Mary Montgomery Searcy

Obit for Mary Montgomery Searcy, I scanned it for someone so thought I would post it. Hopefully if you click on it, it becomes big enough to read. Very sad, she was only 23 with two small kids and got TB.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day started as Armistice Day after World War I. This is my grandfather's letter home written the next day.

In 1954, November 11 became the day to honor all veterans. Here are my veterans:

Vietnam my cousin

Korea my Dad

World War II my Dad and Uncle, my Father-in-law and his brother. A cousin who was taken prisoner and received Combat Infantry Badge

World War I my grandfather, and my grandmother's brother (who possibly served his tour in Africa)

Civil War
Benjamin Griffith 140 Reg’t Indiana Infantry enlisted September 15, 1864
John Leachman 54th Kentucky
Charles Brooks 155 Illinois Infantry enlisted February 15, 1865
John H. Cate 3rd Tennessee Infantry enlisted February 1862, captured London, Kentucky August 1862
Elijah Cate (John’s son) 3rd Tennessee Infantry enlisted January 1863 died May 1863
Andrew DeShields 2 Reg’t Missouri Infantry enlisted August 7, 1862

Revolutionary War

Richard Lewis
Joseph Spangler

Seems like William Rodman Benson and Henry Arney should have served in the Civil War based on their ages and locations. They were both in Arkansas, although Henry went to Illinois and then came back after the war. There are also lots of Shamblin from Tennesse that served in the Civil War so probably some of those are related somehow.

19th Amendment Women's right to Vote

The 19th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Passed August 18, 1920


My grandmother told me about the first time she could vote. She said she was so proud to able to vote and then realized she and my grandfather (she had been married for 2 months) had voted for different people for President.

According to wikipedia, the 1920 election was Warren Harding (R) versus James Cox (D). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1920

So if they had bumper stickers in those days, one of my grandparents could have proudly displayed, "Don't blame me, I voted for James Cox."

It's Election Day, go VOTE!

Dancing with the Stars and Cloris Leachman

I had always heard that Cloris Leachman was somehow my distant cousin. I thought I would see if I could confirm this without spending too much time on it. A quick look at wikipedia showed that she was born in Des Moines, Iowa to Cloris Wallace and Berkley "Buck" Leachman. (And that she was Miss Chicago in 1946 and her website is http://www.cloris.com/.)

Then family trees on Rootsweb showed Berkley's father as Robert Parker Leachman and his father as William Leachman. This same info was found on the Census records. I then got out my Leachman genealogy compiled by the unknown cousin supposedly trying to get into the DAR.





There is William Leachman, brother of my gg grandfather, Leonard Leachman. William and Leonard are the sons of Leonard Leachman and Sarah Sanford.

I had previously posted the obit for William's wife, Sarah.
http://youlookirish.blogspot.com/2008/03/sarah-parker-leachman.html

If I was really clever I could tell you exactly how Cloris and I are related, what cousin how many times removed. But I do know her gg grandfather and my gg grandfather were brothers.

Layla

This is our new baby, Layla. She is Husky and Catahoula Leopard thus the blue eyes. We adopted her from "Animal Services"; they don't call it "The Pound" anymore.

Her name was Layla when we got her. Of course now the Eric Clapton song is forever stuck in our heads.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

I'm a Yankee doodle dandy
A Yankee doodle do or die
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam born on the 4th of July

We all know the song. When we were little my brother and I always thought it was so cool that Leonard Leachman was born on July 4, 1776.

This is according to Leachman genealogy that my grandmother had. My Dad said it was done by a cousin trying to get into the DAR. Unfortunately it does not have the cousin's name.

Leonard (my great-great-great grandfather) married Sarah Sanford in 1804 and they had 11 children. Baby number four was Leonard who married Pauline Lewis, whose anniversary articles are posted below.

Happy 4th

To Leonard and Pauline

These are copied from Pauline Leachman's scrapbook

Newspaper articles about her grandparent's anniversaries.

Wish I had the gold and silver nugents :)