Mamie Till Mobley Biography – Obituary
Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley (born Mamie Elizabeth Carthan; November 23, 1921 – January 6, 2003) was an educator and activist in the United States.
She was the mother of Emmett Till, who was 14 when he was murdered in Mississippi on August 28, 1955, after being accused of whistling at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, a grocery store cashier.
Mamie Till insisted on leaving the casket containing her son’s body open at his funeral in Chicago because, in her words, “I wanted the world to see what they did to my boy.”
She was born in Mississippi and moved to the Chicago area with her parents as a child during the “Great Migration.” Following her son’s murder, she became an educator and Civil Rights Movement activist.
Mamie Till Age Today
Mamie was 81 years of age when she passed on, she was born on 23 November 1921, in Webb, Mississippi, United States.
How old would Mamie Till be today? She would be 101 years as of 2022.
Is Mamie Till Still Alive?—Mamie Till Cause of Death
Till-Mobley died of heart failure on January 6, 2003, at the age of 81. The same year, her autobiography, Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America, was published (co-written with Christopher Benson).
Till-Mobley was laid to rest near her son in Burr Oak Cemetery, where her memorial reads, “Her pain united a nation.”
Mamie Till Family
Mamie Elizabeth Carthan was born on November 23, 1921, in Webb, Mississippi, and her family left the Southern United States during the Great Migration, when millions of African-Americans migrated to the Northern United States (primarily to industrial cities) (African American).
Nash Carthan, her father, moved to Argo, Illinois, near Chicago, shortly after her birth in 1922. He found work at the Argo Corn Products Refining Company there. Alma Carthan moved in with her husband in January 1924, bringing two-year-old Mamie and her brother, John. In Argo, they settled in a predominantly African-American neighborhood.
Mamie’s parents divorced when she was 13 years old. She was devastated, but she threw herself into her studies and excelled.
Alma had high expectations for her only child, and despite the fact that Alma Carthan stated that “the girls had one ambition — to get married,” she encouraged Mamie in her studies. Mamie was only the fourth African-American student to graduate from the predominantly white Argo Community High School, and she was the first African-American student to make the “A” Honor Roll.
At the age of 18, she met Louis Till, a young man from New Madrid, Missouri. He worked at the Argo Corn Company, was a semi-pro boxer, and was well-liked by women. Her parents disapproved, believing Till was “too sophisticated” for their daughter.
She ended their courtship at her mother’s request. But Till’s persistence paid off, and they married on October 14, 1940. They were both 18 years old.
Emmett, their only child, was born 9 months later. They divorced in 1942 after Mamie discovered he had been unfaithful. Louis later choked her nearly unconscious, to which she retaliated by throwing scalding water at him.
She was eventually able to obtain a restraining order against him. After Louis repeatedly violated this, a judge forced him to choose between enlistment in the United States Army and jail time. He chose the former and enlisted in the Army in 1943.
In 1945, she received word from the War Department that her husband had been killed while serving in the army in Italy.
Louis Till was convicted of raping an Italian woman with his accomplice, Fred A. McMurray. They were both tried and convicted by a general court-martial of the United States Army, and their sentence was death by hanging.
Their sentence was challenged, but it was upheld. The Fifth Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Who Were Sentenced To Death And Executed In Europe And North Africa Colonel French L. Maclean of the United States Army served in World War II (Retired).
Their names are listed on Page 212, and both were buried near the First World War U.S. Cemetery in Oise-Aisne. It is referred to as Plot E or the Fifth Field.
Mamie and Emmett had relocated to Chicago’s South Side by the early 1950s. Mamie met and married “Pink” Bradley, but the couple divorced after two years.
Mamie Till Husband
At the age of 18, she met Louis Till, a young man from New Madrid, Missouri. He worked at the Argo Corn Company, was a semi-pro boxer, and was well-liked by women.
Her parents disapproved, believing Till was “too sophisticated” for their daughter. She ended their courtship at her mother’s request. But Till’s persistence paid off, and they married on October 14, 1940. They were both 18 years old.
Emmett, their only child, was born 9 months later. They divorced in 1942 after Mamie discovered he had been unfaithful. Louis later choked her nearly unconscious, to which she retaliated by throwing scalding water at him.
She was eventually able to obtain a restraining order against him. After Louis repeatedly violated this, a judge forced him to choose between enlistment in the United States Army and jail time. He chose the former and enlisted in the Army in 1943.
In 1945, she received word from the War Department that her husband had been killed while serving in the army in Italy. Louis Till was convicted of raping an Italian woman with his accomplice, Fred A. McMurray.
They were both tried and convicted by a general court-martial of the United States Army, and their sentence was death by hanging.
Their sentence was challenged, but it was upheld. The Fifth Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Who Were Sentenced To Death And Executed In Europe And North Africa Colonel French L. Maclean of the United States Army served in World War II (Retired).
Their names are listed on Page 212, and both were buried near the First World War U.S. Cemetery in Oise-Aisne. It is referred to as Plot E or the Fifth Field.
Mamie and Emmett had relocated to Chicago’s South Side by the early 1950s. Mamie met and married “Pink” Bradley, but the couple divorced after two years.
Mamie Till Son
Emmett was fourteen years old when his mother put him on a train to spend the summer with his cousins in Money, Mississippi.
He was never seen alive again. Her son was kidnapped and brutally murdered on August 28, 1955, after being accused of inappropriately interacting with a white woman.
The following month, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam were tried for Till’s kidnapping and murder but acquitted by an all-white jury after a five-day trial and a 67-minute deliberation.
“It wouldn’t have taken that long if we hadn’t stopped to drink pop,” one juror said. Only months later, in an interview with Look magazine in 1956, Bryant and Milam admitted to killing Emmett Till while shielded from double jeopardy.
Till insisted on leaving the casket containing her son’s body open at his funeral because, in her words, “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.”
Tens of thousands of people came to see Emmett’s body, and photographs were widely distributed across the country. The Till case became emblematic of the disparity in justice for blacks in the South as a result of the constant attention it received.
Mamie Till was asked by the NAACP to travel the country recounting the events of her son’s life, death, and the trial of his murderers. It was one of the NAACP’s most successful fundraising campaigns in its history.
Mamie Till Net Worth at Death
Mamie had an estimated net worth of $5 million at the time of her death, she was a teacher, a writer and an activist.
