Ernestine Mack Marshall was the second of three children born to William Hunter Mack and Essie
Coleman Mack in Birmingham, AL on September 4th, 1936. She was their only girl. She grew up in the loving home
that William and Essie provided when they moved to Birmingham from their rural hometowns. She was a student
of Birmingham Public Schools -- attending both Lewis and Lincoln Elementary Schools. She graduated from A.
H. Parker High School in 1953. Later that year she began her college studies at Fisk University in Nashville, TN.
and was a proud college graduate in 1957. She returned to her hometown of Birmingham and began working as a
librarian for the Birmingham Public Library, operating the Bookmobile based at the Titusville branch of the library.
Soon thereafter she met and married the love of her life, Robert Lee Marshall, of Birmingham, AL. They moved
to Tuskegee, Alabama and began operating a new branch office of the independent insurance agency that they
co-owned, Alexander and Company, Inc. They began a family and started raising their first child, Adrienne P.
Marshall. During the 1960s, Mrs. Marshall was initiated into the Tuskegee Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta
Sorority, Incorporated. She cultivated various associations with members of the Tuskegee community, and started
schooling her child through the day care and school services located on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. As the
70's drew near she returned with her husband to Birmingham, where they both worked in the main office of their
insurance agency.
During the 70's, Mrs. Marshall was inducted into Jack and Jill of America, Birmingham Chapter. She continued
as a sorority member of Delta Sigma Theta, and continued her membership with St. John AME Church, a church
affiliation she had begun during her teen years. She also nurtured her many friendships through Les Elites, an active
social club for her friends and spouses. She hosted formal affairs for her husband's fraternity, and her dad's masonic
and Shriner organizations, and her own sorority. She traveled and celebrated holidays with her family throughout
the country. She supported her family members and did what she could to help them achieve their goals.
In 1974, Mrs. Marshall welcomed the birth of her second child, Rodney Alan Marshall. Adrienne was now a
freshman in high school and Mrs. Marshall was experiencing many changing family dynamics. She had increasing
responsibilities over time, due to the health crises of her parents, parent's siblings, and her husband. As she raised
her youngest, her oldest progressed through college and graduate school outside of the state. Ernestine's role as a
caregiver took center stage.
Mrs. Marshall cared for her live-in uncle, Sandy Joseph, until his death at 99 years of age. She cared for her live-in
mother, Essie, for nearly two decades as a stroke victim, until her death at 84. She oversaw the care of her husband
after a difficult and ultimately unsuccessful heart surgery. He died in 1996. And during a nearly 13-year period
after her husband's death, she cared for her live-in Dad until his death at 98 1⁄2 years of age.
As time permitted, she was able to cultivate new hobbies for herself. Scrapbooking and genealogy became her
passion. Her research brought her closer to others who were knowledgeable about family subjects, and ultimately
this led her to learn her family history back 7 generations to the slaves, Mike and Phoebe. She made new friends
and learned of more family based upon this information. The popularity of her scrapbooks grew beyond her family
members, and she created her books at the request of community leaders and others, researching and documenting
their lives with care and detail. But her own health issues began to impact her ability to continue actively pursuing
her hobby. Fortunately, the many creative scrapbooks she created for family and community members, will allow
her work as a self-proclaimed "griot" to live on.
Ernestine Mack Marshall died in the early hours of Wednesday, August 24, 2022. She leaves behind to cherish
and preserve her memory, one daughter, Adrienne Patrice Marshall of Birmingham, AL; one son, Rodney Alan
Marshall, of Birmingham, AL; one brother, Ulysses B. Mack of Atlanta, GA; and one sister-in-law, Claudia Mack
of Houston, TX. She also leaves behind a host of nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, cousins, extended
family members and friends who will fondly remember her.