• Photo: Gordon and Valerie

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1944, LaVon Woods has a long history with Southside. Her great-grandfather, Nathan Johnson Harris, owned and ran the barbecue café on Saragosa Street. Her grandmother, Alberta Sturgeon Jacko, was raised in Oklahoma, but came to Chandler to visit her father and took over the barbecue café upon his death in 1957. LaVon Woods’ parents, Gordon Kemp and Valerie Sturgeon, met during high school in Oklahoma and married in 1943. Gordon, a butler, and Valerie, a teacher, had one child — Glen LaVon. Gordon and Valerie divorced when LaVon was young.

Valerie, daughter of Robert and Alberta Sturgeon, came to Chandler sometime before LaVon was born. She’d visit her grandfather Nathan Johnson Harris, and babysit the children of celebrity guests of the San Marcos Hotel. Growing up, LaVon travelled between Chandler and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, often. She’d go to either Chandler or Oklahoma City in the summer, and then attend school in the opposite city. In Oklahoma City, LaVon resided with her paternal grandparents, Gaberial and Glen Celestine Kemp. There, she attended Orchard Park School. In 1948, LaVon moved to Chandler to stay and was a student of the Goodyear School, Chandler Junior High and Chandler High School.

The Saragosa Street home LaVon grew up in had four rooms. There was a kitchen, front room, bedroom and bathroom. She slept on a day bed in the front room. There was not a dining room, as the family mostly ate at the barbecue pit. Alberta worked sixteen to eighteen hours a day at the barbecue pit. LaVon’s task was to fill the pop box, a hut with a lock on it: “When the pop trucks would come, he would unlock that, and they would put the pop inside there stacked up, Pepsi here and something else there, Nehi. Strawberry, grape, orange, and I think they had had a root beer.”

• Photo: LaVon with her Mother

LaVon started cooking at the age of ten, making biscuits. She recalls people in Southside sharing their food:

 “Other people in the neighborhood had gardens, and they would swap out vegetables sometimes.  She (Alberta) didn’t do tomatoes, but Miss Ester across the street did.  They would sometimes share. I remember grandma used to can, and that is something I didn’t learn to do, and I wish I had. They would go to whoever had gardens, and I remember Miss Willie Mae had a garden; several of the ladies in the neighborhood had gardens, and after they did whatever they were going to do, they would share with the other neighbors.”

In 1959, LaVon married one of her neighbors, Gene Woods. They had three children and several grandkids. LaVon and Gene eventually divorced, and she moved to cities in the Valley. Still, Chandler was home, and LaVon now resides back in Southside on one of her great-grandfather’s properties.

Photo: LaVon’s grandkids.tif