A Young Widow

 

Electa Fritts

Sept. 21, 1888

May 28, 1964 

Buried Crooked Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, Crittenden County, Kentucky.

 On the 16^th of April, 1911, Roy Fritts and Miss Electa Simpson left their homes in Crittenden County, Kentucky, crossed the Ohio River to Hardin County, Illinois, where they were married in Elizabethtown.[1]   

Electa Fritts, daughter of John R. Simpson and Nancy "Annie" Fritts, was born and died in Crittenden County. [2]   

Roy Fritts was the son of John McChesney Fritts and his wife, Mary "Molly" Bebout Fritts. Roy was born 18 July 1889 and was a miner at the time of his death on 16 Sep 1911.[3]  

Electa Simpson Fritts died at the home of her sister, Mrs. Mae Clark in Marion, Kentucky. She had been a widow 53 years. Funeral services were held at Crooked Creek Baptist Church with the Rev. Robert Thompson and the Rev. R.H. Myers officiating.[4]

Five months after Roy Fritts and Electa Simpson married, the young bridegroom died of typhoid fever. He had been ill just four weeks.  Surviving him were a young widow, father, mother, two brothers and three sisters. His remains were laid to rest in Crooked Creek Cemetery. [5]

I have connections to some of these families. John McChesney Fritt's  mother was Pernecia Wilson, daughter of John E. Wilson, my 4th great-grandfather. My Bebout family descends from Peter Bebout, who married Harriet C. Bebout, half-sister of Pernecia Wilson.   It's enough to make me dizzy.

 

 

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[1]  “Crooked Creek,” News,  Crittenden Record-Press, Thurs., 4 May 1911, p. 6.

[2] Kentucky Death Record #64-9864, Electa Fritts. Informant: Mae Clark, Ancestry.com.

[3] Kentucky Death Record #22914 (1911), Roy Fritts. Informant: John Simpson of Marion, KY, Ancestry.com

[4] “Mrs. Electa Fritts Dies at Marion,” The Paducah Sun, Paducah, KY, Friday, 29 May 1964, p. 4.

[5] “Obituary,” Roy Fritts,  Crittenden Record-Press, Marion, KY, Thurs., 5 Oct 1911, p. 3.

Published 20 May  2021, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkgenealogy.blogspot.com/