Tuberculosis Takes Two: The Crew Family in the Late 1930s

If you’ve read my last couple of posts, you already know that 1936 was a difficult year for my distant cousin Beuna Nell Crew, niece of my 2x great-grandmother Scoatney (Scott) Cooper. Her mother, Lula (Scott) Crew, died suddenly of a heart attack just two weeks into the year. And it seems that Beuna then – in what was her junior year - temporarily dropped out of Spelman College, likely to go home to Lithonia, GA to assist with all that needed to be done.  

Funeral notice for Lula (Scott) Crew, Beuna Nell Crew's mother. Atlanta Constitution, 15 January 1936, p. 20. Accessed via Internet Archive (archive.org).

Beuna was able to return to Spelman for the following school year, and she graduated in 1938, but, sadly, life had a couple more challenges to throw her way. In fact, exactly one month after her graduation day, Beuna’s father, Henry Crew, died of pulmonary tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that attacks the lungs. Twenty-three-year-old Beuna had now lost both of her parents in the span of less than three years.

Snippet of death certificate of Henry Crew, father of Beuna Nell Crew.

It seems that Henry had been ill since at least April of that year, and likely earlier, as the physician who signed his death certificate indicated he’d been treating Henry since April 1^st. The symptoms of tuberculosis include excessive coughing, often producing mucus and/or blood, as well as fever, chest pains, fatigue, chills and night sweats, and unintentional weight loss. Henry likely would have been deeply uncomfortable as his disease progressed. So, too, would the thousands upon thousands of other sufferers across the nation, who, by the time Henry had fallen ill - had led to decades of public health campaigns, scientific conferences, the creation of specialized sanitariums and hospital wards, and, sometimes, the quarantining of tuberculosis patients outside of their home communities across the nation.

One example of a poster from a tuberculosis public health campaign of the 1930s. Citation Below.

The Men's Ward in the "Negro Division" of the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in North Carolina. An example of one way in which the tuberculosis issue was being handled. Citation Below.

As the older of the two Crew children, it may have been Beuna who placed the funeral notice in the Atlanta Constitution, though brother Lamar may have done. He was 20 years old at the time; they buried his father on Lamar’s 21^st birthday. Perhaps they split the duties; Lamar was the informant for his father’s personal information on the death certificate.

Funeral Notice for Henry Crew, Atlanta Constitution, 10 July 1938, p73. Accessed via InternetArchive (archive.org.

One wonders how Beuna and Lamar handled the loss of their father so soon after their mother, and at what were still, in the grand scheme of things, such young ages. But they each had things to focus on. By October of 1938, Beuna was working – likely as a teacher - in the town of Monroe, Georgia, about 30 miles away from Lithonia. Lamar, meanwhile, had a young family to support: wife Annie Pearl and son Lamar, Jr., who had just turned one in May. He might have already starting working as an insurance agent for the Black-owned Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company, helping to secure others against the financial impacts of tragic loss. But then tragic loss struck at home, and it struck him.

On September 3^rd, 1939, Lamar Crew was taken from his family by pulmonary tuberculosis, just like his father.

Snippet of Death Certificate for Lamar Crew, brother of Beuna Nell Crew.

Annie lost her husband, little Lamar lost his father, and Beuna lost not only her brother, but the last member of her immediate family.

This time, Beuna was the informant on the death certificate. Perhaps Annie placed the notices in the newspaper – Lamar’s death and funeral were announced in both the Atlanta Constitution and the Black-owned Atlanta Daily World.

One of several death notices for Lamar Crew, brother of Beuna Nell Crew. Atlanta Constitution, 4 September 1939, p8. Accessed via Internet Archive (archive.org).

Tuberculosis is a contagious, airborne disease, one that is easily spread between people who have prolonged close contact with one another. But it doesn't always produce symptoms. Did Annie or Lamar, Jr. get it while their husband and father was ill? If so, was it inactive (latent) or active? I don’t know. If they did get it, and if it was active, they survived. Annie lives to the age of 69, remarries along the way, and passes away in 1987. Lamar, Jr. grows up, marries, has several children, and lives until the age of 67. While Beuna lost her immediate family in the late 1930s, the Crews lived (and live) on.

Lula (Scott) Crew, husband Henry Crew, and son Lamar Crew are all buried in Lithonia Cemetery, Lithonia, GA.

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The 1930s were a tragic time for the Crew family. Do you know anything about their story? About how Beuna, Annie, or little Lamar made it through? Or just have a thought you’d like to share? Drop a note in the comment section below!

 

Image Citations

Fight Tuberculosis Poster: Fight Tuberculosis - Obey the Rules of Health. New York, None. [New york: wpa federal art project, dis. 4, between 1936 and 1941] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/98513584/.

NC Sanitarium Photograph: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. "The men's ward; Negro Division; State Tuberculosis Sanatorium; Sanatorium, N. C." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1926. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-e95d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99