Ada Morris and Fay Finley

The Craddock Connection

by Larry Craddock -
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I was a senior in high school when my father passed away. It was just a few days before Christmas 1968. The family naturally coalesced around my mother, the family matriarch by title and deed. For me, probably my siblings too, there was a period of feeling somewhat unattached after mom passed on Mother’s Day, 1987.

Up to the plate steps big sister Ada, the new family matriarch. She had an idea about how to keep us “Connected” and she set out to make it happen!

The first issue of the first volume was released in December of 1988 with a new issue sent out each month. In 1989/90 she published 13 issues of volume 2 just to get the volumes lined up with the year. The Craddock Connection newsletters became a big hit fast! You can see that easy enough in the feedback from yesterday’s question about what the newsletters meant to us.

Check out these memories:

  • “I loved getting them!”
  • “I loved reading them”
  • “To me, the Craddock Connection made me feel a deeper connection to our family . It made me feel like we were special and that no matter what, I’d always be a Craddock and to me that meant something.”
  • “I was thousands of miles away but Aunt Ada and her newsletter reminded me that I was still part of this wonderful family.”
  • “For me, it was a connection and healing. Seems like you don’t really understand the effects of leaving home when you’re young. That comes through the experience. There were days it made me feel like I was right there with everyone.”
  • “It always helped when I was away or depressed and lonesome”
  • “No matter what was going on my mother always made time to share her story and the stories from others to keep us all in the know.”

Those comments paint a clear picture of the need she saw and how successfully she addressed it. Now it’s time for us to step up to the plate and do what we can to keep all these crazy Craddocks CONNECTED! It’s amazing that Ada tackled and conquered this almost entirely alone and without the internet.

So … we’re setting up web apps to share everything we can including photos, videos, stories, a Craddock wiki, the original Craddock Connection newsletters AND the NEW Craddock Connection newsletters. You can find a list of all the newsletters here!

Larry Craddock