[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6488-6489]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ROSIE TILLES OBITUARY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MAXINE WATERS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 12, 2015

  Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, as night fell she 
entered, like a light: on October 17, 1910, Rosie (Willie) Thurmond was 
born on a small rural farm in Lexington, Mississippi. Alfred and 
Missouri (Polk) Thurmond were resilient and spiritually fulfilled 
parents who taught their daughter to love and always be faithful to 
God, church and family. Rosie was the eldest of four Thurmond children: 
Alfred, Jr. (departed), Joseph (departed), and an only sister, Juanita. 
In living out her parents' expectations of her, in a way, Rosie's own 
narrative is suggestive of other God fearing women pioneers' stories. 
No different than the likes of Harriet Tubman who escaped slavery to 
become an important abolitionist, Rosie possessed the same strength of 
character, which inevitably called her to migrate from one place to 
another, and then all at once return for others. Many times she 
traveled back to the Jim Crow South and northern states. Who will never 
remember that Rosie went by Amtrak and Greyhound bus to liberate family 
and friends from various forms of oppression? Ultimately, she would 
selflessly welcome many of her people to the same sense of freedom she 
found in southern California. Los Angeles, was the warm and sunny place 
she fondly called her home. The length and quality of this blessed 
woman's life is to be examined by the use of nonlinear contexts, 
spaces, stories, memories, photographs and God-filled times that span 
the miraculous course of one hundred and four years. So long a journey. 
Hers was a supply of great love and great associations. Rosie lived 
just long enough to put some of the pieces of the great mysteries of 
this life together. Her sunrise was like her sunset--deepening in a 
Word and a Love that has always been. On March 3, 2015, as night fell 
she returned to the Light.
  Because she was born in the early 1900's and lived in a segregated 
cotton county, Rosie's timely life was certainly full of social, 
political, economic, and educational hardships. Because of rigid anti-
black laws, she faced insurmountable obstacles. Being a person of color 
and growing up in the South meant she had little if any genuine 
recourse in a racial caste system. Thus, Rosie would only travel a 
limited path toward academic achievement. As a girl child, with plaited 
hair, she was forced to leave the Sharp Rural School in the fourth 
grade to work alongside her parents in sweltering fields throughout 
Holmes County. She knew an early life of August heat and sweat, March 
rainfall, floods and manual labor, which can scarcely be understood by 
young people today. She often shared the details of her small farm 
life. Her recollections were of ``quiet songs,'' saving dimes, 
forgotten relics, and homemade remedies, like lard salves and Vicks 
vapor rubs, which she promised could cure everything from fevers to the 
flu.
  Rosie told the old childhood stories about growing food, making soap, 
washing clothes by hand, hanging them on a line to dry, plucking birds, 
fetching water from wells, gathering firewood for potbelly stoves, 
picking cotton, and marching the long dusty miles to and from Zion Hill 
AME. But what child could bear such a trying life? A child who knew who 
her Heavenly Father was, a child who thought to pray in the Spirit at 
all times and on every occasion. According to Rosie, color did not 
matter. She didn't hate nobody. She loved everybody. So even though 
racism and poverty made it extremely difficult for girls of color to 
advance, the same systematic measures of disparity that created a 
strong sense of depression and rage in others, cultivated Rosie's 
individual desire for change, and her unwavering commitment to the 
embodiment of peace, and her quest for equal access to greater 
opportunities.
  What was once, always shall be; and now imagine a life devoted to 
service and prayer. As a young door keeper in the house of the Lord, 
Rosie would rise afore the sun, boil a kettle, and travel to the little 
white church house altar, long before the other congregants gathered 
there. And far before Rosie left Lexington for Jackson, and Jackson for 
California, she carried ``God's will be done'' prayers, and cadences 
like ``If I Can Help Somebody'' along the old Tchula road. She served 
God by singing spirituals and hymns with His choirs. She went to Sunday 
school, prayer meetings and revivals. As a beginning usher, she 
distributed bulletins, service programs, and paper stick-fans. She 
collected the tithes and offerings. Young Rosie was adept at it.
  As a symbol of her friendship and deep love for a young man from her 
hometown, she courted and then married the late Abner Cross in 1929. 
They settled on the Roger plantation in the Rose Bank community. The 
Rose Bank Baptist Church soon became her new place of worship. In the 
midst of the Great Depression and attacks on Pearl Harbor, their union 
brought forth the lives of four children: Earlene, Lonnie (departed) 
James, (departed) and Gerlee (departed). As fate would have it, Gerlee 
died of pneumonia at age seven. And then Rosie faced the trials of a 
mother's deepest anguish. When asked how she endured the loss of a 
child, she often said her faith in God healed the wounds of that grief. 
When more seasons changed, and her marriage ended, she did not give up 
or sit down and grieve. Rosie continued to trust in God for comfort, 
peace, hope and direction. Alas: She left Lexington and her family in 
order to see if she could live differently in Jackson, Mississippi. Her 
new way of living developed in parallel. Rosie experienced the 
innovations of city life. She loved the modern amenities of a grander 
place of greater size and population. She liked the nuances of going to 
downtown Jackson or ``Little Harlem'' for Cotillions. But more 
relevantly, she was glad to be an usher for the Blair Street Baptist 
Church. However, there were still recollections of rural life and the 
family she left behind. Nonetheless, Rosie gladly worked at the Old 
Baptist Hospital on State Street. She was a nightshift cook for 
disabled children, doctors and nurses. While in Lexington she also 
worked and studied diligently to become a beautician. It seems only 
fitting that Rosie's ordered steps would start her out on a new 
journey.
  In the summer of 1951, Rosie decided that she would move to Los 
Angeles, California. She boarded a westbound Amtrak train, with a small 
suitcase, and a letter of recommendation from a White employer who 
praised her exceptional domestic work and cooking skills. Although she 
was leaving the only state that she had ever known, she traveled with a 
great sense of optimism. Further assured by her unwavering faith in 
God, and a belief that the outcome of this westward journey would 
welcome her into a land ripe with the new possibilities, she eagerly 
moved in with her close friends George and Frankie Sims. She stayed 
with them until she was able to secure a day job and save enough money 
to rent her own housing. During this time, she also began attending 
various worship services around Los Angeles. She was in search of a new 
church home. Eventually her diligence led her to First African 
Methodist Episcopal Church at 8th and Town Avenue. This church would 
later become the foundation for FAME. During her membership at FAME, 
Rosie served in various capacities. She was a Sunday school teacher, 
and a member of both Usher Board No. 1 and the Sarah Allen Women's 
Missionary Society.
  As Rosie continued to settle into the blessings of her new California 
life, the Sims introduced her to their good friend Clarence Tilles 
(departed). Clarence was a kind and gentle man of great integrity. They 
would marry in 1952 and remain together and in love until his death in 
1990. While Rosie embraced newlywed life, she began to encounter some 
of the familiar racial inequalities that were rampant in the South. 
Although the city of Los Angeles did not practice some of the more 
overt segregation policies found in southern states, there was extreme 
discrimination in housing, which prevented many minorities from renting 
apartments or purchasing homes in specific areas of the city. Despite 
these constant obstacles, Rosie and Clarence were finally able to rent 
a modest two bedroom apartment near downtown Los Angeles. They moved 
into the William Meade Housing Project, which is located near historic 
landmarks like The San Antonio Winery, Olvera Street and Union Station. 
Because of the loud barking that came from the neighboring Ann Street 
Animal Shelter, the William Meade Housing Project was also known as 
``Dog Town.''
  Nevertheless, Rosie and Clarence's new home provided a deep sense of 
belonging and community, which would later be enhanced by

[[Page 6489]]

the arrival of deeply missed members of Rosie's Mississippi family. The 
new settlers included her daughter (Earlene), her granddaughter (Mary) 
her mother (Missouri), her Aunt (Lee), her brother (Alfred Jr.), her 
Sister (Juanita), her nieces (Debra, Denise, Shelia and Rochelle) and 
nephews (Dyke and the late Bernard Redmond). Rosie and Clarence would 
also host numerous friends and family as they vacationed or relocated 
to California. She called the old red brick, William Meade Housing 
Project home for over 40 years. She not only helped raise her 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren there, she was also able to 
establish close knit ties and bonds with generations of families in her 
community. She also participated and volunteered to fill bags in a 
community based outreach program that fed disadvantaged families in the 
project. This is yet another example of how Rosie devoted her life to 
family and to the service and care of others. When Clarence went home 
to be with God, Rosie moved across the street from her second home: The 
First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles.
  Before becoming physically unable to do so, Rosie attended three 
services every Sunday for over twenty years. She also attended prayer 
meetings every Wednesday at Noon. Yet even as her memory faded, and her 
eyesight weakened and her gait became more unsteady, she persevered. 
She told anyone who asked her how she was doing that I'm slow but sure. 
Again, Rosie's was a steady upright walk with the Lord. As she did in 
childhood, Rosie faithfully began each day of her older life in prayer. 
She was often overheard calling out the names of family and friends in 
her evening petitions to God. When she felt like she could not go any 
further, she took to her easy chair and received the spiritual 
nourishment she required by watching The Church Channel from sun up 
until sundown.
  It has been said that the things you do for yourself are gone when 
you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy. 
Rosie leaves an incredible legacy for her family and friends to value. 
Since Rosie lived such a rich yet unembellished life, not a soul has to 
worry about how to divide the love she left behind. During the last 
several years, Rosie lived at the St. John of God Retirement and Care 
Center in Los Angeles. She was blessed to have many visitors. Although 
sometimes when her memory failed her, she would lean over to see who 
she thought you might have been. When guessing failed and she could not 
recall, Rosie would often shake her head and say that she had so many 
relatives and loved ones that she could not remember them all by name. 
She would simply look you in your eyes and say, ``You know your name.'' 
Those beloved names include her devoted daughter Earlene Dye, her 
loving sister Juanita Redmond, 11 grandchildren, 21 great-
grandchildren, and 15 great-great-grandchildren, a great number of 
relatives and friends and members of her extended church family.
  The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead.--Ralph Ellison.

                          ____________________