Roger White

Roger Thomas (Jock) White--younger brother to Granddad Jerry--was loved by his family. He worked hard to help out and was well-liked by his peers. Unfortunately, he died when he was only a teenager. I recently interviewed Granddad Jerry about him, and this post contains the information I learned.

I happened to stumble across Jock's death certificate when looking for records on Clifford Winspear White. It gave details of Roger's passing. Roger was in a car accident when he was only 16 and died soon thereafter from head injuries. The death record says that he lost control of the car due to speeding and hit a tree and a ditch.  It was a poor section of road. (source: Dad) It also shows that the accident happened around  8:15 PM. He died just 30 minutes later, at 8:45 PM, according to the coroner.

This information is from the interview with Granddad Jerry: 

1. What’s your favorite story about him? 3 stories: 

1. How Roger got the nickname Jock. Granddad had toy dog with a red ribbon that said, “My name is Jock”. When Jock was born he was named Roger, but Granddad insisted on calling him Jock. Granddad Cliff would only call him Roger.  By the time Jock was a teenager, most people called him Jock. 
2. Never really fought with Granddad much. However, if Granddad could have gotten his hands on Jock one time he "woulda pulverized him!" There was a long driveway to the house about 150 feet long. Granddad bent over to pick up something, and Jock shot him with a BB gun from about 50 feet away.  Granddad was so mad he chased him to the house but Jock had locked all the doors. Granddad ran all the way around the house to find a way to get in to him -- and Jock did it all just for "fun." 
3. Used to play at Whiteacres a lot. Jerry was usually the youngest kid there. Small town. All kinds of kids played at Granddads – Granddad told me it was like Tom Sawyer where he plays with the Judge's kids down to the Huck Finn-type kids. 

2. What did he look like? 

Dark hair, a little taller than G’dad – maybe 5’9”

3. What kinds of things did you do together? 

They used to play board games in the house. Occasionally they'd play pick-up baseball, sometimes football or basketball. When Granddad was about 16, they shared chores like milking the cow. Jock would milk in the morning and Jerry would milk in the evening. There were sharecroppers taking care of farm when Cliff left, but when Granddad was about 16, Jo bought a tractor. Jerry and Jock would switch off; Jerry’d go to baseball practice when he got out of school, and go to sleep as soon as he got home afterwards. Jock worked from about 3 PM to 11 PM and Jerry would plow the fields from 11 PM to 7 AM. Granddad didn't recall any particular instance, but said they probably did things like haying together. The two would chase the cows around. They rode horses together to get the cows. Jock rode Babe and Jerry rode Gale. Neither were tall enough to get their foot in the stirrup from the ground, so Jerry helped Jock to mount. He would climb hand over hand up the stirrup to get on Gale. The mare would start walking as soon as Jerry's feet left the ground so he had to climb quickly because Gale would start trotting after about 150 feet. Jerry had a friend--Jack--who would give rides to Jerry and Jock on his bike. Jerry would ride on the bar between the handlebar and seat and Jock would ride behind. They also played policemen on their bikes.

4. How did he dress? 

He wore jeans and in the summer went barefoot. Granddad’s jeans had patches on patches, so Jock’s probably did, too.

5. Was he quiet or talkative? He was an average kid.

6. What did he like to do? Didn’t like to read like Jerry did. He liked farming more.

7. Did he go to church? 

Yes, Catholic church with Jerry and Jo. Sometimes they wouldn't go, but they went more often than not.

8. How was he like you? 

He liked sports, was competitive but not as much as Granddad is. He was a starter on the baseball team when he was a sophomore. Was more mechanical than Jerry. Good student (but that wasn't very important for either of them). Jock was relatively popular with his schoolmates. He was also in school government.

Jerry was still sort of living at home when the accident happened, but going to college. His official residence was Whiteacres, but it was his freshman year and he was living at the dorms at UC (University of Cincinnati). He came home on weekends to do farming.