When James Ralph White Sr was born on 23 November 1929, in Bedford, Tennessee, United States, his father, Charles Newton White, was 23 and his mother, Mary Adell Riddle, was 17. He had at least 2 sons with Lois Roberts. He lived in Flat Creek, Bedford, Tennessee, United States in 1940. He died on 2 October 2002, in Tullahoma, Coffee, Tennessee, United States, at the age of 72, and was buried in Lynchburg City Cemetery, Lynchburg, Moore, Tennessee, United States.
English: from Middle English white, wit (Old English hwīt ‘white’), hence a nickname for someone with white hair or a pale complexion. In some cases it is perhaps from a Middle English survival of the Old English personal name Hwīta, a short form of names in Hwīt- (from hwīt ‘white’). The name may also be topographic, referring to someone who lived by a bend or curve in a river or road (from Old English wiht ‘bend’), the source of the placename of Great Whyte in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (compare Wight ). This name is also a variant of Wight . The surname White is also very common among African Americans.
Irish and Scottish: adopted for any of several Irish and Scottish Gaelic names based on bán ‘white, fair’ (see Bain 1, McElwain ) or fionn ‘fair’ (see Finn 1). The English surname has been Gaelicized in Ireland as de Faoite.
Americanized form (translation into English) of various European surnames meaning ‘white’, for example German Weiss , French Blanc , Polish Białas (see Bialas ), Slovenian Belec , or any other synonymous Slavic surname beginning with Bel-, Bev-, Biel- or Bil-.
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