By 1910, before Leonard was born, his parents, James Henry (1874 – 1920) and Eva L. Hawkins along with his brother, Eli, lived in French Camp, Choctaw, Mississippi. They owned a farm that his parents were mortgaging. They had seven kids in 1910: Eli, Billie, Bertha, Charlie, James Sell, Mary Mavis, and Effie Hawkins. Eva was born in 1874 to her mother who was from South Carolina and her father from North Carolina before they moved to Mississippi. In a decade’s time, Eva had died and left James a widower. James S., Effie, and Eli had already left the farm.
Eli enlisted in the military on July 25, 1917. He was placed in France and was released from Brest, France, on August 13, 1919. He returned to the U.S. on the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria. He served in the Machine Gun Company, 4th Infantry as a Private First Class.
James Sell, born January 18,1897, enlisted in 1918 into the Army. James married Lela Crowder in 1928, and they had a child in 1943 named Bobby Gene Hawkins. He died at age 93 on July 12, 1990. Lela died in 1975. Charlie was born on January 16, 1905. He married Thelma Biggers, and they had three children in 1940: Charles, Theo, and Henry Hawkins. Charlie died on February 25, 1979 while Thelma died in 2000. |