Brother reunited with siblings after 42 years apart
Published: April 17, 2006
Adopted when he was just 18 months old, David Eikleberry, 42, of Norfolk, Va., didn’t know he had six brothers or a sister until this Easter weekend.
The sibling reunion in Marietta turned out to be joyful and surprising for the long-lost brother, and a re-birth of sorts, for the McAtee family.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Eikleberry said with a quiet smile.
Amid the warm scent of pancakes and maple syrup at a Reno Lions Club pancake breakfast Saturday, Eikleberry met two of his brothers, Bill and Ben McAtee.
It had been 42 years since the three were last together.
Only days before he met David McAtee, of Lower Salem and before the week is out, a reunion is planned with his only birth sister, Jeannie Fee, 46, of Chesterfield, Va.
“We’re stopping to see Jeannie on our way home,” said Connie Eikleberry, David’s wife of 20 years. “We only live two hours from her and never knew it.”
The couple and daughters, Courtney, 16, and Dassondra (Rose), 13, (son Clark, 19, was not along) visited Marietta to meet the siblings — separated when Eikleberry was adopted by Sardis-area couple, Horace and Wilda Eikleberry.
The toddler was 18 months old at the time, a resident of the Washington County Children’s Home. His birth name was Bruce McAtee.
The seven remaining McAtee children ultimately grew up at the Children’s Home on Muskingum Drive. The facility has since closed.
“Our parents divorced in 1965 and Mom just couldn’t take care of us on her own,” Bill McAtee said. “All of us kids went to live at the Children’s Home, but they couldn’t keep our youngest brother because he was still in diapers.”
Bill and Ben McAtee met their younger brother for the first time in a long time Saturday morning.
“I remember him, sure I do,” Ben McAtee said. “I was 10 years old. He was with us at the children’s home and we used to feed him.”
Eikleberry’s birth name was Bruce McAtee. His adoptive parents, Horace and Wilda Eikleberry, of rural Cameron, near Sardis, re-named him David.
“I always knew I was from Marietta,” he said of his adoption. “Our parents never hid it from me or my sister (Karen), that we were adopted. I knew in second grade. You don’t keep something like that in a small town. They were afraid somebody would find out and tease us.”
Eikleberry never searched for his birth parents until recently, and didn’t know he had seven siblings living so close.
“It never bothered me to be adopted,” he said. “I was always grateful to them (his adoptive parents). We have a wonderful, loving family.”
In recent years he and his wife decided to try the Internet to find his birth parents and siblings.
“There was always that wonder there,” he said.
A cryptologist with 18 years service in the U.S. Navy, Eikleberry recently returned from six months service in Afghanistan. He plans to retire in two years and will pursue network analysis in civilian life.
“When I was away, it gave my wife time to search the Internet and she came up with some information that helped me find the family,” Eikleberry said.
Last week the couple discovered a birth announcement in an old copy of The Marietta Times while they were doing research at Washington County Public Library’s History and Genealogy Department.
They attempted to get his original birth certificate in Columbus in 2000, but were denied because he was legally adopted.
“I went to a Web site where they helped us know where to look and what to do,” Connie Eikleberry said. “Once we found the birth announcement and the names, Lloyd and Betty Lou McAtee, we went to the city directory.”
The Web site also gave his older sister’s name, address, and phone. The couple phoned Jeannie Fee Thursday.
“David said to his sister, ‘I think I might also have a brother,’” Connie Eikleberry said. “She told him he actually has six brothers.”
Bill McAtee was excited to finally meet his younger brother Saturday.
“It was amazing when my brother David (McAtee) called, and said he was standing here talking to our long-lost brother,” he said. “He had lived up the road at Sardis all this time and we never knew.”
The siblings’ parents are deceased.
“We tried to look for him several times, but were never successful,” Bill McAtee said. “Today we’re taking pictures, visiting with family, and doing a lot of talking. I know we will be keeping in touch from now on.”
There was one more, totally unexpected, revelation for Eikleberry Sunday.
He met Doug Hupp, of Marietta, who is his biological father.
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