When Mathis was a year old, her parents were able to move from her maternal grandparents' home to a house of their own, where her brother was born. Shortly after her third sibling, Pat, was born, Mathis's father found a better job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and he was eventually able to move the family to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. However, when Mathis was five years old her parents separated, and her mother moved the children to an apartment on Bainbridge Street. It was there, in the apartment with the fire escape, that Mathis discovered her sanctuary of the imagination.
Mathis's talents were encouraged by her mother, her teachers, and other family members and friends. Her mother--with whom she retained a very close relationship until her death--read often, wrote poetry, and sketched, all in addition to working two jobs. In her SAAS entry, Mathis shares an image from her childhood of her mother "curled up in a comfy chair, usually near a window--natural light flooding her lovely hair, the book, and the room." As she grew up, Mathis's favorite books included Black Boy by Richard Wright, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and Knock On Any Door by Willard Motley.
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