They Raised Me Up: A Black Single Mother and the Women Who Inspired Her

Chapter Twenty-Four. Alberta, Harlem, 1947

Chapter Twenty-Four Alberta Harlem, 1947 If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded. —Maya angelou as she celebrated her fiftieth birthday, alberta sweeney could look back with satisfaction on a full and meaningful life.1 she had become the first black woman to sit on the board of the Girl scouts of america’s new york branch. Her husband, samuel sweeney sr., had been awarded an honorary doctorate from Morgan state College and another one from his old alma mater, Gammon theological seminary. Her church was the largest in the new york Methodist Conference and had just paid off its mortgage. Her son John was getting his master’s degree in music at new york University. Her middle son, Paul, had just made the law review at Howard University, and her daughter, elizabeth, was about to graduate from Hunter College. although sam Jr. would never recover from his experiences during the war, his condition had stabilized. only one dream remained unfulfilled. alberta, who had lived in church parsonages her entire married life, wanted to own her own home. in 1947 a friend at st. Mark’s Church told her that a piece of land in Upstate new york might be coming on the market. the property overlooked a lake and was surrounded by pine trees. the property was located an eight-hour train ride from Manhattan in the adirondack Mountains, a popular summer destination for prosperous new yorkers. it must have seemed like a fairy tale when alberta’s confidante revealed that the owner of the property in question was a black woman. in 1947 an african american woman who owned property would have been enough of an oddity . for an african american to own several acres of prime waterfront in an exclusive resort area was unimaginable. it is easy to imagine alberta and her friend chatting in the front room of the parsonage at st. Mark’s. Perhaps they are sharing a cup of tea—alberta, as usual, adding honey and lemon to hers 122 123 Alberta, Harlem, 1947 to improve her singing voice. even though the two women are alone, alberta’s friend lowers her voice to a whisper as she tells this story: twenty-five years ago, a black teenager named Queenie moved to the adirondacks and took a job working for the simmons family, wealthy white Canadians who’d been spending their summers in the mountains for years. Mr. simmons, although much older and already married, fell head over heels for his pretty black housemaid. after an enormous scandal, Mr. simmons divorced his wife. More scandalous still, he married Queenie, giving his former servant a mansion and several acres of lakefront property as a wedding present. alberta is listening intently by now. but there is even more to the story: Queenie simmons and her new husband had lived a roaring twenties lifestyle worthy of f. scott fitzgerald, hosting fancy dress balls and candlelight suppers, dining on steak and champagne, and dancing the Charleston until the sun came up. for a few years in the 1920s, the simmons estate in lake Clear was the place to be if you were young, rich, and looking for a good time. When Mr. simmons died, he left his widow a wealthy but lonely woman with a ten-room mansion and several acres of valuable property. for years prospective buyers approached Queenie simmons with offers, but she always refused to sell. as alberta digests this news, i picture her informant pausing for dramatic effect before delivering the most important piece of gossip: the old woman was rumored to have fallen on hard times. With a little persuasion, Queenie simmons might now be willing to part with an acre or two. “of course, you’ll have to go up to lake Clear and talk to her,”alberta’s informant said. Queenie was not going to sell her land to anyone but a close friend. and, as alberta’s informant surmised, Queenie simmons had no friends, close or otherwise. alberta made the sixteen-hour round-trip from new york to lake Clear several times over the next year to visit the old woman. Queenie simmons had been a beautiful woman once, but by 1947 she was a cantankerous old hermit—toothless and tight-fisted. as alberta would later tell her children, a visit to Queenie’s home was always a memorable experience. for one thing, the woman never answered her front door. if you...