An unusually crisp summer breeze greeted Deborah Watts as she pulled up to a sprawling dirt patch on North 29th Street in Omaha. Gone were the remnants of her childhood home, including the swing. Her grandfather made it so big and sturdy that eight kids could fit on it.
The Minnesota resident tries to return to her hometown every few years for Native Omaha Days. Many of those childhood memories, she said during a July visit, stay with her to this day.
Among Watts’ hazy recollections: A night 70 years ago when her aunt, Mamie Till Mobley, turned grief into action from a lectern in an Omaha hotel ballroom. The family returned home and as the conversation turned serious, Watts, who wasn’t quite 3, was sent off for a nap…