Francis Turner Sr.

Francis Sr. died in 1930 after stepping on a rusty nail. The shoes he wore were so worn out that they did nothing to keep the nail from entering his left foot, piercing it nearly as far as the bone. He ignored family who begged him to see a doctor, but Francis Sr. couldn’t imagine himself sending for a doctor from Pine Bluff to tend to his injury. Two weeks later he passed away leaving his wife Cynthia a widow with their young son, Francis Jr.

Francis Turner Jr.

Francis was a 6-year-old boy when his father died from blood poisoning after he stepped on a rusty nail, and the debt he left behind caused him and his mother to be evicted. They moved into a single room shack, staying there for two years and barely surviving until his mother found work as a live-in maid...