Charlie Jemison; father of astronaut
Hyfler/Rosner
Father of astronaut took pride in children
BYLINE: By Tom Rybarczyk, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune
staff reporter
Experience had taught Charlie Jemison, who went from being a
roofer to a maintenance engineer, that people needed to have
many talents, his son Charles Jemison said.
He believed strongly in the value of education, and in his
free time, he helped mentor African-American boys without
fathers in Woodlawn.
His children heeded his educational advice and became a
child psychiatrist, a real estate consultant and an
astronaut.
"What he passed on as well as what my mother passed on,
there's lots of things going on in the world," said his
daughter, astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, who was the first black
woman in space. "You have to pay attention to all of them.
You should expect yourself to be at least good in a number
of them."
Mr. Jemison, 78, of Chicago, died Sunday, Nov. 14, from a
heart attack as the family was returning from a wedding in
Cleveland.
He was born in Talladega, Ala., the younger of two boys, his
daughter said. He left the state for two years in 1940,
attending a construction trade school in Springfield, Mass.
He started work as a union roofer in 1942 and met his future
wife, Dorothy Mae Green, his son said. The couple married in
1951, moving nine years later to Chicago's Woodlawn area.
The family eventually settled in Morgan Park.
Mr. Jemison found it difficult to get into the Chicago
roofers union, working instead as a maintenance engineer and
taxi driver while his wife went to school, his son said.
It was during his stint as a cabdriver that he won citywide
recognition by subduing a robber who tried to run off with
the day's fares, according to a Tribune story.
Throughout his life, Mr. Jemison cultivated gardens,
including a community patch in Roseland and one at his
Morgan Park home that would eventually include peach and
apple trees, his daughter said. He also had a great knack
for cooking, a skill that came in handy when his wife went
back to college in the 1960s.
"We tell stories about him being a man's man," his daughter
said. "But he would also braid my hair for kindergarten."
He was most proud of his children. His oldest daughter, Ada,
became the medical director of the Child Adolescent and
Family Program at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New
London, Conn., while his son went into real estate.
"Education was important given my mother was a teacher," his
son said. "One of the things he told me when I was a
teenager [was] I had to go to college even if it was just
for a day."
Mr. Jemison also is survived by his brother Louis.
A private service will be held next month.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> "What he passed on as well as what my mother passed on,
> there's lots of things going on in the world," said his
> daughter, astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, who was the first black
> woman in space.
I fele the need to point out that she was also the first real astronaut
to appear on Star Trek.