Another trailblazer in the Caise family was Ora Jane Caise, the fourth daughter of Jacob and America Caise. Ant Ora is what the younger generation of Caise descendants referred to her as, she was born on Feb 2, 1894. Ant Ora was a brilliant individual, one of the first African American women to teach at Mayo-Underwood School. Both a elementary and high school combined. Mayo-Underwood played a major role in the black community of Frankfort, Ky. The school was in a ‘considered’ predominantly black neighborhood known as the ‘Craw’. Today the entire neighborhood lies underneath state buildings; in the 1960s when redevelopment of the area took place, it caused many African Americans in Frankfort to have to relocate to different towns to find affordable living. Some were granted affordable living close by in Frankfort .
Ant Ora taught a third-grade class at Mayo-Underwood when they first opened doors in 1929, she had been teaching at one of two elementary schools for colored children for at least 5 years before. In the same year she decided to go back to college to complete her degree in education. Ant Ora graduated from Kentucky State Industrial College (now Kentucky State University (KSU)) in 1933.
On February 9, 2023, I delivered a message about my family legacy for Kentucky State University’s Green & Gold Day at Kentucky’s Capitol Building. Being a graduating senior at KSU, it truly speaks volumes about the legacy I’m continuing as I graduate this Spring, exactly 90 years after my great-great Ant Ora. The feeling is exhilarating and during my short speech that legacy spoke to two women that were taught by Ant Ora. Mrs. Sheila Mason and Mrs. Barbara White, both women spoke highly of her and were touched by my words. Mrs. Mason spoke of ‘Willie’ a double black telephone cord used by Ant Ora for students that would act out.
Mrs. White spoke of the thanksgiving dinners that Ant Ora would make at school during class, “We use to scoot our desks together to eat and I enjoyed it. It wasn’t like the food at home, it was better”. Mrs. White reminisced as well about ‘Willie’, she stated “She didn’t ever have to worry about that because she was a good child. Ms. Ora was stern, she wanted everyone to learn”. Similar stories were told by others such as Glen Douglas in an oral history report of African Americans in Frankfort, Ky.
“Ms. “Caise would…send us down on the river bank to Sandbar to get our own switches. And she called her switches “Little Willie.” And she would say, “I hear you calling me.” And she would whip my butt with those switches, you know, ’cause I was, ah, I was a little rascal. I was always getting into something at all times.” https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232599737.pdf
While teaching Ant Ora also worked as a maid for the Irion family, Charles Irion was the owner of a chair factory. Ant Ora was their servant when she wasn’t busy teaching at the school. She had grown a very personal relationship with them; they would often lend her money and do things to make sure Ant Ora was taken care of such as paying for her to attend college to become a teacher. In 1930, Mrs. Alta Irion, loaned Ora the money to purchase a house for her mother America Caise and her brother, William Caise, in Elm Bend, Woodford County, Ky. Ora worked to pay the amount back and took ownership of the house, leaving it to William in the event that their mother passed. “Ora was the big sister, she took care of her younger brothers,” Katherine Bush states.
The Irion’s also left Ora with a small fortune and their property at the time of their death. “Their chauffeur, a black man, got some money too, but he was quite upset that Ant Ora received more money and the house,” Katherine Bush states.
The Mayo-Underwood school was demolished in the 1960s. She continued to live in Frankfort, Ky. She was the owner of an Antique Doll Museum that attracted persons, black and white. “Ant Ora would collect dolls and even had the front of house set up as a doll museum, where people would pay to come and view her dolls. She had hundreds of dolls, and we were able to see them for free. The dolls were from all over the world, they were very rare dolls. It’s uncertain of how she was able to get them.” Katherine Bush says as she remembers visiting Ant Ora at her home on Todd Street in Frankfort, Ky. “Ant Ora would entertain her guest in one part of the house and in the other she had, I believe, it was, two rooms set up for as an Antique Doll Museum”. In her will she appoints the executor to sell the dolls, one (pictured below) of which is listed at $5,000 on this website: https://www.theriaults.com/catalog-search?keys=Caise
Ant Ora’s death came on February 17, 1980 when she was 86 years old after battling an unknown illness. Her body was buried in Steele Cemetery “the black cemetery” in Woodford County, Ky. She never married or had any children.; She didn’t even own a car. She adopted a young boy and(name unknown ) as he got older, she depended on him to get her around. Ant Ora was one of the first family members to write our family history. She knew of Ben and Ann Caise, through her mother and father and told of the stories that they told her. She titled her work, ‘Ora Caise’s Family Roots’.
