Willis Edward Barbee, Jr.
Place of birth:
Chapel Hill, Orange County, NC
Date of birth:
2.18.1932
Place of death:
Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County, NC
Date of death:
10.29.1950
Willis Edward Barbee, Jr. was born February 18, 1932, and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1950. He was an only child; he and his parents (William Edward Barbee, Sr. and Gladys Augusta Jones Barbee) lived at 509 Jones Ferry Road in Carrboro. His grandparents were Tony and Nellie Strayhorn.
After graduation from Lincoln High, he attended college at Morristown College in Tennessee, a two-year African-American college. He was playing in a football game against Elizabeth City State Teachers College (now Elizabeth City State University) in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the afternoon of October 28, 1950. Barbee's neck was broken during the game, and he died the morning of October 29 at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City.
Excerpt from 11.2.1950 News of Orange
He was buried in the West Chapel Hill cemetery in Chapel Hill October 29, after a 2:00 p.m. service at the Rock Hill Baptist Church in Chapel Hill. His mother died in 1969 and was buried alongside him. His father died March 6, 1998 at the age of 90, and is buried alongside his wife and son.
Circa 1942; from L-R: Willis Barbee, Jr., Nellie Strayhorn, Willis Barbee, Sr. (photo from Delores Clark via Images of America)
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