Tombstone Tuesday - My Great-Grandparents Stella and Richard Wickliffe

This is the headstone of my paternal great-grandparents. Stella Wickliffe (nee LYNN) 1878-1955 and Richard Franklin Wickliffe, 1872-1946. They are buried in West Memorial Cemtery, Quinlan, Texas.

Tombstone Tuesday - Clayton Richard Ford (1934-1941)

It is always sad when we lose loved ones so young. I never got to know my uncle, but I miss him just the same.

Clayton Richard Ford (1934-1941) was my dad's identical twin. Born to Arthur Elisha Ford and Ethel (Wickliffe) Ford, he was the younger of the two twins. In an interview in 1985, my grandmother, Ethel Ford, stated that Clayton was born a "blue baby" and that he had always been sickly.

I never knew what she meant by the term "blue baby" until recently. I thought it meant that his lungs hadn't fully developed at the time of his birth, causing him to struggle to take in oxygen. I recently looked up the term and it usually means the baby has a heart malformation that prevents the baby's blood from being fully oxygenated. Now I understand more about this young boy's life and how he died.. 

Ethel stated that when Clayton was six years old, he got rheumatic fever and he never fully recovered. The death certificate lists endocarditis as the official cause, with rheumatic fever as a contributing factor. The Mayo Clinic website states that endocarditis is uncommon in people with healthy hearts and those who have damaged heart valves or other heart defects are at greatest risk.

Clayton Richard Ford died in his mother's arms and is laid to rest in West Memorial Cemetery in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas in a plot next to his grandmother, Sara Elizabeth (Dodd) Ford.

May this little angel never be forgotten.

I hope you enjoy this post. Please let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks,
The Genealogy Grandma

Tombstone Tuesday - William Ezra Ford

William Ezra Ford was the son of Arthur Elisha Ford and Ethel Wickliffe Ford. He was born June 11, 1922 in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas. He moved with his family to South Texas after his younger brother, Clayton Richard Ford died in 1941. 

William enlisted in the service on 09 Nov 1942. He was living in George West, Texas at the time. After only a few months, he became ill and was honorably discharged on 30 Oct 1943. He later became a truck driver. He was driving a rig through the Valley in South Texas, when his rig jackknifed and killed him instantly. His brother-in-law, Jimmy Elmer Green had been driving a rig behind him and witnessed the accident.  Although William never married, he was loved by all who met him. 

The military erroneously inscribed Exra instead of Ezra on the headstone and refused to fix the problem. He is buried in George West, Texas.