Charlotte Vieux was the mother of Jim Thorpe. Growing up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Indian Territory Jim Thorpe attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was a two-time All-American for the school’s football team under coach Pop Warner.
After his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union. In 1913, he played for the Pine Village Pros in Indiana.
In 1913, Thorpe signed with the New York Giants and played six seasons in Major League Baseball between 1913 and 1919. Thorpe joined the Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships.
He later played for six National Football League (NFL) teams. He played part of several all-American Indian teams throughout his career and barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of American Indians.
Meet Charlotte Vieux, Jim Thorpe’s mother
Charlotte Vieux was well known to be the celebrity mother of Jim Thorpe. She is a Potawatomi and was born in 1861 in Kansas. She had a French father and a Potawatomi mother, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux, and was the daughter of Jacob Vieux her father, and Elizabeth Goslin her mother.
Though many Potawatomi were relocated to Indian Territory in 1867, the 1870 U.S. Census lists her as a nine-year-old student at “St. Mary’s Academy” in Pottawatomie, Kansas.
Charlotte, in her 20s, looked very beautiful and was attracted to many men, but fortunately, she was taken by her lovely husband and the two got married in 1880.
The two were very happy together, and they were blessed with four children, all boys and a twin Jim Thorpe and his brother Charlie Thorpe, and the other two, George Thorpe and Edward Thorpe.
Charlotte lived for 40 years and died on November 17, 1901, in Indian Territory, United States. She died of childbirth complications and was buried at Sacred Heart Cemetery, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma.
Source: nflfaqs.com
