Happy Birthday Akya, Michelle and Nechelle

There are times things slip my mind. I don't blame it on my age (43 and looking damn good), short attention span or someone else. Hey, I forget. To my defense, when I was at the casino with a buddy, I said, "There is some significance to July 18th, but I don't remember." I knew there was something special about the day. At the time it didn't occur to me what made the date notable. That's my story and I'm stickin to it. It took a couple of days, but I figured it out. Saturday was Michelle and her daughter Nechelle's birthday. Ha-ha, I remembered. The fact that I was a couple of days late means nothing. So, with all that said, Happy Birthday Akya (July15). Happy Birthday Shelley. Happy Birthday Nechelle. The three young ladies are from the Eugene Cooley branch of the family. Donna (daughter of Eugene) is the mother of Shelley. Nechelle is the daughter of Shelley. Akya is the daughter of Rob and Rob is Donna's son. I don't have a picture of Akya, but Rob is going to get one to me soon.

Pictures: Nechelle and Shelley

The Four Cooleys

This is the only know picture of Ethyl and Edward Cooley's four children together. This was taken at their grandfather, Edward Johnson's farm sometime after 1931. From oldest to youngest pictured; Veltirea Leonia, Marvin De Forrest, Eugene Lawrence and Doris Maxine Cooley. Veltirea married Dr J. Walter Thompson and had two children; Snookie and Vicki. Marvin married Bessie Colbert and had two children; Marlene and Cheryl. Eugene married Helen Anderson and had three children; Donna, Larry and Connie. Eugene and his second wife Julia Rumley had three children; Bobby, Darlene and Veltirea. Doris married Frank Guess and had two children; Kevin and Michael. There are a total of fourteen Cooley grandchildren. That's the easy number. The total number of great and great-great Cooley grandchildren is much larger. One day I intend to get the names of each great and great-great grandchild. Today ain't that day.