Andrew Jackson McKinney was born on October
10, 1890. Andrew had a varied working career. He was first and foremost
a carpenter. He worked on building Camp Wadsworth, the World War I training
camp west of Spartanburg. He also had other jobs - he worked in the Glendale
mill, was a limited farmer, and even drove the Glendale trolley for a time.
In his later years, he was General Secretary of the Carpenter’s Union in
Spartanburg. To me, personally, Andrew was a fantastic
grandfather. In his position as president of the Carpenter’s Union he worked
in downtown Spartanburg. If you were standing in front of Heinitsh
Walker Drug Store and could get his attention over in the Andrews building,
you were in for a ice cream soda treat. Strawberry was my favorite. He was
a handsome man, tall and lean, and he liked to dress stylishly. He always
made me think of the Great Gatsby character but in a poor man's world. One
day in 1959, he got up, walked through the kitchen to the back yard, singing
“I Won’t Have To Cross Jordan Alone”. He walked over and set down at a picnic
table, put his face in his hands and died. He had a massive heart
attack.
Addie Lee Corn McKinney was a feisty lady
who loved her family and loved to grow flowers. She was born on
July 14, 1888 in Grapevine, NC. I’m sure she had her hands full raising
five boys and one girl. She was a success in one area of child rearing and
that was love and respect. Her five big rough boys jumped when she
said jump. In her later years, she only had to suggest that the next Sunday
would be a good day to have a family dinner and it was done. In our
family, at least, no matter what you had intended to do, food was cooked
and everyone one was clean and in attendance for that event. When I was
around six or seven, “Granny Kinney” as we called her, had a heart attack.
From that time on, she was not allowed to go up or down steps, do any heavy
lifting or work, she was virtually a shut in. If times had been different,
she could have lived a full life. She only needed what is now simple valve
surgery. She loved to crochet and listen to the “Peaches” play baseball on
the radio. Coming from the mountains originally, she always loved the
mountain dahlias. When anyone in the family went to NC mountain area, bringing
back a bouquet to Granny was a must. My dad has stopped in people’s
yard to ask if he could cut a few dahlias for his mother. One spring day in
1953, when she was 65, she talked a couple of her daughters-in-law into taking
her to an outdoor plant store near her house. On the way back, she had a
heart attack and passed away.
