An Awful Day for Jimmie, Ruth's Brother

In 1927, an event changed the Meredith family forever.  They went to the Baptist Church, as usual, but during the service, Jimmie "stood up in church, ranting about religion.  Jimmie was normally quiet with a sweet disposition, so this was like the blast of a siren in the night."

Jimmie Meredith was 16, five years younger than his sister, Ruth.  Sadly, he went for a stay at Elgin, a state mental institution, to be evaluated.  "He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and given shock treatments among other things.  He was in and out of mental health facilities, on prescribed drugs and in the care of psychiatrists for the rest of his life.'

This seemed like a bolt from the blue, but was it really such a shock?  Jimmie's Uncle Arthur Meredith had some sort of mental issues, though the picture of what they were is shadowy.  Jimmie's Grandmother Ruth Parks Olmstead Meredith was said to have been in a mental institution in Michigan in the late 1800s or early 1900s.  Again, we are left wondering what happened and whether it was a harbinger of what was to befall James William Meredith, whom we know as "Jimmie."

The picture above shows Lottie Weekes Meredith, Jimmie's mother, and Jimmie in the fall of 1942. They were standing on the cement in front of Ruth and John Kellogg's home in Oak Park.  That area was later to become a screened-in porch.  Jimmie is 31 and Lottie is 55.