Feb 4, 2017
Ralph W. Grimes was born in Adrian, Michigan on August 13, 1936 to Paul and Agatha (Byrd) Grimes. He married Gale Zebbs in 1959 and together they raised two daughters, Dawn and Robyn. Mr. Grimes came to Ypsilanti in the 1960s where he worked for the Ypsilanti Public...
Jan 22, 2017
Benjamin Adell Neely was born November 11, 1900 in Gastonia, North Carolina to Mark Neely and Olivia Benjamin. The Neely family moved to Ypsilanti in 1914 at the beginnings of the Great Migration. Benjamin married Ypsilanti’s Ethel (Thomas) King, the widow of...
Jan 1, 2017
Garther Roberson Jr. was born in Ypsilanti in 1928 to Garther Sr. and Estella (Sears) Roberson. Garther Sr. was a long-time pastor for Ypsilanti’s historic Second Baptist church on South Hamilton Street. Leading the church through the crucial years of the...
Dec 16, 2016
William Paul Clay Sr. (also known as Paul Clay Jr.) was born in December 12th, 1916 in Ypsilanti to songwriter, civil rights activist and leading Mason Paul Ison Clay of Indiana and Virginia Scott of Canada. William married Abbie (Petties) Brown, originally from...
Oct 26, 2016
Versa May (Hamilton) Roach was born April 15, 1916 in Dresden, Tennessee to Robert and Callie (King) Hamilton. Versa married Louis Roach in Tennessee and moved to Washtenaw County, where her husband found work at the University of Michigan Hospital, with her family in...
