Claudy Osborn
Colbert County, Alabama, circa 1939.
In the summer of 1939 a twelve year old girl named Claudy Osborn sat transfixed in a hot, crowded, north Alabama movie theater as Judy Garland* sang these words:
Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true Someday I'll wish upon a star And wake up where the clouds are far behind me Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly Birds fly over the rainbow Why then, oh why can't I? If happy little bluebirds fly Beyond the rainbow Why, oh why, can't I?
Claudy must have felt that "Dorothy", the farm girl from Kansas, was singing just for her. Claudy was the youngest of eleven children born to Columbus Allen Osborn and wife, Nancy Isobel Romans, She had known no other life than one of poverty in the midst of the greatest economic depression the world had ever known.
The Ritz Theatre, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama.
She loved her family and her many aunts, uncles and cousins. Her roots in the red sandy soil of Colbert County, Alabama, ran as deep as cotton in the fields surrounding her home. But she knew that the world was bigger than North Alabama. The movies had shown her a world she could only dream of. But someday, somehow, she knew she would find that world.
It would be sooner than she ever imagined, and she wouldn't need to follow a yellow brick road to get there. When the time came to leave she just boarded a train in Sheffield that would take her to Chattanooga, Tennessee and beyond, to a place she could even not find on the map. Along the way she met others who, like her, were making the journey to this mysterious place in hopes of a better life. All they knew was that this "OZ" was hidden somewhere over the rainbow in the hills of East Tennessee.
The shy unassuming fellow on the right is Forrest Neil Case. If you read my prior post titled "Baby Boy Case", and examined Exhibit "A" (my birth certificate) closely as you were instructed to do, you should instantly recognize the name. Mr. Case was, to use a phrase from today's vernacular, "a real piece of work".
He was the youngest of four boys born to Mary Elizabeth Au and William Ernest Case of 241 Franklin Ave (now 241 South Franklin St.), Mansfield, Ohio. Being the youngest he must have been doted on considerably. He was constantly told by his parents, relatives, neighbors, and teachers how handsome and bright he was. Unfortunately he believed them. Low self esteem was never an issue for Neil Case. However, inflated self esteem did make his life more difficult at times, and in ways that he probably never understood as we will see in later stories.
At the time this picture was taken young Mr. Case was set to conquer the world, not to mention the heart of Miss Kathryn McLean Johnson, his high school sweetheart, whom he would marry on Saturday, September 26, 1941. Two days earlier, on September 24, Japanese Naval Intelligence ordered their agents in Hawaii to send reports concerning the disposition of American warships in the harbor at Pearl Harbor. Nine weeks later on December 7, 1941, "a day that will live in infamy", events at Pearl Harbor would change his life forever.
But of course Neil didn't know anything about Japanese Naval Intelligence or a place called Pearl Harbor. He was at that wonderfully scary point in life where he must soon leave home and "seek his fortune". Tomorrow would bring whatever tomorrow would bring, but tonight all was joy and happiness 'cause he was stepping out with his "baby" in a "new set of threads". Just like the couple in the video below.
Oak Ridge Hospital circa 1945.
Photograph by Ed Westcott.
I was born at a very early age on November 7, 1947, in the maternity ward of the Oak Ridge Hospital, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Oak Ridge is sometimes called the "Secret City". There are many reasons for this which I will tell you about in the future, when we are both older and wiser. For now though I just want to tell you about my birth. Not because it was so remarkable, but because it seems like a good place to begin. The stories I will tell you will not all be about me. But my story is the story I know best so we might as well start there.
1947 "film noir" movie poster.
Do you like detective stories? I do. One of my favorite movie genres as a boy were called "film noir". The leading male characters in "film noir" were usually private eyes with tough cases to solve which they always managed to do by asking the right questions and a lot of good detective work. My birth took place many years ago and of course I don't remember much about it. In fact there are no living witnesses who we can question. But there are clues. Let's take a close look at the clues and see what we can learn.
Exhibit "A"
On the left is Exhibit "A", a Tennessee birth certificate. It is in fact my birth certificate. I know it looks small, but you can "click" it to see it larger. You can learn a lot from reading birth certificates. Let's take a closer look at mine to see what we can discover. It states that I was born on November 7, 1947. Hey, I already knew that but there it is in writing. It doesn't say what day of the week it was but with a little investigating we can quickly find that out. Turns out, I was born on a Friday. Oh boy, just in time for the weekend. I wonder what the weather was that day? With a little more sleuthing we learn that the high that day was 59 deg. and the low was 43 deg. with 0.30 inches of precipitation, which was three times the average amount precipitation for that time of the year. In other words, the day I came into the world was cool and damp.
"Baby Boy Case"
It was also dark. The lower right hand corner of the birth certificate says I was born at 12:40 AM. I don't know about you, but that must have been way past my bedtime. It looks like I came into the world sleepy, and between you and me I've been kind of sleepy ever since. I think my Mom was even more tired and sleepy. It says on the birth certificate that she had been in the hospital for 52 3/4 hours before I finally popped, slithered, or was just plain squeezed on out. I don't remember any of those details, probably because I was so sleepy. At any rate, Mom's labor apparently went on for more than two days. She must have been more than ready for that project to come to a conclusion. Did you see my name on the birth certificate? It says "Baby Boy Case"...BABY BOY CASE?! Huh? My Mom told me later that when I was born she and my father had not yet picked out a name for me. Can you believe that? I mean after all, they only had nine whole months to think about it! Talk about the mother of all procrastinators. Have you ever tried to get a passport using a birth certificate that did not even have your real name on it? I mean, come on Mom!
Claudy, er, uh, I mean, "Claudia" F. Osborn.
But here I go talking about my Mom without properly introducing her to you. She taught me much better manners than that, so let's make things right. Her name was Claudia F. Osborn. Actually, it was Claudy F. Osborn but she hated the name "Claudy" and told everybody that her name was "Claudia". I know why, but I will save that story for another day. I'll also tell you what the "F." in her name stood for. She hated that name too. But I digress. Anyway, here she is in the photo on the right. This picture may have been taken in the very early stages of my mother's pregnancy...before I started to show up as a little round lump in her belly. As you can see, she was very pretty. You might even say she was beautiful. I always thought so and I know others did as well. She was also very young at the time this picture was made. As it states in the birth certificate, she was only 21 years old when I was born.
The photo was taken in the living room of a duplex at 205 Vermont Avenue, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. That is where I lived for the first three years of my life. I don't remember much about those years so they must have been pretty uneventful...at least for me. Incredibly I do remember two things from those years which I will tell you about in a later post. I will also tell you more about my mom and dad. But you can already learn a few things about them by taking a close look at the birth certificate. Let's see how well you do. Here is a quiz:
What did the "F" in my mother's name stand for?
What color or race was she?
Where was she born?
What was her usual occupation?
How many months had my mom been pregnant when I was born?
What does the birth certificate say about my dad?
One more task for you...find "Vermont Ave., Oak Ridge, Tennessee" on a google map. Our duplex at 205 Vermont Ave is not there anymore. In fact almost all of the duplex apartments in that part of town are gone now. If you look closely at the picture of the hospital you can see that at one time there were them. Our duplex was right across the street from the present day Family Clinic of Oak Ridge and just a couple of blocks from the hospital. As you can see, I was born very close to my first home.
