Alverta
Duff
Alverta Duff was the oldest child of Peter
Charles and Fannie E. Walker Duff. She
was born on August 25, 1885 at 107 W. Poplar in Normal, IL. Her father Peter Charles Duff was born in
Irwin, Perry County, Kentucky on July 15, 1856 to John and Edith Duff,
who were
former slaves. Peter and his brothers
and sister moved to Normal,
IL as part of the
Kentucky Exodus
after the Civil War when he was 14 years old.
He came to live with Jessie Fell, founder of the town of Normal in the
1870’s. There, he began working for the
Fell family as
a laborer and a well-trained carpenter.
About 1880, he bought two lots of land from Jessie Fell. On Nov 22, 1885, he married his wife Fannie
E. Walker, who was born on January 31, 1865 in Madison County, KY. She was the daughter of Charles Walker and
Julia Ann Hawkins Walker Green Handy, also both former slaves. Peter and Fannie Duff were one of the
earliest African American families to establish themselves in Normal.
Alverta had been a sickly child, having
suffered from asthma all her life. She
also learned to play piano and loved to sing.
She graduated from Normal
High School and attended
Brown’s Business
College. After receiving training at Brown’s, she
became a bookkeeper at Casey Brother’s Dyeing and Cleaning, located at 610 N. Main Street
in Bloomington.
Following her employment at Casey Brother’s, she began working for the
Stevenson family, also related to the Fell family.
She began working for Adlai Stevenson II’s
mother, Helen Stevenson, when Adlai was a young boy.
She looked after the two Stevenson children,
Adlai and his sister Elizabeth
(Buffy). She worked for Mrs. Stevenson
for 25 years off and then continued her service as a housekeeper for
Buffy
until her retirement in the early 1960’s.
Adlai mentions Alverta in his
correspondence and letters, even writing to her on occasion. Alverta also appears to have been very fond
of Adlai, having kept newspaper clippings and photos all throughout his
political career.
Alverta was also very active in the
communities of Bloomington and Normal.
She was a member of various clubs and organizations
throughout her life;
the most famous of those clubs was the Three C Club of which she was a
founding
member. The Three C Club was founded on
August
8, 1908 by a group of twelve African American women in Bloomington
and Normal. The purpose of this social club was to have
meetings and invite their friends to discuss issues that African
American women
dealt with everyday. The twelve-member club was based on Christian
service,
striving to inspire younger women who would follow them.
The Three C Club was one of the oldest social
clubs for women established in this area.
In the later years of her life, she kept
close track of Adlai’s political career, even changing her vote from
Republican
to Democratic when Adlai ran for president against Dwight D. Eisenhower
in
1952. Alverta was so confident that he
would win; she was quoted to have said to Adlai “if they don’t make a
good cup
of coffee at the White House, you let me know and I’ll come make some
coffee
for you.”
Not long after Adlai died in 1965,
Alverta’s health began to deteriorate even more, as it had been for the
past
few years. She passed away on November
16, 1968 at the age of 82 in the same home where she grew up, 107 W.
Poplar.
Alverta had six brothers and sisters.
The following information is a brief
biography on her brothers and sisters who were also quite outstanding
members
of the African American community of Bloomington
and Normal.
John Walker Duff—Walker, as he was known, was born on
March
15, 1888. He had been an outstanding
athlete in high school and had attended Illinois State
Normal University
for a short time. He served in World War
I at the Battle of Meuse-Argonne in the 802nd Pioneer
Infantry,
Company F of the American Expeditionary Forces in France. He held the rank of Private 1st
Class during this battle and when he was discharged on July 1919, he
was a
Corporal. He married Rea Portia
Harris. Following the war, he worked as
a clothes cleaner and then a headwaiter at an exclusive club in Ohio. He died
on March
5, 1931.
Jane “Jannie” May Duff-- Jannie was
born on November 7, 1891. She also
attended Normal schools, and also received two diplomas from the
American Red
Cross for First Aid and Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick. She and Alverta went to Tulsa, Oklahoma
in 1918 to care for their sister Julia, who had contracted the flu
during the
1918-1919 Flu Pandemic. After Julia had
recovered, Jannie contracted the same flu, which turned in to typhoid
fever. She died from several weeks later
on December 4, 1918 and was buried in Normal.
Rollie C. Duff—Rollie was born on
October 17, 1893. He was a prominent and
promising athlete and attended Normal schools and ISNU for a time. He worked at Ward’s Grocery Store. He contracted typhoid fever and died on April
3, 1912 in Normal.
Julia Edith Duff—Julia was born on
June 5, 1895. She attended ISNU studying
to be a teacher. She taught in Kansas and Oklahoma
schools for 25 years as a domestic science teacher.
She was captain of the women’s faculty
basketball team in Tulsa,
where she did the majority of her teaching.
Later in her life, she was also matron of the Geneva
Girls School
in Geneva, Illinois.
In 1921, Julia was in Tulsa, Oklahoma
during the race riots,
for which her personal letter to a family member was printed in the Normalite. She retired from teaching in 1965, and moved
back to live in Normal
permanently to care for her sister Alverta.
She died on July 18, 1984 at the Shamel Manor Nursing and
Retirement
Home in Normal.
George T. Duff—George was born on
September 6, 1896. He was a basketball
and football player while attending Normal High School. He was a skilled plumber and lived most of
the time in Chicago,
Illinois.
He was also a basketball player for the Wabash Basketball
Five in Chicago. He died on August 7, 1941.
Cordielia A. Duff—was born on
August 30, 1899 and died the same day.
The cause of her death is not known.
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