In Memoriam - February 21

 Floyd Ambrose Morell was born 21 February 1952

I'm not sure just how to describe my relationship with Floyd. He came into my life when I was the choir director and Fairhope Christian Church, and we were interviewing applicants for accompanist. Even before I heard him play the piano, though, he seemed special in some way. (To me, at least. Not necessarily to the rest of the committee.) Then when we did hear him play the piano -- wow! I wish I could attach a recording to this post, so you could hear him play -- he was hired on the spot. We worked together with the choir for a couple years, until Floyd's failing health became too much for him to overcome. During that time, Floyd had an influence on me that I still can't quite find words to describe. "Coming home" is the closest I can get. Somehow, Floyd helped me to remember who I was, deep inside -- which I didn't even realize I had forgotten. When my mother first met him, she told me she felt something special about him, too. She said she thought he might be an angel. I've thought a lot about that since then, and I think she might be right. The Bible says, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Floyd might have been one of them.

Floyd Ambrose Morell died 28 August 2012, at age 60. 

Rest in peace.

On This Day in Family History - February 20

 Melvin Thomas married Alta Luella McConnohie 20 February 1919

Mel was a brother to my grandfather Bill Thomas. 

Mel and Alta had two children: Roger and Geraldine ("Jerry")

L: Melvin Thomas        R: Mel and Alta with Roger, 1923

L-R: Bill & Christie Thomas, Mel & Alta Thomas, Irwin & Renue Thomas Wells

(Renue was Bill and Mel's sister)

Mel, Jerry, Alta

Their 60th wedding anniversary 1979

Today in Family History - February 19

 

Remember when cameras used film? And remember when you got the printed pictures and the negatives? One of the things I inherited with all the family photos was a box full of negatives. When I bought a device that allowed me to view and save the negatives, I discovered a whole new world of old memories!

Karen Lynn Burford married Jon Renk, 19 February 1994

I don't know all these folks. Jon and Karen are in the center. Karen's sister Leslie is to the right of Karen.

Please don't eat the roses.

On This Day in Family History - February 18

 Eula Mae Burnett Arnold died 1990

Eula Mae was the 2nd wife of George Ned Arnold

George was a brother to my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks

George Arnold with his 2nd wife Eula Mae. They had five children -- a boy, "Bud", and four girls, Clora Mae, Ruby, Delena, and Bertha Lee.

Uncle George's first wife Jessie died shortly after their 8th child was born. His mother (my great-grandmother Adaline Arnold) moved in with him and took care of him and the children for five years until he married Eula Mae. Uncle George died about a year after their youngest child Bertha Lee was born. (So this is probably one of the last pictures ever taken of him.) Some time after George died, Eula Mae married a man named Fred McKinney. 

Photo: Some of Uncle George's children and some of Annie's children. (Verlie was one of George and Jessie's girls -- a half-sister to Ruby, Bud, and Clora Mae.)

Photo: Bud Arnold (center), Cleffie on the left, Bud's half sister Obie on the right.

Left: Ruby Arnold.          Right: Delena Arnold.

Bertha Lee Arnold

I don't have any adult pictures of Clora Mae. She died at age 48.

I do have one picture of Eula Mae's mother. It's not a very good picture, but here it is:

Vicci Elizabeth Massey Burnett

On This Day in Family History - February 17

 Isabel Matilda Carter Cartee was born 17 February 1875

She was the daughter of Ned Jonas Carter and Nancy Jane Evans,

a sister to my great-great-grandmother Adaline Carter Arnold,

"Aunt Tilda" to my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks

Jane Evans Carter, Adaline Carter Arnold, Annie Arnold Hicks

Tilda married Thomas Cartee  and they had five children - Guy Rufus, Ora Val, Geneva Catherine, Leamon, and Lucy. Leamon and Lucy died in childhood. Tom Cartee's brother Will married Tilda's younger sister Ellen. Tom and Will's sister Rebecca Cartee married George Rufus Carter, a son of Tilda and Ellen's brother Wesley Carter. The two group photos below include some of the people mentioned -- Guy Rufus Cartee, Ora Val Cartee (Blankenship), Will Cartee, Ellen Carter Cartee, George Rufus Carter -- along with assorted other relatives of the Carter lineage. 

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Tilda died at age 25 from tuberculosis.

On This Day in Family History - February 16

 Agnes Earle Carter married Elmer Sidney Baker 16 February 1930

Agnes was the daughter of John Martin Carter

(John Martin Carter was a brother to my great-great-grandmother Adaline Carter Arnold. So Agnes would be a first cousin to my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks.)

Agnes and Elmer had three children: Melvin Eugene, Harold Wayne, and Roy Glen

Photo: Melvin died age 24 (I don't know his cause of death)

Photos: Harold Wayne Baker, Roy Glen Baker

Agnes and Elmer were married 40 years until his death in 1970.

Agnes lived as a widow for 32 years until her death on their wedding anniversary 16 February 2002.

OBIT:

AGNES EARLE CARTER BAKER

Agnes Carter Baker, age 88, of Banner passed away Saturday, Feb. 16, 2002. She was the daughter of John M. and Amy Tamsett Carter. She married Elmer Baker on Feb. 16, 1930 in Banner, AR. They had sons, Melvin, Wayne and Roy Glen. Her husband Elmer and son Melvin preceded her in death as did her parents and brothers Otheneil, Ned, Ollie, Elmer and sister Lavada Carter Tatum. Survivors are sons, Wayne and Glen, sisters, Ruth Carter Hodges and Eulene Carter Daugherty, twelve grandchildren, twenty-five great grandchildren, four great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews who dearly loved her. Burial was in Pine Grove Cemetery near Floral.

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The group pictures below contain several of the people mentioned in Agnes' obituary.

On This Day in Family History - February 15

 Albert Earl Williams was born 15 February 1907

Photo: This is not Albert. This is his brother Tom. I don't have a picture of Albert.

Albert Earl Williams was a son of Albert and Charlotte ('Tot') Hicks Williams

'Aunt Tot' was a sister to my great-grandfather Ulysses Hicks

Photo: Ulysses and Annie Hicks, Tot and Albert Williams

Uncle Albert's middle name was Franklin. Their son Albert's middle name was Earl, and he was called Earl. He was the oldest of five children. After him came Tom, Dorothy, Dona, and Charlene. All three of the girls died in childhood. I don't know how Dona and Charlene died. Dorothy was struck by lightning. Here is the story about that, as written by my grandmother Cleffie Hicks Burford:

    My father was teaching school at “Big 4”, a little two room school about five miles out of Judsonia in the country.  He taught there for two years and this was his first year.  We lived about a mile from the school house.  I was four years old in August and the storm I’m going to tell about came on the 24th day of November.  The year was 1921. Papa, as we called our father, and both my sisters, Ruby and Irene, were at school.  Mama and my little brother, Elvin, and I were at home. I don’t remember exactly what time of day it happened but I think it was early afternoon.  Anyway, this big storm came up and before we knew what was happening it was raging something terrible.  I remember that Mama got Elvin and me on the bed and then she got on there with us.  We lay on the bed and watched out the window as the wind whipped the trees in fury, sometimes bending the trees almost to the ground and then suddenly flinging them back the other direction. The rain was coming down like it would never stop, and the thunder and lightning was so close it was frightening.  Such a vicious storm I had never seen before. Mama tried not to let on that she was scared but I knew she was.  She told us not to touch the metal bedstead because metal can draw lightning, but she felt that being on the bed made us safer from the lightning as long as we didn’t touch the metal. So there we lay for what seemed like an eternity before the storm began to let up.  And then all of a sudden it was over.  What a relief!  But Mama was still worried about Papa and the girls.  There was no way to get in touch with them; no telephones or anything.  Even if there had been telephones they would all be out of order now. The storm would have all the lines down. Mama was getting more anxious all the time, in fact, she was walking back and forth by this time, looking in the direction of the school house.  Pretty soon the neighbor boy came running by on his way home from school and yelled out that there had been “a bad storm today and a lot of people were killed.”  Well, that just about finished Mama off.  But just about that time here came Papa and the girls. Talk about relief!  Mama was so relieved even I could feel it. However, there was a sad note in their arrival.  Papa said that someone had come to the school house after the storm and told him that his niece Dorothy Williams had been struck with lightning and killed.  She was Aunt Tot’s and Uncle Albert’s daughter and was something like 6½  months older than me.  Anyway, Papa turned out school early and came home. Mama was so upset with the neighbor boy for telling such a big “fib” and scaring her almost to death she just wanted to shake him real hard.  Of course, she never did say anything to him about it that I know of.  I don’t know what possessed him to say that a “lot” of people got killed. 

   Dorothy had been standing by her daddy, who was sitting in a rocking chair in front of the fireplace, with her hand on his knee when the lightning struck the corner of the house right by the fireplace and, of course, struck her at the same time. It almost killed her daddy, but they worked with him and he got alright. The doctor pronounced Dorothy dead.  But Aunt Tot told us years later that her body never did get cold.  She was still warm when they buried her.  Aunt Tot thought it was odd but didn’t say anything because she didn’t know but what that was normal.  Later she said if it was to do over she would say something.  The doctor probably didn’t know she stayed warm.  He most likely didn’t see her again after he pronounced her dead.

That story has haunted me my whole life! Dorothy was 4 years old when she died.

On This Day in Family History - February 14

 Tsurumi Okatani married Lawrence Kessler

I don't know what the date was when my mother-in-law and father-in-law were married. So I'm choosing Valentine's Day arbitrarily. They were married in Tokyo, Japan. Larry was an American G.I. stationed in Japan. Tsurumi was a Japanese citizen whose father had been killed in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped there. He was not killed immediately. He died slowly of radiation poisoning over a period of months. Tsurumi was a young teenager at the time and helped care for him through his illness. Her mother did not want her to marry an American G.I. -- which is totally understandable. Tsurumi had left home and was living on her own (with a couple of girlfriends) at the time she met Larry. She was 19 years old when they met in 1950. Their first child (Alan, my husband) was born in Japan in 1954. Larry was still in the military and was transferred back to the U.S. in 1955. Tsurumi lost all contact with her family after that.

After coming to the U.S. they lived in California, Montana, Maine, Texas, Utah, and then finally came back to Fairhope, Alabama, where Larry's parents lived. 

Tsurumi and Alan (and his sister Vickey, who was born in Montana) stayed with Larry's parents while he served a term in Vietnam. After that he retired. They built a house on the family property, next door to his parents, and lived there until Larry's death in 1988. Alan lived on the property next door to his mother from then on until we got married, and we settled into our own house on the property a year later. 

This is the only other picture I have of Alan's father Larry Kessler.

Tsurumi lived with her daughter Vickey in Mobile for the last few years of her life until she got too sick, and then she stayed with us and we took care of her until she died on 25 April 2022 at the age of 91. 

On This Day in Family History - February 13

 Chester G. Linville died 13 February 1996, age 80

Chet Linville was the father of Morris Burford's 2nd wife Kay.

Photo (L-R): Chet and Regenia Linville (parents of the bride), Kay Linville and Morris Burford, Cleffie and Lester Burford (parents of the groom).

Photo: Charles Jones, Chet Linville, Guthrie Dean (preacher), front - George Linville (Chet's son)

George Linville died in 1990, Regenia Linville died in 1992. Kay died in 2016.

Graves  of Chet and Regenia Linville

Coloma Cemetery, Coloma, Michigan

On This Day in Family History - February 12

Alyce Thomas Spayde was born 12 February 1907

She was the daughter of Clarence and Margaret Hughes Thomas 

(Clarence was the oldest brother of my grandfather Bill Thomas)

Photo: Clarence Thomas

I don't have a picture of Margaret

Clarence and Margaret had four children - Alyce, Hugh, Chuck, and Nancy

Photos: Alyce, Hugh, Charles (Chuck) Thomas

Photo: Nancy Thomas

Alyce married Marvin Spayde, and they had two children -- Tom and Suzanne

This is the only picture I have of Tom Spayde. It is from a newspaper article about his retirement. I don't have a picture of Suzanne. I don't have a picture of Tom's wife Marlene.

Alyce died in 2007 at the age of 100

OBIT:

Alyce L. Spayde, age 100, of Kalamazoo (formerly of Gobles and Bloomingdale), passed away Thurs., May 3, 2007, at Bickford Cottage in Portage. She was born Feb. 12, 1907 in Bangor, MI, the daughter of Margaret and Clarence Thomas. Alyce graduated from Western Michigan University, known then as Western Normal, and was an elementary grades teacher for many years in the Gobles, Bloomingdale and Centreville school systems. Alyce was preceded in death by her parents and her loving husband of 48 years, Marvin, in 1975. Also, Alyce was preceded in death by a sister, Nancy Thomas, as well as two brothers, Charles "Chuck" and Hugh Thomas. Alyce was known by many whom would recall her at Marvin's side assisting in their family drug stores in both Bloomingdale and Gobles. In addition, generations of students will fondly remember her in the classroom as an outstanding, dedicated and loving teacher. Alyce was a member of the Michigan Retired Teachers' Association. For many years, Alyce enjoyed propagating and growing violets in her home. She is survived by her loving family, daughter, Suzanne (Jack) Smith of Kalamazoo, and son, Thomas W. (Marlene) Spayde of Fernandina Beach, FL. In addition, Alyce is survived by six grandchildren, Laurie (Ken) Byrns of Fernandina Beach, FL; Linda (Andy) Blodgett of San Luis Obispo, CA; Katrina (Jim) VanHoose of Battle Creek, MI; Elizabeth (Gary) Formet of Lexington Park, MD; Gretchen (Tim) Lyle of Kalamazoo; Nicole Smith and her fiance Eric Whitner, both of Boston, MA; as well as eight great grandchildren and three step great grandchildren. The family wishes to express a sincere thank you to Ruth Dykstra who has been a stedfast friend and neighbor of Alyce for many years. Friends may meet the family 3-7 PM Sunday at the GOBLES CHAPEL, D. L. Miller Funeral Home, where funeral services will be held Monday at 2 PM with Pastor James Collison officiating. In accordance with her wishes, cremation will take place following the service. A private family inurnment will be held in Spring Grove Cemetery, Bloomingdale. Memorials may be directed to Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan. Memorials: Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan Cemetery: Spring Grove Cemetery CR 665Bloomingdale, MI