Arnold Ancestors - Generation 4 - the Reed family

Now, let's talk a little bit about the Reed family, and how they are connected to our kinfolk.

In the little community of Ida, Arkansas, there were a bunch of Arnolds, Carters, Hickses, Bullards, Tamsetts, Garretts, and a handful of other families. There was often a fine line between friends and relatives. In my research into the family history, I've only run across one instance of "kissing cousins" who married. (They later separated when it was explained to them that they could not be legally joined in marriage.) As we have often discovered, though, there was much intertwining of the branches of these family trees in this little corner of the Ozark mountains. The Reed brothers, Elvin and Elmer, were part of the milieu in which my grandmother, her siblings, and their cousins, grew up and entered their teen years. 

Elvin and Elmer were the sons of Isaac "Jeff" and Bertha Reed. 

PHOTO: Jeff and Bertha Reed, Elvin and Elmer

Elvin Reed (right) was born in 1913. Elmer was born in 1915.

Elvin Reed married Wilma Arnold

PHOTO: Elvin Reed and Wilma Arnold

When they married, Wilma was 14 years old, and Elvin was 16.

Elvin and Wilma divorced in 1944. Elvin's second wife was Imogene Qualls.

Imogene was the twin sister of Maxine Qualls, who was the 2nd wife of Ned Jackson Carter.

PHOTO: Elmer Reed and Opie Arnold

(Opie did not marry him. She married Hershel Tatum -- see yesterday's post.)

Elmer Reed married Ruby Foust in 1937. They were married 57 years, until her death in 1994.

In 1999 Elmer Reed married my grandmother, Cleffie Hicks Burford. (Cleffie had been married to Lester Burford for 55 years.) Cleffie was a cousin of Wilma and Opie Arnold.

Elmer Reed and Cleffie Hicks Burford Reed

So, see... Now you understand how it came to be that my grandmother met her husband at a family reunion. It's okay.