My grandpa Dempsey

September 5, 2018
This is my maternal grandfather, Dempsey Pittman. Seen here in his military uniform in the forties.  He spent his adult life as a coal miner in the small town of Minden, WVA.  Everyday he went down in the mines with his lunch pail.  He died in 1963 of black lung disease from his years of toiling in those mines.
Dempsey could tap dance and play the Banjo. His great grandson Brian Pittman has his banjo as of 2012.  It was said that there was a "black bar" in town in which Dempsey was the only white person who was let in since he could tap dance and play the banjo so well that he would entertain the patrons.  On Labor Day let me remember my grandpa.