Cutting Corners

“If person is of African descent cut off this corner”.


In addition to collecting World War I Draft Registration cards for family members, I've been compiling an index of cards for 'persons of African descent' in Labette County, KS. Even though I've looked at many cards before and noticed the lower left-hand corner cut off of many of them, I never thought about its significance. Then I finally looked at a blank form and saw the little triangle in the corner with the instruction to cut it off based on the registrant's heritage. There were three versions of the draft card - A, B and C. Version C did not have the triangle. All three versions did have an entry for Race but I suppose it's easier to look for cut off corners than to actually have to read cards in order to select a race-based group of soldiers, especially when that entry included Black, Colored, African and Ethiopian (I haven't found any Mulattoes in my extracts yet). What ever did they do when they got to the C-cards? What happened to the person whose corner was cut off by mistake? Or whose corner was not?

Anna Stinnett Coker

Anna Stinnett Coker, my paternal great-grandmother, was born in June around 1868 in Arkansas, probably in the Marion County region, and died in Joplin, Missouri on 8 April 1954. She is buried in Parkway cemetery in Joplin. She married George W. Coker in the early 1880s and had seven known children. I don't know much about Grandma Coker. I've heard that I met her as a toddler but I have no recollection of that meeting.

I often wonder what her life was like. First, living in Yellville, then later in Joplin. She outlived her husband and most of her children - Logan died a couple of months after his mother, and Myrtle lost touch with the family; she buried the rest of them, including my grandfather Lonnie. Her oldest daughter, Maud, died of typhoid fever in 1911 and her youngest daughter, Bertha, of tuberculosis in 1926.

I found these death notices in the Joplin Globe:
9 April 1954
Mrs. Anna Coker Dies
Mrs. Anna Coker, 86 years old, a Negro resident of Joplin 60 years, died at 215 o'clock yesterday afternoon in her home, 1920 Furnace avenue. Born in Yellville, Ark., she was a member of Holiness church. Surviving are a son, Logan Coker of Grove, Okla., and four grandchildren. Funeral arrangements will be announced by Steven Parker mortuary.

11 April 1954
Coker Funeral MondayFuneral services for Mrs. Annie Coker, 86 years old, will be conducted at 2 o'clock Monday afternoon in the Steve Parker chapel. Burial will be in Parkway cemetery. The body will lie in state at the mortuary chapel until the funeral hour. A resident of Joplin 60 years, Mrs Coker died Thursday afternoon at her home 1020 Furnace avenue.

Happy Birthday, Pop!