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Posted: Mon 24 Aug 2009 10:41 Post subject: Muhammad Ali Going to Ancestrial Ireland
Quote:
The former Cassius Clay Jr. - who chose to shed his "slave name" and convert to the Nation of Islam as a young man - will visit the Irish town from where his maternal great-grandfather emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s (hat tip: The Voice). The former world heavyweight boxing champion, 67, has finally agreed to take up a longstanding invitation from the town council to visit Ennis, County Clare. “We will make him very welcome,” Mayor Frankie Neylon told AFP. “We will be delighted to see him. I would hope to arrange a vote of the council to make him a freeman of Ennis.” The town expects up to 70,000 visitors during Mr. Ali's visit, although they won't get to meet him. Research by genealogists found that Mr. Ali’s great-grandfather Abe Grady emigrated to the U.S. state of Kentucky in the 1860s, and later married a black woman.
Odessa Lee Clay (née Grady) (February 12, 1917 – August 20, 1994) was the mother of three-time World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali and Rudolph Valentino Clay, now Rahman Ali and grandmother of Laila Ali.[1] [2] She married Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. in the 1930s and worked for some time as a household domestic to help support her young children.[3][4]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Influence on Muhammad Ali
3 Final years
4 References
5 Notes
6 External links
[edit] Early life
She was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, one of three children of John Lewis Grady and Birdie B. Morehead. Her paternal grandfather was a white Irishman named Abe Grady, who emigrated to the United States from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, soon after the Civil War and married a "free colored woman" whose name is unknown.[5][6] Her maternal grandfather, Tom Moorehead, was the son of a white Moorehead and a slave named Dinah. Morehead served in the 122nd USCT.[7][8]
Odessa Clay grew up in a segregated society in which African Americans were denied many of the rights and privileges of white Americans. African Americans faced discrimination in finding jobs. Clay's parents separated when she was young,[9] and her mother worked as a domestic, taking care of the household chores and the young children of a white family. Clay was raised partly by her aunt.[9] When she became an adolescent, she dropped out of school and also found work as a domestic. Then, when she was sixteen years old, she met twenty-year-old Cassius, whom everyone referred to as "Cash". They soon married and settled into their own house in Louisville, Kentucky.[10] The Clays' marriage was troubled. Ali told boxing promoters, "She's afraid of him".[8]
[edit] Influence on Muhammad Ali
Through her strong Christian belief, Clay had a great influence on the life and spiritual upbringing of both of her sons. Muhammad Ali later said, "My mother is a Baptist, and when I was growing up, she taught me all she knew about God. Every Sunday, she dressed me up, took me and my brother to church, and taught us the way she thought was right. She taught us to love people and treat everybody with kindness. She taught us it was wrong to be prejudiced or hate. I've changed my religion and some of my beliefs since then, but her God is still God; I just call him by a different name. And my mother, I'll tell you what I've told people for a long time. She's a sweet, fat, wonderful woman, who loves to cook, eat, make clothes, and be with family. She doesn't drink, smoke, meddle in other people's business, or bother anyone, and there's no one who's been better to me my whole life."[11]
Clay supported and inspired her son throughout his boxing career. At small gyms early in her son's career and later at international arenas when he became world famous, Clay traveled with her son and was a ring-side regular at his bouts.[12][13] Muhammad Ali was much closer to his mother, whom he lovingly called "Bird", than to his father. After discovering boxing, it was his mother with whom he shared his dreams of greatness.[14]
[edit] Final years
Clay's husband died in 1990. Odessa Clay died of heart failure on August 18, 1994 at Hurstbourne Health Center, a nursing home in the Louisville, Kentucky area. She had been disabled by a stroke since February 1994, according to a family friend.[15][13]
Odessa Clay appeared as herself in the film documentaries Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story (1996) and When We Were Kings (1996).[16] In the 1977 film The Greatest Odessa Clay was portrayed by Dorothy Meyer, and in the 2001 film Ali she was portrayed by Candy Ann Brown.[17]
[edit] References
Hauser, Thomas. Muhammad Ali and Company, pp. 18–19, Hastingshouse/Daytrips Publishing (1998) ISBN 0803894112
[edit] Notes
^ "The Dream". Time magazine. March 22, 1963. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896687,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-04. "Odessa Grady Clay is a short, pillowy woman with freckled fawn skin and an expensive orthodontist. ..."
^ "Young Cassius Clay". Sports Illustrated. January 13, 1992. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1003337/4/index.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-04. "Clay was his mother's son. Odessa Grady Clay was a sweet, pillowy, light-skinned black woman with a freckled face, a gentle demeanor and an easy laugh. ..."
^ Muhammed Ali at The Biography Channel
^ "Ali's Kentucky Roots". New York Times. September 28, 1980. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40F16FE395C17728DDDA10A94D1405B8084F1D3. Retrieved 2009-09-04. "There, Odessa eventually met and married Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. Little is known about the Grady side of the family, except that a cousin of Muhammad Ali ..."
^ "Muhammad Ali's warm Irish welcome". BBC. September 1, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8232367.stm. Retrieved 2009-09-02. "Ali's ancestor, Abe Grady, lived on the Turnpike Road in the town, before moving in the 1860s to the US, where he married an African-American freed slave."
^ "Muhammad Ali the Irishman given hero's welcome in Ennis, County Clare", The Times, September 2, 2009
^ Irish Cultural Society of San Antonio
^ a b "Growing Up Scared in Louisville". Sports Illustrated. April 18, 1966. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078435/index.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-04. "More than once Odessa Clay had her husband brought into court for roughing her up. Cassius Sr. was also picked up for reckless driving, disorderly conduct, assault and battery, always after he had been drinking. As another old friend put it, "The father isn't a criminal or even an evil man. He's just a frustrated little guy who can't drink. He never served any time and he never will."
^ a b Hauser, p. 18
^ Chapter Excerpt: Muhammad Ali by Matt Christopher
^ Hauser, Thomas. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times
^ [1]
^ a b "Ali's Mother Is Dead at 77". Associated Press in New York Times. August 23, 1994. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E2D71539F930A1575BC0A962958260. Retrieved 2009-09-03. "Odessa Lee Grady Clay, mother of the three-time heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, died Sunday at the Hurstbourne Health Center, a nursing home. She was 77 and had been disabled by a stroke since February, according to John Ramsey, a family friend. ..."
^ Howard, Gregory AllenRemember The Titans - Ali
^ "Odessa Lee Grady Clay, 77, mother of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, dies". Johnson Publishing. September 12, 1994. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n19_v86/ai_15779841. Retrieved 2009-09-04. "Odessa Lee Grady Clay, 77, mother of three-time heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, died recently of heart failure at a nursing home in the Louisville, KY, area. Mrs. Clay had been disabled by a stroke since February, according to family friend John Ramsey."
^ "Odessa Clay". The Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0165555/. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
^ "Ali (2001)". The Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248667/fullcredits#cast. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
I remember when Ali was very anti "race mixing" during his Black Muslim period. Because Ali was a "Negro," the very obvious white ancestry of his beloved mother was never thrown in his face.
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