Man discovers ancestor was Helen Keller's cook

Amid the mourning of losing his mother four years ago, Tom McKnight made a discovery.

A longtime history buff, McKnight decided he wanted to learn more about his family and ancestry.

"One of the greatest threats to our national security is not knowing who we are as an individual, as a family, and as a nation," the Russellville resident said.

So, he started tracing his roots in 2005.

McKnight found information about his great-grandfather, the Rev. Fred W. Watkins, who was a Baptist pastor in the Smithsonia area.

But it was the occupation of Watkins' wife, Sophia Napier Watkins, that really caught McKnight's attention.

"I learned my great-grandmother was the cook at Ivy Green when Helen Keller was a child," he said.

The news came as a source of pride and surprise for McKnight, who has traveled the world as a management consultant in the humanitarian sector for the United Nations. He has literally driven thousands of miles across the United States tracing his roots.

It also helped him during a time of mourning. "I thought, here's an opportunity to transmit the pain of losing my mother into something positive," McKnight said.

He found the information after leafing through edition after edition of "The American Star," an old newspaper for local Baptist churches.

Since that time, he has worked with local historical associations to learn about his great-grandmother.

She was born July 20, 1854, and died Aug. 24, 1917. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Tuscumbia, alongside her husband.

McKnight met one of his cousins, Robert Watkins, in Akron, Ohio. He presented McKnight with a photo of Sophia Watkins during a time when she worked for the Keller family. McKnight already had a photo of his great-grandfather, and now has copies of the photos side by side.

"We had the opportunity to reunite them by doing this," he said, while looking at the photos.

McKnight wants to donate the photos to Keller's birthplace at Ivy Green.

"In terms of adoration, what better way than putting a picture on the door of the kitchen where she cooked for the family?"

He envisions the Watkins' gravesites being included in historical tours of Oakwood Cemetery.

McKnight wasn't the only one excited to learn about Sophia Watkins.

Sue Pilkilton, executive director of the Keller Birthplace Museum, said museum officials are interested in McKnight's offer.

"We would love to have a photograph of her," Pilkilton said. "We were not aware that she was one of the cooks.

"Any time we can find a picture or any memorabilia of anyone involved with the Keller family, it's always an honor and privilege to display it in the museum room."

Pilkilton said a copy of the photo also could be placed in the kitchen, as McKnight wishes, but she wants one in the museum room, as well, because it has more access and more people would be able to see it. "Miss Sophia would get more recognition there," she said.

McKnight hopes his discovery will prompt others in the area to search their family trees and study the region's history. He was born in New York but jokes that he's "a soul-born Alabamian."

"History is incredibly important; the ability to interweave events that brought us here today," he said. "We shouldn't have to wait until we are in the latter part of our lives to wake up and realize how important our ancestry and history are."

McKnight's ancestry includes black and American Indian heritage.

"From a Native American perspective, I feel like maybe someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Don't forget us,' " he said.

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@TimesDaily.com.