The Life Journies of First Cousins Shirley Tyre and Preddy Stilley

Born in the early 40s, first cousins Shirley Tyre and Preddy Stilley come from humble beginnings in rural Beaufort County near Blounts Creek, North Carolina. Their families were sharecroppers, and each worked the fields, primarily corn and tobacco, from six in the morning till six in the evening. It wasn’t an easy life, but there was always food to eat and clothes on their backs, which sometimes were made from scraps of burlap bags. As both shared, “we were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor.” They grew up during the Jim Crow era and experienced racism firsthand on many levels. Their life stories as adults may have taken them on different paths, but their eternal family bond makes these first cousins seem more like sisters.

 

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