Amar’e Stoudemire

19th Annual ESPY Awards - Arrivals

Stoudemire in 2011, photo by Prphotos

Birth Name: Amar’e Carsares Stoudemire

Place of Birth: Lake Wales, Florida, U.S.

Date of Birth: November 16, 1982

Ethnicity: African-American

Amar’e Stoudemire is an American and Israeli basketball player and coach. Initially with the National Basketball Association (NBA), he has played for the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the Dallas Mavericks, the Miami Heat, Hapoel Jerusalem, Fujian Sturgeons, and Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the U.S. Olympic team. He won NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003. He has been a player development assistant for the Brooklyn Nets, and owns a large share of Hapoel Jerusalem.

His parents, Carrie (Palmorn) and Hazell Stoudemire, are both African-American. His mother performed agricultural work, and moved with Amar’e to upstate New York when he was a child, where Amar’e lived in Newburgh and Port Jervis. He is married to Alexis Welch, with whom he has four children. In 2019, Amar’e became an Israeli citizen; he has played for Israeli teams.

Amar’e formally converted to Judaism in 2020, with a Rabbinical Court. He took on the Hebrew name Yahoshafat Ben Avraham.

In the past, Amar’e had sometimes said that his mother had some degree of Jewish ancestry. It is not clear if Jewish heritage has been verified/documented for Amar’e’s mother.

Amar’e’s paternal grandfather was Jimmie/Jimmy J. Stoudemire, Jr. (the son of Jimmy Stoudemire and Lillie Smith). Amar’e’s grandfather Jimmie was born in Alabama.

Amar’e’s paternal grandmother was Oriephine Lamar (the daughter of Joe/Joseph David Lamar and Alabama Robinson). Oriephine was born in Alabama. Joe was the son of Will/William Lamar and Mittie/Mit Dejarnette.

Amar’e’s maternal grandfather was Jack Palmorn (the son of Joe Palmorn and Carrie Jackson). Jack was born in Georgia.

Amar’e’s maternal grandmother was named Bessie Bell Thomas.

Sources: http://njjewishnews.com
http://www.jpost.com

Article about Amar’e’s Judaism – https://ohr.edu

32 Responses

  1. Mixed Kidd says:

    Why doesn’t it say Israeli Jewish in his ethnicity but yet in the tag? I noticed this site doesn’t put the full ethnicity for AA besides just putting their roots in the tag but for everyone’s they put all of their ethnicities?

  2. bablah says:

    Amar’e’s paternal grandfather was Jimmie/Jimmy J. Stoudemire, Jr. (the son of Jimmy Stoudemire and Lillie Smith).

    *Joe/Joseph David Lamar.
    Joe was the son of Will/William Lamar and Mittie/Mit Dejarnette.

    Palmorn and Carrie Jackson).

        • Oaken05 says:

          DeJarnette, obviously. That’s the only one he could conceivably be talking about.

          Anyway, what’s weird is that there is a Mittie Dejarnette whose parents are listed as a Fate and Delia Stoudermire, and all have Alabama listed as their birthplace. Southern Alabama was settled by the French, but I’m not sure if they would technically be classified as Creoles.

          There is also another Mittie Dejarnette in Alabama whose parents are named Allen DeJarnell and Clarisy.

          • bablah says:

            I would consider a person from Mobile to be Creole, if they are descended from a French speaking population. See Victoria Monet’s page. Now, Amar’e’s family is from around Montgomery, and DeJarnette is mostly of Huguenot origin in the US, and Huguenots I would not consider Creole. I mean, technically, they are, as French speaking people in the New World, but Creole is usually used for people from Louisiana, otherwise all French-Canadians would be Creole. Even Cajuns aren’t considered Creole because they first settled in Canada.

  3. jackson9 says:

    It say Amare Stoudemire was submitted April this year? I remember submitting him a few years ago then one of the admins resubmitted him a couple weeks later. why is he submitted again a couple months ago?

  4. Oaken05 says:

    Bablah, I tried coming up with Jimmie J in a Census previous to the 1940 Census and couldn’t. You find anything else?

    Like I said, I have a black Jimmie StoudeRmire in the 1930 Census from that county living with his mother and father Jim and Lillie, and a host of other siblings and nieces and nephews. Then I find a death record for James Stoudemire born in 1910 in the same county who dies in 1973. And then a mulatto James W StoudeRmire born in 1910/11 in the same county. And then all the others ones I’ve listed above. It’s super strange that there are this many James/Jimmie Stoudemires in this county born around the same time.

    I’ve love to see if you can ferret out who his parents were.

  5. Oaken05 says:

    If I traced this right, this is his grandfather James “Jimmie” who appears to have been born in 1910, though you see 1911 estimates:

    https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK3J-T7Q

    I assume this is maybe him because you find this name in the same county in the 1940 Census with his wife Oriephine. It lists him as “Mulatto” in the 1910 Census and without a father, which could point to him having had a white grandfather, though that would be a total guess. James W’s mother was named Eldosia, and she’s listed as having been born around 1887 in Alabama.

    Unusually, there appears to be at least one other family in the county with the same surname, which makes it hard to find him in the 1920 and 1930 Censuses. If anyone can unravel this, that would be great. I thought the surname would be fairly rare for that area. For instance, there is a “Mulatto” James Stoudemire listed in the 1920 Census in the same county around the same age, but he’s living with grandparents (Sidney and Laura) and a woman between them named “Carrie.” Carrie is out of the picture by the 1930 Census with this James still living with his grandmother Laura. Then there is a death record from 1973 for the same Alabama county of a James Stoudemire whose birthday is listed as 1910 and his mother listed as “Carrie.”

    So we have Eldosia once and Carrie listed twice as potential mothers for Jimmie. I’m guessing that maybe the 1910 entry for James W is a different guy, and the James we know is born in 1911?

    • bablah says:

      Millions of African.Americans were listed as “Mulatto” solely based on their complexion. I wouldn’t put too much thought into it.

      • andrew says:

        @bablah

        That “mulatto” Census stuff never made sense to me. I mean if they made such category, why should not be valid? I know it may not imply a white parent, but certain mixed-race phenotypes do not come out of nothing.

        So I am sure Bertran Philander Ross Hendrix was listed as mulatto because he was a mulatto indeed (as his facial features suggested).

        A little fact from B.B. King autobiography. He wrote that once he was in trouble with cops back in the days because they found him around with a girl they thought she was white, but he got away claiming she was a mulatta.

    • bablah says:

      Amar’e’s grandfather died in 1959 in Florida, so any man with the same name that didn’t is a different man.

      >Lamar and Alabama Robinson

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