My Descending from Gov. - D. A. Sharpe

Register Report for William Bradford
Generation 9
Taylor was physically well balanced. His father, his siblings and heoften
played doing flips on the king size bed they had. He attendedValencia Day
School over on Valence Street in uptown New Orleans whenhe was three.
They told us that the problem was he kept jumping offthe tables. We
suggested to them that they just tell him he had tomind or he'd suffer
consequences. They told us they didn't do schoolthat way, so he was
expelled from school when he was three.
He next went to St. George's Episcopal School, where they knewsomething a
little more about instructing students. He went to GardenNursery last for
nursery schooling. It was operated by a couple oflittle old lady spinster sisters
operating out of their large home inthe Garden District. It was there that he
made friends particularlywith John Louis Valadarez, a trilingual child whose
American citizenparents were native French and Honduran. All three
languages werespoken in their home, and John Louis would sometimes use
all threelanguages in a single sentence, which made it interesting
listeningwhen he came over to play with Taylor.
His early New Orleans beginnings found him to be the only Anglostudent in
his first grade class at the public elementary school downin the crime ridden
and rough Irish Chanel. His teacher, Ms. FranReed, was unusually gifted and
did great things for Taylor's learning.She was the one who recognized his
dyslexic tendencies and earlyresolvement was sought. She was a Christian
woman who was a member,with our family, at the Canal Street Presbyterian
Church. Taylor didnot really learn to read till the third grade. At that time,
hisreading took off and he read much, including the famous C. S.
Lewisseries, "The Tales of Narnia" several times.
In junior high, it was decided to get tutoring help for him. One ofhis best
grammar school teachers had a husband who was a professor inFrench at St.
Louis University. He was known to tutor at times, so hewas approached. Dr.
Marcus Allen said he'd do it only if Taylor paidfor the services, rather than his
parents! This was worked out by hishaving Taylor do lawn care and other
household chores for theirfamily. Dr. Allen's hobby was photography, so he
taught that toTaylor as an extra. This was the genesis of Taylor's life
longexpertise in photography. This was an excellent opportunity forTaylor to
develop a colleagueship with a man of such strength ofcharacter, such
culture and such creativity. He was a superb exampleof a positive male
image for young Taylor and a great occasion for himto know all of those
features to be seen in an African American man.
Taylor liked to help me close up the election polls after elections,and got to
be friends with the election clerks who worked with me.Growing out of that
interest, it was arranged for him to be enelection clerk for the first election
after he became eligible to voteas an 18 year old. This was at the voting poll
at the Our Lady of theLourdes Elementary School on our home street,
Northmoor Drive, inUniversity City, Saint Louis County, Missouri.
Taylor developed interest in computers, and I taught him to work onthem in
my office evenings when work had been necessary. He wasparticularly good
at typing and began attracting jobs to type collegelevel papers. By the time
he graduated from high school, he had typedfive masters theses and one
doctoral dissertation. Quite anaccomplishment for such a young man, and an
excellent opportunity toexpose him to see just how such works of writing are
composed.
The family moved to Dallas in October of his senior year of highschool. He
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