In honor of what would have been her 92nd birthday, let's talk about Irma Jean.
Let the record show: her name was Irma Jean Jackson, not “Imogene,” no matter what the 1940 U.S. Census claimed. She wasn’t a typo—she was a force of starch and sass. Born in Marion, Texas, Irma came into the world in the heart of the Great Depression, on Smithland Road, where chickens roamed the yard like feathered bouncers, and washing laundry was a full-body CrossFit class.
In that 1940 census, little 7-year-old Irma was living with her parents Sylvester and Julia Jackson and five siblings in a wooden house that probably creaked with every prayer. It was country. Like "eat your bathwater-warmed biscuits on the porch while dodging wasps" country.
🌳And then came the Tree Incident of ‘45.🌳
See, Irma’s little sister Charles Etta was six years younger than her, and seven younger than their sister Lulu. Which meant by the time Irma and Lulu were full-blown, tree-climbing teenagers, Charles Etta had entered her "Wait for meeee!" era. So there they were—Irma, Lulu, and baby Charles Etta—scaling trees like squirrels on a sugar high, and then jumping out like there was a prize for landing flair. But poor Charles Etta? She jumped, landed funky, and broke her arm.
Now, Irma and Lulu knew the stakes. If anything happened to Charles Etta—even if it was her fault—it was automatically their fault. So what did they do? They tucked her into bed like a porcelain doll and told every adult who came by that she was just... very tired. Super sleepy. Had a long day of being six. Meanwhile, Charles Etta was laying there with a whole broken arm, blinking at the ceiling like.
From those dusty red roads, she sprouted something elegant, no-chaser. By 1950, now a teenager on Old Gin Road, Irma had already mastered the art of the quiet power play. She didn’t say much—but her hands? Always in motion. She sewed her own clothes like a runway designer with a chicken coop side hustle. But this wasn’t just Sunday-best sewing. She let her siblings pick their own fabric. That meant her mama might show up in paisley holiness while Queen Esther strutted in leopard print like a sanctified runway model.
Fashion democracy. Early edition.
Somewhere between threading needles and feeding chickens, Irma enrolled at Texas Southern University, back when it was becoming the Ivy League for folks with hot comb burns and big dreams. The exact dates are fuzzy, but that school ID? Real. And she was snatched to the gods in that photo.
Then came the job at Hermann Hospital. Being a Black woman in medicine in the 1950s was like being a unicorn in a snowstorm—rare, magical, and expected to fix everything. To even walk into Hermann as a nurse’s aide, you had to:
Pass anatomy while fighting systemic racism
Master hygiene protocols while dodging discrimination
Lift patients in the ER while carrying the weight of generational racism
And rock a starched uniform so crisp it could slice through barriers
Irma's uniforms had creases sharp enough to file your taxes.
And it was on one of those mornings—leaving Kashmere Gardens, catching a city bus to the Texas Medical Center—that she changed the course of history.
💘 “The Love Route: Third Ward Edition” 💘
Willard Jacquot lived on Tuam, smack dab in the middle of Third Ward royalty. He missed his usual bus one morning and, instead of waiting, took the scenic route. Destiny wears a uniform, apparently.
There on that bus: Irma. Quiet. Pressed uniform. Posture like a ballet dancer in court. Seat beside her? Empty.
Willard slid into that seat like it was musical chairs and said hi. Irma blinked. Gave him absolutely nothing.
He got off the bus dazed like, “Lord, send a follow-up plan.”
And He did. It came in the form of gossip, coworker intel, and a string of rom-com level shenanigans. Willard was out here dropping quarters into payphones like he was trying to win a radio contest. Took five buses just to MAYBE see her again. That’s not romance. That’s a Houston Transit Odyssey with a layover in desperation.
🧵 Marriage, Motherhood & Machine Oil 🧵
They got married. Bought a house in Settegast, where the BBQ smoke is spiritual and the kids play double dutch in church shoes.
Irma had seven kids and a sewing machine that could outrun a sports car. Baptismal gowns? Check. School clothes? Done. Church fits? Custom couture. Curtain panels? You know she hemmed those too.
She didn’t yell. She just sewed faster.
👥 The House of Controlled Chaos 🚨
Most mornings began with her sewing machine—clack-clack-clack—setting the rhythm of the house like a DJ on a mission.
One day, she sat near the back window with a spool of red thread, sewing “Ron” on a uniform. The house was suspiciously quiet.
Enter Esther, waving a report card like she was about to get knighted. “All A’s, Mama!”
Irma, eyebrow raised like a lie detector test, said one syllable: “Hmm.”
Translation: Bloop, you tried it.
Turns out Esther had forged every F into an A with more confidence than a bootleg tattoo artist. And then Laura, resident snitch, rolled in with timestamps and forensic handwriting analysis.
Irma? Still calm. “Hmm.”
Then came the hallway crash. Evelyn vs. Michael, WWE edition. Irma didn’t flinch. Just stepped in like Moses parting the Red Sea of sibling violence.
Ron, meanwhile, chewing toast like he knew too much. She asked who started it. Ron began gulping like he swallowed a frog. “Maybe...Michael?”
Broom. Instantly handed over. Justice delivered.
Then Gerald, the baby, came sliding in like Scooby-Doo, grinning for hugs and possibly hiding some crayons in his pocket. She rubbed his head and kept sewing.
Because even when the whole house sounded like a live sitcom, Irma was the laugh track, the director, and the producer.
🍾 Sakowitz Sundays 🌟
Willard told his uncle he dressed his wife up real good to go to church. Like, Sakowitz good.
That’s not just a flex. That’s a Black Excellence fashion thesis. Sakowitz was Houston’s homegrown palace of luxury retail—where high fashion met Southern elegance, and shopping was as much a social event as a transaction. Going in there and picking out clothes with your wife? That was main-character energy.
His uncle noticed that Irma was always solo at church and warned that men at church probably thought she was single, so Willard started dressing up faster than her and attending too. A few weeks later? He got baptized. She got backup.
🌿 The Hiram Clarke Years 🌿
Eventually, they moved to Hiram Clarke. Newer streets. Younger neighbors.
Willard bought a service station in South Park. But Irma? Irma ran the kingdom.
She:
Bought inventory like a retail general
Decorated with spark plugs and style
Sewed name patches like she was dressing oil-stained royalty
And her sanctuary? That backyard was Eden with a southern twist.
She brought plants from Settegast and grew roses, bachelor's buttons, pecans, cotton, cucumbers, Chinese plums, grapefruit, figs...
She used her own homegrown cotton to dab alcohol for her insulin. Not once. Every time.
She made fig preserves so good, Willard kept eating them YEARS after she left us.
And let’s not forget the front room: sacred space. No kids. Just fancy furniture and an upright piano she played like the soundtrack of a lifetime. No one knows where she learned it. Probably just absorbed it through her spirit.
When dialysis and amputation entered the picture, Irma turned her wheelchair into a wheelbarrow. She gardened, she polished, she reached bookshelves taller than me with a rag, pledge, and the will of a warrior.
🛶 The Last Visit 🛶
I lived in that house from age 5 to 22. When I moved out, she was sad. That same year, she had heart blockage. Got bypass surgery like a champ.
Next thing I know, I visit after work. She’s sitting up in a glamorous nightgown with her hair curled in preparation for the next day.
The nurse was there too. Talking up a storm. People loved talking to my Granny. I wasn’t mad she was there. I was mad she was hogging the whole set. Like ma’am, I’m the grandchild, not your co-star.
I said I'd come back the next day. But while I was at work, she passed.
🌈 Legacy Sewn into Every Thread 🌈
She didn’t give long speeches. She wasn’t the loudest in the room. But she was the reason the room stayed standing.
From Marion's dusty roads to Third Ward buses, from Kashmere Gardens to Hiram Clarke cucumbers...
Irma Jean stitched together a life so rich, the thread can’t be broken.
And today, I don’t just remember her. I celebrate her.
With starch. With satin. With silence that shuts down foolishness and opens doors.
Happy Birthday, Granny. You were hilarious, holy, and handcrafted. We’re still running on your thread.
No comments:
Post a Comment