Year: 1932
Fannie Dockwith Calloway was born around 1852-56. On January 15, 1880, she married Squire Calloway in Montgomery County, Virginia. Squire worked as a cook, and the couple eventually made their way to Roanoke, where they raised their family. Squire appears to have died sometime between 1889 and 1900. No death record has been located, but city directories and census records suggest that Fannie was widowed during those years, before Virginia began statewide registration of deaths. After her husband's death, Fannie supported herself and her children through her own work. She was employed as both a laundress and a dressmaker and made her home at 417 Gilmer Avenue NW. Her occupations represent the demanding domestic work through which many widowed women supported their families in the years before pensions, Social Security, or other dependable forms of financial assistance were available. After retiring, Fannie moved to 411 Rutherford Avenue NE, where she lived with her son William. She died in Roanoke on November 6, 1932, following apoplexy and a myocardial incident. Although few details of Fannie's life survive in the historical record, the records that remain tell the story of a woman who endured the loss of her husband, raised and supported her family through her own labor, and spent much of her life as part of Roanoke's Black community.
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