This is a profile of my dad as I remember and from the stories in the family Betty Woodham Searcy A PROFILE OF JESSE BURL WOODHAM Jesse Burl Woodham was born in Noma, Florida on December 1, 1905. He was the youngest son of Edward Harley (Hoke) Woodham and Harriet (Hattie) Esther Cotton both from the Geneva County, Alabama area. (Rumor in the family has it that the Woodham family didn't approve of Hattie. Hoke being young and somewhat of a rebel fell for the beautiful Hattie. H e went against the wishes of his family and married her about 1892. As the story goes, he was disowned by the Woodham family and he and Hattie moved to Noma, Florida, settled there and started their family). Hoke passed away in 1906 at age 35 as a result of a fall in the cotton mill where he worked . Burl was only 11 months old. Hattie raised Burl and his two older brothers and a sister in Noma alone. She never remarried. Burl only had an elementary school education, while Hattie made sure that his sister had a high school education. Hattie was of the opinion that boys don't need education because they need to go to work. In the 1920's Burl's family group moved to Birmingham, Alabama to find better jobs. There Burl found a job with Sloss Sheffield Steel and Iron Company working around the furnace where steel was being produced. He soon found that he had a talent for mixing quality steel. He started taking chemistry courses by correspondence through the International Correspondence School and became an industrial chemist. Due to his lack of formal education, however, he remained a skilled laborer. He was sometimes very distressed when young college educated chemists were hired, he was assigned to train them, then see them move on to upper management. The young men who trained under him often referred to him as the brains behind their steel production. Usually when a order for steel came in from big companies like Maytag, Burl was singled out by the company representatives to fill their order. Burl met and married Edna Louise Butler in 1927 in Birmingham. She remained a housewife throughout their marriage. They started their family around the time of the great depression. Burl fell at work and was injured in 1931 causing him to lose several weeks of work.. Due to the failing economy and his missing work, he feared that he would lose his job so he moved his young family to Cullman, Alabama to attempt farming. (He was called back to Sloss after the family had moved but he had to refuse). According to Edna, Burl was a complete failure as a farmer and after 9 or 10 months of almost starving the family moved back to Birmingham where after a few months, Burl was rehired at Sloss. Burl and Edna lived in several rented houses in North Birmingham until 1937 when Burl bought a new house in the suberbs about 16 miles north of Birmingham, at Mt. Olive, Alabama. By this time they had 4 children and another on the way. Edna very much disliked living so far out and felt isolated from family and friends. The family remained in Mt. Olive and Burl commuted to work at Sloss in Birmingham six days a week, working twelve to sixteen hour shifts, while Edna raised the children ( final total 6) and took care of household affairs. Burl was an avid fisherman. He spent every off day fishing,( a passion Edna did not share) . The greatest attraction of Mt. Olive to Burl was Baines Lake, about a half mile from the house . It was said that Burl could catch fish were there weren't any. He always came home with no less than thirty fish. Edna refused to clean them,( Burl had to do this before he brought them into the house), but she could fry the best fish around. The steel business boomed during WW II. Burl was becoming more and more valuable to the company. He hardly took a day off , much to Edna's distress. He was thirty six with a wife and six children when the United States entered the war, so he was never drafted. His line of work was in much demand to aid the war effort so he always felt he was doing his part. In the summer of 1945, Burl began having severe headaches. He took aspirin and never missed a day of work. In order to continue working, by December he was taking aspirin by the handful with no relief. Edna became aware of his discomfort early on but was unable to convince him to go to a doctor. Several times over the months, Burl was sent home from work because he was staggering so badly. He had started drinking excessively and everyone in the community and many of his co-workers were convinced that he was only drunk. Finally, in January Edna made a doctor's appointment for Burl. He drove himself to the doctor's office on Friday, January 4,1946. He was trying to close the car door on the drivers side and kept slamming it until he finally realized that the obstruction was his foot. He had no feeling on his left side. Burl was admitted to the Jefferson Hospital in Birmingham that same day. He continued to be convinced that he was ok and got up to go to the bathroom unassisted on Sunday night ,(against the doctor's orders) and fell unconscious at the foot of the bed. Burl never regained consciousness and passed away Monday, January 7th from a malignant brain tumor. He was barely forty.