Black History Month Hero - Theodore McGraw (Kidd) AKA "Pongee" - And Response

  • Friday, February 12, 2016
Pongee and Charlene Lombardo
Pongee and Charlene Lombardo

I grew up in "Old St. Elmo" on 39th Street behind the Incline. As a child I remember my older brother "Pongee" as being my hero. This month of February being Black History Month, I cannot think of a better person to be honored than my late older brother, Theodore McGraw (Kidd) aka "Pongee" of St. Elmo (Gamble Town).

Growing up without my father, Theodore was always available to advise me on "Rights and Wrongs," such as, I remember once as a teenager I was walking in St. Elmo near the old American Legion with a cigarette in my hand and he and my sister-in-law, Betty Mae (Collier), drove by and my brother yelled in his booming, FM radio voice, "put that cigarette out, boy."  That incident startled me so much, that to this day, I'm 70-years-old, I never picked up a cigarette again. Theodore, could have very well saved my life. My mother was a big smoker of Pall Mall cigarettes, and died of lung cancer.

I remember walking on the train trestle over 37th Street and a train was bearing down on us.  Theodore risked his life by holding me up on the hillside of the railroad track to allow the very long freight train to pass by without killing me. He did this by risking his own life by standing on the unstable hillside train gravel, but had he slipped he would have surely fallen to his own death in the path of the traffic below on 37th Street.   

Being one of seven orphaned kids without food and a place to stay, and him being the oldest, it was Theodore, as a 13-year-old, who one day approached the street sweeper in St. Elmo, an older gentleman (Archie McBride), and painfully asked Mr. McBride, "Mister, will you help me and my sisters and brothers?"  Mr. McBride took Theodore and his abandoned siblings into his home, and thus began the strong role that Theodore (Pongee) lead and maintained in my life.

He was very conservative, and always self reliant, and never depended on public assistance. He would work at the St. Elmo shoe shop, sweep the public streets, and worked at every service station in St. Elmo, and some downtown. He was always working to help and raise his siblings. Although my brother only achieved a sixth grade education, but after I'd achieved some worldly experience and education, I've come to realized that my older brother was more than a sibling.  He was the father figure, the life coach, and adviser. He was the comfortable voice that knew me, and would gently tell me the truth, even when I wanted to deny the truth.

Theodore taught me survivor skills in a segregated St. Elmo, and had I not adhered to such counsel, I could have at times surely lost my life to the Ku Klux Klan or others. I painfully observed the humiliating ridicule he would endure from the white bosses and merchants of St. Elmo, and from some so called "uppity" blacks. The lessons he taught me from such observations was to not allow pride and emotions to supersede the needed ability and responsibility to provide for yourself and family via honest hard work. I would privately weep for my brother's pain, because I knew that when he was alone he would privately weep. This was a strong man.  

At the approximate age of 12-years-old he took on the responsibility of finding food, shelter, and a safe environment for his siblings. He also set a law abiding conservative standard of behavior for other black males in St. Elmo to employ on the path to surviving the segregation of Old St. Elmo. Public records will show that during the 1950's and 1960's black males in St. Elmo were not serious contributors to crime statistics in Chattanooga. I attribute this to my brother, Theodore.

Theodore McGraw (Kidd) aka "Pongee" is my all time hero, mentor, brother, father figure, St. Elmo and Gamble Town Hero, and deserves to be celebrated during this Black History Month. 

Daursey McGraw 

* * * 

I always knew Pongee was a wonderful man but didn't realize how wonderful until I read this article. I actually didn't know Pongee's real name until I read his obituary nearly 13 years ago.

I am the youngest daughter of Frank Lombardo who ran the St. Elmo Shoe Shop. Being the caboose of the family, I didn't know Pongee probably until I was a teenager. My parents had moved from Brainerd to St. Elmo in 1956, when I was born, but the shop had been there since 1948.

I have four older sisters who tell me that Pongee ran errands for my daddy awhile and they had a lifelong friendship. My family was very fond of him. I had always heard Daddy talk of Pongee and one incident comes to mind in my teenage years. I was the wild one of the family and always got myself into predicaments. Once when I was driving down Lookout Mountain, I couldn't steer my car. A kind person behind me offered to drive it to the foot of the mountain to the Texaco, where Pongee worked, while I drove his truck. I'll never forget the look on Pongee's face when I asked what could be wrong. He opened the hood, gave that great grin, and told me my belts were in shreds.

When I got older with my own family, I would take care of my family's errands when Daddy had to quit driving. I would always pass by Pongee's house and he would be on his swing and I would either wave or stop to talk. When my parents were in their 80's and nearing death, Pongee would walk blocks to their house to visit them.

My Daddy died a year before Pongee. When my sister from Idaho came for the funeral, she stopped to see Pongee with her family. Here is the picture taken in 2002.                

Frannie Lombardo Narramore
          

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