"He just stared at us"
Lucille Balthazar remembers a mysterious white man who visited her grandmother Ellen Hemings Roberts.
Theme: Racial Identity
Lucille Roberts Balthazar
Lucille Balthazar, only three generations removed from Madison Hemings of Monticello, heard of her connection to Jefferson from her father, William Giles Roberts, although he rarely spoke of it. He participated in the family mortuary business and owned a farm northeast of Los Angeles in the Apple Valley, where he had gardens and orchards. Mrs. Balthazar knew her grandmother, Ellen Hemings Roberts, well and loved to go to dinner at her house. Her grandmother “always set the table beautifully....each of us had our silver napkin rings with our name on it.”
Interview Information
23 Oct. 1995, Victorville, CA
Interviewee: Lucille Balthazar
Excerpts
"I remember her well"
Lucille Balthazar recalls her grandmother Ellen Hemings Roberts.
Theme: Jefferson Descent
"She made the best fried apple pies"
Lucille Balthazar describes the food her grandmother Ellen Hemings Roberts prepared for her blond, blue-eyed brother Billy [William Glenn Roberts].
Themes: Farms, Food, and Gardens, Racial Identity
"We don't talk about it"
Lucille Balthazar tells of hearing of her descent from Jefferson and Sally Hemings from her father.
"He helped everyone he could"
Lucille Balthazar talks about her grandfather Andrew Jackson Roberts.
Theme: Achievement
"I thought he was a great man"
Lucille Balthazar gives her opinion of Thomas Jefferson.
"He always wanted to be a farmer"
Lucille Balthazar recalls her father, William Giles Roberts, and his farm in California’s Apple Valley.
Themes: Family, Farms, Food, and Gardens, Property
Ancestry
- Elizabeth Hemings 1735–1807 John Wayles 1715–1773
- Sally Hemings 1773–1835
- Madison Hemings 1805–1877
- Ellen Hemings Roberts 1856–1940
- Lucille Roberts Balthazar 1915–1998
Related People
- Ellen Hemings Roberts grandmother
- Andrew Jackson Roberts grandfather