biography of a grandmother

How to Write Your Grandmother's Biography

Would you like to discover and preserve your grandmother's lifetime experiences? A great approach in honoring an extraordinary woman who impacted your life significantly is writing about her journey.

Here, we present a detailed guideline on creating an authentic biography of your grandmother, which can touch hearts for many ages. Let's begin!

Step 1: Gather Information and Memories

A tender depiction of your cherished grandma commences by piecing together all the anecdotes and information at hand about her life journey. Engage family members who knew her closely, asking them for any unique perspectives they have on what shaped her character over time. For a more personal touch, consider scheduling a conversation with grandma herself so that she can share firsthand accounts that only she could know.

Interview Your Grandmother

When crafting a heartfelt biography of your grandmother , initiating with an interview is vital. The inquiries you pose ought to be open-ended so that she feels comfortable sharing memories and stories from different phases of her existence; from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. It's recommended that you jot down detailed notes or even record the conversation to guarantee that nothing important is overlooked.

For exemple :

• Where were you born, and when?
• Tell me about your youth. What are some of your best memories? And the worst?
• Who has most influenced your life?
• What was your job? Why did you choose it?
• What was the happiest time in your life?
• Were there moments when you weren't sure you could make it?
• How did you meet Grandfather?
• What were your passions when you were my age?

By focusing on different phases of her life, you'll be able to create a comprehensive biography that truly captures who she is as a person. Plus, spending time with your grandmother can be a wonderful way to bond while learning more about each other.

Ask Family Members for Input

To craft a truly comprehensive biography that authentically captures her essence, consider focusing on various phases of your grandmother's life . Spending time with her can also be an enriching opportunity to strengthen bonds while gaining a deeper understanding of each other.

Here are some specific questions you can ask them:

• What was their favorite memory of her?
• Did she have any hobbies or interests?
• What were her proudest accomplishments?
• Was there a particular quote or saying she often used?

By inquiring about these aspects and others, you will create a complete portrayal of your grandmother's personality and what made her exceptional to those in her surroundings. Keep in mind that the objective isn't solely to gather facts but also to pay tribute to the heritage she bestowed upon future generations within the family.

Collect Photos and Documents

If you strive to compose an earnest biography of your grandmother, then it's imperative to accumulate relevant photos and documents that reveal her tale convincingly. Given below are a few suggestions to help you source the appropriate materials:

• Gather old photographs of your grandmother at different ages. These can show how she changed over time and provide insights into her personality.
• “Scrapbook” relevant documents such as certificates, awards, and newspaper clippings into a notebook for easy reference. This can include anything from marriage licenses to articles about her community involvement.
• Consider including mementos like handwritten letters or recipes. These personal touches can help bring your grandmother’s story to life.

By consolidating these heirlooms within a singular location, you amass a wealth of resources for drafting your grandmother's memoirs whilst preserving her legacy. This endeavor also enhances the convenience with which her story can be relayed to extended family members without direct means to all aforementioned memorabilia.

Step 2: Organize Your Information

Assembling relevant insights into your grandmother’s amazing journey through life requires careful planning from the onset of writing her memoirs. The best place to start is by developing a detailed timeline which chronicles key events throughout different stages of her lifespan.

To help streamline this description further organize these moments int groups highlighting distinct features such as family dynamics, academic progression or extracurricular activities accomplished throughout retirement years or honing new talents.

Taking these necessary steps ensures that when it comes time to recount memories in depth creating an insightful piece on life lived becomes easier while also acknowledging significant aspects across (name)'s incredible journey.

Create a Timeline

Start by assembling crucial dates and incidents that are representative of your grandmother's remarkable journey through life.

This encompasses aspects such as birthplace, educational background; marital status; as well as some noteworthy experiences she went through over time. After amassing all necessary information, sort them chronologically on a visually appealing timeline which would give an organized structure narrating the story of this amazing lady.

Crafting a timeline for your grandmother deserves careful consideration of the historical events that shaped her life. Incorporating these crucial moments adds texture and perspective to her unique story while highlighting how she experienced key points in history. Blending personal milestones with global happenings creates an engaging and insightful timeline - one that becomes a cherished memento of familial heritage.

Group Information into Themes

Crafting a touching and well-written biography of your grandmother includes identifying the themes or patterns that have defined her life. As such, it's suggested to group the details according to these patterns- family, career milestones, hobbies and achievements- which allows for an organized flow.

Adding stories or quotes from relatives who match up with each pattern will breathe life into the telling of her story.

If making sense of your grandmother's life experiences is the goal, then dividing them into specific categories can provide clarity for both you and your readers. By organizing similar events or moments under relevant themes, the overall narrative becomes more coherent and meaningful.

A prime example would be capturing all of grandma's academic achievements in one group- this helps paint an impressive picture of her intellectual growth throughout the years. Plus, revealing how she balanced work and family responsibilities amplifies her resilience and dedication- attribute which are sure to capture reader admiration.

Step 3: Write the Biography

Choose a narrative style.

Writing a biography about your cherished grandmother demands that you adopt an appropriate narrative style that speaks volumes about her personality and story. From early onset, establish the tone of the biography; whether solemn or jocular based on what most suits her essence.

Consider employing either a chronological or thematic approach depending on which specific areas of your grandmother's journey deserve highlighting. Moreover, weaving descriptive language across all aspects of narration infuses readers with a sense of stepping into her world where they become critical participants in unraveling every detail skillfully unveiled before them.

Include Quotes and Anecdotes

Fetching quotes and anecdotes from individuals who knew your grandma best (family members et al.) injects life into how she is portrayed while serving as secondary evidence backing up descriptions relaying core character attributes within an engaging storyline that showcases both strengths and quirkiness; revisions are crucial towards achieving streamlined flow devoid of any hiccups that would otherwise detract from reader immersion - this is critical if you seek to share with people who may not have directly encountered such an exceptional woman in their lives.

Edit and Revise

Crafting an authentic biography dedicated to your grandmother requires devoted attention to the editing and revising process. A well-crafted final draft will pay tribute to her legacy while also being effortlessly readable. Here are some pointers for refining your work:

• Take breaks between writing sessions for fresh perspective
• Read aloud to catch errors in flow or sentence structure
• Have someone else read it over for feedback

By following these simple steps, you can ensure that your grandmother's story is told accurately and beautifully. Don't be afraid to take the time necessary for editing - every word counts when crafting such an important piece!

Step 4: Share the Biography

Once you've completed your grandmother's biography, it's time to share it with others. You can choose to print a physical copy or share the digital version with family . Inviting loved ones to read about your grandmother's life will help strengthen connections and keep her memory alive.

If you're proud of the final product, consider publishing the biography for a wider audience. There are many options available today, from self-publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing to traditional publishers who specialize in memoirs and biographies. Sharing your grandmother's story can inspire others to reflect on their own family histories and deepen their appreciation for those who came before them.

Conclusively, penning down an account shedding light on your grandma’s journey can prove to be an immensely satisfying project that holds tremendous significance in recognizing her life’s achievements.

By following these easy-to-follow guidelines, you have the ability to produce a commemoration that celebrates not only your grandmother but also ignites thoughtful introspection into appreciating your family's ancestry.

This is also an opportunity, don't forget, to spend precious time with your grandmother. Several hours to share, have fun, laugh, and together create a valuable gift for the entire family

🤩 You can also use life-story.ai to easily write your grandmother's biography. "

👉 try it for free, don't wait to preserve your family's memories.

Telling your story in a book has never been so quick and easy.

Biography of My Grandmother

My object is a biography of my grandmother, Edyta. It is called Księżniczka Deptaku , which means “Princess of the Promenade.” It was written in Polish. Edyta was born in Warsaw on April 4, 1929. During World War II, she was forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto. Edyta, who was Jewish, was forced to work for the Germans. Edyta & her mother walked out of the ghetto at some point after 1943 then ended up in Munich from 1944 to 1947. Edyta then came to the US as an “orphan” because she claimed to be a war orphan even though her mother was alive when she was 17. Her mother came over later as a translator in 1948. They then lived in the Bronx. Years later, in 2006, she found a Polish author, Marta Sztokfisz, to write the biography. She died in 2008, and it was published. This book is important to me because it shows how my grandmother dealt with the aftereffects of the Holocaust and mental health. It explains how she could endure such a dark time from such a young age and live to be the person she was, living a full life and having 2 kids. Although she had a few pockets of depression feeling like the world owed her one, she persevered and had a family in the end. It makes me feel mentally stronger and empowers me. It shows initiative and that she could think when even death was at hand.  . 

Place(s): Warsaw, Poland Year: 1947

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant

Pretty Extraordinary

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100 Years of Living and Loving: A Tribute to My Grandmother

By Danielle Smith - Filed Under: Family , Parenting

This is a woman born when William Taft was President.  Born in 1913…the same year as Rosa Parks… the same year Harriet Tubman died .

She has lived through World War I and World War II.  The Great Depression.  The Korean War.  Vietnam.  The Gulf  War.  The War in Iraq.

You and I have read about the first Nobel Prize going to Einstein, the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, the Spanish Civil War, the Hindenburg, Steamboat Willie hitting the big screen, Pearl Harbor and D-Day- but she was ALIVE for all of it.

She was 48 when the Berlin Wall was BUILT and 76 when it came DOWN.

My small people are often surprised to realize cell phones didn’t exist when I was a child… they are perplexed by the idea of a phone being attached to the wall and can’t imagine a life without a remote control for the TV.

She was in her 30’s when chemotherapy was invented and older than I am now before the polio vaccine, before bone marrow, lung or heart transplants.

And yet, never can I remember her admonishing, ‘back in my day….’.

Grammie – the day before she turned 100!

She is the one grandparent who had a permanent presence in my life…visiting our family for a month every Christmas and three months every summer.  She would appear bearing Rice Krispie treats… still the very best I have ever had… a secret ingredient I’m sure was included as the taste has never been duplicated for me.  She would rearrange the kitchen, making my mother crazy.  She would sleep in my room, so I had to share a room with my brother – something I never appreciated at the time.

An intensely private woman, she rarely shared moments of her own history… that is, until the Alzheimer’s began to take its toll when I was an adult.  I always knew she raised my father, her only child, mainly on her own.  She left my grandfather when my my dad was fairly young – something unheard of at the time.  I can only imagine the strength of character this required.  She battled and survived breast cancer and a mastectomy in her 60’s – but also – to my knowledge, rarely discussed it.

But, as I entered my 30’s, and the Alzheimer’s chipped away at some of what I imagine to be her more difficult memories, a softer side to her was revealed.  She was prone to end phone calls with me by asking, ‘ Darlin’?  Isn’t love GRAND ?’.  I sensed a joy in her I had never known.  She even sent me a letter talking about her job ‘ writing for the paper during the war ‘. Neither I nor my dad had ever heard this story. My mom began to record conversations with her….chatting about her history, her life, her story.  What a treasure that we have these moments.

And so it was, that this adorable little woman graced my wedding day and the dance floor with her presence in that beautiful 30 year old dress – that yes, still fit and yes, was still stylist as ever.

It would be difficult for me to list the many, many ways she has graced my life with her beauty, her wit, and her wisdom.

We were supposed to be there today to celebrate her birthday, but my small dude was diagnosed YESTERDAY with the flu – making the trip impossible.  He can’t travel and we can’t risk infecting her or anyone else.  I am heartbroken that we aren’t there… but in spirit, with her always.

I love you, sweet Grammie.

Happy, happy 100th birthday.

Related posts:

• 103 Years Old: A Life Well Lived – A Letter of Love and Thanks to My Grandmother
• My Grammy – 98 Years old Today. Happy Birthday.
• A Full Life: My Grammy Celebrates Her 104th Birthday
• Silver and Gold. The Colors of Wisdom and Friendship. A Tribute to My 4th Decade.

About Danielle Smith

Connector, Believer in Good, California girl living in the Midwest, host, speaker, author, correspondent, Mom.

29/07/2018 at 5:05 pm

Wow! This was really beautiful. Thank you for sharing that amazing story of your grandmother. I came across it as I myself am in the process of writing a short story of my grandmother. My grandmother is turning 102 years in November of this year. Both of us are truly blessed. Thank you again for sharing!

01/08/2018 at 12:31 pm

Thank you so much for this. You are definitely blessed. I wrote this piece a few years ago. My grandmother passed away one week after her magnificent 104th birthday last February. If you post your piece, I would love to read it.

24/08/2018 at 3:43 am

Hi! Thank you for sharing this amazing story. My grandmother will turn 100 this sept 15.

24/08/2018 at 8:50 am

Thank you so very much for your kind words – and happy birthday to your grandmother – 100 is AMAZING.

03/05/2019 at 10:45 pm

Thank you for sharing this touching piece. At 54, I lost my 100-year old precious Grandmother today. While this loss is so very difficult, I am forever grateful to have had her strength & courage to guide me. Thank you for bringing me comfort today & May God bless you & keep you safe.

07/05/2019 at 10:50 am

Oh Brenda – thank you so much for your kind words. I am so very sorry for your loss. I know how much it hurts – yes – they had long, full lives….but their loss leaves a hole. It has now been two years since my Grammie died at 104 and I still miss her every day. Sending you love and light.

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• Paragraph On My Grandmother

Paragraph on My Grandmother - Check Samples for 100, 150, 200, 250 Words

A family comprises a father, mother, children and grandparents. Lucky are those who have got a chance to hear the stories of grandmothers and to sleep on her lap. Before our parents and teachers, grandmothers are the ones who teach us life lessons and helped us build a great future. One is blessed if they have their grandmothers with them.

Table of Contents

Paragraph on my grandmother in 100 words, paragraph on my grandmother in 150 words, paragraph on my grandmother in 200 words, paragraph on my grandmother in 250 words, frequently asked questions on my grandmother.

Writing a paragraph on grandmother? Refer to the samples provided below before writing the paragraph.

My grandmother is the mother of the whole house. She is the one who takes care of the whole family with a beautiful smile on her face. She is the prettiest lady I have ever seen in my life. Her smile makes her the prettiest lady on this earth. She carries all the burdens on her shoulders but never forgets to carry the smile. She taught me how to overcome all the struggles of life. She has taught me to respect the elders and the youngsters. The stories she told me every night have a strong meaning hidden behind it.

My grandmother is the eldest member of my family and takes care of my entire family. She is one of the reasons behind all the success I have achieved in my life. I have learnt how to pay respect to my elders and do great in my life from her. She is the prettiest lady who takes care of the entire family selflessly. I feel I am the luckiest person to have my grandmother with me. I have seen her since my childhood, and she carries the same smile on her face. She is 70 years old now, but she takes the burden of the whole family and still remembers all the stories which she had learnt in her childhood. She narrates the same stories to me every night, which have happy endings with strong morals. Because of her, I have understood the reality of life, and now I know how to lead a successful life ahead and overcome all the hurdles.

My grandmother is the most beautiful and elegant lady in the world. She is the eldest member of my family. We are a family of 10 members, but she calmly handles everyone and takes care of everyone with lots of love. She is perfect at her work and never finds an excuse for not doing her work. She is 70 years old now but remembers the stories which she had heard from her grandmother. She never fails to narrate the same stories to me every night, and she makes sure that I understand the morals hidden in the stories. She knows how to brainstorm my mind when I am not in the mood to study. If I am successful in my life today, then most of the credit goes to her. Since my parents were working, she was the one who took the best care of me. Even though she is not a professional teacher, she used to teach me maths and science, and after that, I never forgot the formulae she taught me. Even today, she takes care of my father like a small child. My behaviour and mannerism are appreciated only because of her. I could do well in the exam only because of her guidance.

My grandmother is the eldest member of my family; she is 70 years old now but looks as if she is just 20 years old. She takes good care of the entire family and makes sure that everyone lives peacefully in the family. I live in a joint family of 10 members, and my grandmother is the one who takes care of everyone with lots of patience. She still takes care of my father and his brothers like small children. At this age, she is still so perfect at her work and never gives an excuse for her work. She still remembers the stories she had heard from her grandmother, and she narrates the same to my cousins and me every night. She makes sure that we think about the story and find the moral of it. Every story she narrates has a beautiful moral hidden behind it. Those morals give us teachings for the rest of our lives. She knows how to brainstorm my mind when I am not in the mood to study. If I am successful in my life today, then most of the credit goes to her. She used to teach me Maths and Science during my school days because my parents were working. Even though she is not a professional teacher, she is the best teacher I have ever got. I still remember the formulae she taught me during my childhood. She is one of the reasons behind my success. If I am appreciated today for my behaviour and good manners, it is only because of her. She taught me how to be respectful to elders.

Why is a grandmother important in our life?

Grandmothers are important in our lives because of the moral lessons we get from them, the love and affection we get from them, and for being the biggest support of our life.

How can I write a paragraph about my grandmother?

You can write about your grandmother by explaining her role in your life. You can explain how she has been your biggest influencer and best friend.

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Bridging the Gap: Writing a Family Biography Others Will Want to Read

May 14, 2015 by Elly - Legacy Tree Genealogists Project Manager 7 Comments

Writing a compelling and interesting family history biography is one of the finest examples of experienced genealogists. Review our outline that will help share the stories of your ancestors. 

Sometimes as genealogists we get so caught up in collecting all the details about our ancestors that we forget the other important side of family history – sharing it with family members! If you have a closet overflowing with old documents or a database full of facts, and you decide you'd like to share what you've learned with others, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. As a primer, review our article, 11 Do's and Don'ts of Writing Family Biographies.

It can also be confusing to find the best way to share the information you’ve spent so much time gathering. If you’ve ever caught yourself telling family history stories to a non-genealogist and suddenly realized they had been staring at a spot over your shoulder for the past five minutes, you’ll have already learned that it can be difficult to present it in such a way that others can absorb and appreciate.

While online trees and photo pedigree charts have their place, the best way to tell the story of your family is to write it. A written family biography can be much more interesting to other family members than raw genealogical data, while still incorporating all the details that you have painstakingly gathered over the years. The key to a good narrative family biography is finding the right balance between simplicity and detail.

Narrow Your Scope

First , begin by narrowing the scope of your written biography to something that is both manageable to write and to read. If you want to bio several key ancestors in your family tree, consider choosing one ancestor to get started with, or even just a portion of one ancestor’s life. A surname lineage can be more easily tackled three generations at a time. To conquer your entire tree, divide it up into more reasonable sections. For example: paternal grandfather’s ancestry, paternal grandmother’s ancestry, maternal grandfather’s ancestry, and maternal grandmother’s ancestry. As Legacy Tree researchers, we often approach our largest research projects this way, and it creates a nicely organized and easily followed finished product.

In addition to identifying the scope of your written narrative, it helps to determine which direction you will be going – forward in time, backward in time, or a combined approach. For biographies on one person, it is usually common to begin with the ancestor’s birth, continue throughout his life, and end at his death. However, it may be more interesting to begin with an important event later in his life, then return to the beginning of his life later. For large narratives on extensive families, we find it is often best to begin at the most recent ancestor as an adult and work backwards chronologically to their parents, grandparents, and so on.

Second , gather and organize the materials, documents, and details that you want to include in a way that will be easy to refer to as you write. It can be helpful to have digital images of all of the documents, either attached to each relevant person in an online tree or database, or organized in chronological order by person into folders on your hard drive. This makes it easy to incorporate photos or snippets from documents into your written narrative. Visual aids often make the stories you’re telling come alive, not only for you, but especially for the non-genealogist family members with which you hope to share your work. (If you have received a report from us recently, you may have noticed that we are incorporating more and more images in the body of our reports. These serve to illustrate the narrative and also provide natural breaks in the text allowing the brain some time to absorb what is being read.)

For online documents, you can keep a list of links handy to quickly pull up a document when you need it. If you do this, don’t wait too long between the time you set up the list and the time you write because online links can change; always keep a copy (digital or paper) of the document itself as well, with a reference to where it was found. If you prefer to work from paper documents – as many genealogists do – be sure to keep them organized in labeled folders that you can easily find and access when writing about the ancestor or event. It is also a good idea to transcribe old handwritten cursive documents into a printed font which can be read and referred to much more quickly.

Another helpful tool we've discovered is the Ahnentafel print feature available in most genealogical database programs like Legacy Family Tree and Ancestral Quest . Although the computer-generated report that is produced is so dry that nobody but a die-hard genealogist will read it with any enthusiasm, it can create a very helpful outline for writing large family narratives. After entering all your information into the database, or importing a GEDCOM from your MyHeritage.com or Ancestry.com tree, all you have to do is print the Ahnentafel and the information is organized and ready to use. If you print it to a PDF you can even copy and paste the basic text to use as an outline and then add in stories and details to make it interesting.

Finally , in order to produce a good family narrative that will be read and cherished for generations, we strongly recommend brushing up on your writing skills . Take a creative writing class at your local community college. Read some good biographies on historical figures or your favorite author. Or, if you are not sure your writing skills will be up to the challenge, reach out to others for help. Consider collaborating with another writer family member – you provide the research and she provides the writing skills. A college student or young stay-at-home-mother in the family may appreciate the writing experience and exposure and even a little extra income, if you are prepared to offer it.

Of course, you can always turn to the professionals for help writing your family narrative. We recently wrapped up a two-part biography on a Tennessee farmer who raised his family through the Civil War years. Although he never accomplished anything of great historical significance, not even participating in the war, we were able to piece together a beautiful story of his and his family’s lives through scraps of notes, receipts, and letters that have survived through the generations. Historical records and general information about the area and time period helped provide background context and bring his world to life.

Writing a family biography is one of our favorite projects to work on here at Legacy Tree Genealogists. We love searching out the details of our clients’ ancestors’ lives, and we also love bringing those details to life by telling the story .

Stories bring families together, but they can’t if they are not told and shared. Although online trees are bringing more and more genealogy-minded family members together, it can be hard to find and grasp the story in the tree – especially for the rest of the family members who tend to be less interested in history. An organized, cohesive, and well-written family narrative bridges that gap, bringing the stories of our past to future generations.

If you need help writing your family history biography, or would like help extending your family lines, let Legacy Tree Genealogists provide the research. Contact us today for a free quote.

May 14, 2015 at 9:27 pm

Thanks, this is good information to have when I finally write my family Bio when I get done digging. There is just sooooo much information to organize and the Legacy Tree reports will be very helpful as they have done a lot of that organizing already.

May 14, 2015 at 9:36 pm

We’re very glad to help!

May 15, 2015 at 7:20 am

Excellent advice.

May 19, 2015 at 6:49 am

Thanks for breaking up the enormous task of writing a biography based on genealogical research into three manageable steps. I especially appreciated the advice given in the first step to not necessarily begin a biography with “She was born on…” which can be dry and boring, to instead begin with something more interesting and attention grabbing, like an important event later in life.

March 19, 2016 at 3:33 pm

Thanks for writing up such a wonderful blog post. I really enjoyed reading the writing concept of a family biography. To make a family tradition popular among people of next generation a family biography is highly effective.

November 17, 2019 at 8:06 pm

This is probably a silly question, but …my audience is my grandchildren. So when relaying my Grandmother’s talents, short funny stories, etc. do I refer to her as my Grandmother or your Great Great Grandmother? In other words, do I say “My Grandmother loved to cook.” or “Your Great Great Grandmother loved to cook.”

November 18, 2019 at 2:58 pm

There’s no such thing as a silly question! We recommend avoiding the use of 2nd person references (you, your) if you can. Instead, you would write, “My grandmother loved to cook.” One of the neat things about recording your personal family history is that while your intended audience may be your grandchildren, this record may be passed down over multiple generations. Isn’t that neat to think about?

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Sleight Editing

Helping get your ideas to the world., writing my grandmother’s biography.

I just finished writing a biography of my grandmother, a little over a year after she passed away. A link to the book, in PDF form, is here:  The Life of Hazel Arlene Eby

I am grateful for the gift of her life and the chance to tell her story to others. It’s a quiet story, not filled with action and danger, but filled with peace and love and home.

I am also grateful for the many people without whom this never would have happened: Joanna Levy, my third grade teacher; Helen Eby, my mom; Daniel Eby, my brother; Lawrence Eby, my great-uncle; and Ann Disher, my sister-in-law and final editor.

Joanna Levy:  When I was just eight years old, my class wrote biographies of people in a local nursing home. I, Kyla, and Kjell were assigned a woman named Pat, who loved reading books and going to the beach. We titled her biography “The Library First,” and our teacher, Joanna Levy, printed off copies for each of us, the subjects of our biographies, and their loved ones.

Helen Eby:  The following summer, when we went to visit my grandmother on the other side of the country, I took a tape recorder and the list of questions my teacher had used. I interviewed my grandmother with them, and she finished up the questions after we left to go back home. After we got the tape in the mail, my mom, Helen Eby, transcribed the interview and I forgot about it for about six years.

Eventually, with much encouragement from my mother, I wrote up a biography from the interview. I gave it to my grandmother for Mother’s Day, and she sent copies to each of my cousins.

Helen, Daniel, and Lawrence Eby:  As my grandmother neared the end of her life, I looked at the biography again. It was missing a good chunk of her life, and it was not up to my standards for good writing anymore, but I wanted to make it better.

I wanted to add the intervening years, revise the format and general writing quality, and make it available to people who visited and cared for my grandmother. This was particularly helpful as she had mostly lost the ability to communicate, and her visitors had few opportunities to learn a little more about what lay under the surface of her quiet demeanor. They also needed something to do when they visited, and reading her story was the perfect solution.

My mother and brother, Helen and Daniel Eby, helped a lot with the editing at this stage.

My great-uncle Lawrence Eby helped flesh out an appendix about my grandfather, who had died young and few of us had met, so we could preserve his story as well.

Ann Disher:  The version here is the final version. I did one last stage of revisions and asked my sister-in-law Ann Disher (an English teacher) to do the last touch-up. I hope that it can spread the blessings even farther and bring joy to the world.

I feel blessed to be able to share my grandmother’s story with the world. It is wonderful to see how this short book has touched my cousins, my immediate family, my grandmother’s many friends, and the nurses and volunteers who cared for my grandmother near the end, and myself.

This has been a labor of love, and I hope I can work on more biographies in the future for my own family and for others.

Five types of grandparents and how they shape our lives

Which type of grandparent did you have.

Posted February 16, 2010

Those of us lucky enough to have grandmothers and grandfathers know how influential they can be in our development. If you are or are becoming a grandparent, you most likely appreciate this role, perhaps more than any other you've ever had. It's a well known fact that grandchildren provide the focus for many older adults.

The bragging rights that grandparents claim about their descendants are legendary. Having grandchildren is, for many, a major source of fulfillment. But we know much less about the meaning of grandparents for the young.

One person we know very well whose grandmother made a difference in his life is Barack Obama . Raised by Madelyn Dunham, his maternal grandmother, she died on the eve of his election . Obama cited his relationship with her as both formative and transformative. "She's the one who taught me about hard work," he said. "She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me."

Less celebrated and well-known are the millions of grandparents in the U.S. who are solely responsible for the upbringing of their grandchildren, estimated at 2.5 million in 2009 . From USA.gov you can learn the facts and figures as well as resources containing valuable advice and suggestions. This situation, referred to as a "skip generation family," may occur for a variety of reasons, including substance abuse by parents, child abuse or neglect by parents, teenage pregnancy or failure of parents to handle children, and parental unemployment, divorce , AIDS, or incarceration. Although only a small percentage (14%) of grandparents in these situations are over the age of 60 years, substantial percentages have a disability (40%) or live in poverty (21%). However, on the positive side, the role of surrogate parent can contribute positively to the grandparents' sense of identity , particularly for African American grandmothers. Furthermore, feeling that others are supportive can help ameliorate the negative effects of the stress and strain of caregiving for the grandchild and help preserve the grandparent's health.

Personally, I was close to my maternal grandmother, who lived with my family during my teen years. Apart from a few disagreements about dating , she was an important figure in my life. An expert seamstress who made a living as a master glovemaker (her gloves were sold to Queen Elizabeth), she shared with me her incredible talents and it was thanks to her that knitting is my favorite hobby. She also was an inspiration to me. At the end of her life, when she could no longer see, she switched her craft to making woven potholders, just to keep her hands busy. She was super-proud of me perhaps just as much for my education (she lived until my second year of grad school) as for my hand-knit creations.

There is no official estimate of the total number of grandparents in the U.S; the best guess is about 56 million. And in contrast to what is known about the skip generation family, there is virtually nothing known about grandparenting in general. The last thorough study of grandparenting was conducted, if you can believe this, in 1965! University of Chicago's Bernice Neugarten, one of the leading gerontologists at the time, identified 5 patterns of grandparenting. See if you can relate your grandparents to one of these:

1. Formal grandparent : follows what are believed to be the appropriate guidelines for the grandparenting role, which includes providing occasional services and maintaining an interest in the grandchild, but not becoming overly involved.

2. Fun seeker : emphasizes the leisure aspects of the role and primarily provides entertainment for the grandchild.

3. Surrogate parent : takes over the caretaking role with the child.

4. Reservoir of family wisdom (usually a grandfather): the head of the family who dispenses advice and resources but also controls the parent generation.

5. Distant figure : has infrequent contact with the grandchildren, appearing only on holidays and special occasions.

Unfortunately for most grandparents, contact with their grandchildren declines steadily through the grandchild’s early adulthood particularly when they leave the home of their parents and start an independent life of their own. Grandparents who are unable to maintain contact with their grandchildren due to parental divorce or disagreements within the family are likely to suffer a variety of ill consequences, including poor mental and physical health, depression , feelings of grief , and poorer quality of life.

So, they need us and we need them. Yet, there are many misunderstandings about the role of grandparents in the lives of young adults. I see this very often on my college campus, when other faculty members complain about the infamous student excuse, "My grandmother died so I can't..." (a) take the exam (b) hand in my paper (c) attend class (d) etc. etc. I recall reading an article somewhere (I think) with a title to the effect of "We're Killing the Grandmothers." There is even something complained about by graduate teaching assistants called "Dead Grandmother Syndrome."

Having taught a course on the psychology of aging for a number of years, I was intrigued by this particular excuse. Students in my class often spoke of how important their grandparents were in their lives and when a student reported a death it was generally with great sadness. It seemed to me that most of the grandparent death excuses were sincere, not made up. So I began to embark on a study of grandparent excuses that still continues to this day. The first study asked students to indicate (anonymously) which excuses they fabricated and which reasons for missing an exam, paper, or whatever, were genuine. It turned out that the grandparent excuse was not a lie. The excuse that students used when they were lying was "family emergency." To this day, the anonymous surveys on excuses that I now use in my intro psych class (on 1000's of students) confirms the validity of the grandparent "excuse." We are not killing the grandparents, we only learn about their death on days that it counts. In reality, students value their relationships with their grandparents more than anyone realizes.

I'd like to close by asking the question - why does psychology know so little about this hugely important phenomenon in our lives? Why is the death of a grandparent seen as a joke? Why do we know so little about the meaning of grandparents in their lives. And finally, why can't the U.S. Census, with its wealth of data, even tell us how many there are?

Follow me on Twitter @swhitbo for daily updates on psychology, health, and aging. Feel free to join my Facebook group, " Fulfillment at Any Age ," to discuss today's blog, or to ask further questions about this posting.

Copyright Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. 2010

References:

Caron, M. D., Whitbourne, S. K., and Halgin, R. P. Fraudulent Excuse Making Among College Students. Teaching of Psychology, 1992, 19, 90-93. Geurts, T., Poortman, A.-R., van Tilburg, T., & Dykstra, P. A. (2009). Contact between grandchildren and their grandparents in early adulthood. Journal of Family Issues, 30, 1698-1713. Musil, C., Warner, C., Zauszniewski, J., Wykle, M., & Standing, T. (2009). Grandmother caregiving , family stress and strain, and depressive symptoms. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 31, 389-408.Neugarten, B. L., & Weinstein, K. K. (1964). The changing American grandparent. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 26, 199-204.

Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. , is a Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her latest book is The Search for Fulfillment.

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Nsw migration heritage centre, documenting australia's migration history, the life of my grandmother, anna.

The life of my grandmother, Anna Read the Greek version of this story

Author: Joanne Adam Storyteller: Anna Adam Community Language School: Hellenic Orthodox Community of Bexley North and Districts Main School: Kingsgrove Public School

My grandmother's memories of Greece.

Today I would like to talk to you about how my grandmother Anna came to live in Australia. My grandmother Anna is my maternal grandmother. My name is Joanna. I have the same name as my grandmother, because her name is actually Joanna, but she is known as Anna.

Life in Greece

Well, I would like to begin by telling you that my grandmother was born and lived in a village in Greece named Skopi, Tripoli. Back then it was a very small village with only a few houses. My great grandparents did not own a car. However they did own horses and donkeys. They would use them as the mode of transportation. They would also use the horses to help them plough the fields. Motor driven ploughs as we know them today, did not exist back then. There was a lot of manual labour. My grandmother did not have a small backyard as we have nowadays. They had a reasonable sized farm with pigs, rabbits, goats, lambs and chickens. These animals were either bred to be eaten or to get milk from. They planted wheat and corn, once again so they could eat. You see, if they did not have a corner store, where they could get goods if they ran out?

My grandmother Ann only went to school up to the age of twelve years. The whole family including my grandmother had to help in the fields. Money was not plentiful. It was times of war and life was very difficult. They went to school in the morning. At lunchtime they went home for a couple of hours and then they returned to school till approximately 5.00pm. There was also school on Saturdays but this was only for half the day. My grandmother recalls all the children going to school on Sundays and then the teachers taking them to church.

My great grandparents would work in the fields all day and often come home later in the evening, well after the children. In this case it was up to the children to start dinner. They did not have the luxury of television or radio.

My grandmother was often asked to stay at home with her older brother and look after her grandmother who was sick, because her parents had to work in the fields. Because of this it was very difficult to get a proper education.

They would have special celebrations such as Easter, Christmas and her father's name day- they would celebrate this by having a get together with family and friends at home.

Because life was not great in Greece, when my grandmother was 19 years old, she decided to make a better life for herself in Australia. Her father pleaded with her not to go. He also told her that if she didn't like life in Australia, not to be afraid to return. This was an extremely sad moment for everyone. They did not know if they would ever see each other again or what sort of life my grandmother would have in Australia. My grandmother already had a couple of cousins living in Australia and decided to come and stay with them. In 1959 she travelled 28 days by ship to Australia. The journey was very tiring. The seas were very rough and there was a lot of seasickness.

Culture shock

First my grandmother lived in Redfern with her cousin. At the beginning she cried a lot because she was homesick and she found things to be much different in Australia. The buildings were different, houses were segregated by fences, there were footpaths, automobiles etc.

To us, these might seem as normal everyday things. We're used to seeing them everyday. But to someone who came from a different country and different lifestyle, it was a major culture shock. Also the cuisine that my grandmother was used to was totally different.

There was also a language barrier. My grandmother did not understand the English language, which made it hard for her to communicate with other people. Also the currency was different which took a lot of getting used to. They had to go to the store for food and other products. They could not get it from the farm, like they had been used to. There were many new and different things she had to get used to. Even though things were extremely different and she was homesick, she still didn't want to return home. The desire for a better life was enough incentive for her to stay in Australia.

Settling in Australia

Her cousin helped her to find her first job at an ETA factory. Back then all she had to do was to go around and ask if there was a job vacancy. Eventually she got married and settled down in Australia with her own family. Of course it was very sad that her parents could not be here to join in her happiness. It took a while to adjust as to the weather patterns as well. In summer for example it would be rainy and cold, but in Greece if it was summer you knew that you would have nice sunny weather.

From memory, my grandmother remembers there only being three Greek Orthodox churches in Sydney.

Obviously life is better here now. She has settled in Australia, and has her own children and grandchildren. She feels at home here because she has spent 43 years of her life here as opposed to 19 years in Greece. Even though she feels at home in Australia, Greece is always in the back of her mind calling her to go back home. As much as she'd like to go and stay, it is not possible because her life is here now. However, who knows, maybe one day, I will be lucky enough to visit Greece with my grandmother and get to see her beautiful homeland.

Joanna Adams

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Home » Language » How to Write a Tribute to My Grandmother

How to Write a Tribute to My Grandmother

A tribute is an indication of gratitude, appreciation and respect. Writing a tribute to your grandmother is a way of honoring her and showing her gratitude for all the things she has done for you. But how do you write a tribute to your grandmother? This is what we are going to explain in this article.

Before start writing the tribute, organize your thoughts. Decide the content of the tribute first. Summarizing your grandmother’s life in a short speech is impossible. There is also no need to summarize the life story of your grandmother in your tribute. A tribute is not a biography. So, rather than narrating the story of grandmother’s life, you should focus on your relationship with her as her grandchild. Concentrate on the memories you shared with your grandmother, what she taught you, what she enjoyed in life, how she influenced your life and why you will miss her. Use memories or incidents that characterize her best.

It’s the stories and memories about your grandmother that will make your tribute special and unique. Many people in your audience may not have seen her in the role of a grandmother. Others might have seen her in different roles such as mother, aunt, friend, colleague, employee, and neighbor. So, you can talk about your memories of the grandmother, how you saw her, what you loved about her, her qualities and her talents.

When you are talking about her qualities, don’t just list out different qualities, use specific memories to illustrate your points. For example, if your grandmother was very compassionate and generous, don’t just say that she was generous and compassionate; talk about an incident where she showed this compassion and generosity. These memories, quotes and anecdotes make your speech more interesting.

Your tribute should reflect the bond between your grandmother and you. But at the same time, it shouldn’t tell us about what you feel and what you think. The main focus of the tribute is your grandmother.

It is always better to have someone close to look at your speech and edit the content. Then you can see whether your speech is interesting and whether it is too subjective.

Remember that your tribute won’t be perfect in the first draft. You have to re-read and edit it several times and take feedback from family if you want to produce a good tribute to your grandmother.

Sample Tribute to Grandmother

You can download this sample tribute by clicking this link –  Sample Tribute to Grandmother

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Hasanthi is a seasoned content writer and editor with over 8 years of experience. Armed with a BA degree in English and a knack for digital marketing, she explores her passions for literature, history, culture, and food through her engaging and informative writing.

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Grandma Moses

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• United States History - Biography of Grandma Moses
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• Anna Mary Robertson Moses - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Grandma Moses (born September 7, 1860, Greenwich, New York , U.S.—died December 13, 1961, Hoosick Falls) was an American folk painter who was internationally popular for her naive documentation of rural life in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Anna Robertson had only sporadic periods of schooling during her childhood. At age 12 she left her parents’ farm and worked as a hired girl until she married Thomas Moses in 1887. They first farmed in the Shenandoah Valley near Staunton , Virginia, and in 1905 moved to a farm at Eagle Bridge, New York, near her birthplace. Thomas died in 1927, and Anna continued to farm with the help of her youngest son until advancing age forced her to retire to a daughter’s home in 1936.

As a child the artist had drawn pictures and coloured them with the juice of berries and grapes. After her husband died she created worsted-embroidery pictures, and, when her arthritis made manipulating a needle too difficult, she turned to painting . At first she copied illustrated postcards and Currier & Ives prints, but gradually she began to re-create scenes from her childhood, as in Apple Pickers ( c. 1940), Sugaring-Off in the Maple Orchard (1940), Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey (1943), and Over the River to Grandma’s House ( c. 1944). Her early paintings were given away or sold for small sums. In 1939 Louis Caldor, an engineer and art collector, was impressed when he saw several of her paintings hanging in a drugstore window in Hoosick Falls, New York. He drove to her farm and bought her remaining stock of 15 paintings. In October of that year three of those paintings were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in a show titled “Contemporary, Unknown Painters.”

From the beginning Grandma Moses’s work received favourable criticism . In October 1940 a one-woman show of 35 paintings was held at Galerie St. Etienne in New York. Thereafter her paintings were shown throughout the United States and Europe in some 150 solo shows and 100 group exhibits. Throughout her lifetime Grandma Moses produced about 2,000 paintings, most of them on masonite board. Her naive style (labeled “ American Primitive” by art historians) was acclaimed for its purity of colour, its attention to detail, and its vigour. Her other notable paintings include Black Horses (1942), Out for the Christmas Trees (1946), The Old Oaken Bucket (1946), From My Window (1949), and Making Apple Butter (1958). From 1946 her paintings were often reproduced in prints and on Christmas cards. Her autobiography, My Life’s History , was published in 1952.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and major leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After his assassination, he was memorialized by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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In Focus: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on January 15, coincides with the late civil rights leader ’s birthday. Had he lived, King would be turning 95 years old.

Days after his 1968 assassination , a campaign for a holiday in King’s honor began. U.S. Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan first proposed a bill on April 8, 1968, but the first vote on the legislation didn’t happen until 1979. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King , led the lobbying effort to drum up public support. Fifteen years after its introduction, the bill finally became law.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan ’s signature created Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service as a federal holiday. It’s celebrated annually on the third Monday in January. The only national day of service, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986. The first time all 50 states recognized the holiday was in 2000.

See Martin Luther King Jr.’s life depicted onscreen in the 2018 documentary I Am MLK Jr. or the Oscar-winning movie Selma .

Who Was Martin Luther King Jr?

Quick facts, where did martin luther king jr. go to school, philosophy of nonviolence, civil rights accomplishments, "i have a dream" and other famous speeches, wife and kids, fbi surveillance, later activism, assassination.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Through his nonviolent activism and inspirational speeches , he played a pivotal role in ending legal segregation of Black Americans, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray and died on April 4, 1968, at age 39. King continues to be remembered as one of the most influential and inspirational Black leaders in history.

FULL NAME: Martin Luther King Jr. BIRTHDAY: January 15, 1929 DIED: April 4, 1968 BIRTHPLACE: Atlanta, Georgia SPOUSE: Coretta Scott King (1953-1968) CHILDREN: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice King ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Martin Luther King Jr. was born as Michael Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. His birthday was January 15, 1929.

His parents were Michael Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The Williams and King families had roots in rural Georgia. Martin’s maternal grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist Church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks, and they had one child who survived, Alberta.

Michael Sr. came from a family of sharecroppers in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D.’s home in Atlanta. Michael stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931. He, too, became a successful minister and adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther . In due time, Michael Jr. followed his father’s lead and adopt the name himself to become Martin Luther King Jr.

A middle child, Martin Jr. had an older sister, Willie, and a younger brother, Alfred. The King children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while Alberta’s gentleness easily balanced out their father’s strict hand.

Although they undoubtedly tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t shield him completely from racism. His father fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but also because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God’s will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children, which left a lasting impression on Martin Jr.

Growing up in Atlanta, King entered public school at age 5. In May 1936, he was baptized, but the event made little impression on him.

In May 1941, King was 12 years old when his grandmother Jennie died of a heart attack. The event was traumatic for the boy, more so because he was out watching a parade against his parents’ wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young King jumped from a second-story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.

King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades and, at age 15, entered Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but largely unmotivated, floating through his first two years.

Influenced by his experiences with racism, King began planting the seeds for a future as a social activist early in his time at Morehouse. “I was at the point where I was deeply interested in political matters and social ills,” he recalled in The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr . “I could envision myself playing a part in breaking down the legal barriers to Negro rights.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time, King felt that the best way to serve that purpose was as a lawyer or a doctor. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, King questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort had continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father’s dismay.

But in his junior year, King took a Bible class, renewed his faith, and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision, and he was ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church in February 1948.

Later that year, King earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and began attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, was elected student body president, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study.

Even though King was following his father’s footsteps, he rebelled against Martin Sr.’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became romantically involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the relationship.

During his last year in seminary, King came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays, who influenced King’s spiritual development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change.

After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, King enrolled at Boston University. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his doctorate and earned his degree in 1955 at age 25.

Decades after King’s death, in the late 1980s, researchers at Stanford University’s King Papers Project began to note similarities between passages of King’s doctoral dissertation and those of another student’s work. A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University determined that King was guilty of plagiarism in 1991, though it also recommended against the revocation of his degree.

First exposed to the concept of nonviolent resistance while reading Henry David Thoreau ’s On Civil Disobedience at Morehouse, King later discovered a powerful exemplar of the method’s possibilities through his research into the life of Mahatma Gandhi . Fellow civil rights activist Bayard Rustin , who had also studied Gandhi’s teachings, became one of King’s associates in the 1950s and counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of nonviolence.

As explained in his autobiography , King previously felt that the peaceful teachings of Jesus applied mainly to individual relationships, not large-scale confrontations. But he came to realize: “Love for Gandhi was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking.”

It led to the formation of King’s six principles of nonviolence :

• Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
• Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
• Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
• Nonviolence holds that suffering for a just cause can educate and transform.
• Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
• Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

In the years to come, King also frequently cited the “ Beloved Community ”—a world in which a shared spirit of compassion brings an end to the evils of racism, poverty, inequality, and violence—as the end goal of his activist efforts.

Led by his religious convictions and philosophy of nonviolence, King became one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement . He was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and played key roles in several major demonstrations that transformed society. This included the Montgomery Bus Boycott that integrated Alabama’s public transit, the Greensboro Sit-In movement that desegregated lunch counters across the South, the March on Washington that led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in Alabama that culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

King’s efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 when he was 35.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

King’s first leadership role within the Civil Rights Movement was during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956. The 381-day protest integrated the Alabama city’s public transit in one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

The effort began on December 1, 1955, when 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the “colored” section in the middle of the bus. As the bus traveled its route, all the seats in the white section filled up, then several more white passengers boarded the bus.

The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other Black passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated.

The driver asked her again to give up her seat, and again she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her trial a week later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and assessed $4 court fee.

The local NAACP chapter had been looking to challenge Montgomery’s segregated bus policy and had almost made 15-year-old Claudette Colvin the face of the campaign months earlier. She similarly refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on March 2, 1955, but after organizers learned Colvin was pregnant, they feared it would scandalize the deeply religious Black community and make Colvin, along with the group’s efforts, less credible in the eyes of sympathetic white people. Parks’ experience of discrimination provided another opportunity.

On the night Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon , head of the local NAACP chapter, met with King and other local civil rights leaders to plan a Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained, and had solid family connections and professional standing. He was also new to the community and had few enemies, so organizers felt he would have strong credibility with the Black community.

In his first speech as the group’s president, King declared:

“We have no alternative but to protest. For many years, we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”

King’s skillful rhetoric put new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began December 5, 1955, and for more than a year, the local Black community walked to work, coordinated ride sharing, and faced harassment, violence, and intimidation. Both King’s and Nixon’s homes were attacked.

In addition to the boycott, members of the Black community took legal action against the city ordinance that outlined the segregated transit system. They argued it was unconstitutional based on the U.S. Supreme Court ’s “separate is never equal” decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Several lower courts agreed, and the nation’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling in a November 13, 1956, decision that also ruled the state of Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.

After the legal defeats and large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law that mandated segregated public transportation. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy , and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of Black churches. The SCLC helped conduct nonviolent protests to promote civil rights reform.

King’s participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The SCLC felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern cities to register Black voters. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

That September, King survived an attempt on his life when a woman with mental illness stabbed him in the chest as he signed copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in a New York City department store. Saved by quick medical attention, King expressed sympathy for his assailant’s condition in the aftermath .

In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, King visited Gandhi ’s birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a profound way, increasing his commitment to America’s civil rights struggle.

Greensboro Sit-In

By 1960, King was gaining national exposure. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church but also continued his civil rights efforts. His next activist campaign was the student-led Greensboro Sit-In movement.

In February 1960, a group of Black students in Greensboro, North Carolina , began sitting at racially segregated lunch counters in the city’s stores. When asked to leave or sit in the “colored” section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse.

The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. That April, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, with local sit-in leaders. King encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed and, for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By August 1960, the sit-ins had successfully ended segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities. But the movement wasn’t done yet.

On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the city’s reputation, Atlanta’s mayor negotiated a truce, and charges were eventually dropped.

Soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Martin’s wife, Coretta Scott King . Kennedy expressed his concern over the harsh treatment Martin received for the traffic ticket, and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon released.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In the spring of 1963, King organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. With entire families in attendance, city police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. King was jailed, along with large numbers of his supporters.

The event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally criticized by Black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration.

In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail , King eloquently spelled out his theory of nonviolence: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue.”

1963 March on Washington

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, King and his supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation’s capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change. The demonstration was the brainchild of labor leader A. Philip Randolph and King’s one-time mentor Bayard Rustin .

On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew an estimated 250,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It remains one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in American history. During the demonstration, King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech .

The rising tide of civil rights agitation that had culminated in the March on Washington produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation’s Jim Crow laws and the near-century of second-class treatment of African American citizens since the end of slavery. This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities.

Selma March

Continuing to focus on voting rights, King, the SCLC, SNCC, and local organizers planned to march peacefully from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery.

Led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams , demonstrators set out on March 7, 1965. But the Selma march quickly turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The attack was televised, broadcasting the horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured to a wide audience. Of the 600 demonstrators, 58 were hospitalized in a day that became known as “ Bloody Sunday .” King, however, was spared because he was in Atlanta.

Not to be deterred, activists attempted the Selma-to-Montgomery march again. This time, King made sure he was part of it. Because a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order on another march, a different approach was taken.

On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both Black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer, then they turned back. This became known as “Turnaround Tuesday.”

Alabama Governor George Wallace continued to try to prevent another march until President Lyndon B. Johnson pledged his support and ordered U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard to protect the protestors.

On March 21, 1965, approximately 2,000 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery. On March 25, the number of marchers, which had grown to an estimated 25,000 gathered in front of the state capitol where King delivered a televised speech. Five months after the historic peaceful protest, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act .

Along with his “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speeches, King delivered several acclaimed addresses over the course of his life in the public eye.

“I Have A Dream” Speech

Date: august 28, 1963.

King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington. Standing at the Lincoln Memorial, he emphasized his belief that someday all men could be brothers to the 250,000-strong crowd.

Notable Quote: “I have a dream that my four 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.”

“Give Us the Ballot” Speech

Date: may 17, 1957.

Six years before he told the world of his dream, King stood at the same Lincoln Memorial steps as the final speaker of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. Dismayed by the ongoing obstacles to registering Black voters, King urged leaders from various backgrounds—Republican and Democrat, Black and white—to work together in the name of justice.

Notable Quote: “Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights. Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law... Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.”

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Date: december 10, 1964.

Speaking at the University of Oslo in Norway, King pondered why he was receiving the Nobel Prize when the battle for racial justice was far from over, before acknowledging that it was in recognition of the power of nonviolent resistance. He then compared the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement to the ground crew at an airport who do the unheralded-yet-necessary work to keep planes running on schedule.

Notable Quote: “I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners—all those to whom beauty is truth and truth, beauty—and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”

“Our God is Marching On (How Long? Not Long)” Speech

Date: march 25, 1965.

At the end of the bitterly fought Selma-to-Montgomery march, King addressed a crowd of 25,000 supporters from the Alabama State Capitol. Offering a brief history lesson on the roots of segregation, King emphasized that there would be no stopping the effort to secure full voting rights, while suggesting a more expansive agenda to come with a call to march on poverty.

Notable Quote: “I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” Speech

Date: april 4, 1967.

One year before his assassination, King delivered a controversial sermon at New York City’s Riverside Church in which he condemned the Vietnam War. Explaining why his conscience had forced him to speak up, King expressed concern for the poor American soldiers pressed into conflict thousands of miles from home, while pointedly faulting the U.S. government’s role in escalating the war.

Notable Quote: “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Speech

Date: april 3, 1968.

The well-known orator delivered his final speech the day before he died at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. King reflected on major moments of progress in history and his own life, in addition to encouraging the city’s striking sanitation workers.

Notable Quote: “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

While working on his doctorate at Boston University, King met Coretta Scott , an aspiring singer and musician at the New England Conservatory school in Boston. They were married on June 18, 1953, and had four children—two daughters and two sons—over the next decade. Their oldest, Yolanda, was born in 1955, followed by sons Martin Luther King III in 1957 and Dexter in 1961. The couple welcomed Bernice King in 1963.

Although she accepted the responsibility to raise the children while King travelled the country, Coretta opened their home to organizational meetings and served as an advisor and sounding board for her husband. “I am convinced that if I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength, and calmness of Corrie, I could not have withstood the ordeals and tensions surrounding the movement,” King wrote in his autobiography.

His lengthy absences became a way of life for their children, but Martin III remembered his father returning from the road to join the kids playing in the yard or bring them to the local YMCA for swimming. King also fostered discussions at mealtimes to make sure everyone understood the important issues he was seeking to resolve.

Leery of accumulating wealth as a high-profile figure, King insisted his family live off his salary as a pastor. However, he was known to splurge on good suits and fine dining, while contrasting his serious public image with a lively sense of humor among friends and family.

Due to his relationships with alleged Communists, King became a target of FBI surveillance and, from late 1963 until his death, a campaign to discredit the civil rights activist. While FBI wiretaps failed to produce evidence of Communist sympathies, they captured the civil rights leader’s engagement in extramarital dalliances. This led to the infamous “suicide letter” of 1964, later confirmed to be from the FBI and authorized by then-Director J. Edgar Hoover , which urged King to kill himself if he wanted to prevent news of his affairs from going public.

In 2019, historian David Garrow wrote of explosive new allegations against King following his review of recently released FBI documents. Among the discoveries was a memo suggesting that King had encouraged the rape of a parishioner in a hotel room, as well as evidence that he might have fathered a daughter with a mistress. Other historians questioned the veracity of the documentation, especially given the FBI’s known attempts to damage King’s reputation. The original surveillance tapes regarding these allegations are under judicial seal until 2027.

From late 1965 through 1967, King expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young Black power leaders. King’s patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated many Black militants who considered his methods too weak, too late, and ineffective.

To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War . He felt America’s involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the government’s conduct in the war was discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a multiracial coalition to address the economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people. To that end, plans were in the works for another march on Washington to highlight the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement intended to pressure the government into improving living and working conditions for the economically disadvantaged.

By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on King. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress of civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from other African American leaders.

In the spring of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade. On April 3, 1968, he gave his final and what proved to be an eerily prophetic speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in which he told supporters, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now… I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

While standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper’s bullet on April 4, 1968. King died at age 39. The shocking assassination sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the country.

The shooter was James Earl Ray , a malcontent drifter and former convict. He initially escaped authorities but was apprehended after a two-month international manhunt. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

The identity of King’s assassin has been the source of some controversy. Ray recanted his confession shortly after he was sentenced, and King’s son Dexter publicly defended Ray’s innocence after meeting with the convicted gunman in 1997. Another complicating factor is the 1993 confession of tavern owner Loyd Jowers, who said he contracted a different hit man to kill King. In June 2000, the U.S. Justice Department released a report that dismissed the alternative theories of King’s death. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998.

King’s life had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known Black leader of his era.

His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C.

Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible, and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

• But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.
• There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.
• Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.
• The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
• Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.
• We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools.
• Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.
• I have a dream that my four 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.
• The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but with no morals.
• I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.
• Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
• A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
• At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
• Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

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