Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503200020
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY JO SHANNON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
So after a hard day of cleaning other people's houses, the 63-year-old attends college, studying creative writing and microcomputer typing.
``In America, we have a chance to make choices, and I think my life story proves it,'' she said. ``I want to show that poverty and terrible home life is no excuse for a life of dope, and crime and prostitution.''
Jessie Mae Zeigler Anderson was 11 years old when her father, a coal miner in West Virginia, became disabled. He returned to his home in Franklin County, and her mother struggled to support their eight children.
``My mother and [maternal] grandmother were wonderful women. They took us to church and taught us to do what is right,'' Anderson said.
But the burden of such a big family was too much for her mother, and the older children were farmed out to relatives. Anderson lived with family in Franklin County.
``It was no place for an 11-year-old,'' she recalled. ``It was like a whorehouse. Rough type of people coming and going. An aunt in Roanoke took me to her house when I was 12, and I lived with her for 35 years, until she died.''
Although in many ways, this environment was an improvement, it was far from ideal, Anderson said.
``She was always putting me down. Told me I'd never amount to anything - never learn to cook, never drive a car, never get married, never finish school.''
Anderson's life with the aunt included, what she calls, "the ultimate sacrifice" - bearing a child for her aunt at the age of 14.
``Today, they call it being a surrogate mother," she says. ``But then it was different," she says, not going into details on the circumstances. "They wouldn't let me go to school when I was pregnant. I got a job in the post office cafe when I was 17. And once, when I was 23, I tried to go back to school, but it didn't work out. I figured life had passed me by, and it was too late to learn.''
Her son never realized Anderson was his mother, and she hasn't heard from him in several years.
Instead of accepting her aunt's dire predictions, though, Anderson set out to prove she could ``do all the things she said I'd never do.''
``I had to come to terms with myself. I learned how to live, forgetting the past."
In time, with remarkable patience, Anderson accomplished most of her goals. Several years after her aunt's death, she married Hamp Anderson, an older man with eight grown children.
``I was very happy," Anderson said. ``But Hamp died 14 months after we were married.''
Anderson has supported herself by cleaning houses, and her clientele has included many prominent Roanokers. When Catherine Neuhoff needed a full-time maid, Anderson found regular employment.
``I started working for her in the '60s and stayed on until 1979 when they moved to Florida,'' Anderson said.
She then returned to day work, beginning with Neuhoff's daughter, Kay Blankemeyer, who told her friends about Anderson's faithfulness and honesty.
``I'm never out of work,'' Anderson said, ``because my faithfuls tell others. I do my best to please them. That's my main aim.''
Day work, baby-sitting and occasional house-sitting required more flexible transportation than the bus system provided. In 1980, Anderson took driving lessons and looked for a car. Her employers financed the purchase, and Anderson repaid them promptly.
To care for her vehicle properly, Anderson enrolled in an auto mechanics course for adults at Patrick Henry High School.
When Blankemeyer discovered that Anderson's income from six days of work caused annual increases in her rent in a housing project, she was appalled.
``Jessie was paying more in monthly rent for a project apartment than we were paying for our house payment,'' says Blankemeyer. ``I told her she could rent a nice apartment for much less.''
Anderson heeded the advice, and two years ago, she moved to a spacious apartment on 10th Street Northwest.
Blankemeyer also encouraged Anderson to get her high school equivalency certificate.
``I said I was too old at 59,'' Anderson said. ``But she said I could do it. I knew I could not do day work forever, and I needed to prepare for my future. So I tried.''
Not only was Anderson the oldest student in the class, but she also was the only one with perfect attendance. She encouraged her younger classmates and served as an excellent example for them, Blankemeyer said.
When Anderson graduated, her ``faithfuls'' were there to see her receive her diploma.
But her education didn't stop there.
``On the last day of class,'' she recalled, ``the teacher asked what we would like to be, and I said, 'an author. I want to write my life story.'''
When she inquired about writing courses at Virginia Western Community College, Anderson was told she had to take two prerequisite English courses to take creative writing. At age 60, she qualified for free tuition, provided space was available.
Twice, she watched the evening classes fill up with paying students. ``I had to work during the day, and I thought I might be 100 years old before a free space was available at night, so I went back and said: 'Lady, I want to take English III at night, and I'll pay for it.'''
"I think I read where George Washington Carver walked 3,000 miles going to school - well, surely I can pay for my education.''
Once she had completed the English courses, Anderson finally enrolled in creative writing and a microcomputer typing course to help her begin her autobiography.
``My youngest brother in California is putting together a computer for me, but I've got a lot to learn about writing before I'm ready to begin my book.''
Her class folder bulges with sketches drawn from memories of her grandmother, and tales of events in the many households where she's worked. Sweetness and sorrow, humor and pathos.
``America has been good to me,'' she said. ``We need to give something back. I hope my story will inspire others and let them know there's no excuse for stealing and fighting and taking drugs and doing prostitution just because you had a rough life.''
Memo: NOTE: Also ran in March 25, 1995 Current.