley area.  The next year my brother, William Auguster (Bill) was born.  That was the first time we were really by ourselves, meaning away from our grandma, Louise and our aunt, Sallie. We had to get adjusted.

On June 6,1951, Bill was sick from being constipated, and his eyes went back so only the whites showed.  Minnie Lee yelled “Oh, Lord, George, my baby is dying”.  Daddy said, “Sure is”. Following that remark, Minnie Lee collapsed.  Bill was okay after having a bowel movement, but Minnie Lee was taken to the hospital-she had had a stroke.  She stayed two weeks and was sent home because they had given up on her.  She stayed unconscious for about a month at home before she came out of it.  When she first awakened, all she wanted to do was to hurt herself.  She was so sure her baby had died; it was as if she didn't want to live.  While she was sick that summer, a lot of family members and concerned neighbors came by every night staying until after midnight.  My mother’s birth mother, Elizabeth Brown Whitehurst, came from New York.  She stayed at our house on the weekends and at her in-laws during the week.  It was doing this time, she told my mother Minnie Lee who her real father was.  She said that she told her because she didn't want her to die not knowing who her real father was.

Someone told my father, George and my grandma, Louise about this doctor in Greenville who was very good.  They began taking Minnie Lee to this doctor once or twice a week.  He was a Chiropractor; he used vibrators and message therapy on Minnie Lee.  In a few weeks she was showing some improvement.  She started using her arm and she was able to walk with help.  That September, fourth Sunday, she went to church with Grandma (Louise).  She limped quite a bit at first, but it gradually got better. 

The next year our brother Daniel Haywood was born to Minnie Lee and George.  He lived about three months.  He had diarrhea a lot.  The doctor said he died because he had lost too much of his bodily fluids.  The next few years we moved twice.  In December 1954, we moved to the Bowers farm.  In 1955, Grandma Sack (Sarah) came to live with us.  She was senile at the time, and she put us through a lot of changes.  Faye was born that April.  Grandma Sack was very upset about it.  We had to always keep a close eye on William Auguster (Bill) and Carolyn Faye, because Grandma Sack was always threatening to harm them.

I (Mary Ethel) graduated from high school that May.  That following winter, we moved back to the Coakley area, and near Speed.  That February Jeanette, my first child, was born.  In October that year my baby sister, Dorothy Mae (Dot) was born.  We were living for a few years in that house.  Joe and Ruth graduated while living in that house.  My brother Milton was born in that house. 

I left home in early 1957. This is about as much as I can remember.  Maybe someone else can take it from here.