My Mom decided to move to Houston Texas (actually Humble) to be near her half-Sister Shirley. So we took the train to visit and look for a house. It was really hard to leave the only place we had called home and move to a place we had never been, to be close to someone we didn't even know!   

 We bought a house next door to my Aunt and settled in to our new life.We had a nice house and attended a great school. Little did we know that Mother was fighting a battle with cancer. She had a complete hysterectomy where all the cancer was removed.I thank God everyday for that he didn't take my Mom also.Just when we were feeling like we were home, my Mom met and married Eddie Coats. He was the first cousin of my Aunts husband David Cullins.Shortly after we packed up again and moved to Pine Bluff Arkansas.I will never forget when we went back to Atlanta to tell Aunt Marion and Uncle Clyde that we were moving to Arkansas,Aunt Marion said" Is that close to ArKansas". I love that woman!!! I don't think that they were too happy that Mother had married that soon after Daddy's death.I wasn't very happy about it either!

 We arrived in Pine Bluff  in the early morning hours. We went to my Step-Dad's Mother's house,where we stayed until we could find a house for us. It was so different than the way we had lived before.We went from the nice middle class neighborhood just the four of us, to living in a two bedroom house with four kids in one bedroom (my step-Brother James, had come to live with us) and my Mom and my step-Dad ( whom I felt like I barely knew) in the other bedroom.

 I was feeling so lonesome even in this crowd of people......

 July 11,1963 was possibly the worst day of my childhood. My Dad was on the road in his Overnite truck.He felt ill, pulled his truck over( as best he could) put out his emergency markers and laid down in his truck. He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died a few hours later.
 My Mother was now a young woman with three young children to raise on her own.I remember watching her as the family gathered at our home that night.It was as if she had lost the only person that she could count on.The only person that had ever loved her and cared for her.
 The only thing I remember about the funeral, was being carried ( by someone not sure who) up to the casket to see the man that I loved more than anything in the world. I don't remember looking at him.........
 The next few weeks are a blur.I remember thinking,what will happen to us! Why would God take my Dad when I needed him so much! 

   I am the second born child of  Fred Thacker and June Lindsey-Thacker. My Brother, Frederick Anthony "Freddy" Thacker was two years older than me and Ruby Renee Thacker was born 18 months after me. We lived in a nice middle class neighborhood in Atlanta in the early 1950's til 1963. That is when my life changed.......

Linda Thacker-Byrd

Fred Thacker

June Lindsey-Thacker