Both fell near Bank of Red Level, 69 years apart

Ethel Crouch didn’t feel quite right on Feb. 27, the day her twin brother, Eddie Giles Sr., died in front of the People’s Bank of Red Level.

Giles died of a massive heart attack near the same spot where his father, York, was killed in 1946.

Ethel and Eddie were 8 years old when their father was killed by Walt Castleberry over a matter of $5, a mere two or three steps away from where Eddie would fall decades later.

“We used to play up and down the streets,” Ethel said. “We saw the man when he shot him.”

Ethel said she doesn’t remember the exact day that her father was shot, but knows it took place in March.

The result of York’s death came when Ethel’s first cousin wanted to borrow $5. Crouch’s father wouldn’t let her cousin have the money, thus prompting the cousin to tell Castleberry.

On the day that Giles died, Crouch said her brother had had a lot on his mind.

“I felt funny,” she said about that day. “Sometimes, when he gets sick, I feel his pain. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t put it together.

“Eddie died of a massive heart attack, but he had a lot of things on his mind about his little boy,” she said. “We used to talk all of the time. We talked the night before his death. He had had a hard life, me and him both, picking cotton. That’s why he went into the service.”

Giles served in the U.S. Army and had many tours in Vietnam, Korea and Germany.

By going into the service, Giles helped keep his mom, Nobie, from working and helped Ethel go to school.

“I just don’t know,” Crouch said. “We were kind of close. He went into the service to save my momma from working so I could go to school. That’s what he did. He went on and got missing in action for six months. They found him in another hospital, but we thought he was dead.”

Crouch said she’s going to miss her brother, a lot.

“I know one thing, he loved Red Level,” she said. “He loved Red Level. That was our hometown.”

Giles is survived by a wife, Eva Bradshaw Giles of Andalusia; four sons, Eddie Lee (Mamie) Girls Jr. of Mobile, Robert Williams of Hartford, Conn., General (Jenise) Bradshaw III of Huntsville and Michael Giles of Andalusia; five daughters, Victoria (Dr. Daniel T.) Taylor of Andalusia, Melissa Williams of Hartford, Conn., Diana (Elder Albert) Rawls of Snellville, Ga., Teressa (Elder Tread) Maines of Smyrna, Ga. and Dr. Laurie (Willie) Hillstock of Easley, S.C.; twin sister, Ethel Crouch of Andalusia; 11 grandchildren; special cousin, David Stewart of Huntsville; and a host of nephews, nieces, cousins, other relatives and friends.