Andrea Genealogy Pages

Discovering our American, Canadian
and European Ancestors and Cousins

First Name Last Name
Home Search  
Share Print Bookmark

Sonia Allison BLACK

Female Abt 1927 - 1974  (47 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    Event Map    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Sonia Allison BLACK 
    Birth Abt 1927  Mannington, Marion, West Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Census 1930  Mannington, Marion, West Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Residence From 1956 to 1964  Kisangani (Stanleyville), Congo Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Death 15 Jan 1974  Saint John, New Brunswick Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Siblings 1 brother 
    Person ID I10772  bmds
    Last Modified 2 Jun 2020 

    Father Ralph Skinner BLACK,   b. 21 Nov 1890, Pleasant Point, Saint John, New Brunswick Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1972 (Age 81 years) 
    Mother Mabel Viola BABINGTON,   b. 21 Jan 1896, Cumberland Bay, Queens, New Brunswick Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown 
    Family ID F4315  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Rev. David Lloyd GRANT,   b. 8 Dec 1924, Saint John, Saint John, New Brunswick Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 15 Jul 1965, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 40 years)  [1] 
    Marriage 9 Aug 1954  Lancaster, Saint John, New Brunswick Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Age at Marriage Sonia : ~ 27 years old | David : 29 years old. 
    Family ID F4464  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Abt 1927 - Mannington, Marion, West Virginia
    Link to Google MapsCensus - 1930 - Mannington, Marion, West Virginia
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 9 Aug 1954 - Lancaster, Saint John, New Brunswick
    Link to Google MapsResidence - From 1956 to 1964 - Kisangani (Stanleyville), Congo
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 15 Jan 1974 - Saint John, New Brunswick
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Notes 
    • Source: When the Lions Fed – Saint John Hostages in Congo (1964)
      Article n. 310 by Ronald J. Jack (Public Historian and Web-publisher)

       In the summer of 1954, Sonia Black and David Grant were married in an obscure little church in West Saint John. She was 28 and he was 29. On the provincial registration document, beside "Occupation", each of them entered "Missionary". They had signed up for language courses and were preparing to devote their lives to mission work in the Belgian Congo. What they got themselves into, and who got them out, make for an interesting story. It is history worth preserving.
       [...]
       The pair of star-crossed missionaries were Saint Johners, through and through. Sonia Black was a Valley-girl, having lived at 262 City Road, almost in the shadow of the General Public Hospital. In fact after graduating from Saint John High School she enrolled in the Nursing School at the General, and was Class Valedictorian in 1947. She received her theological training at the Prairie Bible Institute at Three Hills, Alberta., a western institution with links to many churches in the Maritimes. Her Dad had been a gunner in one of the Siege Batteries in WW1 and returned to work with the C.P.R. Her mother had been office staff with T.S. Simms in Fairville.
       David Grant hailed from Red Head, just east of the city. He was a graduate of the Vocational High School on Douglas Avenue, and the practical knowledge he acquired there served him well in Africa where he built a seminary and a school. After graduation he took theological training with the Atlantic Bible Institute at Hampton Station, N.B. After falling for Sonia he proposed twice. The second proposal was that they devote their married lives to mission work, and their application was accepted by the Unevangelized Field Mission. The U.F.M. was a Christian umbrella group utilizing volunteers from multiple denominations and countries.
       Over the years tens of thousands of Canadians have washed up in some of the world’s danger zones, got in trouble, and had to be rescued. There is drama in bad luck, certainly, but precious little heroism. With Sonia and David Grant we have a different story. They were forced out of Congo by revolutionary blood letting, but could not sit on their hands in Canada while their students, patients an friends were under threat. After a period of recuperation in Saint John, consultation with family, and no doubt plenty of prayers, they went back in. They passed the test of character and they do qualify as Canadian heroes. [continue here…]

  • Sources 
    1. [S2] Newspaper.
      Congo Rescue “By The Lord”

       NEW YORK (CP) —Three Canadian mission workers talked calmly Monday nigh about the possibility of returning to The Congo, where less than a week ago they were hostages of rebels wagin a bitter civil war against the central government.
       “I think we should all be willing to go back when peace returns if we can be useful,” David Grant, 39, of Saint John, N.B. told reporters as the refugees arrived here en route to their homes.
       But they all described the Belgian Army’s brief return to The Congo as a high point in their lives.
       “Our rescue was a miraculous by the Lord,” Grant said.
       His wife, Sonia. 38, said “I hardly dared believe the talk that was going around about the Belgian Army coming in to get us out. It was the sort of dream-like episode that you think of as wildly improbable until it happened.
       “But it happened to us. There was a pause, then she said: “To some of us.”
       Viola May Walker, 59, of Vinemount, Ont. said: “We are so thankful the soldiers came when they did. It was too late for some poor souls but the rest of us have something to be grateful for.”
       Miss Walker was in the group of hostages, held in a mission house five miles outside Stanleyville, from which Rev. Hector McMillan of Avonmore, Ont. was taken and shot by the rebels.
       “There were 25 of us, men, women and children in the house” she said. “On the last morning we were held, a group of simbas (rebels) came into the house, told the women and children to stay inside, and took the two men, Mr. McMillan and an Irish minister, Rev. Robert McAllister, outside.
       “After they had been taken out some of the simbas shot through the room to terrify us. Two of Mr. McMillan’s children were hit.
       “Mr. McMillan heard the shooting while he was being walked away from the house and apparently he turned around and came back to see what was happening to his family. At that point he was shot and killed.
       “I believe he died instantly, wondering what was to become of his family.”
       Grant said the arrival of Lhe Belgian paratroops in was “one of the most joyful moments of my life.”
       The three Canadians and a fourth mission worker who returned with them are members of the Unevangelized Fields Mission. They went immediately to mission headquarters in Philadelphia where they will spend a few days before visiting their homes.
       Mrs Grant said rumors that Belgian soldiers were coming to rescue them began circulating in their hotel prison several days before they were saved, “but I believed them until I saw the Belgian uniforms in the street below.”
       The Grants, in The Congo since 1955 except ior two vacation periods at home, were working at a mission station in the jungle, 60 miles from Stanleyville, when the rebels seized them a month ago and took them into the city. He is a carpenter and mechanic, she is a nurse.
       All three Canadians said they hope lo be reassigned to mission work shortly. Miss Walker, a gray-haired Bible teacher who had been in The Congo since 1936, said there is a chance they will return there “when things settle down.”
       None of the Canadians reported ill treatment, apart from the wild shooting that Miss Walker witnessed, but all were threatened with death at various times.
       Mrs. Grant said “I don’t think they were sure whether they were going to loll us or not.
       “When the rebels seized us, they asked us our nationality. My husband said ‘Canadian.’ The simba standing in front of him looked blank but the one next to him said ‘American’ and us to go with ‘The rest of the Americans.’
       “But later one of them looked up Canada in an atlas and said we weren’t really prisoners because we weren’t Belgians or Americans. However, we weren’t allowed to go, either. There was a Col. Opepe who seemed to like us and tried to keep us out of harm’s way.”
       The Grants and Miss Walker were flown to Brussels from Stanleyville, along with some 70 other refugees They arrived in the Belgian capital Monday and then were put on a nonstop Sabena flight to New York.
      — The Windsor Star, Dec. 1st, 1964.