McGill, Hughes Eugene
(born: April 22, 1920 - died: January 22, 1971)Though it has been written that Hughes E. McGill was born in Louisville, KY, he was actually born in Union, SC according to his World War II Draft Registration Card. McGill had lived in South Carolina and North Carolina with his parents.
McGill, his mother, and his stepfather were living in Brooklyn, NY when McGill registered for the Army in 1942. His mother had remarried (Edward Booker) in New York April 30, 1940 [source: New York Marriage License Index in Ancestry]. In 1949, Hughes McGill had returned from the Army and was again living in Brooklyn when he married Charlotte Edna Smith.
In 1957, McGill and his wife moved to Louisville, his wife's hometown. Prior to the move McGill had been a waiter for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company; he filed a complaint in an attempt to collect his last paycheck from the company [source: Award No. 10738. Parties to Dispute: United Transportation Service Employs The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. Docket No. DC 10399. National Railroad Adjustment Board. 3rd Division. Jerome A. Levinson, Referee. (online .pdf)].
Hughes McGill had been employed by the B & O Railroad Company for a few years. In 1948 he was injured when the passenger train, The Diplomat, "jumped the rails in Laurel, Maryland." A dinner car and three Pullman cars were knocked off the tracks and a sleeper car overturned. McGill suffered a leg injury and was taken to Leland Memorial Hospital in Riverdale, MD. [Source: "1 Dies; 31 Hurt in B. & O. Train Crash in MD," Indianapolis Recorder, 6/19/1948, p. 9].
Once in Louisville, McGill became active in local politics and was elected Representative to the Kentucky General Assembly, 1968-1971, representing the 42nd District (Louisville). He died before his term ended; his wife, Charlotte McGill, completed the term.
Hughes McGill was the son of Effie J. Hughes McGill Booker and Dr. William Odell McGill (dentist) [source: 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census]. He was a graduate of West Virginia State College [now West Virginia State University], the Mondell Business Institute, and the University of Louisville. He was a World War II veteran.
For more information see the Smith-McGill Family Papers at the University of Louisville Libraries Special Collections and Archives; "William O. McGill" in History of the American Negro: South Carolina Edition, edited by A. B. Caldwell, pp. 735-736 (online at Google Books)]; and contact the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission.