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The name “Brightstar” was dedicated to the memory of my Grandparents, Charlie and Maggie who called the tiny town of Brightstar home.  Granddad was born in 1882 on the family farm in Brightstar just as the Reconstruction Era was ending (1865-1882).  Granddad would have grown up during Jim Crow, the Black Codes, World War I, and into the Great Depression which pretty much impacted family life across the U.S.

Jim Crow laws were established in many southern states following the end of slavery (1865), and the beginning of Reconstruction.   Jim Crow and The Black Codes were used to curtail the rights of African Americans in the Southern States.   Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation and were enacted by white Southern Democrat dominated legislatures to disenfranchise African Americans and to remove political and economic gains made by black people during the Reconstruction Period.  Jim Crow laws would have been enforced long after 1934 when Grandad lost his life, lasting until the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1965.

In practice, Jim Crow laws mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America and in some others, beginning in the 1870s.   Jim Crow laws disenfranchised African Americans but were upheld in 1896 in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, in which the U.S. Supreme Court laid out its “separate but equal” legal doctrine for facilities for African Americans.  Moreover, public education had essentially been segregated since its establishment in most of the South after the Civil War which lasted from 1861 – 1865.  Although Congress responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1866, that did not prevent states from passing discriminatory legislation which would later evolve into Jim Crow.  This is significant because it helps to paint a picture of what life was like for Granddad and our family at the time of his birth, childhood and adult life in rural Arkansas.

Grandma Maggie was born about 1888 in Tiller, Texas which I believe to be Tyler, Texas, but I am not certain.  Very little is known about Grandma or her family, but on her death certificate, her date of birth was listed as 7 March 1890.   She would have been 44 at the time of her death.  Her parents are listed as Hilary and Corneasch, and according to Mom, she had one known Sister, Addie.    Mom was only eight years old when her parents died and does not remember a lot about them.  But there were a few things that she was able to remember, facts that I found very interesting and worthy of research to learn more.

Mom remembered that Grandma was a wonderful seamstress and could sew “anything”.   She would make curtains, bed linens, dresses and more.  On the morning of the tragedy, Grandma had made an outfit for her older brother to wear to a party that night.  She also remembered her Mama being a wonderful cook.  I asked her about her favorite meal, and she could not remember one just that the food was always good and they always had plenty to eat.  This would tell me that she was probably trained to be a homemaker, and not educated because the role of women in that day was to take care of the home and to bear and raise the children.  Based on everything that I was able to find from Census and other documents, Grandma was not educated.  Mom was very close to Grandma because she was at home with her every day since she never went to formal school, she was educated by Granddad.  During her younger years, Mom was always educated at home.  After the family tragedy, Mom at age 8 went to live with her Aunt Addie and was enrolled in school, she placed at the fourth grade level which means her primary learning was on point.   Mama passed on Thanksgiving Morning, 2024 and was the last living Kelley sibling of 10 children.  To God be the Glory for the great things He has done.  Without Grandma Maggie, there would be no Mom, and without Mom, there would be no Me.