July 15, 2025
In January 1978, Ethel Lee Hoover Ellis was determined to start the Hoover Family Reunion. She had witnessed other families in the community having them and recognized the value of what they were. Therefore, she demanded that her brothers who were living in Lexington see the value of exercising this action of love and legacy by sharing her vision and telling them what she wanted them to do. She wanted to organize a way to keep the 12 branches of the Frank Hoover and the Louella Banks Hoover union together.
She set the time, date, and place for them to meet each Saturday at 6pm in the home of Ethel Lee Hoover Ellis. Walter Hoover, Dewitt Hoover, Mossolina Ellis, Ethel’s son, and Beatrice Hoover, Dewitt’s daughter sat around the kitchen table in Ethel’s home to form The Hoover Family Reunion Planning Committee in 1978. The Hoover Family Reunion Planning Committee in 1978 brainstormed and wrote the first proposal to organize the inaugural Hoover family reunion.
During those meetings, Mossolina took minutes and Ms. Francis Solomon, an employee of Central Mississippi Incorporated, typed the hand-written minutes from Mossolina Ellis. Ethel who was an employee of Central Mississippi Incorporated, sent the typed notices to her sibling announcing The Hoover Family Reunion, inviting and encouraging them to participate. The Committee’s six months of working resulted in the inaugural Hoover Family Reunion being held on July 18, 1978, at Checkmate Bar and Grill in the Balance Dew neighborhood, of Lexington, Mississippi. The Committee worked tirelessly making it the best representation of family, using resources from friends and colleagues, such as Beatrice making copies of the first book at her job. They labored. All the children of Frank Hoover and Louella Banks Hoover attended, except for Abbie Hoover Moore who was ill, having earlier suffered a heart attack, in Kansas City, Mo.
Ethel, Beatrice, and Mossolina drew a tree with leaves on it to represent each child of Frank Hoover and Louella Banks Hoover. They drew falling leaves onto the ground to represent the deceased children.
With Abbie being ill, the second Hoover Family Reunion was held in Kansas City, Mo. During the second reunion, the second line, the grandchildren of the Hoover branches saw the value of family reunions. After much encouragement from Ethel and The Hoover Family Reunion Planning Committee, more branches started participating. The understanding of the Hoover Family Reunion was discerned.
Organizing the Hoover Family Reunion is more than just a gathering—it’s a meaningful act of preservation, connection, celebration and legacy.
Some powerful Visions and Values that drive the importance of The Hoover Family Reunion:
Strengthening Family Bonds
- Reconnect across generations: The Hoover Family Reunion bridges gaps between elders, adults, and youth, allowing stories and wisdom to pass down naturally.
- Build lasting memories: The Hoover Family Reunion shares experiences, deepen emotional ties and create cherished moments that families carry forward.
Preserving Legacy and Culture through capturing storytelling, through multi-media sources.
- Celebrate shared heritage: The Hoover Family Reunion offers a space to honor traditions, customs, and cultural pride unique to your family’s story.
- Document history: Hoover Family Reunion are an ideal time to gather old photos, record oral histories, and capture the essence of ancestors whose stories shaped the present.
Fostering Unity and Support
- Encourage resilience: Hoover Family Reunion serves as a space to address the value of people and property, especially when we face challenges or separation, reunions affirm the importance of sticking together.
- Offer emotional grounding: The Hoover Family Reunion participants value being surrounded by familiar faces, reminding people they are part of something greater than themselves.
- Encouraging education values: Hoover Family Reunions celebrate high educational achievement and scholarship by honoring our youth.
- Celebrate milestones: The Hoover Family Reunion celebrate us. Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, or remembrance, reunions elevate those personal achievements to communal joy. The Hoover Family Reunions are celebrations.
- Facilitate healing: The Hoover Family Reunions work with old wounds finding space to mend in an environment focused on connection and empathy during The Hoover Families Reunions
- The Hoover Family Reunions: deeply values legacy, culture, and storytelling—and beyond.
- Finally, The Hoover Family Reunions respect and honor the Holy Bible. We address the concept of a “lost generation” in various ways, often highlighting the dangers of spiritual apathy and the importance of passing on faith to future generations. We emphasize that while generations may deviate from God’s ways, God’s faithfulness endures, and there is always hope for redemption and return. Amen.