My Story

I recently relocated to Mobile, AL, after many years in Chicago, IL, and a few years in Portland, OR. Mobile is the birthplace of many of my ancestors as well as living family members. The most influential of them all is my maternal grandmother Ruby Jenkins-Wright, who left Mobile for Cincinnati in the 1950s, but returned to Mobile in 2007 to be buried next to her parents, son, and sister. It was her ancestral guidance that led me to Mobile in February 2023. Originally, I thought she summoned me to Mobile to be closer to her grave; however, I soon realized that she wasn’t the only ancestor seeking to make a profound connection to my current and future self.

On November 15th, 2024, I visited the Local History & Genealogy Library for the first time and started to piece together the story of my precious ancestral lineage five generations back. On November 16th, I entered Oaklawn Memorial Cemetery to visit the grave of my great, great grandmother, Ruby Roberts Clayton.  Ruby Roberts-Clayton is the maternal grandmother of my grandmother, Ruby Jenkins-Wright. Unbeknownst to me, Oaklawn Memorial Cemetery doesn’t provide perpetual care. Additionally, I wasn’t aware of all of the controversy and clean-up efforts that had been brewing for years. The grounds are severely overgrown and difficult to traverse. After searching for four hours, I still hadn’t found her. Without any prior communication or connection to her, I felt her spirit guiding me to a specific location completely covered with overgrown brush. I heard her communicate with me so clearly - “this is the spot where I am buried”. The specificity of her message was enough guidance for me to borrow tools from my Uncle’s shed, purchase my first battery operated string trimmer, and return the following weekend.

Unsure and inexperienced, my determination prompted me to hone in on the overgrown area exactly where she led me to start. I started clearing the brush at 1PM. At 1:10PM, I saw her headstone! I spent two days unearthing, cleaning and beautifying hers and the neighboring graves. I later learned, the grave right next to her is the grandmother of a family friend who’d been searching for her for years. Accomplishing this feat, jump started my journey towards being a beacon of light for many other people searching for their loved ones. After finding and unearthing six more family members at Oaklawn Memorial Cemetery, four months later on March 21, 2025, my not-for-profit organization lovingly named “One Simon, Two Rubys and A Hamp” was born. Simon Roberts is the father of Ruby Roberts-Clayton. Hamp Jenkins is the father of Ruby Jenkins- Wright. Four individuals with strong legacies and ties to Mobile, AL.

As I previously mentioned, when I initially relocated I believed that my grandmother, Ruby Belle, was the only ancestor summoning me to the south. After being led by her grandmother, Ruby, to unearth her grave, which had been neglected since the 1970s, a noteworthy opportunity was placed in front of me - my passion project to continue unearthing beautiful bouquets of Black history, one precious life at a time. Oaklawn Memorial Cemetery provides me with ample acreage ripe with beautiful bouquets of Black history waiting patiently to be unearthed, unforgotten, and reconnected to the community that they helped to build and the families that they helped to create.