Effie Mae Childress

Effie Mae Story Childress, daughter of Mary Story Key and Ralph Vernon Segrest, was born in Milstead, Macon County, Alabama on October 17, 1925. She grew up with her loving grandparents, Charlie ‘Poppa’ Story and Lena Cole Story. Effie was raised in the Methodist church and accepted Christ at an early age. After the death of her grandmother when she was fourteen, Effie moved to Michigan where she lived with her Aunt Sophie in Hamtramck. In 1944, she graduated Northeastern High School in Detroit and attended the Lewis College of Business for one year.

In 1946, Effie and her childhood sweetheart, Norris Bernard Childress, reconnected in Detroit and soon married. Thirteen children were born to their union. After many years as a dedicated homemaker, Effie returned to school and completed her Associate’s Degree at Wayne County Community College in 1973. Shortly thereafter, she attained a clerical position with the State of Michigan, where she worked until her retirement in 1988. Effie, a lifelong learner, was proud of completing her education and gaining financial independence. As she so often said, “There is nothing like having your own.”

Effie was an exemplary wife and mother. She married for life and devoted herself to her husband through good times and bad. She kept her vows with uncompromising loyalty. As a mother, she was incomparable. She understood and accepted each of her children as unique individuals, and she loved them all unconditionally. Although she rarely said the words “I love you,” her love flavored every breakfast biscuit and cup of coffee, every Sunday cake, crisp of meat, pan of sweet cornbread, and every ordinary meal and holiday feast that she prepared. Love powered her daily washing during those early years when she scrubbed clothes by hand and hung them on a line to dry. Love guided her hand in the ironing, sweeping, mending, and the many other duties of making a home for thirteen children. It strengthened the resolute voice that assured her children they were smart and talented enough to achieve their goals. Love lit her smiles when one of her children or grandchildren did or said something kind or clever, made the honor roll, won a prize, got a job, earned a diploma or degree. It animated the stories she told and retold about her children, and it guided her determination to let them find their own paths in life. Love also inspired her corrective pinches, the house shoes she torpedoed from across the room, her good bad-words when someone needed straightening out, and the censure of her silent reproach. She was the epitome of a loving mother and immensely proud that her generations included educators, attorneys, firefighters, doctors, librarians, designers, civic administrators, scholars, and artists.

Effie created a perpetual home place. Whether for a day or for years, her children and grandchildren were always welcomed into her house of many mansions. She offered refuge, an uncritical ear, a warm pillow, and a seat at the table. She was not wealthy, but thrifty enough to be the family banker who generously tided everyone over in tough times. She was a community mother, one who let the neighbors’ kids come inside to visit. Wherever the Childresses lived—in Southwest Detroit on Beatrice and Electric streets; in Ecorse on 17th and 19th streets; and in Detroit on LaSalle Gardens South—she was a mother who embraced and was embraced by the whole neighborhood.

As an adult, Effie never committed to a church, but every tenet of Christianity ruled her life. She was honest, charitable, chaste, and modest. She was patient, humble, and faithful to those she loved. She was beautiful, but not vain. She appreciated all that she had and never coveted material things or competed with others. She was hardworking and strong in spirit. She was an optimist who lived in the hope of all things good. Her indulgences were modest: happy times with family and friends, good books, good meals, summer gardens, and challenging crossword puzzles. Effie truly followed The Golden Rule, but she was not perfect. Indeed, she sometimes loved too well and opened her door too wide. She was too generous, too trusting, too forgiving. She saw in every person an equal and did not recognize distinctions of high and low. These were her faults, and all who knew and loved her are the better for them. Effie also loved Detroit—her quarter acre at 2493; Belle Isle’s weeping willows and wooded trails; the blue-collar earthiness of its transplanted country folk; its diverse neighborhoods, modest and grand. The Motor City that welcomed her in its heyday became her beloved home, and she remained a loyal Detroiter throughout the City’s years of faded glory and struggling rebirth.

Effie Mae Childress made her peaceful transition on July 21, 2015, following three and a half years of tender loving care in the home of her “lucky thirteenth” child, attorney Tracey L. Wheeler and her husband Fred Wheeler. Effie’s husband, Norris Bernard Childress (1924-1982) and her sons, Norris Bernard Childress, Jr. (1946-1973) and Wesley Millenois Childress (1951-2015) (wife Elizabeth) preceded her in death, as did her siblings, James Key, Willie Charles Key, Jessie Lee Ellington, Ned Key, and Harry Key. Effie leaves eleven children to celebrate her life and mourn her passing: Denise B. Howard of Detroit, MI (husband Robert Hill; sons Craig Jones, Christopher Jones, Billy Jones, II and daughter Michelle Howard); Dr. Paulette Childress of Huntsville, AL (husband Ronald Shurney; sons Pierre Childress, Dr. Oronde White, Kojo White, Kala White, and Paul White); Stanley A. Childress of Farmington Hills, MI (wife Dr. Rhonda M. Johnson Childress; daughters SuJuan Malone, Damali Sahu, Niambi Childress, Tiffany Childress and sons Sean Childress (deceased), Imari Childress, Elgin Childress, and Connor Childress); Wesley’s sons Marcus Fizer, Sr. (former NBA player), George Childress, and LeJon Thompkin; Sheilah L. Johnson of Belleville, MI (husband Bill Johnson; sons Anthony Grimmett (deceased), Asheber Grimmett, Jody Grimmett and daughter Tuere
Vaughn); Andre W. Childress of Houston, TX (wife Kimberly Childress; daughters Lauren Childress and Chandler Childress and son Allen Childress); Allen J. Childress of Canton, MI (wife Sherry Childress; sons Christopher Williams and Andre Childress and daughter Monica Roberson); Lorae Pierre Childress of Detroit, MI (daughters Ayana Simmons, Tiffany Price, and Brooke Childress and son Aubrey Childress); Willis T. Childress of Detroit, MI (wife Sharon Flynt Childress; sons Willis Childress, Jr., Bernard Childress, and Bryan Huntley); Barry L. Childress of Belleville, MI (sons Barry Childress, II, Joseph Childress, and Terrence Childress); Terrence D. Childress of Southfield, MI (wife Yvette Childress; daughters Erika Childress, Amber Childress, Ashley Childress, and Autumn Childress); Tracey L. Wheeler of Ann Arbor, MI (husband Fred D. Wheeler; son Fred D. Wheeler, II, and daughter Paulah Wheeler); forty great-grandchildren; five great-great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.