Desert Messenger

40 www.DesertMessenger.com January 7, 2015 opened, this bear of a woman met me with a big smile on her face and open arms. I don't really remember her home too well. As I recall, it was in a very poor part of town, and I remember being a little afraid when my relatives dropped me off. The outside was unpainted; the inside had bare wood fl oors and was sparsely furnished. "I've baked a chess pie just for you," she said. (Recipe: one cup each butter, sugar, cream, eggs - - no cholesterol here!) What I DO re- member is how genuinely glad Sara was to see me and how thrilled she was that I would take the time to fi nd her after all those years. Tears come to my eyes as I remember... My father died when I was seven. My mother never worked; married southern ladies didn't work out of the home (or in the home for that matter!) back then. So, we sold our home and could no lon- ger afford full-time help. We moved to an apartment, and Mother hired young "colored" girls to help out. These girls became not only my companions but my best friends. One incident from that period stands out in my mind, and I am very proud of myself. One day R.C. (like Royal Crown soda she said, remember that?) and I took the bus downtown for the fi rst time. It never occurred to me that we couldn't sit together. As soon as I paid my fare, I realized that the front of the bus was reserved for whites; blacks sat in the back of the bus. I hesitated for only a moment. I followed my friend to the back of the bus, and we sat together. I remember the feeling that swelled inside of me that day. It was the fi rst of many I've felt when standing up to injustice over the years. Now I've opened a Pandora's box of memories from my early years in the south... We often visited friends of my Mother's in Como, Mississippi, a very small town. I loved going there and escaping the big city. The house was like a southern mansion on a great expanse of land with pecan trees on the huge lawn. (We always came home with lots of pecans which I sold door-to-door by the DOZ- EN!) Then there was the food: foamy pitchers of milk (minutes from the cow which my mother would never let me drink because it had not been pasteurized), home-made biscuits, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, peas, carrots, beets -- at least a dozen just-picked vegetables from their garden. I was in heaven! And huge bedrooms upstairs with large, fl uffy beds! There were cotton fi elds surrounding the home. Perhaps that was the connec- tion with my father's cotton business. There were no children in the home, but I soon found children my age in the wooden shack a ways out back from the "main" house. A "colored" family lived there. Brace yourself! The father was called "Big Coon" (really!), and his son was called "Little Coon." I thought nothing of those names at the time, but now, as I write this, tears come to my eyes. I am outraged by these racist names! Long story, short: Whenever my Mother couldn't fi nd me, she knew where to look, for I spent most of my time near the shack in the back, playing with my friend. P.S. After hearing Vernon Jordan speak, I added the NAACP to the list of ben- efi ciaries in my Will -- and also the ACLU! .. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character....Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mary road back to Quartzsite was the Ty- son Wash, okay on a dry day for a horse and buggy but practically impossible for a wagon loaded with ore. Dependable workers were another issue. However, the Darling family pulled together and everyone, even daughter Dorothy and her new husband Claude Meyer pitched in. Beatrice worked especially hard for the success of the mines. Richard Jr married in April of 1918 and brought his bride to Quartzsite where he traveled to the mine. When Beatrice began to have serious health issues, Richard appointed Rich- ard Jr as the Superintendent of the Cop- per Chief operations. Sadly, none of the Copper Chief Mines lived up to the expectations of Richard Darling, Mr. Chubbuck, or their inves- tors. By 1927, all but Richard and Bea- trice had left the area to fi nd work. Bea- trice, 68-years-old and whose physical health had deteriorated to the point that Richard had made arrangements to take her to a sanitarium in Phoenix. Having spent the previous 17 years on the peace- ful desert that she had come to love, the idea of a sanitarium with many patients in one ward was unthinkable to Beatrice. Richard had asked Ben Frahm if he would stay at the mine until he returned, inviting him to stay in a nearby cabin. Richard told Beatrice they would be leaving the next day for Phoenix. It was determined that early on the morning of November 5, 1927 Beatrice slipped out of bed and went to where Richard kept his revolver, unholstered the heavy pis- tol and fi red two bullets into his breast. She then went into an adjoining room and set fi re to a pile of paper and rub- bish. As the paper erupted into fl ames, Beatrice returned to where Richard's body laid and put the muzzle of the pis- tol into her mouth and fi red. Frahm heard the shots and came running to the Darling's cabin where he extinguished the fl ames, then found Richard and Be- atrice. Constable Lee Mcgee stated he felt that both Richard and Beatrice mer- cifully died instantaneously. Quartzsite Justice of the Peace William Lacy called for an inquest into the double tragedy. The William Scott family was shocked as the two families had become close. The Darling children arranged for their par- ents to be buried at Oakdale Memorial Park in Glendora, California. The Copper Chief property remained vacant for many years and became known as the Darling Mine. Thinking the property had gone back to the State of Arizona, for a short time a group of investors mined scheelite ore from the site. Then in August of 1952, Richard Darling Jr sold the property to Joseph Treuer who brought the past due taxes current. In 1975 Frederic Rothermel acquired the property. Today the mine and adjoining property is owned by Ken Hodgson of Riken Resources who has explored the possibility of extracting the beautiful green smeared rocks of the Copper Chief to be sold as building and landscape stone. What a lovely idea. MINE FROM PAGE 14 GYPSY FROM PAGE 15

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