A Short Story Of Little Joe’s Life

By Joseph A Williams Jr

1725 Harrison St, Titusville, Florida

Came into this world at 4:31 AM Feb 14, 1936 on Middle St of Morgan Cotton Mill Village, Springfield, NC. ( House is still there. A massive 500 sq ft mansion with running water) No Doctor in attendance, just Old Lady Dunn as Midwife. (Told me she found me in an old rotten log in the Bayfield Swamp; when I asked her where I came from). She shouldn't have told me that, since I believed her. Caused me at the age of twelve to get into a fight with my best friend Toad Clark when he told me where I really came from. Couldn't have him talking about my mama that way! But when ma verified what Toad told me I had to learn everything about that aspect of life. Still learning at eighty.
We then moved to the resort complex of Misery Mountain, NC. What a change! Learned to hand pump water, milk a cow. slop, catch, butcher, render lard and salt cure hog meat. Till, plant, how, weed, pick, shell, shuck and can vegetables. Dig new holes and move the outhouse. Carry the slop jar (thunder pot) to the outhouse to empty every morning (After 13 people had relieved themselves the previous night). These things came with handles and a cover but they disappeared after two days. Dark day of my life. One winter morning with snow on the ground doing my morning chore, mama held the back door open as I gingerly got down five wooden steps. Even more gingerly sliding on the snow got to the water hand pump, suddenly realized this ain't snow, this is ice as my feet shot from underneath me with pot going skyward, poop, pee, scat and paper everywhere including my mouth, throat and stomach. It wouldn't have been so bad, but when I looked over at my mama for sympathy, she was bent over laughing so hard it had caused her to have convulsions. I was looking for sympathy but I got laughter from her like I had never heard or seen before. Laughter is contagious so it turned a horrible occurrence into a good ole belly laugh
Enough said except I wouldn't take anything for the things I learned about life while living on good old Misery Mountain and going to Laurel Hill School. By the way, there is no mountain its hardly a small hill. People just liked the name along with the misery. The misery being very real

When I was around twelve years old I was sitting on the steps of our side porch when we were living in our home behind the Church of God. The church was founded in our home when we lived on the Morgan Cotton Mill Village where I was born.

While sitting there I decided that after I got my education I was going to leave that area and only come back to visit my family. There was nothing there if you wanted to be successful in life.
That was accomplished as you can see how my life panned out.
Second I decided that somehow or way I was going to become a millionaire. As you will see that was accomplished on July 12, 2007 when I sold my last business.
And third I was going to give it away except enough to last me through my later years.
As of this writing I have given away $1.3 Million including a new home for each my four children. Mostly a big mistake.

I was able to attend the now UNC Pembroke on a basketball, baseball scholarship. I was the first white person to enroll at Pembroke State College in the fall of 1954 (I was told that 1954 preceded any reverse integration of a school in the US). I was there for only a year because my father contracted lung cancer after being exposed to cotton lint which he breathed in seven days a week. (he had to work constantly to feed 13 mouths, he, mama and eleven children). Today they call it brown lung (I was told). He had to start work at the age of twelve because his father Absalom died in 1918 as a result of the flu pandemic that killed approximately 40 million people worldwide. All in all, it took 38 years to kill him. Back in the fifties people with lung problems were put under an oxygen tent. The day his lungs collapsed he grabbed the two nozzles where the pressurized oxygen was dispersed into the tent. Not realizing what was happening, he threw the tent aside jumped off the hospital bed and started to run from the room. I had to tackle him, put him back on the bed and hold him down so he could die.
As that happened the room was full of family and friends but they all scattered. I had nightmares about his death for years
After the discovery of daddy's lung cancer, I had to drop out of school. He didn't need the burden of my education. Even though I was on a scholarship there were other expenses so me dropping out of school was a no brainer. I enlisted in the US Air Force. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas I was assigned to Lowery Air Force Base in Denver Colorado for schooling on Command and Control Systems Checkout of the TM-61C Matador Missile.
How GOD determines -your path in life.
If my father had not died my life's path would have been totally different. I would have finished my training at Lowery and would have been sent to Sembach Air force Base, Germany along with the rest of my class. There is no telling the path my life would have taken. For instance two of my buddies were murdered in Germany while out partying. There is a good chance I would have been with them, so fate most likely took one life (my fathers) and saved mine With the death of my father I was set back to the class behind us and after graduation we were assigned to Orlando AFB in Orlando, Florida for On The Job Training (OJT) including launching six training launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
Here fate steps in again. After the training at Lowery AFB, the On the Job (OJT) training at Orlando Air Force Base and the six training launches at the Canaveral Air Station, (part of which would become the Kennedy Space Center). We were scheduled to be reassigned to Formosa AFB off the coast of China. Today it’s called Taiwan. But GOD had other plans. The US Air Force Research and Development Command sent out a requirement for personal with certain requirements including education, aptitude test scores etc and Little Joe Williams matched squarely with their requirements. So in January of 1957 rather than going to the far east off the Coast of China, Little Joe was going to the Air Force Rocket Test Site Test Stand 1-1 at Edwards AFB in the Mohave Desert, Southern California, USA There I worked in Research and Development of our first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) named the Atlas I completed my tour of duty with the US Air Force and was hired by Convair Aeronautics the company that designed and built the Atlas. This was after a six month waiting period from serving in the US Air Force to being hired on a Defense Dept Contract. I was discharged from the USAF IN December of 1957 and hired by Convair, San Diego in June of 1958
Initially Convair had other plans for me which was Flight Test Instrumentation and Telemetry of the F-102 Delta Dagger and the F-106 Delta Dart Interceptors during testing at Edwards AFB rather than being placed on the Atlas Project
Again fate steps in and because of my training and background I was chosen to go to school on the latest automatic programmed and checkout equipment (APCHE) for the Atlas D series ICBM, so I was sent to school in San Diego. After graduation I was reassigned to Vandenberg AFB outside of Santa Maria and Lompoc California. There I was to assist in checkout and launch of the first Atlas ICBM from the west coast. We accomplished that historical launch Sept 9, 1959. After the successful mission of the Atlas, the system was now operational at all the US Air Force Bases that had the Atlas D Series ICBM’s. The launch stopped the Soviets in their tracks. Our ICBM now had a range of up to 8,000 miles so we could hit any target in the Soviet block with multi megaton warheads
My first assignment after the launch was to Shepherd AFB, Wichita Falls Texas. There we built the trainers for the Air Force to train their personnel on how to maintain, checkout and launch the Atlas D, E and F series ICBM's. From there due to the Cold War heating up and as a Field Service Engineer it was constant travel from San Diego to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Vandenberg, to Plattsburg, NY, to Altus, OK, to Omaha, Nebraska etc. I was on their "Tiger Team". Any site an ICBM fell out of EWO configuration, we were on 24 hour notice to go there and get it back into War Ready Condition.
We completed a major update of the 72 F Series Atlas ICBM's that were located all over the US. Since we did such a wonderful job in the F-Update which cost the American Tax Payer millions and millions of dollars, Secretary of Defense Mr Bob McNamara canceled the entire program. What a waste
In January of 1966 as the Apollo Moon Project was gearing up I was hired into design engineering by the General Electric Company at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. I was hired to assist in the design of on th

e Apollo Saturn IB and Saturn V Projects. Soon after I was promoted to Project Engineering, and from July 1969 thru 1972 we landed twelve men on the Moon and brought them home safely. I then was promoted to Project Manager on the Apollo Skylab Project. After final splashdown of the last manned mission on Skylab IV in Feb of 1974, I decided to resign from GE and go into business for myself. I bought a liquor store and lounge in Titusville Florida lock stock and barrel for $40,000.00. (the reason it was so cheap is because KSC personnel went from 35,000 personnel to 10,000 overnight and Titusville is where the business is located is the nearest town to KSC.
That initial business was grown into a total of four nightclubs, three restaurants, two liquor stores and three neighborhood lounges. I sold my last business July 12, 2007 for 1.5 million.
I was President of Joe Williams Inc (the Florida Corporation that owned the businesses) for 34 years and named Titusville's Man of the Year three times. I enjoyed my business career very much.
My first wife and I were married for 22 years. We had four beautiful children but were divorced in 1979. My second wife accidentally died in 1984 and I have remained single since that horrible night

Joseph A Williams Jr Memorialized
The U S Space Walk of Fame Foundation/ American Space Museum, in Titusville, Florida, is honored to memorialize a local hero on Monday, July 28, 2014 at the American Space Museum. Joseph A. Williams, a 1954 graduate of the Laurel Hill School, Laurel Hill, NC. who also attended Pembroke State College (now University of NC Pembroke), Joe was one of the early pioneers involved in the space program at the Kennedy Space Center along with hundreds of other Apollo workers. Even though he moved on from the space race his heart was always still in the game. Over the years Joe has amassed quite a large collection of astronaut autographed items and collectable memorabilia dating back to the early Apollo era up through and including the Shuttle program. His collection of one of a kind items and priceless artifacts has been on display in his home for these many years where he and only a select few have had the opportunity to appreciate their significance to the U.S. Space Program.
The U.S. Space Walk of Fame, being one of Joe's favorite non-profit organizations, has had its ups and downs over the last several years always keeping its head above water, thanks in part to Joe and his most generous contributions. You see, Joe has been one of those good guys, when he sees a need in his community he tries to make a difference and show his support. He understands the historical significance and the value of the Space Walk of Fame Museum, its importance in the launch community to the world at large. Thanks to Joe's generosity he is allowing the Space Walk of Fame to put on display his wonderful collection of space memorabilia. The museum has set aside a room that will house only Joe's space items. The museum president, Charlie Mars and the staff at the Space Walk of Fame hosted a luncheon in Joe's honor thanking him for the loan of his personal collection of space history and for being a great example of one of those guys we look to who are always ?doing the right thing when it comes to their community.
Karan Conklin
Chief of Staff
U S Space Walk of Fame Foundation/Museum
308 Pine Street
Titusville, Florida 32796

cc: Abbe Overfelt Editor of the Laurinburg Exchange .
Donnie Douglas Editor of the Robisonian Newspaper .
Florida Today Newspaper, Cocoa, Florida
Accomplished my goal of becoming a millionaire July 12 of 2007 when I sold my last business for 1.5 Million Dollars.
3. Then I was going to give it all away except a small amount to live on until I died.
ACCOMPLISHED: Other than buying each of my four children a home this is the major donations I have made as of today:
Gave the now US American Space Museum approximately $400,000.00 from 1992 thru today. I have attached some photos of part of those donations
Gave $12,500.00 to UNCP so my name is on the right field dugout dedicated to yours truly.

These are from my collection

Shows what 30 plus years will do to you Marine Colonel and Astronaut Gerald Carr the Mission Commander on Skylab IV the last Skylab Mission
Before and After about 33 years

My first Man of the Year Award

My best friend Norm Carlson. He was the Launch Director on the Saturn V that launched the three brave astronauts to land on the Moon July 16, 1969 at 9:32 AM



The plaque by the front entrance of The American Space Museum

The last nine Astronauts I was involved with as the Apollo Telescope Mount Launch Preparation Project Manager with the General Electric Company in support of the Apollo Skylab Mission

I'm the one on right. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sammie Davis on left. We were doing a benefit to help build a monument in honor of all veterans from the American Revolution thru the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. Benefit done thru local American Legion Post I in Titusville Florida. We got them over the hump, so to speak and it is a beautiful monument. The last monument to the veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars I donated the money myself. Its total cost was $10,000.00

I was in my home in June of 2004 after selling one of my businesses. That sell cut down my personal workload significantly. While sitting in my easy chair, thinking about my life I suddenly realized I knew nothing of my ancestors. I didn't know the given name of my paternal grandfather so I signed on with Ancestry.com to see if I could find him and something about his life. In 2004 very little of the US Census had been digitized so when you got to a particular county you had to go page by page to find someone. I didn't know his name but with my father’s name and him being born in 1906 I finally found him. Absalom Albert Williams was his full name. With that and a few more items, I was off to the races. For the next five year’s I averaged 12 hours a day seven days a week doing genealogy research. I don’t know why but Absalom didn’t like his name. It may have been because he was illiterate. He thought Absalom was spelled Apsalom so in 1910 or earlier he started using the name AP. AP is on his death certificate as well as his tombstone located in Rose Hill Cemetery, Marion, Marion County, SC
.
In 2006 I ran into a cluster of families associated with my 7th Great Grandfather Henry Dusenbery born 1682 in Hempstead, Long Island, Queens Co., New York. They were Booths, Pearsalls, Thornes and Fowlers. For some reason, I chose the Fowlers to begin. Lo and behold within the hour I discovered thru daughter; "Princess of England Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Plantagenet" King Edward I "Longshanks' Plategenet was my 21st GGF. I immediately discarded it because how could a Cotton Mill Workers son be related to English Royalty. I thought that someone had made it up as a feel good item.
One day a couple of years on something convinced me it was true. (too long for this letter)
Then I did the other before mentioned families and they went back to either Royalty, Nobility or Aristocracy.
When I did the Booth family tree I discovered I was related to John Wilkes Booth he was my 13th cousin three times removed (Chart 1).

Fast forward to the latter part of 2016, I made a Genealogical Data Communication or gedcom of about 300 of a total of 42,500 people and using that gedcom joined WikiTree. WikiTree is trying to put together a World Wide Family Tree to tie the entire human tree together.
After I merged my family (gedcom) tree into WikiTree it verified all of my work to be correct. Now that makes for a good feeling.
Back to the Booths. Sometime last month I received a notification from WikiTree that I was related to President Abraham Lincoln (Chart 2). What a shocker. After I verified it using the latest version of Family Tree Maker 2014.1, I posted it on FaceBook to my family and friends. I received mixed comments. I don't think most people today really care one way or the other.

Here I am related to one of our Greatest Presidents and his assassin as well. As I thought about it I wondered if they were related, so I did a relationship check using FTM 2014.1. Believe it or not they are related (Chart 3)

I began researching the above find and found no person or organization that had made that connection. I put a letter together with charts and sent it to the Smithsonian Institute’s Directors office but received no reply. I was told they handled the Ford Theater, The Lincoln Museum and the Boarding House across the street so they should be the ones to know.

When I posted it on FaceBook I received several different types of response.



Joe Williams

........................

A Short Story Of Little Joe’s Life

By Joseph A Williams Jr

1725 Harrison St, Titusville, Florida

Came into this world at 4:31 AM Feb 14, 1936 on Middle St of Morgan Cotton Mill Village, Springfield, NC. ( House is still there. A massive 500 sq ft mansion with running water) No Doctor in attendance, just Old Lady Dunn as Midwife. (Told me she found me in an old rotten log in the Bayfield Swamp; when I asked her where I came from). She shouldn't have told me that, since I believed her. Caused me at the age of twelve to get into a fight with my best friend Toad Clark when he told me where I really came from. Couldn't have him talking about my mama that way! But when ma verified what Toad told me I had to learn everything about that aspect of life. Still learning at eighty.
We then moved to the resort complex of Misery Mountain, NC. What a change! Learned to hand pump water, milk a cow. slop, catch, butcher, render lard and salt cure hog meat. Till, plant, how, weed, pick, shell, shuck and can vegetables. Dig new holes and move the outhouse. Carry the slop jar (thunder pot) to the outhouse to empty every morning (After 13 people had relieved themselves the previous night). These things came with handles and a cover but they disappeared after two days. Dark day of my life. One winter morning with snow on the ground doing my morning chore, mama held the back door open as I gingerly got down five wooden steps. Even more gingerly sliding on the snow got to the water hand pump, suddenly realized this ain't snow, this is ice as my feet shot from underneath me with pot going skyward, poop, pee, scat and paper everywhere including my mouth, throat and stomach. It wouldn't have been so bad, but when I looked over at my mama for sympathy, she was bent over laughing so hard it had caused her to have convulsions. I was looking for sympathy but I got laughter from her like I had never heard or seen before. Laughter is contagious so it turned a horrible occurrence into a good ole belly laugh
Enough said except I wouldn't take anything for the things I learned about life while living on good old Misery Mountain and going to Laurel Hill School. By the way, there is no mountain its hardly a small hill. People just liked the name along with the misery. The misery being very real

When I was around twelve years old I was sitting on the steps of our side porch when we were living in our home behind the Church of God. The church was founded in our home when we lived on the Morgan Cotton Mill Village where I was born.

While sitting there I decided that after I got my education I was going to leave that area and only come back to visit my family. There was nothing there if you wanted to be successful in life.
That was accomplished as you can see how my life panned out.
Second I decided that somehow or way I was going to become a millionaire. As you will see that was accomplished on July 12, 2007 when I sold my last business.
And third I was going to give it away except enough to last me through my later years.
As of this writing I have given away $1.3 Million including a new home for each my four children. Mostly a big mistake.

I was able to attend the now UNC Pembroke on a basketball, baseball scholarship. I was the first white person to enroll at Pembroke State College in the fall of 1954 (I was told that 1954 preceded any reverse integration of a school in the US). I was there for only a year because my father contracted lung cancer after being exposed to cotton lint which he breathed in seven days a week. (he had to work constantly to feed 13 mouths, he, mama and eleven children). Today they call it brown lung (I was told). He had to start work at the age of twelve because his father Absalom died in 1918 as a result of the flu pandemic that killed approximately 40 million people worldwide. All in all, it took 38 years to kill him. Back in the fifties people with lung problems were put under an oxygen tent. The day his lungs collapsed he grabbed the two nozzles where the pressurized oxygen was dispersed into the tent. Not realizing what was happening, he threw the tent aside jumped off the hospital bed and started to run from the room. I had to tackle him, put him back on the bed and hold him down so he could die.
As that happened the room was full of family and friends but they all scattered. I had nightmares about his death for years
After the discovery of daddy's lung cancer, I had to drop out of school. He didn't need the burden of my education. Even though I was on a scholarship there were other expenses so me dropping out of school was a no brainer. I enlisted in the US Air Force. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas I was assigned to Lowery Air Force Base in Denver Colorado for schooling on Command and Control Systems Checkout of the TM-61C Matador Missile.
How GOD determines -your path in life.
If my father had not died my life's path would have been totally different. I would have finished my training at Lowery and would have been sent to Sembach Air force Base, Germany along with the rest of my class. There is no telling the path my life would have taken. For instance two of my buddies were murdered in Germany while out partying. There is a good chance I would have been with them, so fate most likely took one life (my fathers) and saved mine With the death of my father I was set back to the class behind us and after graduation we were assigned to Orlando AFB in Orlando, Florida for On The Job Training (OJT) including launching six training launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
Here fate steps in again. After the training at Lowery AFB, the On the Job (OJT) training at Orlando Air Force Base and the six training launches at the Canaveral Air Station, (part of which would become the Kennedy Space Center). We were scheduled to be reassigned to Formosa AFB off the coast of China. Today it’s called Taiwan. But GOD had other plans. The US Air Force Research and Development Command sent out a requirement for personal with certain requirements including education, aptitude test scores etc and Little Joe Williams matched squarely with their requirements. So in January of 1957 rather than going to the far east off the Coast of China, Little Joe was going to the Air Force Rocket Test Site Test Stand 1-1 at Edwards AFB in the Mohave Desert, Southern California, USA There I worked in Research and Development of our first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) named the Atlas I completed my tour of duty with the US Air Force and was hired by Convair Aeronautics the company that designed and built the Atlas. This was after a six month waiting period from serving in the US Air Force to being hired on a Defense Dept Contract. I was discharged from the USAF IN December of 1957 and hired by Convair, San Diego in June of 1958
Initially Convair had other plans for me which was Flight Test Instrumentation and Telemetry of the F-102 Delta Dagger and the F-106 Delta Dart Interceptors during testing at Edwards AFB rather than being placed on the Atlas Project
Again fate steps in and because of my training and background I was chosen to go to school on the latest automatic programmed and checkout equipment (APCHE) for the Atlas D series ICBM, so I was sent to school in San Diego. After graduation I was reassigned to Vandenberg AFB outside of Santa Maria and Lompoc California. There I was to assist in checkout and launch of the first Atlas ICBM from the west coast. We accomplished that historical launch Sept 9, 1959. After the successful mission of the Atlas, the system was now operational at all the US Air Force Bases that had the Atlas D Series ICBM’s. The launch stopped the Soviets in their tracks. Our ICBM now had a range of up to 8,000 miles so we could hit any target in the Soviet block with multi megaton warheads
My first assignment after the launch was to Shepherd AFB, Wichita Falls Texas. There we built the trainers for the Air Force to train their personnel on how to maintain, checkout and launch the Atlas D, E and F series ICBM's. From there due to the Cold War heating up and as a Field Service Engineer it was constant travel from San Diego to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Vandenberg, to Plattsburg, NY, to Altus, OK, to Omaha, Nebraska etc. I was on their "Tiger Team". Any site an ICBM fell out of EWO configuration, we were on 24 hour notice to go there and get it back into War Ready Condition.
We completed a major update of the 72 F Series Atlas ICBM's that were located all over the US. Since we did such a wonderful job in the F-Update which cost the American Tax Payer millions and millions of dollars, Secretary of Defense Mr Bob McNamara canceled the entire program. What a waste
In January of 1966 as the Apollo Moon Project was gearing up I was hired into design engineering by the General Electric Company at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. I was hired to assist in the design of on th

e Apollo Saturn IB and Saturn V Projects. Soon after I was promoted to Project Engineering, and from July 1969 thru 1972 we landed twelve men on the Moon and brought them home safely. I then was promoted to Project Manager on the Apollo Skylab Project. After final splashdown of the last manned mission on Skylab IV in Feb of 1974, I decided to resign from GE and go into business for myself. I bought a liquor store and lounge in Titusville Florida lock stock and barrel for $40,000.00. (the reason it was so cheap is because KSC personnel went from 35,000 personnel to 10,000 overnight and Titusville is where the business is located is the nearest town to KSC.
That initial business was grown into a total of four nightclubs, three restaurants, two liquor stores and three neighborhood lounges. I sold my last business July 12, 2007 for 1.5 million.
I was President of Joe Williams Inc (the Florida Corporation that owned the businesses) for 34 years and named Titusville's Man of the Year three times. I enjoyed my business career very much.
My first wife and I were married for 22 years. We had four beautiful children but were divorced in 1979. My second wife accidentally died in 1984 and I have remained single since that horrible night

Joseph A Williams Jr Memorialized
The U S Space Walk of Fame Foundation/ American Space Museum, in Titusville, Florida, is honored to memorialize a local hero on Monday, July 28, 2014 at the American Space Museum. Joseph A. Williams, a 1954 graduate of the Laurel Hill School, Laurel Hill, NC. who also attended Pembroke State College (now University of NC Pembroke), Joe was one of the early pioneers involved in the space program at the Kennedy Space Center along with hundreds of other Apollo workers. Even though he moved on from the space race his heart was always still in the game. Over the years Joe has amassed quite a large collection of astronaut autographed items and collectable memorabilia dating back to the early Apollo era up through and including the Shuttle program. His collection of one of a kind items and priceless artifacts has been on display in his home for these many years where he and only a select few have had the opportunity to appreciate their significance to the U.S. Space Program.
The U.S. Space Walk of Fame, being one of Joe's favorite non-profit organizations, has had its ups and downs over the last several years always keeping its head above water, thanks in part to Joe and his most generous contributions. You see, Joe has been one of those good guys, when he sees a need in his community he tries to make a difference and show his support. He understands the historical significance and the value of the Space Walk of Fame Museum, its importance in the launch community to the world at large. Thanks to Joe's generosity he is allowing the Space Walk of Fame to put on display his wonderful collection of space memorabilia. The museum has set aside a room that will house only Joe's space items. The museum president, Charlie Mars and the staff at the Space Walk of Fame hosted a luncheon in Joe's honor thanking him for the loan of his personal collection of space history and for being a great example of one of those guys we look to who are always ?doing the right thing when it comes to their community.
Karan Conklin
Chief of Staff
U S Space Walk of Fame Foundation/Museum
308 Pine Street
Titusville, Florida 32796

cc: Abbe Overfelt Editor of the Laurinburg Exchange .
Donnie Douglas Editor of the Robisonian Newspaper .
Florida Today Newspaper, Cocoa, Florida
Accomplished my goal of becoming a millionaire July 12 of 2007 when I sold my last business for 1.5 Million Dollars.
3. Then I was going to give it all away except a small amount to live on until I died.
ACCOMPLISHED: Other than buying each of my four children a home this is the major donations I have made as of today:
Gave the now US American Space Museum approximately $400,000.00 from 1992 thru today. I have attached some photos of part of those donations
Gave $12,500.00 to UNCP so my name is on the right field dugout dedicated to yours truly.

These are from my collection

Shows what 30 plus years will do to you Marine Colonel and Astronaut Gerald Carr the Mission Commander on Skylab IV the last Skylab Mission
Before and After about 33 years

My first Man of the Year Award

My best friend Norm Carlson. He was the Launch Director on the Saturn V that launched the three brave astronauts to land on the Moon July 16, 1969 at 9:32 AM



The plaque by the front entrance of The American Space Museum

The last nine Astronauts I was involved with as the Apollo Telescope Mount Launch Preparation Project Manager with the General Electric Company in support of the Apollo Skylab Mission

I'm the one on right. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sammie Davis on left. We were doing a benefit to help build a monument in honor of all veterans from the American Revolution thru the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. Benefit done thru local American Legion Post I in Titusville Florida. We got them over the hump, so to speak and it is a beautiful monument. The last monument to the veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars I donated the money myself. Its total cost was $10,000.00

I was in my home in June of 2004 after selling one of my businesses. That sell cut down my personal workload significantly. While sitting in my easy chair, thinking about my life I suddenly realized I knew nothing of my ancestors. I didn't know the given name of my paternal grandfather so I signed on with Ancestry.com to see if I could find him and something about his life. In 2004 very little of the US Census had been digitized so when you got to a particular county you had to go page by page to find someone. I didn't know his name but with my father’s name and him being born in 1906 I finally found him. Absalom Albert Williams was his full name. With that and a few more items, I was off to the races. For the next five year’s I averaged 12 hours a day seven days a week doing genealogy research. I don’t know why but Absalom didn’t like his name. It may have been because he was illiterate. He thought Absalom was spelled Apsalom so in 1910 or earlier he started using the name AP. AP is on his death certificate as well as his tombstone located in Rose Hill Cemetery, Marion, Marion County, SC
.
In 2006 I ran into a cluster of families associated with my 7th Great Grandfather Henry Dusenbery born 1682 in Hempstead, Long Island, Queens Co., New York. They were Booths, Pearsalls, Thornes and Fowlers. For some reason, I chose the Fowlers to begin. Lo and behold within the hour I discovered thru daughter; "Princess of England Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Plantagenet" King Edward I "Longshanks' Plategenet was my 21st GGF. I immediately discarded it because how could a Cotton Mill Workers son be related to English Royalty. I thought that someone had made it up as a feel good item.
One day a couple of years on something convinced me it was true. (too long for this letter)
Then I did the other before mentioned families and they went back to either Royalty, Nobility or Aristocracy.
When I did the Booth family tree I discovered I was related to John Wilkes Booth he was my 13th cousin three times removed (Chart 1).

Fast forward to the latter part of 2016, I made a Genealogical Data Communication or gedcom of about 300 of a total of 42,500 people and using that gedcom joined WikiTree. WikiTree is trying to put together a World Wide Family Tree to tie the entire human tree together.
After I merged my family (gedcom) tree into WikiTree it verified all of my work to be correct. Now that makes for a good feeling.
Back to the Booths. Sometime last month I received a notification from WikiTree that I was related to President Abraham Lincoln (Chart 2). What a shocker. After I verified it using the latest version of Family Tree Maker 2014.1, I posted it on FaceBook to my family and friends. I received mixed comments. I don't think most people today really care one way or the other.

Here I am related to one of our Greatest Presidents and his assassin as well. As I thought about it I wondered if they were related, so I did a relationship check using FTM 2014.1. Believe it or not they are related (Chart 3)

I began researching the above find and found no person or organization that had made that connection. I put a letter together with charts and sent it to the Smithsonian Institute’s Directors office but received no reply. I was told they handled the Ford Theater, The Lincoln Museum and the Boarding House across the street so they should be the ones to know.

When I posted it on FaceBook I received several different types of response.



Joe Williams

........................