“We need to get together more often and not at a
funeral.” How many times have you and a cousin said that? Funerals are much
like a family reunion. You can learn a lot about a family just by looking at
who showed up. Using my grandparents’ guest books and sympathy cards, I’ll be
exploring “Who came to the funeral?”
is for Virginia Lucille Griffith Melton. She attended my grandfather’s funeral in 1963
along with her brothers John and Clyde Griffith.
Virginia was born in June 1906 to Hubert and Bettie
Griffith of Shenandoah, Virginia. She was the last of six children. While her
brothers operated the H. F. Griffith & Son general store followed by
Griffith Brothers Store, Virginia attended Harrisonburg Teachers College. She
even made the “Personals” column of the campus newspaper The Breeze in October 1924 when her brother John came to visit.
Virginia graduated and began teaching in Page County. Her marriage to Ivor “Tuck” Melton was announced without the fanfare
accompanying many wedding announcements. Theirs was kept secret.
 |
| from GenealogyBank Richmond Times Dispatch 13 May 1934 |
Why, I don’t know. There was a time when teachers were
forbidden to marry; however, 1934 surely was a more enlightened time accustomed
to teachers having a normal personal life outside the classroom.
 |
| snipped from Google Maps |
Ivor and Virginia rented an apartment in this charming
Victorian on Second Street for $12 a month. By 1940, they had two children,
Bettye Lynn and Lane.
Virginia and Tuck are buried in the Methodist Church
Cemetery in Shenandoah, Virginia.
 |
| Photo courtesy Jan Hensley |
Don’t vacillate now.
Why don’t you venture over to the venerable vanguard of verisimilitude
in the vernacular at the A to Z April Challenge to view a veritable vortex of
veracious verbalization before they vanish?
© 2015, Wendy Mathias.
All rights reserved.
Great idea for the A-Z April Challenge Wendy, and well done for blogging every day, very impressive!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dara.
DeleteGirl, you are the MAN. You have found such wonderful information about all these people! I am so excited to read each day about "who came to the funeral" I am sad we are running out of alphabets. I would love to know something about each person who signed Granddaddy's book.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe I can just keep this going with the Chinese alphabet.
DeleteSeriously, the really cool part is finding how these people are connected to one another, not just to Grandma and Granddaddy.
I am not sure of the date, but I think it was much later than 1934 when women teachers were allowed to continue in their post in England after marriage.
ReplyDeleteHmm, my grandaunt married in 1936, and I am pretty sure her being married was not an issue with the schools. It really is a funny topic though. I wonder what the reason behind the rule was.
DeleteWhat a sweet looking house to rent an apartment in! Nowadays $12 wouldn't even buy you a day in a hotel, here at least. Maybe she just wanted a small wedding and didn't want everyone to know about it until after the fact; maybe she was a private person.
ReplyDeletebetty
I know -- isn't that house cute?! And maybe you're right about the secrecy. But I guess that's one more thing I'll never learn.
DeleteWonder how many girls from Virginia were named Virginia? Check that out, would ya! I expected to find a bunch of Georgia's in my family tree, but I'll be darned if there wasn't a single one, and I like the name Georgia...Virginia, too. That Victorian House is great...I'd want the whole house though. You know, in Texas until just not too many years ago, you'd better be married or single to keep your job....no shacking up! Probably still that way in some smaller towns where everybody knows your business.
ReplyDeleteSue at CollectInTexas Gal
AtoZ 2015 Challenge
Minion for AJ's wHooligans
I have seen the name Texanna a few times in doing my research - do you have that one in your database?
DeleteHow sad to have to keep the wedding a secret...but it didn't seem to matter that it was announced later that it was kept a secret. I guess school was out by May 13?
ReplyDeleteHappy A-Z!
Good point. Maybe the secret had nothing to do with school policy.
DeleteIts weird why they were not aloud to marry :-/
ReplyDeleteThat was true in the past, but I'm not sure that was true when Virginia married.
DeleteThanks for visiting.
Isn't it crazy how a visit by a relative made the newspaper back in those days? You're almost there!
ReplyDeleteYes, those little social items were funny.
Delete