Martha Elizabeth (McDonald) Knight (abt. 1904 - 1994)

Born about 8 Apr 1904 in Gainesville, Hall, Georgia, United States

Ancestors

Wife of William West Knight — married 20 Oct 1926 in Jefferson, Alabama, United States

Died 19 Dec 1994 at about age 90 in Inglewood, Los Angeles, California, United States

Biography

Martha (McDonald) Knight is a part of US Black heritage.

Martha Elizabeth McDonald was born on April 14, 1904. She was the daughter of Governor McDonald and America McElhannon.

Martha was recorded in the 1910 census as Mandy, the 6 year old granddaughter of Margaret Makelhan.^[1]

Martha was recorded in he 1920 census as the 14 year old maid and daughter of Governor McDonald in Fairfield, Alabama, USA.^[2]

Martha (age 20) married Wm West Knight Jr. on 20 October 1926 in Jefferson, Alabama, United States.^[3]

In the 1930 census Martha (age 24) was the wife of William Knight at 422 Fifty-Third Street, Fairfield, Jefferson, Alabama, United States.^[4]

In the 1940 census Martha (age 33) was the wife of William Knight in Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama.^[5]

In the 1950 census Martha (age 45) was the wife of William W Knight in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, United States.^[6]

Martha died (age 89) on 19 December 1994 in Los Angeles.^[7][8]

Obituary

Born in Georgia to coal miner Governor Ross MacDonald (d.Birmingham, AL 1962) and his first wife, America McElhannon MacDonald (died c. 1907), eldest of three daughters (the younger being Victoria McDonald (1906-1989), who has many descendants in Indiana and Illinois by one of her two children, the late Irene Witerow), and Francis McDonald (abt.1906-), who died aged three, when Martha was seven.

Martha and her sisters were at first cared for by her maternal grandmother in Georgia, but her father re-married twice and they eventually lived in Fairfield, a "suburb" of Birmingham, Alabama within walking distance of Miles College. Martha later recalled both of the step-mothers having been strict to the point of brutality with her.

Martha graduated high school and paid for her own piano lessons. In church. She met and married William Knight, also a coal miner.

The couple had five children surviving; Elaine Helen, Hortense Lucretia, William West, Lethirre Blann and Sherlock Frederick, all of whom were living when their mother died. But their youngest daughter, Gwendolyn, had been accidentally killed at age 3 on Easter Sunday 1943 by her 4 year-old brother Sherlock, upon finding their father's hidden pistol in the house -- a story Martha recounted 50 years later as if it had happened the day before. The incident eventually proved fatal to the couple's marriage. Martha also had numerous miscarriages and stillbirths, recalling that she was pregnant 13 times.

Martha, tall, fair-complexed, plump with high cheek bones, was inquiring by nature. She searched Scripture diligently for answers to philosophical and psychological problems until she joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Portland, to which she remained devoutly faithful until death.

She also completed a course in vocational nursing. But she never worked as a nurse because, she believed, her resentful husband employed devilish arts to inflict physical ailments upon her. Eventually, the afflictions became more mental than physical, and she began to babble, wander, dress strangely and publicly talk to herself, obliging her oldest child Elaine, then a student at Reed College, to return home to care for her.

Eventually, Martha recovered and was never again similarly afflicted. But convinced she was bewitched, she bided her time until, finally, after all of her children but Sherlock had left home permanently, Martha fled her abusive husband.

She arranged for Sherlock to continue to stay with friends, swore him to secrecy about her future whereabouts, and left. She arrived in Washington, D.C. where she provided childcare for daughter, Hortense's toddler, Charles aka Freddie. That became a permanent source of income for her after the three of them moved into a one bedroom apartment in northeast Washington.

While caring for neighborhood children, she became very active in Berean Seventh Day Adventist Church in Washington, learned to drive, welcomed her visiting children on occasion, held Friday night Bible sessions for neighborhood children in her home, and often took Freddie on visits by train or car to their relatives from Connecticut to New York to Indiana and, annually, to her father's home in Birmingham.

For a while, she placed Freddie in Seventh Day Adventist School in 1958 and took care of the children of her elder daughter Elaine, who had married a government mathematician named Charles "Batch" Batchlor. After Hortense and Freddie moved to Los Angeles, Martha moved back to Fairfield, Alabama to take care of her father (everyone in the family followed her habit of calling Governor MacDonald "Papa"), who eventually died of prostate cancer.

In the late 1970s, Martha's eldest son, Bill, went to Birmingham, closed up the house, and brought Martha to Los Angeles. There she lived with he and his wife Peggy Price Knight for a while. Eventually she got a subsidized apartment on Gibraltar Avenue, the next street over from the Stevely Avenue apartment of her daughter, Hortense. As she grew older, she became paranoid about intruders secretly "hiding" things from her, but did not suffer from this once she was able to move to a larger apartment on Slauson Avenue near Angeles Vista Blvd. There, she got a dog, Red Fox, and was cared for by her son Bill and her daughter Hortense, with occasional help from their children. She joined Berean Seventh Day Adventist Church on Adams Boulevard, and went weekly until she was well into her eighties.

As she approached 90, she became frail and senile, yet remained in her own apartment until about eight months before her death, at which time she went to live in a rest home in Inglewood. Her daughter Hortense happened to visit while doctors worked to revive her on the last day of her life. But it had become apparent in the weeks prior that she was "sundowning" as her granddaughter, Elaine Batchlor, M.D. said, who had also come to live in L.A. after undergrad at Harvard and medical school in Cleveland.

Sources

1. ↑ 1910 United States Federal Census, Gainesville, Hall, Georgia; Roll: T624_196; Page: 23A; Enumeration District: 0083; FHL microfilm: 1374209
2. ↑ 1920 United States Federal Census, Fairfield, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: T625_22; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 175
3. ↑ Marriage: "Alabama, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1805-1967"
   Marriage Records. Alabama Marriages. County courthouses, Alabama
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 61365 #901526901 (accessed 13 October 2022)
   Martha E McDonald (20) marriage to Wm West Knight Jr. on 20 Oct 1926 in Jefferson, Alabama, USA.
4. ↑ 1930 Census: "1930 United States Federal Census"
   Year: 1930; Census Place: Fairfield, Jefferson, Alabama; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0207; FHL microfilm: 2339768
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 6224 #119389544 (accessed 13 October 2022)
   Martha Knight (24), wife, in household of William Knight (27) at 422 Fifty-Third Street, Fairfield, Jefferson, Alabama, USA. Born in Georgia.
5. ↑ 1940 Census: "1940 United States Federal Census"
   Year: 1940; Census Place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: m-t0627-00097; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 68-264
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2442 #60020833 (accessed 13 October 2022)
   Martha Knight (33), wife, in household of William Knight (37) in Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama. Born in Georgia.
6. ↑ 1950 Census: "1950 United States Federal Census"
   United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: 1163; Sheet Number: 5; Enumeration District: 37-510
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 62308 #24450587 (accessed 13 October 2022)
   Martha E Knight (45), wife, in household of William W Knight (48) in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA. Born in Georgia.
7. ↑ Death: "California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997"
   Place: Los Angeles; Date: 19 Dec 1994
   Ancestry Record 5180 #16752622 (accessed 13 October 2022)
   Martha M Knight death 19 Dec 1994 (born 9 Apr 1905) in Los Angeles, mother's maiden name McElhannon.
8. ↑ Memorial: Find a Grave (no image)
   Find A Grave: Memorial #9920478 (accessed 13 October 2022)
   Memorial page for Martha Elizabeth MacDonald Knight (Apr 1904-Dec 1994), citing Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California, USA; Maintained by Charles Stewart (contributor 46739575).

Find a Grave, database and images Find A Grave: Memorial #9920478, citing Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California, USA ; Maintained by Charles Stewart (contributor 46739575) .

• "Public Member Trees", database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/157126555/person/192255961205/facts : accessed 13 October 2022), profile for Mandy Mc Donald.