My Descending from Gov. - D. A. Sharpe

Register Report for William Bradford
Generation 9
and transitionalneighborhood. We purchased a home jointly with Dr. Joseph A. Sneadand
his wife, Charlotte. We occupied it in May of 1967. It was builtin 1866, was built of Cyprus
wood and had 16 rooms, one of which was akitchen and two were bathrooms. I built a
kitchen out of one of therooms and they were able to divide the house equally to become
aduplex. I surely did learn a lot about plumbing at that time.
While Joe went into service in the Viet Nam war and Charlotte residedback at her home in
Virginia, the Sharpes took in the family of theminister working in that inner city ministry, the
Rev. Mr. William J.Brown. His wife was Mary Lou and their children were Kevin,
Sondra,Karie and Jonathan. The work of the Browns, the Sharpes and othersbrought a
significant variety of people through the home and aroundthe dinner table. Suzanne
cooked for 12 to 18 people most eveningsfor a good while. The constituents of our ministry
were AfricanAmerican children and teenagers on the one hand. On the other hand,there
were quite a number of white men and women, former drug addicts,many who were exconvicts,
with whom we had interface. God taught thefamily many things during these
experiences.
There was about a year when Suzanne joined Rev. Brown and others toteach a very early
Sunday morning Sunday school at a detention centerfor female juvenile delinquents. That
gave me the occasion to prepareTaylor and Tiffany for Sunday and get them to the church
via thestreet car and bus combination. Even though it rained a number ofthose days (as it
often does in New Orleans), not once in that yeardid it rain on us while walking to the street
car stop or waiting forthe bus transfer. God's providence! And I learned yet another
reasonfully to appreciate what Suzanne did as a mother. The third and lastchild, Todd, was
born in 1969 on Taylor's 4th birthday! What a closefamily!
Our home at 1619 Prytania Street had five bars within a block of itthat never closed (no
closing hours were required in New Orleans forsuch establishments). Juke boxes sounded
with regular volume, a thingto which we just got used to hearing. There were five gun fights
oroccasions of hand gun discharge over the five years they lived there.The family never
again lived in such an exciting neighborhood. Theneighborhood was along side the
Mississippi River, about 16 blocks upriver from the central business district of New Orleans
and the FrenchQuarter. Lots of ship dock workers, etc. populated the area, as wellas quite
a number of winos residing in almost abandoned flop houses.
We moved to Saint Louis in March of 1972, purchasing a home at 7044Northmoor Drive in
the suburb of University City. It was a half ablock from the Washington University campus,
which had been the siteof the famous World's Fair of 1904. That was the Fair featured in
themusical film of "Meet Me in Saint Louis." It also was the Fair whereit is claimed that the
first offerings to an international market ofthe ice cream cone and the hamburger (which
many claim comes fromAthens, Texas). Suzanne's life was busy with the children,
withactivities of teaching, singing and participating in the CentralPresbyterian Church of
Clayton, Missouri, and in being a volunteeringmom at the children's public elementary
school in the University CitySchool District, Flynn Park.
Though the grammar school experience with the children was verypositive, public school
after that was disappointing as to itsquality, which led the family to enroll the children in
privateschools. Suzanne went back to work to help with the financial weightof private
education and became a licensed realtor, dealing withresidential properties. Her office was
in the neighborhood in whichthe "Meet Me in Saint Louis" movie was filmed. This work was
veryfulfilling for her, with good results. It was the Ira E. Berry RealEstate firm. This firm later
was subsumed into the Caldwell BankerRealtors. She pursued this till the family moved to
Dallas in 1982.
In Dallas, Suzanne surrounded herself with the lives of the childrenand with participation in
the life of Highland Park PresbyterianChurch very similarly to what she did in Saint Louis,
particularlywith the Chancel Choir. She participated in several civicorganizations, all of
which she served as an elected officer. She wasasked to serve as president or was
Page 97 of 182 Tuesday, December 11, 2012 11:29:07
AM