Roderick Manning of Fort Worth has been looking for relatives in the Chandler area for two years.

On Friday, he’ll meet many of them for the first time.

“I’m attending my first reunion and plan on being a it’s God’s will,” he said. “I

tarted

ooking about two years ago with the regular if it’s God’s will,” he said. “I started looking about two years ago with the thought of getting the family together in Dallas for a reunion.”

Instead, Manning will join perhaps hundreds of other family members this weekend during a three-day celebration of the African- American community in Chandler.

Members of the Wallace family began gathering in the 1940s to celebrate their own legacy and that of other blacks in the Chandler area. But since Vera Martin’s death in the 1980s, the event has happened just three times.

About 250 attended the every-other-year event in 2008.

A fish fry and silent auction, open to anyone, will kick off the reunion on Friday at 6 p.m., at the Chandler Community Center. The Rob Holbert Group will perform at 8:30.

The next day, the family will host a “Take Me Back” celebration, and will honor “people from the past and those who are making a positive impact.” The event will end at Macedonia Baptist Church on Sunday.

Manning said he began learning more about his relatives here during a trip to Chandler last February.

“I was trying to get as much information as I could on Joseph, my great-grandfather, who is supposed to be buried (at Chandler Me- morial Cemetery),” he said. “Then I met Milton, he got to talking, and it was nothing but pure joy.”

Milton Wallace, the family historian, is the son of the late John Milton Wallace. In 2009, Chandler offi cials renamed 6th Street in front of Macedonia Baptist Church as John Wallace Road.

John Wallace was super- intendent of Sunday school, deacon, treasurer, and custodian, and also served in other roles. It was the only church he’d ever joined.

He died in April 2008, at 81. He and his wife, Thelma, had been married for more than half a century.

After retirement in 1982, when Curtis Mathes Corporation closed opearations in Athens, John Wallace became even more active in the community.

He continued supporting his church, repaired watches, mowed yards, and worked at the Macedonia Cemetery, of which he’d been president of the cemetery association.

In the late 1980s, he served one term with the Chandler City Council. He spent 29 years at Curtis Mathes, and also served stateside in the U.S. Army and Navy.

Manning and his wife, Chundra, have five children — Tyler and Taylor, both 16, Tanner and Tyara, both 8, and Chance Thomes, 19.

For the full reunion schedule, visit chandlerreunion2010. com, or call 903-849-6115. Holbert’s Web site is robholbert.com.