Susan Kelly of Dublin, Ireland, is attempting to locate her younger brother, left as a toddler at the Foxy Box bar in Temple in 1976 or 1977. Following an article that ran in the Daily Telegram on Feb. 2, Ms. Kelly received responses from local residents who are aiding her in the endeavor.
“It’s great because it’s getting me closer than I’ve ever been to finding him,” she said. “It’s absolutely amazing.”
The information Ms. Kelly had was sketchy - she met her father a few years ago and he made a deathbed confession about the boy.
What Ms. Kelly has since discovered is that Elmer and Vivian Hill owned the Foxy Box bar, where the boy was left. She has been in contact with Mrs. Hill, who now lives in Amarillo.
She also found a woman named Texanna, who worked at the bar. She had the last name Herry, but now goes by her maiden name, Billings.
Ms. Billings is in a nursing home, Ms. Kelly said, but she is in contact with Ms. Billings’ daughter, Mary Ann Tate.
The new information provides clues to what happened to the boy.
“I know that he was adopted,” Ms. Kelly said.
The woman who adopted him wasn’t married, but was involved with a man who was a regular at the bar, Ms. Kelly said. The woman was from Wichita Falls and is believed to have moved there soon after the adoption. Ms. Kelly was told that the woman worked at a bar called Powells on Indiana Street in Wichita Falls.
She has also learned that the name on the boy’s birth certificate was Maurice White and the birthplace was in Arkansas.
Mrs. Hill remembers the events that led to the boy being left at the bar.
“He had come out there with a girl two or three times,” Mrs. Hill said of the boy’s father. “He always had the little boy and he would fall asleep.”
She said the father would get angry at the boy for not being able to stay awake and one night hit him and knocked him off a stool.. Texanna, who worked at the bar, told the man “you shouldn’t treat a little boy like that,” Mrs. Hill said. “He said, ‘why the hell don’t you keep him?’”
She said Texanna responded that she certainly would, not really expecting him to leave the boy. “He went out and got the birth certificate and brought it in,” Mrs. Hill said. “We never heard from him again.”
Mrs. Hill said the boy - who they called Maurice - stayed with either she or Texanna for about six months.
Mrs. Tate, who was about 17 years old at the time and no longer living at home, remembers her mother, Texanna, keeping Maurice for a while.
But, Texanna - like the Hills - already had five children and “couldn’t afford to keep another one,” Mrs. Tate said.
Mrs. Hill said they talked with welfare workers, and even tracked down the doctor who delivered him in Arkansas, but were never able to find any family.
Whenever they tried to get information from the boy, he’d start singing, she said.
“We knew this girl. She didn’t work for us, but she knew we had this child,” Mrs. Hill said. “She came over and talked to me and said, ‘this baby needs a home that’s just his and I need him as bad as he needs me.’”
Mrs. Hill said she and Texanna discussed it and believed the woman would provide him a good home.
The woman kept him for about two years, then legally adopted him.
“My husband said ‘if you’ll adopt that child and give him a good home, I’ll pay for it,’” Mrs. Hill said. “She was scared the whole time that they would take him away from her.”
The adoption went through, but the woman moved - Mrs. Hill believes back to Wichita Falls - because she was always afraid the father might come back for him, she said.
She also changed the boy’s name, possibly to William.
And while she remembers the boy, Mrs. Hill admits it’s been a lot of years and she can’t remember the name of the woman who adopted him. “I wish I could,” she said.
Ms. Kelly, meanwhile, continues the search with the help of local residents, including one in particular who has taken it upon herself to research public records and has been helpful in tracking down some of the key players in this 30-year mystery.
Ms. Kelly said she would like to thank everyone who responded to the first story in the paper.
“Pray that the second one will be all it takes,” she said. “If nothing more comes of it, though, at least my heart and mind is at rest knowing that he was adopted by someone who really wanted him and who would love him the way he deserved.”
Prior to her father’s confession, Ms. Kelly knew very little about her family history. Born in 1972, she and a brother and sister were adopted and raised in the Dallas area. As an adult, she learned that she actually has nine siblings. She tracked down both biological parents and eight of her siblings - all but the younger brother.
Anyone with information can e-mail Ms. Kelly at susankelly72@hotmail.com or call Mrs. Tate at 254-541-8670.
