GILROY
– It’s impossible to meet Hattie Benson without meeting her
family as well.
The 79-year-old loves to relate stories about her brothers,
sisters and their mother, Maggie Benson.
GILROY – It’s impossible to meet Hattie Benson without meeting her family as well.
The 79-year-old loves to relate stories about her brothers, sisters and their mother, Maggie Benson. In fact, it was the death of Maggie, at age 105 in 1987, that inspired her to write “Humble and Mindful Until Death,” a book detailing her experiences growing up as a black woman in Alabama.
“I had to give thanks to my mother for all of us … she was the strongest woman I’ve seen,” said Benson, who had done very little writing previously.
Frank and open about the subject, she said that most of the work for the book took place in Pittsburgh, Pa., where she lived at the time. However, she moved to California when a colleague, she said, started trying to embezzle money from her during the publishing process. He even threatened to harm her when she wouldn’t give in.
“I was truly scared for my life,” she said.
Benson borrowed money from her sister for the move and now happily lives in San Jose. She is currently staying at the Gilroy Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center on Murray Avenue, recovering from knee surgery.
“I have had the best treatment a human could have,” she said.
“Hattie came in and … started to talk about the many aspects of her life,” said Joan Sattler, Gilroy Healthcare’s director of marketing. When Hattie mentioned that she had a book, most of the staff immediately read it.
“Everyone of us could identify with something,” Sattler said.
Benson was born on Feb. 19, 1925, the eleventh in a family of 13 children, in a log cabin in Russel, Ala. At the time, the entire area was surrounded by woods, where she and her siblings would spend hours playing.
Even though Benson’s mother was deeply spiritual, a trait that she eventually passed on to her young children, Benson and her brother Billie would “steal anything that wasn’t nailed down.” Her book details exploits of the two stealing honey or sugar from sugar cane patches in people’s yards.
“Mother had a real heavy hand when it came to whipping us,” Benson wrote. “We got punished when we did wrong, and we got it … in the presence of anyone, anywhere.”
Even today, Benson recites things that her mother taught her.
“I was not trained to love color, but to love people.” Benson’s mother would help the white families in the neighborhood, and in turn those families would help them.
“Color doesn’t mean anything.”
Because of this attitude, Benson said she has been accused by other African Americans of being a “white lover,” an idea that makes her roll her eyes and shake her head.
“We are all God’s children,” she said, in a strong and clear voice.
Benson loved giving speeches in school, where she developed her speaking voice. Now when she speaks, there’s a steady rhythm and lyrical tone to everything she says.
When she was in sixth grade, she tied with a 12th-grader in a speech contest. Since then, she has given numerous speeches, including three on the radio in Pennsylvania to promote her book.
Benson will take the stage again on Monday as part of a book signing at the Gilroy Healthcare
The signing was the brainstorm of Activities Director Pattie Villarreal and one of the nurses, Elaine Reibsamen. They were inspired by the publicity around Bill Clinton’s book signings.
“If he can do it, why can’t she?” said Villarreal. They broached the idea to Benson, who agreed.
“I’ll speak, I’ll sign the book … but I won’t answer any questions,” she said, smiling.
Benson already has plans for a second book. This one will focus on the life of her brother, Detroit Benson, who, among other things, was a deejay in San Francisco for a time.
So far Benson has only written about her family, and while she’s dabbled in poetry (a poem dedicated to her mother is included in the book) she doesn’t plan to expand into other genres.
Sattler also has tentative plans to announce the Santa Clara Library System’s adoption of Benson’s book.
“It’s not 100 percent yet,” she said Wednesday, “but it’s about 90 percent certain that this will happen.”
The book signing will take place at 10 a.m. Monday at the Gilroy Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center at 8170 Murray Ave.
