My Aunt Fannie Corbett received her heavenly wings on
Tuesday, February 19th, 2019. She was my last living aunt, my Daddy’s baby
sister and the last of my grandfather’s children.
Sadly, all my aunties and uncles are deceased.
Aunt Fannie was born in 1932 to Sylvester Powell and
Bessie Evans. Her paternal grandparents
were George and Fannie Sherrod Powell who raised their family in Nash, Wilson
and Wayne counties, North Carolina. George’s
parents, Lawson and Dilaney (Laney) Taylor Powell, lived in the Whitakers Township
of Nash County as far back as 1880. While her grandmother and namesake, Fannie
Sherrod Powell’s family, lived in Wayne County, North Carolina since the
1840s. Her family roots run deep in Eastern
North Carolina.
Service to Her Community Was in Her DNA
Aunt Fannie lived her entire life in Wilson, NC and in
service to her community. I like to think that she saw an injustice and spent
her life trying to correct it. Perhaps
she inherited her activism from her great-grandfather, Jack Sherrod who was a
United States Colored Troop Solider in the 135th Infantry. And like her famous cousins, Charles Sherrod who
was a member and organizer of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in
the Civil Rights Movement and Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur, Aunt Fannie
was fighting for equal rights in Wilson.
In the book “Greater Freedom: The Evolution of the Civil
Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina,” by Charles W. McKinney, Jr., Aunt
Fannie was quoted saying: “Somewhere down
the line, we decided to organized. We
felt like we would be stronger if we came together, know what I’m saying? If the people are going to win, and [city
officials] see they can’t do nothing about it, they’ll get with the
people. That’s what we found out when we
first started working.”
In 1968, Aunt Fannie and her colleagues established the
Wilson Community Improvement Association and over the next three decades,
low-income and elderly residents benefited from her activism such as the
Gee-Corbett Village which was named after Rev. Cary Gee and Aunt Fannie.
Occasionally when I would meet an elderly person who said
that they were from Wilson, I’d ask if they knew my aunt, a number of times
folks would say “Yes, she has done a lot for Wilson.” Smiling ear to ear, I
would say, “that’s my Auntie.”
She was a very special lady to me
Since the day she died, an old Negro Spiritual has been playing in my head. It’s a song that I recall my maternal grandfather
singing and it’s a song that appropriately describes Aunt Fannie:
May the works I’ve
done speak for me.
May the works I’ve
done speak for me.
When I’m resting in
my grave,
There’s nothing to
be said;
May the works the
works I’ve done,
Speak for me.
May the life I live
speak for me.
May the life I live
speak for me.
When the best I try
to live,
My mistakes He will
forgive;
May the life the
life I live
Speak for me.
May the service I
give speak for me.
May the service I
give speak for me.
When I’ve done the
best I can,
And my friends don’t
understand
May the service I
give speak for me…
Lyrics and Song by The Consolers, 1968
