Clifton Columbus Coon father of George left Mississippi and settled in Oak Grove, West Carroll Parish, Louisiana some time after January 16, 1920 but before the 1930 Census for West Carroll Parish was taken. Clifton, Alma (my mother), George, and and step-daughter Mammie, Ed Ethridge her husband, Helen, Dorothy Lee, and Calvin Edgar children of Mammie and Ed. Morris, the oldest son of Clifton and Vennie, was living with the E. M. (Edward M.) Coon brother of Clifton.
Venie hasn't been found on any other census since the 1920 Lincoln County, Mississippi. There is not death record of her death that I have found. The only thing that I know about her death is a story that mother told us that she was told as a child. "her mother got sick and Clifton and Morris took her to the hospital, a few days later they went to pick up and bring her home, and they were told that Vennie had died and they buried her."
This story is heartbreaking for me her grandchild, so I can only imagine how mother and her siblings lives were affected by the sudden loss of their mother, and not knowing what happened to her. For a mother to leave and never return would have been traumatic for a child. Then their father packed them up and moved them to an unknown area away from their family; another painful event for the children.
Uncle George was living with the Jack V. Hemphill family, a relative, and was twenty-two years old. He was unmarried at that census taking. However, 30 May 1941 George Coon was enlisted in the Army at Jacksonville Army Air Field in Florida. He was single and his birth year was 1918. He was without dependents. He left West Carroll Parrish some time after the 1940 census was taken and enlisted in the Army was twenty-three years old when he enlisted. He served his time in the Army and was stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. His time was up and was honorably discharged and settled in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana living with Daddy, Mother, and their children.
Uncle George lived with our family then left and we didn't hear from him again until 1978 when his wife Cora filed for a divorce so she could go live with her son in Dallas. They married 31 Mar 1959 Hardin County, Texas and divorced 3 Nov 1978 in Hardin County, Texas. Cora was his second wife and they had no children. After the divorce Uncle George came to live with Daddy and Mother in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana.
Daddy and Mother were retired and all their children had married and moved away. Buddy lived in the area near daddy and mother. Uncle George didn't talk about his stint in the military nor his former wife. In fact I didn't know he had a first wife until two years before he died he asked me if I would help him find his two children a girl and a boy. He didn't know where they could be living, nor did he remember their names. The only information I had about the former wife and children was that she was a "working girl" and she took the two children and left without telling Uncle George. She left with the two children to parts unknown. He never heard from them again. His first wife Lois Ellison Mulkey, according to family stories from Michigan or Maryland, but no one seemed to know exactly where she was originally from.
In 2014 Brenda Coon the long lost daughter of Uncle George and Lois called me to find out what I knew about Uncle George. Brenda gave me her mother's name and where she was born. Brenda said that her mother was living in a nursing home in Alabama, and her birth date was 27 September 1928 in Alabama.
Uncle George and Lois are listed in a city directory Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1956 and he was working as a meat cutter at Karl's Market h100 Western Avenue Apartment A8. There were no children listed with them in the directory.
I found a divorce record for George and Lois on Ancestry.com and did the happy dance because I had been looking for this information for a long time. Lois Coon and George D. Coon were divorced 14 May 1958 in Clay County, Alabama. Sometime after the divorce Uncle George left Alabama and moved to Hardin County, Texas and on 31 Mar 1959 married Cora A. Cora's last name is unknown and she is a mystery to me since I never met her and know nothing about her.
Uncle Roan Coon and Granddaddy Coon lived in Hardin County, Texas so that is where Uncle George would migrate back to after leaving Alabama. After leaving Oak Grove in West Carroll Parish where he settled after Grandmother Vennie died, they migrated to Texas.
George and Cora were married nineteen years, and parted their ways for different parts; her to Dallas, Texas and Uncle George to Lincoln Parish, Louisiana to live with his youngest sister, Alma where he seem to go to when he had no where else to go.
George Doil Coon died at 4:15 a.m. on 27 May 1998 in Arcadia Health Care Center in Arcadia, Bienville Parrish, Louisiana. His cause of death was Acute Congestive Heart Failure of which he had for five years, Prostate Cancer - Metastatic of which he had a year and a half, Ischemic Heart Disease he had for two years.
George Doil Coon is interred at the Unionville Cemetery in Dubach, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana.
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