The Life and Times of Michelle Cain Wright 

Michelle and Kim in 1971 (12 and 5 years old); Dewey & Jacquelyne in 2017 (85 years old/young)

Sadly, my dad passed away in June 2021, 3 weeks before what would have been his and my mom’s 63rd wedding anniversary. It was a huge loss to our family. I count my blessings every day that I had my dad for 89 years and I still have my mom and she is healthy! When I was 11 in 6th grade, my family moved from a small 2-bedroom 2nd floor apartment to a 3-bedroom house. I was attending George Washington Carver School #87, an IPS school on Indianapolis Avenue. My parents had the house built in Washington Township which meant I had to change schools. We moved over Christmas vacation and I thought I’d be changing schools at the end of the semester. In the 60s and 70s the semester ended at the end of January, not before Christmas break so to my horror, my first day at my new school was on the first Monday in January, 1971! I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to my friends and I was miserable. I still tease my mother today saying that she’s lucky I didn’t have a meltdown from being traumatized. For anyone familiar with the bad rap IPS schools get, I am always proud to say that during the one semester of 6th grade that I spent at Crooked Creek Elementary School, I didn’t learn one thing. As it turns out, everything they were teaching, I had already learned at IPS School #87! Score one for IPS in the 60s and 70s!

Now back to the new school…luckily for me, I make friends easily. The next year when I transitioned to Westlane Middle School, I didn’t know anyone except for my next-door neighbor who happened to be my same age. On the first day of school, I must have looked like I didn’t know anyone because the first person who introduced herself to me turned out to be my first and one of my dearest friends, Kristi Beamon. Kristi was an only child but she was one of the friendliest people you could ever meet. Everyone loved her and she introduced me to all of her friends, which became my friends. 50+ years later, many of us still keep in contact and prior to COVID-19, several of us gathered regularly monthly since 2010. Sadly, Kristi passed away in 1999 at the young age of 40. She is still missed to this day and I owe her a debt of gratitude for many of the friends I have today. One of those friends Kristi introduced me to - Stephanie Wright – ended up being my sister-in-law. Guess who introduced me to Stephanie’s brother at her wedding in May 1983? None other than Kristi! LOL. In August 1984 Michelle Cain married Stanley Wright. That’s why I call myself Michelle Cain Wright!

During those years between 1971 and 1984, I graduated from North Central High School in 1977 and went to Indiana University. I spent 3 ½ years there in the Kelly School of Business before it was so named. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and when in the 1st semester of my senior year I discovered that there’s a difference between being smart and being a good student, so when my GPA fell below par AND I was only able to get into one of my required classes after they had the bright idea of registering students in reverse alphabetical order (mind you, I was a “C” back then), my parents said “it’s time to come home and attend IUPUI.” I had 86 hours and was technically a senior. Needless to say, I got my first taste of fulltime employment and after attending evening classes for a while, I pretty much dropped out of school. In 2014 I finally got my Bachelor’s degree from IUPUI at 55 years old. Although I’ve been blessed with gainful employment without it, I do now have something to show for that student loan I paid for and it will look good in my obituary!

In June 1987 when Stanley (Bo) and I welcomed our own little bundle of joy – Steffan Manley Wright, the light of my life! Although the marriage didn’t last, we were able to maintain a good relationship. Sadly, he passed away in 2017.

Michelle and Stanley in 1984 (25 & 28 years old); Steffan in 1988 (1 year old); Steffan in 2017 ( 30 years old)

I was fortunate enough to know all 4 of my grandparents, 3 of whom lived in Dante during all of my childhood into my late 20s. My paternal grandmother lived with my family several years during my childhood after she and my grandfather divorced and my mom took my sister and I to Virginia to visit her parents and my paternal grandfather every other summer from the time I was a young child until I was old enough to get my 1st job at 16. Since my immediate family are my only family in Indiana, I always looked forward to those trips. Reflecting on those days now, I cherish those memories and realize how fortunate I was to have those connections.

Sometime in 2008, I developed an interest in genealogy when one of my mom’s paternal 1st cousins was researching the Campbell side of the family. He lives in Shaker Heights, OH – a suburb of Cleveland – and is retired, so he would take his pad and paper to the Shaker Heights Public Library and copy information from the census and other records that could only be obtained from the resources not available for checkout. He was old school so he wrote everything down, no computer. I really had no idea he was doing this research until one day I received a manila envelope full of information about his and my mom’s grandparents and great-grandparents. Then my mom told me the story about how, when she was a little girl, she asked her aunt why she had a picture of “that white woman” on her wall. Aunt Hazel told her “that white woman is your great-great-grandmother.” I’m thinking to myself “why haven’t I heard this story before?” and the spark was ignited! I asked mom how Aunt Hazel got the picture. She said Grandpa Campbell had a stroke chasing a cow ☹ yes, he was still farming into his 80s. Aunt Hazel took care of him so she became the keeper of all the family treasures, including the picture. The story goes that Amy Kilgore’s husband was the slave owner. Peter was a slave. Perhaps he was a “favored” slave because when the owner became ill, he asked Peter to “take care of my wife”. Mom says that after he died, Peter “took care of her” by marrying her and having a family and that’s how we got here! Again, I thought “why haven’t I heard this story before?”. I honestly thought it was just a story until I had my DNA tested and discovered that in fact, we have lots of Kilgore matches on both Ancestry and 23andMe. I’m looking forward to figuring out the rest of the story and I told mom we definitely need to write a book…stay tuned for more info as I explore the rest of my ancestors’ lives! My dad’s maternal side of the family is interesting as well. I have actually been contacted and received some valuable info from a couple of my European cousins so I am in the process of pursuing the Payne/Foster branch as well. My mom, son, and sister are excited about genealogy…as long as Michelle is doing the work! One day they’ll thank me! I’m “Grana” now, thanks to my grandson, Cain Christopher Wright, born in 20222, so my research is more important than ever!

Clockwise: Amy Kilgore (baby) and her mother (name unknown); Amy’s daughter, Lelia (mom’s grandmother), her son, Lawrence (mom’s dad) and her daughter, Hazel (baby); Peter (left) and his 4 daughters, Mollie, Dora, Lelia, and Maude). I’m not sure who the guy is but mom thinks he’s Peter’s half brother, James Hale.