Top row from the left: Ronald Tucker, Arminta Foushee, Alfred Foushee, Deborah Foushee Gracy-Tucker and Monisa Gracy-Fry. Bottom row from the left: Darrell Foushee and Garland Foushee.
One of Chapel Hill’s oldest community members is turning 104 years old on Tuesday and the community is planning a big public celebration for him.
The Marian Cheek Jackson Center, St. Joseph CME Church and Foushee family are set to hold a parade and party for Garland Foushee. The patriarch of the family has five generation of descendants, with many of his three children and five grandchildren helping organize Tuesday’s party.
“Everyone is supposed to gather at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center at St. Joseph CME Church around 10:45 a.m.,” says Arminta Foushee, who is Garland’s oldest granddaughter. “We’re going to caravan from the church and there’s going to be a police escort for the parade.”
The Jackson Center is an organization founded to help honor the history of the Northside, Pine Knolls and Tin Top neighborhoods in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. It also regularly helps build and connect the existing community to that history — which includes celebrating Foushee and other centenarians in the area.
“People look at Chapel Hill and think [about] the University of North Carolina…but that’s not all it is,” Arminta Foushee says. “We have people that were instrumental in building it and making it what it is. So, I love the mission of that organization: making sure that the story is told and the people are known, uplifted, respected, acknowledged and celebrated.”
Garland Foushee initially grew up in Chatham County before relocating to Chapel Hill in 1938.
“I was raised out in the country, as they called it,” the 103-year-old told Chapelboro. “I don’t know too much about the city [because] I was driving the mule, planting seeds, picking cotton and all that stuff. I lived on a farm, had to do whatever I had to live. We raised a lot of our food, had cows give us milk, we had some hogs we killed and got some pork meat from.”
Foushee served in the Navy and fought in World War II. Professionally, he was a barber for many years and also worked for both the U.S. Forestry Service and the U.S. Public Health Service before it moved to Atlanta and became the Centers for Disease Control. His wife of 71 years, Osa Mae Trice Foushee, worked for UNC Housekeeping for many years.
Foushee’s daughter Deborah Foushee Gracy-Tucker says she remembers growing up in the same house where Garland still lives today, which is on Grant Street in the Pine Knolls neighborhood. She said she remembers a very different community, as their home was one of just three houses with a dirt road and no street lights.
“This area was considered country,” she says. “We didn’t even have a street address really — we got our mail at the post office. Then, years later, it was incorporated and they were arguing at first, ‘Is it Carrboro, is it Chapel Hill?’ [We said] Chapel Hill, we were very adamant about that.”
Gracy-Tucker says despite the many challenges of the time period, her parents helped make sure their children were instilled with values of faith and family.
“Mom and Dad, they were always there,” she says. “They worked, they worked hard — when we came home, we had chores to do, but there was always a hot meal on the table. Every night, we could be guaranteed to sit down at the table and talk about the day as a family.”
Arminta Foushee, who is still a Triangle resident, says Tuesday’s celebration will feature some of that history of her family and grandfather.
“We’re going to have pictures, like a big mural that will show Pop-Pop at different stages of his life,” she says.
The parade will begin at St. Joseph CME Church on 512 W Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill before moving south to Garland Foushee’s residence on Grant Street. Arminta says there will be cupcakes, music and a spot to drop off any birthday cards.
She also says there’s one additional request for those hoping to participate in the celebration of Garland’s birthday.
“We ask everybody to dress in Carolina blue,” Foushee says. “That’s his favorite color — he always usually has on a Carolina blue hat and jacket because he loves Carolina blue. So, that’s going to be the themed color for the event.”
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