Finding Mama: A Memoir

by Gene Stowe, Mr. Gladman Humbles

When he was growing up, Gladman Humbles heard the whispers that his Mama wasn’t his "real" Mama, rumors vehemently denied by the parents who brought him up but never fully silenced. His adult quest for this elusive Mama finally led him to the mansion of the most prominent Black family in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Alma Oakes a member of that family, was a teacher renting a room in Gladman's parents' home in Paducah when she had an affair with his father. When she became pregnant, Gladman's mother declared she wanted that baby to be hers -- they paid Alma to give it up, and Mrs. Humbles feigned pregnancy by wearing ever-larger pillows in public.The child was born in Kansas City, and Alma left with enough cash to pursue graduate degrees. Finding Mama tell the the story of Gladman's childhood and education; his years-long search for his birth mother, who had died; his friendship with her surviving brothers at the Oakes mansion, now Yazoo City's African-American Cultural Center; and his career as a business owner and firefighter in Paducah during the civil rights movement. The end of his search brought self-understanding he had not expected. The book is an edited version of Gladman's unpublished memoir and includes excerpts from Alma's Romance Languages master's thesis at Kansas University and her correspondence while teaching at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

209 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2021