Thursday, January 11, 2024

"Frankie Shot Me"




When Reynolds Alloys shuttered a large part of its Colbert County operations, the aluminum foil giant gave employees a chance to work at one of its many other facilities. One employee who took the company up on its relocation offer was Ewell Wells Bridges. Unfortunately, Bridges' wife Frankie wasn't as enamored of Hot Springs, Arkansas, as her husband. Frankie Stovall Bridges initially thought her husband's transfer would be short-lived, but by 1986, Ewell was in his seventh year at the Arkansas plant. 

Thus began the commuter era of the Bridges' marriage; for years Ewell lived in a small lake house in Hot Springs, traveling each weekend home to Frankie in Tuscumbia. Such arrangements often take a toll on even the strongest unions, and, according to Garland County homicide detectives, the Bridges' marriage was no exception.

On May 24, 1986, Ewell Bridges' next door neighbor in Arkansas heard shots and the sound of breaking glass. Thinking that teenagers were shooting at bottles, Charles Chippola left his trailer and began looking for the hooligans. Instead of rowdy teens, Chippola discovered broken glass in front of Bridges' cottage. Inside he found the then 49 year-old Ewell lying on the floor, shot twice and bleeding profusely from his neck and torso.

After calling police, Chippola knelt by Bridges, asking who was responsible. According to Charles, Bridges, who was actively dying, used his last breath to say "Frankie shot me."

Chippola then reported seeing a large African-American woman he believed to be Frankie Bridges exit the small cottage. Buela Chippola, Charles' wife, testified that she had been outside the cottage and saw a woman run from Bridges' home and leave in a small Mercury or Maverick.

Frankie Bridges, a Coffee High School science teacher at the time of the shooting, had retained Florence attorney Don Holt as her primary advocate in the Arkansas trial. When Holt questioned Charles Chippola, the neighbor admitted that he had changed some basic details of his testimony since the night of the shooting. Holt contended that Frankie Bridges was visiting a cousin in Muscle Shoals the night of Ewell's death and could not possibly have shot her husband. The defense offered up the theory of a robbery gone wrong, while some speculated that the woman seen leaving the cottage was Ewell Bridges' spurned lover.

Holt then called Frankie Bridges to the stand. Frankie, who by the 1987 trial was no longer employed by the Florence City School System, testified that she was grading papers at the Muscle Shoals home of her cousin the night of her husband's murder. She further stated she had never owned a Mercury or Maverick and had no reason to want her husband dead. 

Did the jury believe Frankie's version of her relationship with her husband at the time of his murder, or did they believe Ewell's alleged dying declaration? It seems the 12 jurors were at a loss as to who was telling the truth and announced that they could not settle on a verdict. The Garland County district attorney later announced he would not try the case a second time.

Today, the 83 year-old Frankie Stovall Bridges lives in Chandler, Arizona. And Charles Chippola? Did he really hear Ewell Bridges incriminate Frankie? We'll consign that question to one of life's mysteries.

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Death at Bibb Graves: Accident or Suicide?

 



The Crime:

On the morning of November 19th, 1962, the Florence Police Department received a call from what was then Florence State College. At approximately 6:30 a.m., a custodian had found the door to the treasurer's office jimmied open, along with other signs of a forced entry. Further inspection inside the office found both an outer vault and an inner safe displaying the same signs of tampering. Missing from the inner safe was $6,000.00 that included the gate from the football game held two days prior at Thomas Braly Jr. Stadium, plus various academic and club fees that had been paid in cash. In terms of today, the take from the theft would equal well over $59,000.00.

When notified, Treasurer Robert C. Fuller rushed to his ground floor office where he met with authorities and commented on the damage. The college treasurer stated he had been in his office on the previous day and had found nothing amiss. A security guard reported he had last checked the three-story building at 3:30 a.m., presumably leaving a three hour window for the crime to have taken place.

The previous March, there had been at least seven burglaries of safes in Lauderdale County that detectives called "rip jobs," but no arrests had been made. All doors to Bibb Graves Hall remained locked when the custodian entered, as did the windows. Investigators remained baffled as to how the theft had occurred, and wild rumors flooded the campus.


Treasurer Robert C. Fuller:

Robert Fuller, known as "Bob" to his friends, was originally from the Alexander City area and started his career as a teacher and principal in the towns of New Hope and Gadsden, coming to work in administration at Florence State in 1944. He had received both a bachelor's and a master's degree in English literature from Auburn, having done his master's thesis on Thomas S. Stribling. During his research of Pulitzer Prize winning author Stribling, Fuller forged a life-long friendship with the Gravelly Springs native. It had been said that if you wanted Stribling to speak at any local event, the best way to secure his presence was first to contact Bob Fuller. 

Fuller's wife, Eva Ellen Aldridge Slaton Fuller, was six years her husband's junior and a science teacher at Appleby Junior High School. Both were active members of the First Christian Church whose building adjoined the college campus. In short, Robert C. Fuller was what anyone would have called a pillar of the community. It was obviously distressing to the college administrator to hear remarks that some malfeasance on his part had led to the theft.


The Bibb Graves Tower:


The Bibb Graves administration building had been built in 1930. It consisted of basement classrooms, administrative offices on the ground floor, two additional floors of classrooms, and a tower that housed a set of Deagan tubular chimes connected to clockwork. 




By 1964, the chimes were 34 years old and required the touch of someone familiar with their components to keep them in working order. That person was Bob Fuller who was often seen ascending the Bibb Graves staircases to the small tower. 


The Fall:

On February 17, 1964, Leatrice Timmons was teaching a freshman Engish composition class in the basement of Bibb Graves Hall. Students who sat by the classroom windows outlined by a brick well usually had little to look at. That day was different. 

Later in her career, Timmons often told the story of hearing a loud thud followed by the screams of her students sitting nearest the window. Robert C. Fuller's body lay just outside.


Aftermath:

There were no known witnesses to the events in the tower leading up to Fuller's plunge. An autopsy concluded simply that the 62 year-old college treasurer had died as a result of trauma from the fall. 

Eva Fuller died two years later. Both she and her husband are buried in Tri-Cities Memorial Gardens, their graves marked by only modest bronze plaques. Today, the Bibb Graves tower is home to almost maintenance-free electronic chimes which can be programmed to play seasonal music. One has to wonder if Bob Fuller finds the sound lacking? 



Saturday, December 2, 2023

Who Killed Andrea Susan Forbes?

 



Andrea Susan Forbes was born in Tennessee on October 9, 1983. Her official date of death is listed as January 21, 2017, the day her body was discovered, but it had been days since her neighbors had seen her - neighbors who didn't even know her name.

While living in the Johnson City area of Tennessee, Andrea gave birth to two daughters. The older child was given a home by the girl's biological father, while the second child was adopted. Not long after this second failed romance, Andrea met Matthew Troy Lindsey, whom friends said moved to Alabama to make a fresh start around the middle of 2013. 

Early in 2015, Andrea followed Matthew to Florence. Andrea had been abandoned by her parents, and family described her as being too trusting. While she was a certified welder, Andrea ostensibly never worked after arriving in the Shoals, and things did not always go smoothly with the couple.




By late 2015, Andrea and Matthew were residing at the Sherrod Apartments on the corner of Simpson Street and Florida Avenue. The complex was mid-sized, with the couple living on one end in #25. Other residents easily knew when the duo argued.

Matthew found himself in the Lauderdale County Detention Center in January 2017, charged with domestic abuse. His incarceration may have been the luckiest thing to have happened to him, since it cleared him of being directly involved in Andrea's death.




When police were called on January 21st to the ground floor apartment for a welfare check, officers looked through a window and saw what appeared to be a female body. Initially termed a death investigation, inquiries into Andrea's death quickly morphed into a homicide case when the initial autopsy results were released on January 25th.

Ten months soon passed without any progress being reported in the homicide investigation. Then Matthew Lindsay contacted the Shoalanda Speaks Blog stating that, at the time of her death, Andrea was pregnant with his child and he was offering a $6K reward for information leading to her killer.




Was any of that true? No. After the birth of her second child, Andrea had a tubal ligation and was unable to conceive. As for the 6K, Lindsey probably had less than $60.00 to his name. To fund the reward, he established a GoFundMe account which garnered only $25.00. He has since been in and out of jail numerous times; as of this publication, his last arrest was November 4th of this year when he was charged with a work release violation.

Florence CID has stated many details of Andrea's death have been held back in an effort to secure an arrest and conviction of her murderer. If you have any information concerning Andrea Susan Forbes' death, call 256-760-6500.



Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Kim VanPelt: Trolling the Internet for a Wife to Kill - 2023 Update

 



By 2004, the Internet was established enough that many felt comfortable meeting romantic partners...or victims...via cyberspace. Sandra Marie Ozment was a 40 year-old native of Southgate, Michigan, the unmarried mother of three daughters, and seeking a life partner when she entered a chatroom. What she found was a diabolic killer looking for an easy mark.

Kim VanPelt was a 45 year-old construction worker living in Tuscumbia who was looking for a better life. He encouraged Ozment to leave a job at Shoney's in Phenix City to move to Muscle Shoals. After a short courtship, Ozment and VanPelt married on November 8, 2004, and set up housekeeping in a mobile home on Elledge Lane. On November 22nd, VanPelt called authorities to report his wife was missing. Two days later, her Pontiac Grand Am was found abandoned in a Muscle Shoals Winn-Dixie parking lot. The same day, Marion County hunter Jerry Evans found the nude body of a white female in a wooded area eight miles south of Hackleburg - it was Sandra VanPelt.




Preliminary findings indicated that Sandra VanPelt had died from suffocation; however, the final autopsy report stated the newlywed had probably died from blunt force trauma after a beating. Kim VanPelt was Colbert County's prime suspect in the heinous crime. On November 9th, just two days after his marriage, Kim VanPelt had taken out a $300,000.00 life insurance policy on his new wife. He was the sole beneficiary. 

VanPelt initially told police that Sandra had left their home on the morning to November 22nd to run errands and had not returned. Discarded receipts at the mobile home and CCTV images obtained from the Muscle Shoals Walmart indicated VanPelt purchased cleaning supplies, including one specifically formulated to remove blood stains, later that afternoon.

After detectives, using luminol, found significant traces of Sandra's blood in the bedroom she shared with her husband, authorities were ready to make an arrest. VanPelt was placed in the Colbert County Jail in Tuscumbia to await legal proceedings.

In December 2006, VanPelt's case reached trial in a Colbert County circuit court. Bryce Graham prosecuted the case, in which he called a witness who saw VanPelt loading a rolled "carpet" into his truck on the morning of November 22, 2004. He also produced a witness whom the defendant had asked to marry him just days before he entered into his doomed union with Ozment. Two other witnesses testified that, while incarcerated, VanPelt has asked them either to concoct a fake confession to forward to authorities or testify that the victim had attempted to hire a hit man to kill him for some unknown reason.

Defense attorney Ben T. Gardner Jr. countered that VanPelt had not had a pleasant childhood and showed signs of several personality disorders. In the end, it took only two hours for the jury of ten men and two women to find the defendant guilty of Capital Murder due to the crime being committed for monetary gain. In March 2007, Judge Jackie Hatcher sentenced Kim VanPelt to death by lethal injection.




Since that time, VanPelt has remained on the Holman Prison death row in Atmore where he has filed several unsuccessful appeals. He has also created several online accounts asking for female pen pals. Apparently, a good man is hard to find, but you don't have to look far for a bad one.



In the years since Kim VanPelt's conviction, his crime has been the subject of a 44 minute documentary, Happily Never After Season 3 - Virtual Demise, available to purchase on Prime Video for $2.99.

VanPelt has also taken part in the Captured Project, which published a book of sketches of "dubious" individuals drawn by prison artists. Yes, it seems that VanPelt is an accomplished artist who took pencil in hand to draw Brian T. Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, whom the book accuses of various money crimes and states "should be in prison." The 2016 book, at $40.00, was a quick sellout, but may be found on Amazon.com from time to time.




VanPelt's 2005, 2009, and 2015 appeals have all been denied. At this point, it appears the Muscle Shoals Internet Lothario will soon be facing a date with the Holman death chamber.






Want More Murder? Buy on Amazon


Monday, October 23, 2023

Is One of Connie's Killers Still Walking Free? - 10/23/23 Update

 



She was born on the Fourth of July...1956, in Athens, Alabama. Connie Jane Patterson Williams Ridgeway left this world on Friday, October 23, 2015. The twice married Ridgeway had lived her entire life in Northwest Alabama, residing at the Meadowland Apartments in Rogersville at the time of her brutal stabbing death. The apartment complex was located in a highly visible area directly across from the Lauderdale County High School's football stadium. 

Connie Ridgeway was known as a soft spoken and caring woman who attended Clements Baptist Church just across the county line in Limestone and who was pronounced a blessing by those who knew her. Was it her involvement with the less fortunate that ultimately led to Connie's demise?

At the time of her death, Connie's second husband Thomas Randall Ridgeway was deceased, as well as her beloved dog Rambo. Perhaps living alone made her an easy target for local thugs... or was it something more personal? The Rogersville Police Department and the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department weren't ruling anything or anyone out.

Weeks and months passed with no breaks in the case, and the State Bureau of Investigation took over the case of the 59 year-old Ridgeway's death. Connie's sons Cameron and Austin Williams offered a reward for the apprehension of their mother's assailant. When, after three years passed with no arrests, Rogersville hosted "Connie Ridgeway Day" in 2018. Besides her family and friends, the event was attended by Lauderdale District Attorney Chris Connolly and Sheriff Rick Singleton. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sent a special statement indicating the state's dedication to bringing Ridgeway's murderer to justice.

Many speculated that Ridgeway was murdered to keep her from testifying in an upcoming grand jury hearing involving the financial exploitation of a friend. Others thought perhaps she had simply attempted to help the wrong down-on-his-luck person who took advantage of the situation.

Still more time passed. Mark White, the host of a local news oriented radio show, kept the unsolved murder fresh in the public's mind. By early September 2020, the case was almost five years old, and there had been little to no progress in the investigation. 

Two months after Ridgeway's violent death, Casey Cole White was charged in Limestone County with a violent crime spree that included a home invasion, two carjackings and multiple shootings in North Alabama and South Tennessee that left a dog dead and a woman injured. White was convicted of a total of nine crimes and sentenced to 75 years in the William Donaldson Correctional Facility.




Then in August 2020, White penned an unsolicited letter to the Lauderdale District Attorney's office confessing to Connie Ridgeway's murder. According to insiders, White presented facts that would have been known only to someone present at the brutal crime.

The confession wasn't the only bombshell in the missive; the 38 year-old White also announced that he had been paid to commit the murder. DA Chris Connolly was quoted as saying the public could expect more arrests.

Yet slightly over one year later, no other arrests have been made. The 6'9" White remains in the Donaldson facility confined to maximum security. Even if he should escape charges in the Ridgeway death, he's not scheduled for release until the end of 2090.

What of the man whom White accused of placing the hit on Connie Ridgeway? No more information has been forthcoming in the past 14 months. Does he still walk freely among the citizens of Eastern Lauderdale County?

Connie Ridgeway was buried in the Mitchell Cemetery near Anderson. Let's hope by the next anniversary of her death, the public has more answers.




Today marks eight years since the murder of Connie Ridgeway. There are few who don't know the story of Casey Cole White and Vicky White. 

If Casey told the truth concerning Connie's death, one of her killers remains free. If he lied, at least one killer still walks free today.

As for Casey, whether he's prosecuted in Connie Ridgeway's death or not, he has a home in the Alabama prison system until at least January 2061 when he will be eligible for parole. He will be 77 years old. 

Casey's DOC page gives his physical description. On his left wrist is tattooed the name "Vicky."



Tuesday, October 3, 2023

The Death of Brandon Hydrick: Beer & Guns Don't Mix - 2023 Update




Special Report from Crime Writer Nick Ireland


The Berg:

Belle Mina. Now that’s a classy name. Too bad this spot on the Limestone County map doesn’t live up to expectations. Nothing in Belle Mina but a few old houses and the occasional store. Then there’s the stream.

Land that borders on the small stream running through Belle Mina is marketed as water front property. Sure. If it rains enough. Just like my backyard.

Who buys these choice lots? Locals call them Yankees and that about sums it up. Families that work in Huntsville or Madison just love the prices on these backwoods hideaways.

The Murray family was no exception. The daughter, that’s the Babe to us, considered it the ideal spot to entertain her Huntsville friends. That’s just what she did on Friday, September 28, 2012.

The Bash:


It was billed as a Halloween party. No matter that it wasn’t even October. It was cool at night and just right for what passed as a country cookout. Wieners, marshmallows, and beer? Probably plenty of beer judging from the Hydrick family photos on Facebook. What else was served? You can be sure the state’s pathologist knows what was in Brandon Hydrick’s system when he died.

The bash ended around midnight. Guests began to go their separate ways and the Beard (B. Hydrick) took the Babe back to her parents’ front door. The Babe says the date ended with a chaste kiss.

Then the Beard drove off into eternity.


The Bro:


The Beard’s brother Ryan wasn’t even close to him in looks. Doesn’t seem to have had as good a job either. You can bet your pickup truck that he was only invited to the Babe’s bash because he was the Beard’s brother.

The Bro left in his own vehicle when the Beard exited the cookout. What happened between midnight and three o’clock Saturday morning is anyone’s guess. The Bro knows, but he’s not giving out any of the details to the Beard’s adoring fans and mourning friends.


The Beard:



Brandon Hydrick often sported a bushy beard. Yeah, doesn’t sound too kissable, does he? But apparently the Babe was so taken with him that she picked him up at a charity run in Huntsville. The Beard was younger than the Babe and didn’t quite travel in the same social circles, but hey, a good man is hard to find.

Friends thought this relationship would go the distance, but it ended that Saturday morning when the Bumpkin put a bullet through the Beard’s chest.


The Bumpkin:


Joel Moyers had lived in the same manufactured home since he was in grade school. He was now a rode hard 52 and had lived alone since his mother married the year before and moved to Cullman

The Bumpkin was afraid. The Limestone County sheriff stated there was little crime in the area, but actual reports say something else. Maybe there had to be a death before Mike Blakely considered it real crime He got that death early in the morning of September 29th.

The Bumpkin heard a truck around three o’clock. The Bro was now driving the Beard’s truck and they had returned to the scene of the cookout for reasons unknown. When the duo decided to turn around on the Bumpkin’s desolate corner, they made the mistake of their lives.

An SKS kept the Bumpkin company as he first followed them in his own truck and later marched toward the Beard’s vehicle in full confrontational mode. He flashed a light in the Bro’s face and told him to stop. The Bro hit the accelerator.

As the pickup passed the Bumpkin, Moyers raised the heavy SKS and fired. The question is where the Bumpkin aimed. Heck, maybe the question should be was he even strong enough to aim. His bullet traveled through the back of the truck’s tailgate, entered the cab, and finally juggernauted through the Beard’s chest. The Bro panicked and hit the accelerator again. He met with a tree that refused to get out of his way as he attempted to navigate a corner. The Bumpkin retired to his home and called the sheriff.


The Babe:



Bronwen Murray was as yuppie as you get in Alabama. She was going places and picked up the Beard to tag along. Good men are hard for those bluestocking babes to find and lasso. Now her man was dead.

The sheriff originally charged the Bumpkin with a manslaughter type crime, but the Babe was having none of it. Where would she ever find a replacement, and her eggs weren’t getting any younger.

Don’t worry. The Babe had a trump card. She worked for the Big Shot. He’d handle it while she made the appropriate mewing noises to play the sympathy card.


The Big Shot:


Parker Griffith was a prominent Huntsville doc and a former U.S. representative. Easy for him to place a few well-chosen words in the ear of the Limestone County D.A. Yeah, the D.A. knew which side his political funding was greased on.

The indictment comes down, and the Bumpkin is charged with Capital Murder. Hey, it’s Alabama. Justice is still scarce and usually a political tool. Yeah, we call it JuJu man justice around this state.

The trial? It’s coming. Let’s grab the beer and popcorn. Okay, no beer. Limestone County is dry. Too bad the Bro and the Beard grabbed their beers; maybe they’d both be alive right now and the Bumpkin tatting a new doily for his mother.



Obituary for Brandon Longoria Hydrick:




Brandon Longoria Hydrick, age 26, of Athens, passed away Saturday. Brandon was employed with Halo Monitoring.

He was preceded in death by his grandfathers: Col. Ezekial Longoria and James Hydrick.

He is survived by his parents: Phillip and Donna Hydrick; sister: Jessica Hydrick-Nichols (Matt); brother: Ryan Hydrick; grandmothers: Robbie Longoria and Nancy Hydrick; three aunts: Jan Chambers (Lynn), Kay Clark and Charmaine Burgin (Kenny); cousins: Amber, Matt, Melissa, Eddie, Leah, Morgan, Chase, Lydia, J.D. and Haleigh.

Visitation will be Thursday from 5:00-8:00pm at Berryhill Funeral Home. Funeral services will be Friday at 11:00am at Faith Chapel with Rev. Joel McGraw officiating followed by burial at Valhalla Memory Gardens.





Bronwen Murray now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and states on her Facebook page that she's in a relationship...and is a "homicide survivor." She is a member of the Everytown Survivor Network and lobbies for more sensible gun control. Murray also has a second career as an actress and is planning on authoring a mystery based on her life experiences.

Joel Moyers was convicted of Capital Murder in May 2015. He died in prison in November 2015. 



Monday, October 2, 2023

Lust, Jealousy, & Murder in Grassy

 



If you blink while traveling on Highway 64 in northeast Lauderdale County, you may miss the Grassy community. It consists of a Baptist Church, cemetery, park, and a retail farm supply. Houses dot the farmland surrounding this hamlet that's relegated to a Lexington postal route. The community hasn't changed more than a micron since a murder that rocked the area almost 40 years ago. 

James Russell Thames Jr. moved to Grassy in 1970 to work just across the Tennessee River as a control room supervisor at Champion International Corp. in Lawrence County. With him, Thames brought his wife Trudy Holley Lavender Thames. After their arrival in the Shoals, Holley gave birth to four sons. By 1984, Jim had joined the Lexington Rescue Squad and was coaching his older sons in Dixie Youth League baseball.

This should have been a happy time for the family, but unfortunately it wasn't for the 35 year-old Holley. Was she bored? Having delivered her last child only months before, did she have a form of postpartum depression? Or had she simply allowed herself to become caught up in gossip of something that she never intended and didn't know how to squelch?

It was Monday, May 21, 1984, and Jim's youth league team was playing at Lexington City Park. As the former Army sergeant from Montgomery looked casually up into the stands, he saw Holley with the married man local gossips said was her lover. The exact give and take between the husband and wife was not memorialized that night, but witnesses who were called to testify at Jim Thames' murder trial stated he called his attractive young wife to the dugout where he told her to leave the man, leave the game, and go home. 

Holley laughed at Jim.

According to trial testimony, Holley returned to the stands and appeared shaken. Friends, including her alleged paramour, encouraged her to spend the night anywhere but with her husband, but Holley stated she was resigned to the inevitable confrontation. Once home in Grassy, Jim and Holley Thames became involved in a verbal argument that lasted at least 20 minutes. Their three oldest sons heard their father say he would blow his wife's brains out, to which Holley responded "I don't care." It was then that the sons heard three gunshots; however, an autopsy indicated Holley Thames had been shot four times in the back, falling across the couple's bed where rescue squad members found her.

The boys testified that their father left the bedroom and relocked the door. He told one son that he had shot Holley in the arm and they needed to drive to a friend's to secure medical help. It's unclear from court records why no phone communication to the small Lexington Rescue Squad was available at the Thames home, but precious time was wasted in finding help for the mortally injured Holley.

Once rescue squad personnel arrived, they immediately began to perform CPR until an ambulance arrived to take the dying young wife to Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital. Jim Thames was ultimately left alone in the house with his sons and one Lexington police officer. The officer later testified that Thames stripped the bed, placed the linen in the washer, and inverted the mattress, stating he didn't want his sons to see the copious amount of their mother's blood. Thames repeatedly alternated between saying he didn't mean to do it and that his wife made him do it.

The Lexington officer then drove James Thames to the Lauderdale County Sheriff's office where he was formally charged. The trial was held five months later, and a jury of nine men and three women convicted Thames not of Felony Murder as the district attorney asked, but of Manslaughter. While Judge Ned Suttle could have given the young father a 20 year sentence due to a firearm being involved, he instead decreed that Thames would spend ten years in the Alabama State Prison System.

After an incarceration of ten months, Thames asked for a transfer to work release. Both the Lauderdale District Attorney's Office and a group of Lexington citizens opposed Thames' transfer, forcing him to serve his sentence in a literal prison setting.

After he completed his sentence, James Russell Thames Jr. moved to Missouri where he passed away ten days after his 63rd birthday, survived by his four sons who had been raised by their maternal grandparents in Montgomery. He was interred in the veterans' cemetery in Springfield.




Holley Lavender Thames lies buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery where she grew up. 





"Jealousy is the worst of all faults because it makes a victim of both parties."