Annie Dorothy Hamlet was the first college graduate of the Waddy/Bennett family of Uniontown and Birmingham Alabama. She was the youngest sibling of four children born to Henry and Anna Waddy. 1914 was not a good year to be born black and female in the deep south.
Nonetheless, Henry and Anna instilled in their children the idea that high achievement and success was not out of their reach. Curtis the elder child was followed by Reacie and Paul. Then "Baby Sister" Dorothy was born. Each would later marry, but Curtis and Baby Sister would be childless. Paul chose farming and he and his wife Savannah produced a baseball team of children. Reacie and Major Bennett birthed Skip's father Gus and his sister Willie B. Reacie was a homemaker who was gifted in cooking and sewing. And Curtis was a factory laborer who was known as a good man, hard worker and saver. He and Mattie were considered a model couple. They bought a nice home with peach trees and and they stayed married forever.
Now Baby Sister Dorothy was probably the most gifted of the four Waddy children. She was a book worm. And she was pretty on top of that. And in spite of living "in the country" in the Deep South during the Great Depression, and being black and female she wanted to go to college. You can probably imagine her older siblings falling down on the floor laughing!
Well Dorothy had the last laugh. Not only did she graduate from college, but earned an M.A. from Fisk College In Nashville TN. Five years later, in the year of Skip's birth, she earned another master's degree, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1945. Before getting these two degrees, she found time to marry Johnny Hamlet. Johnny was handsome, with a ripped body and was a sharp dresser, too. Annie and Johnny. They were a great looking pair. But this marriage was too good to last. They went their separate ways and Johnny remarried. But Dorothy never did. She once shared with Skip that "when they made Johnny Hamlet, they broke the mold."
Dorothy had a rich and interesting work history. After obtaining her masters degrees, she worked as an accountant and teacher in Cleveland OH. Later she would become a student again, earning a J.D. (1955) and L.L.M (1963) from Ohio State University. In Ohio, Dorothy engaged in the private practice of law, taught college courses, served as assistant law director for the City of Cleveland and probate court referee for Cuyahoga County in Cleveland.
Dorothy retired from the Public Retirement System of Ohio. However, it was not long before she "came out of retirement" and said goodbye to Lake Erie and headed for the beaches of California. She accepted a job as referee for the Social Security Administration in San Francisco. Soon she qualified for and passed the examination to be appointed an administrative law judge for the Office of Hearings and Appeal in 1974.
Dorothy Hamlet held that position until her homegoing on January 8, 1998. Today, July 14, she would have been 94 years old.
P.S. To me Aunt Dorothy Hamlet is an icon. She sort of adopted me when I was 9 years old. She bought my first typewriter -- a manual one -- on which I learned to type over 60 words a minute. She and her sister, my grandmother Reacie, paid most of the expenses for my first year in college. I wanted to become a lawyer because of Dorothy Hamlet. And because of her example as our family's first college grad, there was no question that I was college bound. Over the years before her death, she counseled me and was also very generous financially. I owe Aunt Dorothy Hamlet so much for helping to mold me and treat me like her own son. I know that she is resting in peace in the bosom of Jesus.
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