Hattie Fordham Banks

Obituary

Hattie Mae Fordham Banks passed away quietly on the morning of October 26, 2022 at UPMC Heritage Nursing Home in Pittsburgh, PA, where she had resided for the preceding 10 years.

She was the third child born to Katie ("Kittie") Francis Williams and her husband Henry Jordan on August 31, 1926, in Passaic, New Jersey. Kittie's older sister Annie Williams Fordham (later Annie Williams Jackson) and her husband Ernest Fordham later adopted Hattie. Hattie began her schooling in the Clifton Public School in Passaic County. She fondly recalled taking piano lessons in Passaic and practicing daily after school while listening to her friends play outside, longing to join them. Later, she said she took pride in playing well, and in being a member of her "Piano Class" in the mid- 1930s.

In 1939, when she was 12 or 13, Hattie and her family moved to Pittsburgh. They lived briefly near Fifth Avenue High School in the Hill District, before moving to the Beltzhoover area of the city. There Hattie attended Knoxville Jr. High School, then South Hills School. She said one of her favorite classes at South Hills was Chemistry. (She even kept her senior year chemistry notebook. We found it in a trunk in the attic.) She also loved to sing, and was a member of the Pittsburgh Public Schools' All- City Choir. A memorable event, she said, was performing with the Choir at Carnegie Hall in Oakland. Also while in high school, Hattie began working part- time as what was called a "mother's friend," assisting with the care of the young children in the Mt. Lebanon household in which her own mother worked as a "nanny." Hattie graduated from South Hills High School in June 1944, and won a scholarship to the Mercy School of Nursing, where she intended to become a pediatric nurse. Love intervened, however, and she never attended. She instead fell in love and married William Norman Banks (known as "Norman") on May 10, 1945 at the Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

Hattie met her future husband after noticing her handsome new neighbor in Beltzhoover, living with his mother. Cleverly, she then became friends with her future mother- in -law, Mrs. Henrietta Daugherty Banks, who in turn introduced Hattie to her son Norman, fourteen (14) years older than Hattie. The rest, as they say, is history. He was almost 33 when they married, and she was almost 19.

To their 51- year union, three children were born: Karen (1947), Darryl (1950) and Jocelyn (1957). When Karen was around 2 years old, the family-- including mother-in -law Henrietta Banks-- moved to Wiltsie Street in what's now known as the "Lincoln- Lemington" neighborhood of Pittsburgh. (By contrast the neighborhood was called "East Liberty" back then and was considered part of it.) In 1962 Hattie and Norman finally became proud homeowners, and moved to Montezuma Street, where Hattie lived through 2009.

When Karen, Darryl and Jocelyn attended Lemington School, Hattie was active with the Parents and Teachers' Association ("PTA") and also sold U.S. Savings Bonds at the School. Although she already had many friends, it was at Lemington School - -through Karen's childhood friendship with classmate Joseph Rhodes, Jr. in the mid -1950s -- that Hattie met the woman who became and remained her closest and best friend: Mrs. Efiginia ("Penny") Rhodes. The Banks children affectionately called her "Aunt Penny," and called her husband "Uncle Joe." Penny's children called Hattie "Mother Banks" or "Ninong" (Tagalog for "godparent"). Penny's youngest daughter, Teresita Rhodes (now "Ellen T. Snyder"), was one of Hattie's goddaughters. The only girl in her family, as a child Teresita stayed with the Banks Family whenever Penny visited her relatives in the Philippines. The Rhodes Family and the Banks Family remain close through the present as the result of this wonderful friendship of mothers, which spanned more than five (5) decades.

Hattie had another goddaughter, Beverly Ann Johns who, as a child, lived with the Banks Family after both her parents passed away. Hattie's third goddaughter, Lorraine Campbell, was the daughter of one of Hattie's friends from high school, Ardella Campbell. (Hattie, Ardella and other high school girlfriends met occasionally to play Pokeno together well into the 1960s.)

The Banks household always opened its doors to children because Hattie felt her calling in life was to raise and care for children-if not as a pediatric nurse, then as a mother, a godmother, and trusted babysitter in the neighborhood. She helped raise many neighborhood children. She was widely loved and admired.

Hattie was, throughout her life, a woman of profound Christian faith. She in turn instilled in her children pride and confidence in themselves, and the confidence that God would carry them through all things if they had faith. She also encouraged her children academically and, together with Norman, proudly achieved the goal of witnessing Karen, Darryl, and Jocelyn graduate from college.

Although she was raised in the Baptist faith, Hattie became a Presbyterian upon marrying Norman, a fourth generation Presbyterian. Initially both were members of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Herron Hill section of Pittsburgh, but later they became members of Bethesda United Presbyterian Church on Bennett Street in Pittsburgh, where all three children also worshipped. Hattie remained a member of Bethesda for the rest of her life.

Hattie is survived by daughter Karen Banks Stanton of Pittsburgh, daughter Jocelyn Ann Banks and son- in- law Frank Joseph Perch III of Philadelphia; grandchildren Kipp Stanton of Pittsburgh, Keirsten Stanton of Bronx, NY, and Davena Nelson of Theodore, Alabama; eight great- grandchildren, fourteen great- great-grandchildren, and a host of other relatives and friends left to mourn. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband William Norman Banks (1996), her son Darryl Norman Banks (September 2022), her siblings Henry Jordan, Jr., Margo Jordan, Franklin Cole, Freddie Cole and Pete Cole; her best friend Efiginia ("Penny") Rhodes Tirado (2007) and goddaughter Beverly Ann Johns (2021). Hattie's remains were cremated, and her urn was buried alongside her husband Norman in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.