SIPES, Thomas M. /James Ross – (1900-1953) was a son of Mina and William H. Sipes, editor and publisher of the Frenchtown Star.
In an exhaustive study of the Sipes family finished in 2017, his great-niece Stacey Rister supplies many details of Uncle Tom's career.
He was a Linotype operator in his father's print shop before the Great War. Thomas joined the Army, deserted from it, and then joined the Navy as “James Ross.” After the war, he returned to Frenchtown – the Census has him home and doing nothing in 1920. “When a carnival came to town, he left with it,” writes Rister. He would return seasonally as a carny when the carnival brought its attractions to the Porcelain Field in the 1930s.
He lived in North Carolina, answering to the name James Ross, and working as a painter for many years. After a marriage and a divorce, he married Myrtle Cole, widow of a carnival owner, and they resided in Kingston, N.C.
But he did not sever ties to his family. “If his sister Wilma (Mitchell) wanted to get in touch with him, she put an ad in the 'Billboard' newspaper for show-business people. When he saw the ad, he would call her. He would often send Wilma and her family gifts in crates from Florida. One time he sent (his niece) Beth Mitchell a diamond ring in a hollowed-out tangerine located in a crate,” Rister wrote.
“On another occasion he sent Wilma a black cocker spaniel, which he found on the street." The dog arrived by rail at the Frenchtown train station, starving, dehydrated and snarling. The stationmaster called Wilma to come and get the dog. She brought a leash and walked him home. The dog lived out his life with the Mitchells, under the name of “Blinkie.”
Rister presents scores of sepia-toned Sipes family photos – relatives standing on lawns, on the river bridge, in gardens, in the cemetery, on the railroad platform or in front of a theater; swimming in the Delaware; holding brooms or babies; and sitting on a running board, on a porch or at a Linotype machine. But only one photographic subject stands at ease with a toothpick slanting down from his mouth. Guess who.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
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