This obituary is typical of the 1940's. Sarah is described only in relation to her husband and son. There is nothing of her interests or personality. It is helpful for genealogical purposes but I wish it would reveal more of the woman herself.
Sarah (Fortenberry) Smith
4 May 1891 MS – 6 Dec 1943 MS
Daughter of Jessie Crawford Fortenberry & Susan A. Ryals
Wife of Marshall E. Smith
My 2nd cousin, 3x removed
Rites Held at Brookhaven for Mrs. Smith, 51
Brookhaven, Miss. Dec. 7 – Mrs. Marshall E. Smith, 51 years old, died Monday in the King’s Daughters’ Hospital, Brookhaven. Following services conducted by the Rev. James L. Sullivan, pastor of the First Baptist Church, at 11:30 Tuesday at the Smith home here the body was taken to Mrs. Smith’s girlhood home six miles southeast of Tylertown for interment in the Fortenberry family cemetery.
Surviving Mrs. Smith, the former Miss Sarah Fortenberry of Tylertown, are her husband, formerly state highway patrolman in this area and now an investigator for OPA, working with Jackson and Brookhaven as headquarters; her son, Billy Fortenberry Smith, serving overseas with the Marine Corps; three sisters, Mrs. W. O. Hobgood, McComb; Mrs. Lewis O. McDaniel, McComb; Mrs. Warren E. Woods, Tylertown, and five brothers, John C. Fortenberry, Willis F. Fortenberry, George W. Fortenberry, and Easley Fortenberry, all of Tylertown, and Essley Fortenberry, McComb.
Source: Rites Held at Brookhaven for Mrs. Smith, 51. (McComb, MS: Daily Journal, 8 Dec 1943) 3; digital image, Newspapers.com: accessed June 2020.
I know what you mean. The older obituaries were full of glowing descriptions of a person's character and devotion to religion or politics. My parents got the bare minimum of an obituary because our newspaper charges by the inch.
ReplyDelete