The Anniston Star l Sunday, May 26, 2013 l Page 6E
Sunday RECORD YOUR GUIDE TO PUBLIC RECORDS AND VITAL STATISTICS IN CALHOUN COUNTY deAths Patricia Adams, Alexandria Herbert Amerson, Jacksonville William R. Anglin, Florida Harold E. Arrington, Roanoke Retired SGT Joseph Lamar Cantor, Jacksonville Flora Weathers Clark, Oxford Willie Bell Cook, Talladega Jimmie Cork, Piedmont Alvis “PePaw” Crow, Munford Frank Olyn Crow Sr., Saks Stella Cuevas, Anniston Willie Dates, Talladega Dave Harlan Dothard, Jacksonville Pam Dover, Ohatchee William Guy Dutton, Collinsville Eula Mae “Lou” Wiley Ford, Lincoln Donald “Pete” Garmon Jr., Weaver Jim Hammett, Tennessee David Hann, Lineville Alma Jean Bryant Harrison, Pell City Jimmy Sherrill Hill, Roanoke Cooper Ayden Hudgins, Anniston Louise Brooks Hutchinson, Anniston Reginald Andre Johnson, Anniston Betty Meers Kelley, Cedar
Bluff Myrtle Eris Whitley Lipham, Oxford Peggy Lee Coleman McManus, Anniston Shirley Montgomery, Ohatchee Deacon Otis C. Murray Jr., Anniston Ivadean Patterson, Oxford Jerry D. Pope, Tuscaloosa Mary Roberson, Anniston Mildred “Mickey” H. Brooks Stephens, Anniston Dana Allen Whitley, Jacksonville Armelia Woods, Ragland Mary Roberson, Anniston Brian Keith Sanford, Piedmont Opal A. Sedlacek, Anniston Iona W. Smith, Woodland Clarence Somers, Delta Carol Vaughan Stahl, Anniston Ann C. Stephens, Oxford John Harold Stephens, Tennessee Glenn Edward Teague, Gaylesville Leroy Turner, Talladega Mary L. Varnon, Jacksonville Mary Voiles, Piedmont Raymond Whitten, Anniston Inez Williams, Weaver Johnny Glenn Williams, Oxford
RATE OF BANKRUPTCIES
13 11
99 66
7
33 0
52 weeks ago
Last week
MARRIAGE LICENSES
CATTLE SALE
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows the debtor to retain certain exempt property, but the debtor’s remaining property is gathered and sold by a trustee from which creditors will receive payment. It may also be used by businesses which wish to terminate their business.
• James Kevin Layne of Piedmont to Vanessa Kim Gowens of Piedmont • Preston Scott Woodard of Anniston to Megan Brooke Craft of Anniston • Joshua Blake Yarbrough of Eastaboga to Megan Nichole Conner of Anniston • Ralph Edward Ecxford of Anniston to Sharon Hawkins Williams of Anniston • Michael Jaye Morrison of Anniston to Victoria Sharee Parker of Anniston • Joseph Denton Plummer Jr. of Anniston to Jeanie Louise Havens of Anniston • Michael Anthony Lovvorn of Anniston to Toni Nichole Gravette of Anniston • Stefan Lamar Timmons of Oxford to Nikolina Ostogic of Utica, N.Y. • Lee Ronzell Rooks of Piedmont to Dorissa Leann Stubbs of Piedmont • James Sherbert Hodges Jr. of Oxford to Kelsey Renee North of Anniston • Keiffer Trey Knight of Jacksonville to Maranda Rae Smith of Jacksonville • Joseph Blake Gilmore of Anniston to Jamie Nicole Liner of Anniston • Mark David McClendon Jr. of Anniston to Meredith Leigh Crosson of Annsiton • Denton Savage McGregor Kimberly of Anniston to Janeen Ledbetter McCormack of Anniston • Sonny Ray O’dell of Piedmont to Tammy Randa Locklear of Piedmont • Jeffrey Paul Bain of Oxford to Ashley Ann Smith of Oxford • Joshua Lance Hafley of Alexandria to Brittany Nicole Cobb of Alexandria • Jason Allen Kennedy of Anniston to Jennifer Lynn Roberts of Anniston • Robert Lee Taylor of Oxford to Natalia Yurashena Beavers of Oxford • Brandon Le Steele of Ohatchee to Kimberly Bentley Shaddix of Ohatchee • Byron Bartley Owen of Heflin to Andrea Nicole Burford of Oxford • Andrew McLester IV of Anniston to Lamecca Antionette Baker Bolding of Anniston • Joseph Winsotn Wilson of Birmingham to Jessica Nicole Everhart of Birmingham • Timothy Shane Davidson of Anniston to Hailey Renea Phillips of Anniston
Here is the livestock market report for the Tuesday sale. Receipts for this week 555 compared to 817 last week. Receipts a year ago 630.
A Chapter 13 bankruptcy enables debtors, through court supervision and protection, to propose and carry out a repayment plan under which creditors are paid, in full or in part, in installments over a three-year period. During that time, debtors are prohibited from starting or continuing collection efforts. The following bankruptcies declared by Calhoun County residents were recorded by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Alabama last week:
Chapter 7 • Ashley Brooks Haynes, Warren Drive, Jacksonville • Nancy J. Couch, Church Street, Anniston • Barry W. Weaver and Carol A. Weaver, Alexandria Road Southwest, Jacksonville • Jamie Weaver, Alexandria Road Southwest, Jacksonville • Pamela R. Comer, Alexandra Drive, Oxford
Chapter 13
• Manuell Smith IV and Leneka J. Smith, Pinewood Drive, Oxford • Jake W. Christopher and Julia C. Christopher, Sleepy Hollow Circle, Oxford • Jerry Long, Wilson Way, Weaver • Katherine Davis, Alexandria • James G. Davis, Alice Street, Alexandria • Gary Davis, Weaver
DIVORCES
15 15 12 12
BANKRUPTCIES
This week
For the latest in local news, visit www.AnnistonStar.com
• Joshua Mousseau and Emerald Mousseau • Traci Thompson and William Thompson • Jeff Hotaling and Clara Hotaling • Nicole Stevens and Nicholaus Stevens • Karen Lam and Dung H. Lam • Cassie Ragsdale and Adam Eugene Ragsdale • Ashley Lozano and Jorge Luis Lozano • Tonja Ann Taylor and Daniel Keith Taylor • Sa’de Shaniece Cash and Bernard Berna Cash • George Keith Silvers and Ginia Kay Silvers • Paul Edward Ellison and Jennifer Ellison • Chad D. Ponder and Tonya Ponder • Tracy Harper and Travis Lee Harper • Frank E. Cook and Judith D. Cook • Joey Wilkerson and Krystal Wilkerson • Aron Strickland and Donnie Strickland • Jeffrey A. Willingham and Stacie Willingham • Anne R. Bouele and Reginald Joseph • Lynn Moore Davis and Randall Leon Davis • Kelli Holsonback and Kevin Holsonback
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FEEDER CLASSES:
Bulls and steers (Medium and Large No. 1 and No. 2): 200-300 lbs. 170.00 to 210.00; 300-400 lbs. 150.00 to 195.00; 400-500 lbs. 135.00 to 162.50; 500-600 lbs. 120.00 to 151.00; 600700 lbs. 110.00 to 129.00. Heifers (Medium and Large No. 1 and No. 2): 200-300 lbs. Too Few; 300-400 lbs. 141.00 to 165.00; 400-500 lbs. 130.00 to 141.00; 500600 lbs. 117.00 to 133.00.
SLAUGHTER CLASSES:
Cows: Breakers 77.00 to 81.00; Boners 80.00 to 87.00; Lean 74.00 to 77.00. Bulls: Normal Dressing 5458% 95.00 to 101.00; High Dressing >58% 102.50 to 106.50; Low Dressing
WILLS PROBATED • Juanita D. Kittrell • Laurelle H. Hampton • Ceylon M. Hale • E.M. McCormick • Margaret Rachel Dellinger Baker • Norman Howard Henderson • Arnold Edgar Jones
INCORPORATIONS
• McClellan Independent Living Facility LP • Oxford DEVI FIS LLC • Garner Lands-Clay LLC • Garner Lands-Cleburne LLC • Garner Lands-Randolph LLC • Garner Lands-Talladega LLC • Garner Lands-Georgia LLC • Forever Sunrise Organics LLC • Anniston Rotary Club Inc. • V Foundation
Dissolved
annistonstar.COM
• Coldwater Landscape Supply Inc. • O’Dell, Estes and Sims
ARRESTS The people listed in this arrest report, whose names and charges are obtained from public records, are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
Anniston
The following felony arrests were reported by the Anniston Police Department (addresses not provided) during the seven-day period ending at 7 a.m. Thursday. • Samantha Ruth Free, 35: second-degree theft. • Deangelo Morgan Bowie, 20: seconddegree receiving stolen property, firstdegree possession of marijuana.
• Hakeem Rashad Drakes, 21: seconddegree receiving stolen property. • Rodney Lynn Johnson Jr., 26: possession of a controlled substance. • April Lynn Arnold, 32: possession of a controlled substance. • Quintoyree Marquise Gladden, 24: second-degree receiving stolen property, firstdegree possession of marijuana. • Lance David McClendon, 29: seconddegree theft. • Uriel Donald Lancaster, 24: possession of a controlled substance. • Karl Willingham Tyree, 49: first-degree criminal mischief.
Calhoun County The following felony arrests were reported by the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office during the seven-day period ending at 7 a.m. Thursday. • Kevin Scott Lawrence, 24, of Pell City: grand jury indictment. • Brandy Holley Kennedy, 28, of Anniston: first-degree theft. • Darryl Bernard Booker, 46, of Anniston: bond revocation. • Seth Benjamin Curtis, 26, of Oxford: probation violation. • Davy Dywayne Bentley, 35, of Anniston:
failure to appear in court. • Skyler Marlon Easterwood, 19, of Cullman: failure to appear in court. • Ellen Jill Harris, 38, of Jacksonville: grand jury indictment. • Kerry Verselle Funderburg, 38, of Anniston: order of arrest. • Stephen Derrick Magouirk, 29, of Anniston: failure to appear in court. • Ronald Lynn Burt, 54, of Oxford: failure to appear in court. • Tammy l. Brannon, 45: second-degree possession of a forged instrument.
BLOTTER Crimes are listed by location. Anonymous tips may be called in to Crime Stoppers at 256-238-1414. A reward of up to $1,000 may be given.
safe. • Residence, 300 block of East 28th Street: computer, jewelry box, jewelry. • Residence, 2800 block of McKleroy Avenue: furnaces, sink. Anniston • Residence, 3000 block of Seminole Drive: The following property crimes were report- tablet computer. ed to the Anniston Police Department dur- Thefts ing the seven-day period ending at 7 a.m. • Specialty store, 300 block of Noble Street: Thursday. hat. • Residence, 3100 block of Morrisville Road: Burglaries firearms. • Residence, first block of Pelham Heights: • Residence, 100 block of Shaffer Lane: tabtelevisions, game console. let computer, jewelry. • School, 1500 block of East 10th Street: • Convenience store, 800 block of South projectors. Quintard Avenue: phone cards. • Residence, 1800 block of Lynn Road: dirt • Unknown location, 3200 block of McClellan bike, helmet, silver bar, firearms, security Boulevard: cell phone.
FORECLOSURES • Michael Estes, a parcel of land in section 9, township 14, range 8. • Dewayne Reid and Gail Reid, Virginia Acres, lot 3. • Wendy A. Watts, Reaves subdivision, block 1, lots 9-12.
• Matthew W. Pearce and Jeanne M. Pearce, a parcel of land in section 33, township 14, range 8. • Joseph D. Crosby and Cynthia D. Crosby, fraction section 7/10 of a parcel of land in section 31, township 12, range 10.
• Residence, 6100 block of Chartee Drive: gun safe, firearms, jewelry, medication. • Residence, 300 block of South Corning Street: chainsaw, air compressor. • Residence, 1000 block of Patterson Street: four-wheeler. • Department store, 3100 block of McClellan Boulevard: cash.
Auto-related thefts • Parking lot, 1000 block of East 10th Street: wallet, cash, cell phone. • Residence, 1600 block of Rocky Hollow Road: camera, cell phone. • Residence, 800 block of West 54th Street: wallet, cash, personal I.D. • Street, 1700 block of 10th Street: computer, speakers, sound board, speaker stands. • Residence, 3000 block of Noble Street: 2003
Chevrolet S-10.
Calhoun County
The following property crimes were reported to the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office during the seven-day period ending at 7 a.m. Thursday.
Burglaries • Residence, Possum Trot Road, Piedmont: windows/screens, medications.
Thefts
• Residence, Collins Road, Ohatchee: jewelry.
Auto-related thefts • Residence, U.S. 204, Jacksonville: hub caps, drivers door.
Get the dirt on gardening in Sunday’s Life & Arts section ALSO Online at Annistonstar.com
The Anniston Star
Sunday Record
Sunday, May 26, 2013 Page 7E
CALENDAR: AnnistonStar.com/calendar PROPERTY TRANSFERRED • Ronald Lewis Chitwood and James E. Chitwood to Ronald Lewis Chitwood, a parcel of land in section 12, township 17, range 8, $10. • Ronald Lewis Chitwood and James E. Chitwood to Michael T. Chitwood and James Christopher Chitwood, a parcel of land in sections 3/4, township 12, range 8, $10. • Evelyn W. Milam to Evelyn Milam and Rhonda Denise Lankford, Oak Ridge Estates re-subdivision, block B, lots 16 and 17, $10. • Sandra F. Smith to Mitch N. Griffin, G.E. State Farm Mutual, block A, lot 4, $14,060. • Gail Ann Burns and Tracy Burns to David Gathan Burns and Lavonda W. Burns, a parcel of land near 4385 Cottaquilla Road, Anniston, $10. • Gail Burns to David Gathan Burns and Lavonda W. Burns, a parcel of land in sections 3/4, township 15, range 9, $10. • Gail Ann Burns and Tracy Burns to David Gathan Burns and Lavonda W. Burns, a parcel of land in sections 3/4, township 15, range 9, $10. • James H. Potts and Opal Potts to Cheri L. Crim, Forest Hills subdivision, block C, lot 4, $1. • Ronald Edward Burns to Eugene Burns Jr., a parcel of land in section 26, township 15, range 9, $10. • Goshen Mortgage REO LLC to Piedmont Development LLC, Standard-Coosa-Thatcher Co., block 2, lot 6, $10. • Robert A. Childs to Arletys Cruz, R.L. Perkins subdivision, lot 4, $10,500.
• Heirs of Burr Whorton and Heirs of Herman Whorton to Robyn McFry, a parcel of land in section 36, township 12, range 10, $10. • Rhonda Shell and Mary Linda Qualls to Robyn McFry, a parcel of land in section 36, township 12, range 10, $10. • Tony Keith Murray to Billie Jo Murray, Pleasant Harbor subdivision, 1st addition, lot 23, $10. • Linda Taylor to Henry Taylor, Miller Estate, lots 28 and 29, $10. • JPMorgan Chase Bank to Housing & Urban Development, Shady Manor subdivision, 1st addition, block A, lot 4, $1. • Housing & Urban Development to Joe Ronald Cofield, Anniston Land Co., block 541-B, lot 30, $19,900. • Fannie Mae to Penny K. Flynn, a parcel of land in section 30, township 16, range 8, $48,900. • Nationstar Mortgage LLC to Fannie Mae, Anniston City Land Co., block 500, lot 2. • Fannie Mae to Elayne G. Stinson, Anniston City Land Co., block 500, lot 2, $20,000. • William L. Hurst and Tiffany W. Hurst to Vince Conn and Katherine Conn, Cotton Creek subdivision, phase 3, lot 14A, $100. • Dora Nadine Cates to Dora Nadine Cates, Sue Angela Chastain, Misty Dawn Thacker and Melissa Rene Chastain, E.L. Hollingsworth addition to Blue Mountain, block A, lots 20-23, $10. • Kerry S. Hollis and Christine Hollis to John P. Garmon, Cynthia Garmon, Gregory F. Brannon and Jennifer P. Brannon, a parcel of land in section 22, township 14, range 9, $100.
• Charles D. Mundy, Kay L. Mundy, Herbert Mundy and Juanita Mundy to Bonnie L. Littlefield, Lakewood Estates, 1st addition, block 1, lot 7, $10. • William H. Cooper to Megan C. Holland and Kody W. Holland, Four Lane Homesites, block 7, lots 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50 and 52; Four Lane Homesite, block 8, lots 1-40, 44 and 46, $10. • Gerald J. Cobb and Elosie C. Cobb to Jimmie D. Mains and Charlotte Mains, Cane Creek Homes in McClellan, lot 95, $10. • Jimmie D. Mains and Charlotte Mains to Golden Springs Baptist Church, Golden Springs subdivision, block A, lots 2 and 3, $10. • Scott Lindsey to Lakrisha R. Lindsey, a parcel of land in section 30, township 14, range 8, $10. • Philip McMinn to Michael T. Meharg, Francis addition to Jacksonville, lot 6, $10. • Scarlet P. Mobley to Michael T. Meharg, Francis addition to Jacksonville, lot 6, $10. • Loretta F. Kolodzieski to Connie Jean Slaughter, Hidden Valley subdivision, lot 8, $10. • Nancy Phillips to Michael T. Meharg, Francis addition to Jacksonville, lot 6, $10. • William Roiki Phillips to Michael T. Meharg, Francis addition to Jacksonville, lot 6, $10. • Patricia M. Isom to Michael Meharg, Francis addition to Jacksonville, lot 6, $10. • Muirfield Properties Inc. to Jeremy S. Suggs and Jamie L. Suggs, Rolling Hills subdivision, 1st addition, lot 72, $92,000.
• Barbara C. Kelly Davis to Charles William Kelley and Leila Dianna Bragg, Wallace Lumber Co., block 47, lots 17 and 18, $25,000. • P.D. Pritchett Construction Co. LLC to Justin Edward Casey and Michelle M. Casey, Gaps Grove subdivision, lot 17, $159,000. • Eugene Sutley to Premier Land and Minerals Inc., a parcel of land in section 7, township 16, range 8, $10. • Sarah Vinita Lowery to Tim Cain Enterprises LLC, a parcel of land in section 35, township 13, range 7, $10. • Cecil J. Walton to Jacquelyn D. Walton, Booker T. Washington Heights, block 10, lot 16, $10. • Supervalu Inc. to Supervalu Holdings Inc., a parcel of land in section 21, township 16, range 6, $10. • Matrix Financial Services Corp. to Fannie Mae, Piedmont Land & Improvement Co., block 67, lots 7-9, $500. • Marcus Enright Angle Sr.-Estate to James D. Smith, a parcel of land in section 14, township 15, range 7, $100. • Mark Q. Durden and Jill N. Durden to Mark Q. Durden and Jill N. Durden, Pine Hill Estates, block A, lot 6, $100. • Karl R. Westfall to Debra D. Axelton and Timothy Axelton, a parcel of land in section 4, township 14, range 6, $10. • Sandra L. Garber and Melinda G. Wills to Matthew Wyatt, a parcel of land in section 25, township 14, range 9, $10. • Raymond Ray Clevenger and Dorotha Clevenger to James Lamar Poland Jr. and Leigh Ann Poland, a
parcel of land in section 20, township 13, range 7, $10. • Kathryn L. Hanson-Estate to Gregory Hanson, Linen Thread CO., lots 104 and 109, $10. • Shirley McCord to Amanda McCord, a parcel of land in section 2, township 16, range 9, $10. • Suntrust Mortgage to Fannie Mae, Mountain Pointe subdivision, phase 1, lot 149. • Cenlar FSB to Freddie Mac, Gewndale subdivision, lot 6. • Jimmy Warren Smith to Thomas Mark Smith, a parcel of land in section 21, township 16, range 6, $100. • Veterans Affairs to PHH Mortgage Corp., West Anniston Land & Improvement Co., block 14, lot 6, $10. • John A. Hawkenson and Diane A. Hawkenson to Michael Foote, Sun Valley subdivision, 1st addition, lot 18, $102,000. • Vernice Tarwater to Vernice Tarwater and Deborah Bakke, Anniston Homestead & Fruitgrowers Assoc., lot 3000. • Travis Spence Sr. and Linda S. Spence to John Mathew Schultz, Crow Farm, lots 2 and 3, $10. • Donald G. Browning to Luekether Kirkland and Sheila L. Kirkland, Hillyer Highlands, 2nd addition to Sunset Heights, block 1, lot 5, $10. • Orpha M. Genochio to Donald G. Browning, Holly Hill, 1st addition, block 3, lot 7, $10. • Joe L. Whitmore to Barbara B. White and Samuel Broadus White, Jarrett’s subdivision of Forest Hills, block F, lot 24, $59,000. • Grace S. Nichols to Grace S. Nichols and Andrea Nichols, Russell Property, lot 13, $10.
RESTAURANT INSPECTIONS Here are food service establishments recently inspected by the Calhoun County Health Department, along with scores. A score of 100 indicates the inspector found no deficiencies. Potentially hazardous deficiencies (four- or five-point demerit items) are noted. These must be corrected immediately and inspectors say they are often corrected while the inspection is underway. Restaurants earning below 70 must raise
their scores within seven days or face clo- not meet temperature requirements during • City Market Grill & Buffet, 600 S. Quintard sure. hot holding; personnel should eat/drink in Ave., Anniston — 97. designated areas only. • Kangaroo Express (Pantry), 800 Quintard 4-OR 5-POINT DEMERITS Ave., Anniston — 96. • No. 1 China Buffet, 5624 McClellan Blvd., NO MAJOR DEMERITS • Momma Goldberg’s Deli, 208 Mountain St., Anniston — 90, potentially hazardous food • American Legion Post 312, 1330 W. 10th St., Jacksonville — 98. did not meet temperature requirements dur- Anniston — 98. • Sparkle Mart, 4022 Bynum-Leatherwood ing cold holding. • Anniston Country Club (Bars), 601 Highland Road, Anniston — 98. • Tokyo Express, 1801 Quintard Ave., Annis- Ave., Anniston — 99. • Weaver Elementary School — 100. ton — 84, potentially hazardous food did • Blu’s, 1013-B U.S. 431, N., Anniston — 96. • Weaver High School — 99.
Pain of giving up children for adoption endures By Anita Creamer The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Just before Christmas 1962, when she was 20 and unmarried, Freddie Stewart gave birth to a baby girl. At the hospital, she refused to hold her firstborn; she remembers thinking that if she saw her daughter, she couldn’t give her up for adoption. “I went away from this experience and tried not to look back,” said Freddie Stewart Lussier, now 70. “I thought I’d dealt with it. I just put it out of my head.” She lives today on a 10-acre property in the El Dorado County, Calif., foothills, where she has goats, chickens and dogs. Kelly Camber, a daughter she raised after a brief marriage in the mid-1960s, visits often, and Freddie’s grown twin granddaughters and their children spend time with her. But as with many other mothers of her generation, the loss of her birth child was deep and lasting, a permanent wound. Over the next five decades, Freddie carried a burden of guilt and grief. She couldn’t even talk about her firstborn. Not when her brother, Wendell Alderson, 60, tried to raise the subject. “You could see the look on her face,” he said. “Her face would fall. It was hidden. It was a deep, dark secret in our family.” And not when the family friend who helped arrange the birth daughter’s private adoption asked Freddie if she wanted to see photos. “I’d say no,” said Freddie. “It was painful, but I was able to put it behind me. Dwelling on it, what was that going to do?” Then, through happenstance and what Freddie Lussier calls God’s will, she and her birth daughter, Lori Fox, finally met. During adoption’s age of shame — roughly the three decades beginning in 1945 — the practice was shrouded in secrecy. And young women from middleclass families paid a steep emotional price for pregnancy before marriage. Often, they were sent to maternity homes where they gave birth to babies they immediately relinquished. In many ways, Linda Orozco’s story is typical. Today, she’s a volunteer for support groups that help people touched by that era of adoption, but in 1967, she was pregnant and unmarried. She fled to Sacramento, Calif.’s maternity home, Fairhaven Home for Girls, where she gave birth to the son she gave up. “Society looked down on an unwed mother,” said Orozco, now 67 and a retired state worker. “Your own family looked down on you. You felt like damaged goods.” And no one talked about the pregnant girls who vanished, except in whispers. “The stigma was huge,” said Ellen Herman, a University of Oregon professor who created the online “The Adoption History Project.” “It’s difficult to convey that today to anyone under 30 or even 40. We don’t remember the degree of shame associated with nonmarital childbearing.”
Lezlie Sterling/Sacramento Bee/MCT
Freddie Stewart Lussier plays with her great-grandchildren Erin Potter, 3, center, and Kaelee Potter, 5, at her home in Garden Valley. Lussier, 70, recently met her daughter, Lori Fox, whom she gave up for adoption in 1962. Although statistics on legal adoption were gathered haphazardly on the state and federal levels in the 1950s and 1960s, experts suggest that about 120,000 children were adopted each year during those decades, peaking at about 175,000 in 1970. Research shows that today about 5 million Americans are adoptees, and only 3 percent of them are younger than 18. For most of them, birth records remain sealed. Even today, adoptees in most states, including California, need a notarized request to receive basic information about their birth parents: age, height, weight and limited medical records. Their identities are not revealed as part of that request. On a practical level, what this involved process often means is that the past remains hidden, cloaked in silence. “Closed adoption was done to protect the birth mother’s reputation and to protect the adoptee,” said Leslie Mackinnon, a spokeswoman for Concerned United Birthparents in Atlanta. “And it was done to protect adoptive parents from anyone coming back to claim their child. “It really messed a lot of people up. Secrets and lies never do anyone any good.” Freddie Lussier grew up in Roseville, Calif., when it was still a small railroad town, a place where everyone knew everyone and gossip flowed freely. She worked in a local beauty shop, and she could hear the other women talk after she got pregnant. So she left town, going to live with an older sister in Sacramento until the baby’s birth. “The man I’d been seeing was older than me, but there was no great love there,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. I was probably four months along when I told my mother. She was mad and disappointed.
You know.” A family friend mentioned that she knew a local couple who wanted children but couldn’t have them. Freddie and her mother visited a Sacramento attorney, where Freddie signed the papers. “Everyone told me that (the birth child) would never know she was adopted. I never pursued a reunion, because I’d never disrupt her life that way. Really, I put that birth so far in the back of my head that it was almost like it hadn’t happened.” The secrecy surrounding adoption created complicated parallel fictions: Not only was the birth mother expected to compartmentalize her past, but adoptive parents also sometimes felt the need to hide the reality of their circumstances. “Secrecy of all kinds came into the open starting in the 1960s,” said Herman, the University of Oregon historian. “Secrets lose toxicity when that happens. “Families now aren’t expected to keep up the pretense that adoptive families are exactly the same, because they’re not. Adoptive children have more than one mother and father. People in the 1950s and ‘60s tried to pretend otherwise for very well-intentioned reasons.” For some, the power of secrecy remains. The woman who adopted Lori Fox, who raised her and loved her, is 81 now and a widow. She does not like the idea of a newspaper story and does not want her name used. Like many of her generation, she prefers that private matters remain private. It was only by chance that she met Wendell Alderson at the funeral several months ago of the mutual friend who had helped arrange the adoption of his sister’s birth child. The two began talking — and, he
said, she helped put him in touch with Lori, her only child. “She told me, ‘I’d like for Lori to know some of her family,’” he said. Lori Fox is today a 50-year-old mother of three who lives in Manteca, Calif. She was 8 when her parents told her she was adopted. “My parents sat me down and told me,” she said. “They cried. I felt bad for them. And I felt bewildered. “I never wanted to ask questions. My mother didn’t want me to feel different, and I didn’t want her to cry.” But she was intensely aware of the secrecy surrounding her adoption, which stemmed in part, she said, from her adoptive parents’ fear that the biological mother might want her back. “It was hush-hush,” Lori said. “I was never encouraged to tell anybody I was adopted. If anybody asked questions, my mother was uncomfortable. It was really sad.” Once she grew up and had children of her own, Lori wanted to know basic health information. She petitioned the state for a non-identifying report, but she didn’t want to pursue a full-fledged search. “I didn’t want to disrupt her life,” she said, echoing her birth mother’s words. “But I always envisioned meeting her one day. I thought, ‘When it’s supposed to happen, it will happen.’” After Wendell Alderson and her adoptive mother met at the funeral, he wrote a note, sending his email address in case Lori wanted to get in touch. Within days, she responded. “I was excited,” she said. “I couldn’t wait.” The adoption landscape changed with the times, altered by the sexual revolution, the women’s movement and widespread access to birth control and abortion. Today almost 27 percent of America’s children — 22 million kids — are raised by single parents, according to Census Bureau statistics. Federal Centers for Disease Control figures show that less than 1 percent of children born outside marriage today are placed for adoption. If unmarried motherhood has become routine, so has open adoption, the practice of birth and adoptive parents staying in touch through the exchange of photographs, cards and, in some cases, visits. It developed for a simple reason: Baby boomer adoptees started asking questions. “By the late 1970s, they started showing up at adoption agencies, wanting information,” said Mackinnon. “And birth mothers started coming back wanting to know that the child they’d given up was OK. Over time, the secrecy and stigma faded. Even so, the reunions bringing together adoptees and their birth parents — these intimate strangers — can remain difficult. “The public seems to think that people find each other and live happily ever after,” said Mackinnon. “The reunion is just the beginning of another incredibly emotionally wrought chapter. People are not prepared.”