Georgia Man and Birth Mother Enjoy His First Rousey Reunion

This is a story of a mother and son who found each other a short time before the 2004 Reunion

(By Norma [Rousey, Reineke] Gordon)

             In 1951, when I was 19 years old, I gave birth to a baby boy.  Wishing to give him a loving home with two parents to love and care for him, I put him up for adoption.  It was a private adoption and I memorized all the information I could from what little I was told, and from the papers I signed.

              My hope was that someday, after he had grown up, I could find them again.  If his parents had let him know that he was adopted, and if they did not object, I hoped to contact my son again.

            During the late 1970's I started to search for him.  I started by calling the Fire Station in Beaufort, S.C.  It was my understanding that the adoptive father was a fireman at that station.  However, when I called they said no one by that name had ever worked there.  I called Directory Assistance and there was no listing.

            Several years went by, and I told my five other children that they had a brother out there somewhere, but I could not find him.  I had contacted an organization that helps people look for lost loved ones, but I did not have the means to pay for airfare, babysitting, fees for record searches, etc.  I called Beaufort again and was told there was no record of a Joe Baker Carrouth ever having worked there.

            When my children grew up and purchased computers, they tried to help me find Joe Baker Carrouth on the Internet. My son Russ tried several states to no avail.  A couple of years later, my eldest daughter Joyce had purchased a book with instructions on how to find someone, but before we could work on it she passed away.  I felt so depressed that I did not pursue it further.  In 2003, my son Mike thought he would try to see if he could find any military record of him.  In March, 2004, my daughter Sharon asked me to give her all the information that I could remember and she would see what she could do the coming weekend.  I e-mailed it to her.

              Later that day, March 22^nd, I was listening to the news on T.V. and they were speaking of Identity Theft.  They suggested keying in your own phone number on the Internet and just see what information existed there.  Fortunately there was nothing.

             Suddenly had the thought, "I wonder what would happen if I keyed in my son's name instead of the adoptive father's".   So I keyed in Joe Vaughn Carrouth. Up popped a title line CARROUTH-FIELDS ENGAGEMENT.  I was so stunned, and so hopeful, that for a couple of minutes I could not bring myself to click on it.  When I did, the announcement appeared with a picture of the couple.  The announcement listed the groom's parents as the late Joe B. Carrouth and the late Estella J. Carrouth. (I had seen the name Elizabeth Jane Carrouth on one of the adoption papers the lawyer let me see.  I realize now that was probably a deliberate error in order to stop me from ever finding them.)  Anyway, I felt that this Joe V. "Buddy" Carrouth could be my son.

            The website was called ONLINE ATHENS and the announcement had been published in the BANNER-HERALD newspaper, Athens, Georgia.  I called Athens directory assistance and got the phone number of Joe V. Carrouth and also the Fields, parents of his soon-to-be-bride, Karen.  Neither was home, so I left the message on both phones that I was trying to find a Joe Baker Carrouth and wanted to know if the B. in the announcement stood for Baker.

            When I called back, "Buddy" (Joe V.) mistakenly thought I was a person doing a genealogy search and he readily answered my questions.  Yes, his dad's name was Joe Baker Carrouth.  Yes, he had lived in Beaufort, S. C. In fact he had been born in the Naval Hospital there. Yes, his dad was a fireman, but not in Beaufort.  He was in the Civil Service and was a fireman at the Parris Island Marine Base. They had left Beaufort when he was nine years old.

             Yes, he was adopted, although his parents had never told him.  His dad died in 1977 and his mom in 1984.  About a year ago, he found a medical paper which revealed that his mom had a hysterectomy five years before he was born.  He then asked his sister (actually a cousin adopted and reared as his sister) if he was adopted too.  She told him yes, he was.  She was told that his birth mother had died in childbirth.  (Another relative told him his birth mom had been trapped in a house fire and could not get out;--reports of my demise had been greatly exaggerated.)

            Yes, he was born in May.  May 3^rd.  I said Thursday, May 3^rd.  He asked how I could know that.  For years he had thought he was born on a Wednesday, but then he received one of those cards that tell you what was happening in the world on the day you were born and he discovered he was born on a Thursday.

              I told him I knew because I was his mother.  He said that could not be because his mom was dead.  I said, "I mean I am your birth mother".  He said that was impossible because she was dead too.  I assured him I was not.  Then he asked me several questions. I described Port Royal, the place where his adoptive parents lived at the time he was born.  I told him of the Post Office (mail was not delivered to the home), the Train Station, the fishing dock, the name of the grocery store owner, etc. I described sites in Beaufort, also. He finally believed that I was his birth mother and seemed happy and excited to know I was alive.

            After we hung up, I received a call from Mrs. Fields, Buddy's future mother- in-law.  She was so glad I found Buddy because just this past Christmas he was wishing he could know if his biological grandparents were alive. He was wondering if he had any living relatives.  However, he had no names, nor any place to start looking.

            Buddy soon discovered he had four living brothers and sisters, and four living aunts and one Uncle, 24 first cousins and lots of 2nd, 3^rd, and 4^th cousins.

            When Buddy and his wife Karen came to the big 2004 Rousey Reunion, held in Kentucky, they were a little anxious about how they would fit in.  It was a feeling that lasted only a short while.  Once they got over the feeling of being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of relatives they felt accepted and right at home. (They had no idea there would be so many, although I told him that relatives come from all over the continent to attend this reunion) They are looking forward to returning again in 2008.

            The greatest gift to me was the total and loving acceptance Buddy and Karen gave me and his new-found family.  I had worried about it for 52 years, and was very apprehensive.  I needn't have been.

            The miracle in all this is that I found Buddy at all.  About two weeks after I saw the announcement, Online Athens archived it.  In order to find it after it was archived, you would have to know the site, the article's headline, the date it was published, and click Celebrations!!!  If I had not found Buddy within that narrow window of time, I doubt I would ever have found him.