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Amelia Wilson - Other Articles

Separated Siblings Reunited
Lori Zonner, Journal Staff Writer
Martinsburg Journal News | Tuesday, June 28, 1988

CHERRY RUN - Brother and sister Steve Wilson and Linda Minnick, separated in their youth, came face to face for the first time this past weekend in Berkeley County. Linda had been given up for adoption a few years before their mother was slain in an unsolved murder.

The two siblings now are looking for another brother whom neither has ever met.

Steve and Linda first talked two months ago by telephone and discovered they were brother and sister. Steve, 29, lives in Cherry Run near Hedgesville and Linda, 27, lives in South Carolina.

The two have spent lots of time since then trying to learn about each other's lives.

"There's not a whole lot left to talk about," Linda said, adding for the past two months, the two have exchanged mail, photos and had long telephone conversations.

"I didn't know what to feel. I was stunned, shocked and happy all at the same time,” Steve said, recalling the first time he heard from Linda.

Steve was 2 when his mother gave birth to Linda, then gave her up for adoption. The family was living in Charles Town at the time.

In 1969, when Steve was 10, his mother was murdered in Jefferson County, and he went to live with an aunt and uncle in Leetown. The mother, Amelia Wilson, was 33 at the time of her death. She was clubbed to death and her killer never found.

Linda said when she was growing up in nearby Maryland her adoptive mother told her that she had an older brother. She got in touch with Steve's aunt about two months ago.

Linda said she left it up to Steve's aunt and uncle to decide whether they should tell Steve about his sister.

"I didn't want to interrupt anybody’s life,” she said.

Steve, however, doesn't consider Linda an interruption, he said. He and Linda now are looking for a younger brother who also was given up for adoption by their mother. The two have never met the brother, who now is 24 years old.

Linda said documents in the Jefferson County courthouse give his name as Lewis Louis William Wilson.

Meanwhile, Steve and Linda are discovering they have a lot in common. They both share a love for fishing and enjoy the same type of music.

The first thing the brother and sister did this past weekend was pull out old photographs of family members Linda has never met.

Linda also had the opportunity to meet some of the people in these photographs face to face during a family reunion this past weekend. While many in the family were told of Steve's sister, they did not know Linda would be attending the family reunion.