Pearl Bassett was the wife of Paul Bassett.
\nPaul Bassett descends from #295B Britton Bassett of Howard County, Indiana as follows:<\/p>\n
Britton Bassett (b. 1794) and wife Easter
\nHenry Bassett (b. 1821) and wife Martha Matilda Artis
\nIthamer Bassett (b. 1882) and wife Etta Marshall
\nPaul Bassett (b. 1913) and wife Pearl<\/p>\n
Herring Funeral Care & Cremations
\nMrs. Pearl Bassett
\nApril 28, 1911 \u2013 June 7, 2021 (age 110)<\/p>\n
Mrs. Pearl Bassett, 110, of Marion, Indiana, passed away on Monday, June 07, 2021 in Fayetteville, NC.<\/p>\n
Pearl was\u00a0a\u00a0life\u00adlong res\u00adi\u00addent of Mar\u00adi\u00adon, Indi\u00adana and was a civil rights pioneer. She was\u00a0the first Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic Precinct Chair\u00adwoman in Grant Coun\u00adty, Indi\u00adana. She also served as the first Black Sec\u00adre\u00adtary of the Grant Coun\u00adty Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic Cen\u00adtral Com\u00admit\u00adtee and\u00a0marched in 1969 fight\u00ading for civ\u00adil rights. Pearl was the recip\u00adi\u00adent of many local, state, and nation\u00adal hon\u00adors includ\u00ading the NAACP Unsung Hero\u00adin Award; the Fran\u00adcis Hook Award, the NAACP\u2019s high\u00adest hon\u00ador for women; and the Cen\u00adtu\u00adri\u00adon Award, pre\u00adsent\u00aded by Gov\u00ader\u00adnor Mike Pence in 2003. These awards are in response to her ground-shak\u00ading activism and devo\u00adtion to the social and civ\u00adil rights of African\u00a0Americans.<\/p>\n
Funeral services will be held in Indiana under the direction of Rawls Mortuary\u00a03913 North Keystone Ave.,\u00a0Indianapolis, IN 46205\u00a0Tel: 1-317-667-7025 and will be announced later.<\/p>\n
Local Arrangements by Herring Funeral Care & Cremations<\/p>\n
Chronicle-Tribune, Marion, Indiana, Tuesday, June 8, 2021
\nPearl Bassett: Local icon, civil right advocate dies at 110<\/p>\n
Marion civil rights advocate Pearl Bassett died June 7 at the age of 110.<\/p>\n
Bassett witnessed much of the progress in America that many people have only ever read about.<\/p>\n
“She grew up in a segregated world, being born in 1911,” said National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) president Joselyn Whitticker. “She lived during Jim Crow and ‘colored’ and ‘white’ signs. We hear about it. She was able to see it.”<\/p>\n
Whitticker mentioned that Bassett was 20 years old during the lynchings of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith.<\/p>\n
“Her life saw a lot,” Whitticker said. “She would talk about history and how important history was.”<\/p>\n
In 1955, Bassett and other women in the community worked to desegregate the Matter Park Pool, and in 1969, she marched with 350 people at the Grant County Courthouse to advocate for civil rights.<\/p>\n
“She was a civil rights advocate who never stopped fighting for change,” Whitticker said.<\/p>\n
Bassett is remembered by many as one of the founders of the local NAACP and Urban League, as well as the local chapter of Women in the NAACP, where she served as president.<\/p>\n
“Her impact on our city will be far reaching,” Whitticker said. “She was very loved, and she loved this community.”<\/p>\n
Bassett’s daughters, Paula Johnson and Renee Jeffries, said education and helping others was important to their mother.<\/p>\n
“She believed in family, education and God. Get your education, work hard, do your best, help others, trust God,” Jeffries said. “She was the wind beneath my wings.”<\/p>\n
Johnson said her mother was a strict disciplinarian, and told her daughters and son Nojir Jeffries that anyone was welcome in her home.<\/p>\n
“Her impact is one that will be felt especially in Marion,” Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Bassett had worked as a hairdresser, and always had a love for fashion, Johnson said.<\/p>\n
“Mama was a fashionista,” Johnson said. “Even in the hospital she was looking through magazines.”<\/p>\n
Johnson said Bassett was so loved by the hospital staff that the nurses bought her clothes, and her doctors allowed her to have a glass of wine each night.<\/p>\n
“That’s the effect Mama had on people,” Johnson said. “People used to ask her what was her secret to long life. I always told them it was the red wine, and she always said, ‘Ask the old man upstairs.'”<\/p>\n
The day following Bassett’s passing, Johnson said she had been receiving calls from people all across the world who had known and loved her.<\/p>\n
“She had a robust energy for life. She was a vibrant person,” Johnson said. “She was not really ready to go. It’s just that her body gave out, but her spirit was still very very strong.”<\/p>\n
Bobbie Owensby, a community activist and Black History teacher at Marion High School, said Bassett was a “community-oriented, powerful person who loved her community and was willing to give everything she had in order to bring about change.”<\/p>\n
Owensby remembered when Bassett performed in the Black History Club’s play about Bassett’s life.<\/p>\n
“She would call me from North Carolina to make sure she had her lines,” Owensby said. “She wanted to know, ‘Are the other characters as good as I am?’ And of course not. She was the best one on the stage.”<\/p>\n
Owensby visited Bassett often.<\/p>\n
“She was a funny person. She didn’t mind saying what was on her mind,” Owensby said. “I don’t think she ever met a stranger. Everybody fell in love with Aunt Pearl.”<\/p>\n
Owensby said Bassett loved receiving flowers.<\/p>\n
“Every flower I had given her, she still had it and remembered every flower and why I brought it to her,” Owensby said.<\/p>\n
After the community presented Bassett with a flower garden at the Clarence Faulkner Community Center, Owensby said Bassett would call each summer and ask if she had put flowers in the garden.<\/p>\n
“That’s one thing we will make sure we do in the next few days,” Owensby said. “…to make sure the flower garden is ready for her.”<\/p>\n
Bassett received many awards in her life, including the Frances Hook Award from the NAACP and the Unsung Hero Award. The community honored Bassett by naming her as a torch bearer during the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay in 2016. Many of her awards will be displayed in the Marion Public Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pearl Bassett was the wife of Paul Bassett. Paul Bassett descends from #295B Britton Bassett of Howard County, Indiana as follows: Britton Bassett (b. 1794) and wife Easter Henry Bassett (b. 1821) and wife Martha Matilda Artis Ithamer Bassett (b. … Continue reading