Home > Family History > Daniel Lee Whitaker, Sr.

• Name: Daniel Lee Whitaker, Sr.
• Born: July 15, 1939 Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
• Father: Emmett Lane Whitaker
• Mother: Della Lee Pitts
• Married: July 15, 1963 Fulton County, Georgia
• Spouse: Lorita Blackstone
• Children:
• Vanessa E. S. Whitaker
• Daniel Lee Whitaker, Jr.
• Janette Gross Whitaker
• March 4, 1990, Clallam County, Washington
• Spouse: Dianne Putnam
• Died: April 30, 2020
• Buried: Dungeness Cemetery, Sequim, Clallam County, Washington

He was in the marines but was discharged because he developed rheumatic fever. —VW

The Texas birth index gives county code 177 (Nolan County) for his birth but this is probably a typo. County 178 is Nueces County and he was born in Corpus Christi (VW), Nueces County. However, in the 1940 Census he was living in Taylor County, Texas, which neighbors Nolan County.

He was in the National Guard in Arkansas and the events at Little Rock in 1957 scarred him forever. He became a fervent anti-racist and led voting registration drives and attended civil rights rallies. His daughter Vanessa remembers him taking her out of school on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and being the only white family in sight that attended rallies for equal rights in Atlanta.

Sources:

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209808191/daniel-lee-whitaker
• 1940 US Census, Texas, Taylor County, Abilene, South Third Street, House 2702, Line 26. Name, Daniel Whittaker; Relation, son; Relation code, 2; Male; White; Age, 9/12; Single; Attended school or college, no; Highest grade completed, none; Birthplace, Texas; Place of birth code, 87.