Criminal Scandal--Tennessee Children's Home Society

 But, first...

Yesterday, Tuesday, I put sweet potatoes in the oven to bake. My feet and legs were swollen, so I lay down in bed and told Tommy to get me up at 8:15. Of course, I went to sleep.  He came in and said, "Linda, it's 8:15, time to get up." He said that I said in a sleepy voice, "Why am I getting up at this time?"  "You said the sweet potatoes would be done." He said I perked up and said in a normal voice, "Oh!" and got right up. I was so tired. I like this kind of dinner with leftover meat loaf and leftover meatballs. I opened a can of collard greens and the sweet potatoes were steaming hot. It seems when he wakes me most of the time that I have no idea why I told him to wake me.

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In 1945, a man was living as though he were single, dating and lying. He seduced a single woman and impregnated her. She insisted he marry her. Then, he told her he was married. His wife refused to give him a divorce. 

One Christmas Day, he went to his home and five children. His wife worked the night shift at a factory. He sent the babysitter home and spent the night there. In the morning, he went to the police station and told them his wife had left five children home, one an infant, the oldest only eight-years-old. 

When the mother got off the bus, she saw police cars and all sorts of vehicles at her home. Upset, she went screaming down the street to her home and children. The authorities took her children and put them in a home or orphanage with dozens of other children and babies. 

The mother immediately went to court and could not convince the authorities what happened. She got a job at the orphanage and worked in the baby room so she could take care of her infant. During the day, she went to the older ones and visited through the fence and told them not to say she was their mother. 

Because one of her children was a beautiful little boy with blond, curly hair, the home decided he could be put up for adoption. The mother fought in court. She almost lost him. But, she prevailed and eventually all her children were home with her. The poor mother was almost no match for the legal system in league with Georgia Tann, but through persistence she saved her children against the lies of people who wanted to sell him. 

The mother gave the father a divorce because of his deception and cruelty. 

I have no idea what the father of the five children thought about all this. I will have no chance to ask. I only discovered this family secret after all the adult parties involved were gone. Georgia Tann almost succeeded. 

Judges, social workers, and police were all on the lookout for children in order to get a bounty from Tann.  So, many parents were in a dilemma if they were poor.

Read the book, Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate. 

"From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a black-market baby business at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents—hiding the fact that many weren’t orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died." copied

Have you a story to tell? Did you know anyone involved or who lost children?