1903 ~ 1973
The earliest-known picture of Tucker is a 1909 group shot of Edmundson School where he grew up. He was six years old and dressed in an outfit like the Navy button bib uniforms. If I can find a glossy of that picture, I want to isolate him and create a portrait. Howard Taft was president that year.
In 1910, Tucker is in the Census of Stoddard Co., MO, Household #43, age 7, with his parents and siblings. He also attended the Corinth General Baptist Church Sunday School until age 9. [Source: Anniversary Brochure 1885-1985]
In 1913, Woodrow Wilson became president, and the following year World War I began.
Sadly, on January 17, 1916, one day after his 13th birthday, Tucker's father Grant died of pneumonia. I wonder if his father hung on an extra day so he couldn't ruin his son's birthday. [Source: Death Cert. of Grant Maddox]. On May 20, Tucker's mother filed an inventory of real estate inherited by her and the children. Grant had plots of 80 acres, 40 acres, 120 acres, and 73 acres, totaling 313 acres. Considering he also had insurance on his house, barn, and personal property, he left his family wellk provided for. [Source: Guardian's Inventory Records, Bk. 2, pg. 83-84, Stoddard Co., MO, and insurance policy]
One week before his 15th birthday on January 23, 1918, Tucker's grandfather Sanford Maddox died in Hamilton Co., IL. I wonder if he attended the funeral there with his mother. He and his siblings inherited their father's share of Sanford's estate. However, I think it all went to pay the grandfather's debts. [Source: Death certificate of Sanford Maddox and numerous estate papers ~ about 100 pages ~ in loose file, Probate Court, Hamilton Co., IL] Also that year World War I ended.
Tucker was in the census of Stoddard Co., MO, in 1920, in household #212 living with his mother now remarried to Jeff Raney, and siblings.
In 1921 Warren Harding became president, and Tucker joined the Navy "to see the world." He was assigned to the USS Arizona which had just been reassigned from Hampton Beach, VA, to San Diego, CA. He got as far as Hawaii. [Source: Photos and history of the USS Arizona.
After the Navy he was still only 20 years old and single, so he went back to the farmwhere he grew up in Missouri. That year Calvin Cooledge became president.
Around 1927 the automobile industry was growing inthe north?. So Tucker went to Polntiac, Oakland Co., MI, just NW of Detroit, and began working for Fisher Body, a division of General Motors. In 1929, his cousin Roscoe Maddox joined him there. But the cousin was laid off not too long after he started, so probably Tucker was too. [Source: Statement of Roscoe to dtr. Barbara Maddox Stafford]
A lot of things happened in 1930 besides Herbert Hoover becoming president. Tucker returned to Missouri, now dressing and acting like a "city slicker." He was in the census of Stoddard Co., MO, Household #211, living with a young couple and helping out on the farm. But he still had his city suit and shiny shoes, and swept my mother, Mildred Goble, off her feet over in Butler County. Mildred's father Frank had been a partner in the lumber business with Tucker's father Grant. So on November 8, they got a marriage license and were immediately married at the courthouse. My mother said she was 21, but she was only 17. And my father said he lived in Butler County. Neither was true, and I'm sure the court clerk knew this but didn't care. [Source: Marriage License Book R, Pg. 359, Butler Co., MO]
They immediately moved in with Mildred's brother and Tucker's sister, Elmer and Rilla Maddox Goble. Tucker had helped Elmer fix up and probably add to the house. It was on the 40 acres Elmer's parents had just given him and was next door to Frank and Berta Goble, Mildred's and Elmer's parents. [Source: Statement of Mildred and Deed Index Bk. 28, and Deed Bk. 188, pg. 269, Butler Co., MO].
The following year on September 17, daughter Norma Elvera was born. Tucker picked her name. Elvera was a common name among his paternal grandmother's family, the Fryers, back in Kentucky. And two years later Franklin Roosevelt became president.
Probably having learned how to operate a dragline (steam shovel) from Elmer, Tucker moved to Cottonwood Point, Pemsicot Co., MO, just south of Butler. There he operated a dragline, helping to build a levee by the Mississippi River. That year on March 21, daughter Ruth Virginia was born.
This was during the depression and scarce jobs often did not last long. That summer, he heard glowing reports of good work on truck farms in Colorado. So he went to Ft. Collins to check it out. Disappointed in what he saw, he returned to Missouri. But there were definitely good jobs in the automotive factories up north. So Tucker moved his family to Dearborn, a suburb of Detrooit, MI, and into an upper flat on Warren near Wyoming. A street-car line (electric bus that ran on tracks sunken into the street pavement) was there also. He worked in various factories, but I do not know which; perhaps Ford.
The next year he moved the family to a nice place ~ a duplex at 1020 Miller Rd. near Dix and across from the Ford Rouge Plant and canal fromthe Detroit River where huge barges trafficked. And the next year he moved the family to a small house at 7334 Horger near Gould, a better part of town. Each move was to a better house, so he was financially doing better all the time.
In 1939 World War II began. Tucker was 36 with a family, so was not considered for the draft.
In 1940 he went to work at Great Lakes Steel in Ecorse, another suburb of Detroit, Wayne Co., MI. It was a well-paying job. So in April, he moved the family to a larger house nearby, brick, at 7710 Payne between Morross and Diversity. And on May 14, his twins Kenneth and Katheryn were born.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked on December 7, 1941. Tucker's former ship ~ the USS Arizona ~ was bombed and everyone on board killed. How did he feel?
This man with wander lust and always looking for something better decided he was doing so well in Michigan, he could do as well in Missouri. So he packed up his family and moved to Jennings, a suburb of St. Louis, MO. There he bought a neighborhood grocery store with living quarters in the back on Idlewild Street. It was the only store in the neighborhood and was well patronized since franchized grocery stores did not exist yet. But keeping track of ordering goods every day and people's purchases, was probably too much work. So the following January he sold the grocery store and residence and moved to 2735 Wise (today's Wismer) in Overland, MO, another suburb of St. Louis. Then he went to work as a machinist. [Source: Food ration book issued in 1943 giving address, occupation, and physical description]
although he had tried to return "home" to Missouri, work was always better in Michigan. so Tucker packed up his family again and moved back to Dearborn, Wayne Co., and rented a brand new house at 4498 Madison at the far west end of the city. In June, he bought a large 3-bedroom, full diningroom, 2-story house at 5031 Curtis for $10,000, a large sum then, considering middle-class monthly income was about $200/month. It was east parallel to Greenfield Rd. and N. of Michigan Avenue.
Even as late as 1937, the Grant Maddox heirs were paying taxes on their Missouri land. Was the last of it sold about this time, thus giving Tucker a lump sum for down payment on this nice house, or had he been frugally saving his money?
In 1945, World War II ended and Harry Truman became president.
Also that year, Tucker went to work for Kaiser-Frazer automobile manufacturer [Source: History of the Company.] I recall my father saying he worked there nine years, so maybe he helped set up and then dismantle the factory, each of which would take around a year. It had formerly been the gigantic Willow Run B-24 bomber plant during WW II. In 1953 it moved to Toledo, OH. In the mean time, in 1950 the Korean War began.
About 1952 Tucker bought two lots in the Elizabeth Lake area of Keego Harbor, Oakland Co., MI, a suburb of Pontiac. It was near his wife's sister, Pauline Goble VanHooser. Tucker built a prefabricated cottage on one lot. We enjoyed it for the summer. Then he sold it and with that money built a cottage on the other lot of cinder/concrete blocks. The following year the Korean War ended and Dwight Eisenhower became president.
Around 1955 after Kaiser-Frazer closed up, Tucker went to work at a DeSoto automotive plant, a division of Chrysler.
On December 18, 1956, tucker's mother, Millie Mae Funkhouser Maddox, died in Dexter, Stoddard Co., MO. He went back for the funeral?. [Source: Death Certificate and family photo]
Two years after beginning work at the DeSoto plant, it closed up. So Tucker rented and then bought a semi tractor-trailer truck and began hauling mobile homes for Champion Home Builders that had been established in 1953 inDryden, MI, about 50 miles north of Dearborn. [Source: 1955 Chevrolet Tractor Truck registration, VIn P255F013835, license 2242CC, weighing 6520 pounds, and issued February 1959]
Also at that time, he bought a modern 3-bedroom brick house at the west end of Dearborn at 24444 Notre Dame.
In 1960, his sister, Lou, died in Stoddard Co., MO. The following year, John Kennedy became president.
About 1963, Tucker retired on disability with acute emphasema and moved to Tucson, AZ, and Truth-or-Consequences, NM, dry climates that help breathing. He had a heart attack while there. then he went to San Antonio, TX. Finally, when his health was extremely bad, he returned to Missouri where he lived with his nephew, Donald Maddox, brother Clarence's son. Also that year, Lyndon Johnson became president.
In 1967, his brother, Frank, died in Stoddard Co., MO. Two years later his brother, Jesse, died there. And that year Richard Nixon became president and conflict in Viet Nam enlarged with all-out fighting.
In 1973 the Viet Nam conflict ended. And on May 20, four days after his mother's birthda, Tucker passed away, the fourth of 12 siblings to die. He had been in the hospital for heart and emphasema problems. He wanted to leave and go home, so while trying to get out of bed he fell, breaking his hip. Surgery was done immediately. But the next day, unable to stretch so his lungs would fill by lifting himself up by his elbows, he died. He was buried in Rock Hill Cemetery off Stoddard Co. Rd. 485, near State Rds. 51 & J, a few graves from his parents.
He had lived through twelve presidents of the United States, the invention of the automobile and airplane, common use of the telephone and radio, and four wars.
