Census Sunday: Mary Sudie Rucker

A picture of a picture of Sudie Rucker
in the possession of Mary Jollette Slade Pollock

Last week I looked in the 1940 census for my maternal grandfather’s mother (my great-grandmother) Mary Frances Jollett Davis. This week, I found my maternal grandmother’s mother, Mary Susan “Sudie” Eppard Rucker.

425 Fourth Street, Shenandoah, Virginia
Image from Google Maps

Grandma Rucker was the informant answering Mrs. Zola C. Brown’s questions on April 15, 1940.  She was living at 425 Fourth Street in Shenandoah, Virginia, the same house she had lived in during 1935 and many years before that even, and the same house she was living in at her death in 1958.  Her home was valued at $8000.  A widow age 62, she was the head of the household.  Her youngest son Joseph Calhoun Rucker, Jr. (28) and his wife Janice (26) lived there too along with their daughter Joan (6) as they had in 1935. 

Grandma Rucker and Uncle Joe had completed only seven years of school.  Janice had completed four years of high school.

Click to enlarge

This is the hosiery mill but Janice is not in this picture.
However, my grandmother Lucille Rucker Davis (Joe's sister
and Janice's sister-in-law) is the first person on the left kneeling.

Uncle Joe, while listed as a clerk for the Post Office, had not worked at all the last week of March 1940, and apparently had been unemployed for 72 weeks earning no income in 1939.  However, Janice had worked 48 hours the last week of March as a legger for the hosiery mill.  In fact, she had been employed throughout 1939 and earned $832.  She was probably lucky to have a steady job, but still her salary was well below the national average of $1299. 

Grandma Rucker claims to have received some income other than through a salary; however, the census does not indicate what that source was. Perhaps she received a pension from her deceased husband’s employment with the railroad.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.