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.
