Heath, John
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Heath, John
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John E. Heath worked as a janitor at Davidson College during the Jim Crow era.
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John Easton Heath was born on April 16, 1892 to Robert Heath and Alice Stewart Heath. He was the oldest brother of eight siblings. He completed schooling up to the fifth grade before becoming a farm laborer on his family’s rented farm. He married Bunie Stamey in 1913. She too was the eldest child who came from a farming family. Together, they had one son, Sylvester. As a family, they rented a farm and lived there until John Heath secured employment as a janitor at Davidson College in 1928. His family moved to the Brady’s Alley, a Black neighborhood where other Black campus employees lived in Davidson, NC. Bunie worked as a domestic servant in private residents. Their son attended the Davidson Colored School and received a sixth-grade education. Sadly, he died young.
John Heath worked primarily in the Georgia Dormitory. He retired from Davidson College and passed away on June 23, 1971. He is buried in Torrence Chapel AME Zion Cemetery in Cornelius, North Carolina.
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16 April 1892
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23 June 1971
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“Honored For Long Service,” The Gazette, August 27, 1953, 1.
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Billy Akers, “Tribute To A Janitor,” The Davidsonian, October 28, 1955, 4.
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"Heath, 74, Succumbs," Statesville Record and Landmark, June 25, 1971.
Position: 1338 (3 views)
