(circa 1914).
Effa was born in 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Bertha Agnes (née Ford) Brooks and John Marcus Bishop. Bertha and John were not married.
She was one of Bertha Agnes’ seven children, however all her siblings were half-siblings. Effa’s four eldest siblings shared a biological father (John Brooks) and her two youngest siblings shared a different biological father (Benjamin Cole). Effa was given her first stepfather’s last name, Brooks. There has been much confusion and speculation as to Effa’s racial make-up and that is due to this most interesting family tree.
Neither John Brooks, who was Black man, nor Benjamin Cole, who was a mixed-race Spanish (Causcasian) and Native American man, contributed to Effa’s geneology, but their marriages to Effa’s mother and the children that were born to them explain why Effa’s half-siblings were of beautiful darker and varied hues.
Effa was married four times. Her first husband was George Bush; her second husband was Abraham “Abe” Manley; her third husband was Henry Moton Clinton; and her fourth husband was Charles Wesley Alexander. She never had children.
Effa passed away in 1981 In Los Angeles, California, which is her final resting place.