Granddad JC and his parents

So what kinds of things did you do with your parents?


I took care of the cows; [Mom] did the milking. I helped her make the beds sometimes. That’s about what she did in the mornings. I really wasn’t home that much. I was out in the fields--we were--after we ate breakfast in the mornings, if we weren’t going to school, we were out in the fields somewhere, chopping cotton or that kind of stuff.


What made you love your mom?


Well, she was my mother. She used to always read the scriptures, every evening. She could prepare any kind of food and make it taste good. She was nice to everybody, and she was just a nice person. She didn’t have--I think she had a 3rd grade education. She went to the 3rd reader; I guess they called it that. My dad went to the 2nd reader. But he was working on the farm all the time.

What kinds of things did your mom do for other people?



She helped Aunt Julia--that was her aunt, my great-aunt. We’d always have dinners and all like that and she would go over there and work with them. That’s all we did, was just family. Course, after I went in the military, she was always sick when I came home. She used to have mini strokes all the time. She’d be sitting at the table, and she’d start moving her hand or something like that. Then she was having a mini stroke; then it would go away. She wouldn’t say anything during that time.


She was strong-willed. Yeah, she was tough. She liked to have things looking nice. I remember we had yellow roses and rows of flowers around the yard. Course you know back then we didn’t have any grass in the yard, you never had a lawn. Your yard was completely sand. Our yard was. A blade of grass grew, you’d chop that up quick!

These roses grow close to where Granddad JC grew up. They could have been planted by Grandma Laura. 

Grandma Laura had roses like this in her yard 

Me: You didn’t want critters!


[laughs] I remember one time I was out there doing something there was a stick laying there and I went up to that stick, and it wasn’t a stick--it was a snake!


But Mom, she really worked hard.


Grandma: Women worked hard. They had to take care of the cow, I remember I would help my mom with the cow, you’d have to take her out to where the grass was good and stake her out.


Granddad: Our cows were really gentle. I just took them out in the morning, out of the cow pen, we’d head out across the field to the pasture. I took them up to the pasture every day and take them back in the evening. I’d go and call, “Hey-oh, hey-oh!” you know, and the cows would come to the gate you know and I’d let them out.
How did your parents discipline you?

They used little switches. I remember one time, it was really--Dad didn’t understand it. I was riding a bicycle, and the road coming up to our house was two ruts. I was coming down in a rut, and Doug was walking in the rut, and Dad was on the other side coming up. Doug did like this, and I pulled to the right, between the two ruts, and he jumped to his left and I ran right over him. And my dad tore me up! *whew!* He reached around and he pulled up a big weed--I mean it was a long one, with leaves on it, and where the leaves were were little knots. He wore me out with that. Man. I broke loose running, and I didn’t think he could run so fast. I started running and slowed down but heard him behind me and said, “whoa! I gotta start running down faster now!” I ran down here to where the Cleve’s house is here. It was dug out. It was a big open pit. The county came and got some clay that they used on the road somewhere and I just jumped off of that, down there and up the other side. I turned around and he didn’t go down there. I mean, that was uncalled for, but it wasn’t my fault, because he jumped right in front of the bicycle, I was moving to bypass him and I ran right into him. I didn’t want to do that. It’s tough.

Description of Broadus R. Connell by his son JC

He was about 6’1”. He had a normal Caucasian face, straight nose. I guess he was a pretty handsome
fella’. He told me one time he went to a square dance out here. He was havin’ a lot of fun and he was
dancing with these girls and all. Got ready to leave, and this girl was waitin’ there and he picked up 2
kids. He had Roddy and Norman picked him up and went with him. I guess Mama was there too.
He was a frank fellow. I never heard him swear or curse. Only one time. He was doing something, he  hit his hand with a hammer or something… Anyway. He really hit his hand. I think I would’ve said a lot more than he did. You never heard a swear word from him.

He could do most anything. He could butcher a cow, take it and hung it in a freezer locker down town and made hamburger out of a lot of it. We used to ride to town on the wagon without a body on it. Just sit on the tongue. The tongue is the one that goes all the way through and all the way out the front. We’d go to town and I’d be sitting up there to ride down there. He owned a store, 2 houses, you know where the creek is, over by the mill – little store restaurant there. Well he owned one store there and two houses right there.

He sold those to pay for Norman’s tuition to Clemson. So Norman graduated from Clemson. Ivy got a year or two years and he went to OCS. He was an officer. And the 505th airborne infantry division. I’ve got two pictures of him. One where he was a Sargent and when he was 2nd lieutenant. Dad worked all the time, but he liked to read the paper and joke. He was just an ordinary guy. Liked to fox hunt. He would take the dogs. A lot of mornings he’d get up and go and go fox hunting. He’d leave the dogs and come back home and go to work. And the dogs would come in and Mom always fixed some cornbread. And something else she’d put on cornbread to feed the dogs. That was the most things he do was fox hunt with some of the guys. They would go out. Said they were fox hunting one night they got this tree of ‘coons. And somebody was going to go up and try to knock him out. There was an old grey-headed man standing there looking up and that coon jumped right out on top of that guy’s head. He probably thought that was sand. You know white beard shinin’, probably thought that was sand and He was surprised I guess. Just a little hunting things. Dad watched his money and he took care of our family well.

Click to get audio from interview

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From an interview of JC Connell  by Katie on 2/10/2015
Thanks again to Mary Ann for transcribing this interview!

Granddad JC and vehicles

From an interview with Granddad JC:

My Dad and his dad both had cars, Model Ts, way back. They parked it at the old mulberry tree back at his house and uh we'd go out and play in it. See, our house was right over here, and we had a road that came and our driveway went straight up to our house, on the right side. That's where they had the barns, and the car shed, and the corral, and the pump. That was all on the far side--the east of the house. We had barn full of corn, and full of fodder and hay, and the stables.

I learned to drive on that little A Model convertible. They had a beautiful buggy and a horse when I was a little baby. They were going to church and I wanted to go but they wouldn't let me go. They'd keep me at home. I remember raising Sam because they wouldn't let me go to church. It was a real nice black buggy, then they started getting cars. He used to work on the roads here. He ran the road machines--my dad. That was the last job he had. First they had a tractor, like a D8, big tractor, pulling the road machine with a blade and Dad would drive the tractor. He had a prisoner that would operate the road machine that turned the blades and worked the sides of the roads.

They did all the roads back here, they were mostly--why, McRae road was a dirt road back then! Yep.

Izzy: They were terrible dirt roads!

JC: They were muddy, slick. I remember one time I was working for quality cleaners on a delivery truck. We got down to the country--paint hill, I think they called it that, with the red clay and all. We turned the corner and had to go up just a little incline and dad gummit the back end of the car started to slide over because of the crown in the road and it was so slick and all. It started sliding over I jumped out and took the side of the car--we had like a station wagon; they called it a suburban, the back doors would open up like that. Anyway, I took the side of it and I pushed it into the center of the road. I was about 14. I kept it from sliding into the ditch. That was really an experience!

Granddad JC Serving in the Church

I did some interviews with Granddad JC over a year ago, and never got around to transcribing them. Mary Ann was amazing and did them all for me! Here's the first one, Granddad talking about serving in the Church:

Oh-gahlee. You know we came back to Camden and we were members of the church and so they called me as Elders Quorum President. There was nothing going on. I said what’s goin’ on? There ain’t nothing goin’ on. So I said shoot, let’s go on and do something. And so we started going on fishing trips. We’d go down and set up appointments and we’d go down and go deep sea fishing. We’d catch a bunch of these big groupers, you know. Some of these beautiful red colored fish. I can’t think of the name right off. We’d catch a bunch of fish and bring ‘em back. We’d spit ‘em up or something like that. That was good.

We had a good active elders quorum by the end. Then they called me as bishop.

I can’t think of the president that called me as bishop. Now who was that? Anyway. He was the stake  president and he called me as bishop. So I started as a Bishop and that was really - from going from a sergeant to a bishop. I had some interviews and I must’ve been kinda curt with some of the people. But we had a good ward and it grew.

Actually when we joined the church there was only 4 or 5 families coming to church and then after I was bishop for a year or so. We started working every Friday night and all day Saturday, we would cut wood for the building fund. And we raised a lot of money cutting fire wood and stove wood and selling them by the pickup loads. We did that all day. The was a Okelberry* family here and he was a woodsman. He had a chainsaw, and he had - they called it a go-getter – his wife would drive it and she would go out and catch the logs from the trees that he’d cut down, and pull ‘em up. And their son was a big guy too and he would trim ‘em up and throw them in too. And then we would - all the members - would split ‘em up into small pieces. We would load the truck and so many truckloads of firewood.

What years were you Bishop?

From 1976 to 1982.

So your Mom [Grace] was in college for a lot of that time and then married. But things were moving in the church. We built the church and everybody worked on it. We did the lawn, we did the sprinkler system, and I put up the satellite dish. We just, everybody pitched in. We also had a farm out there to work, but we sold the farm. We had a well drilled out there and we had a shed to park the tractor or so out there.

The farm was on a road 5 miles out of town towards Bishopville of Hwy 34. But we did a lot of work. Going and doing all the time. I bought a truck, got a brand new truck, that we were throwing these rolls of hogfencing on there about 4 ft. high. It scarred that truck all up. I had it about a year, it was beautiful, and it was all scuffed up. But it ran good – I kept it a long time. In fact I think Nathan – White Datsun – used it.

The white Datsun

*Corrected from Huckleberry

Conversion

Recently, Grandma Izzy's personal history was transcribed. Shortly after that, I interviewed Granddad JC and asked him some of the same questions. Here's a set about their conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Grandma Izzy:

Describe your conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ:

In June of 1956, Bob (5 ½ mos) and I (24 yrs) traveled to Germany (Augsburg) to join JC who had been there since January 1956. Bob, who’d been born 29 Dec 1955, was not yet 6 months old. I was pretty nervous traveling by airplane to New York from Charlotte, N.C. and then on to Paris, France and on to Munich, Germany where JC would meet us.

I would then and I will now do anything, swallow all fear, overcome any obstacles to be with him.

During the 5 months we were saving the money to pay for this flight, JC had become acquainted with two excellent young men: Ronald Ercanbrack and “Sam” Leroy Bolinder who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Their lives and healthy outlook plus their fun-loving spirits caused JC to want me to meet them.

Shortly after I met Ron & his beautiful blonde wife, Annette, and their friend Sam Bolinder, Sam gave me (and JC) a gift of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price (3 books!) He told me since I had such a great (p.2) interest in the American Indians he wanted me to read the real history of the Am. Indians.

Now, since the childhood I had was in a home which boasted only one real book, the Holy Bible, I had a thing about books. If anyone ever gave me the gift of a book, I would read it.

JC was due to go out into “the field” for 10 days training in a few days, I determined I would get our apartment cleaned up, all my work done, and then I would just have to take care of Bob and read, read, read. I knew I could read this book in 10 days. It was only around 500 pages long. Sam said this was a true book – not fiction. He gave me a certain reference that would tell me how I could know for myself if the book were true.

JC went to the field, and I followed my plan. It took 3 days to get all my work done. For the next 7 days I was enthralled with this book. I took care of Bob, ate a bit when he ate, and read. I did not bathe; I slept in my clothes reading under the covers until I fell asleep (It was cold & there was no heat in my bedroom) (p.3)

JC arrived back and was appalled (mostly my body odor & scruffy appearance). I told him excitedly about the book. He said, as he pulled off my sweat shirt, “Honey a bath comes first!” But I’ve never forgotten kneeling on an icy hardwood floor in an equally icy bedroom with my breath visible in the air, putting Moroni’s promise to the test and feeling a warmth pour over me from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. It was like warm water yet it was inside me as well as out.

I knew the book to be true, and I have never been the same since. It took me until Nov. 27, 1958 to be baptized, but my conversion began as I have described it. My conversion continues day by day all these years later as I serve my beloved Savior Jesus Christ by loving, caring for and serving those around me.

I continue trying to overcome my faults and leave sin behind, but I am far, far from perfect and struggle to stay true & faithful. I’ve learned a lot about endurance and faith. I’ve gained more & more confidence in my Savior and in the strength that comes from being in a strong loyal family who loves the Lord.

Grandma and Bob before leaving Germany

What can you remember about the day you were baptized?

The Elder (Hovey) who had taught us the discussions had been transferred the week before, and Brother Clemmie Dabney, the Camden Branch Pres. was going to baptize us. The font was under a hinged part of the stage and was about the size of & looked like just like a concrete grave. It was late November and already cold out. Pres. Dabney had some kind of heating element warming the water. When he got ready to baptize us, I assumed “Ladies first” & headed for the font. Pres Dabney said, “No, Sis. Connell (p.68) in this church, it’s priesthood first.” JC went in and was baptized. Then it was my turn. I stepped into the water & it took my breath away it was so cold - like ice. Pres Dabney grinned and baptized me quickly. The feeling of warmth that flowed over and around me as he put me under & drew me out of the water filled me with joy and I quietly said “Hallelujah” (and in my heart and soul shouted Praise the Lord Jesus. My sins are forgiven and now I have a chance to serve Him in my life.) Elder Carlos Cardon confirmed me and gave me the gift of the Holy Ghost. This day changed my life. The feelings I had that day were a key to letting me know when the Spirit is with me: those feelings are: warmth spreading over me, joy, happiness, fulfillment, enlightenment, learning, heightened awareness, pure knowledge flowing into me (like that day, I knew that Jesus Christ lives, loves me, gave his life for me & was resurrected from the dead.), feelings of expanding my horizons, desires to serve, love for those around me, feelings of forgiveness for those around who have offended, lack of fear, feeling I can accomplish anything with God’s help.

Granddad JC:

"Well, we were in the army and we were in Germany and these friends of mine from Salt Lake--two of them, one was from Salt Lake, the other was from a little town just outside of Salt Lake. Anyway, they were in the G-2 section that I was in in the 11th airborne division. We used to go in the evenings we would go over to this one's house he was married, his wife came over and Izzy came over (to Germany). We would go over there maybe weekend evenings and we would play Monopoly. We would play it all night. and that was fun. They always won. 'Cause that's what they did. I guess they did a lot of that when they were kids. We didn't,  We played Monopoly and I was smokin'. Izzy was smoking then, too, at that time. They said when we left, they'd open up the window and they'd fan all the smoke out. They were really nice folks. She still lives in Salt Lake. His wife. He passed away--Ron did.

We joined the Church when we got back to Camden. I didn't want to join over there so we were baptized right here in Camden. Bishop baptized us--He baptize you? 'Yeah.' [from Grandma]--Both of us. Bishop Dabney."

R-L: Granddad, Grandma, Grace, Bob, and aunt Betty Joyce (nee Connell)'s family. The two kids are Barbara Ann and Tony.
This is probably in Camden around the time Grandma and Granddad joined the Church.

How did you know the Church was true? "It was just naturally true. I just--it was common sense, really, with the Church. Joseph Smith, and the vision that he had, and all."

So your friends just invited you to church? "Oh yeah. We went to church with them in the army. Our kids--the thing about it, Izzy loved it so because Bob was our baby. and he would walk around to everybody and they'd pick him up, play with him and put him back down. and he'd go around to somebody else'd pick him up, talk to him, and put him down."

And here's the sound clip!