Living

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Living
2. Living

Living married Jacqueline Sue Smith. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3779

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3740

Notes:

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From the Valdo James Smith Research document, The Sudburys of Virginia and Tennessee.

WILLIAM YATES STEVENSON ("Bill"), was born on November 13, 1907, in
Okmulgee, Oklahoma, almost eight months after his father's death from
pneumonia in March of the same year. He spent his childhood and adolescent
years in Olunulgee and Kansas City, Missouri.

It was in Kansas City that he met his future bride, FLORICE MAE BROWN,
who had been born July 10, 1904, in Homestead, Oklahoma. Florice and Bill
were married in Kansas City on April 5, 1927. At the time of their marriage, Bill
held a job with Western Union.

Sometime between December 1931, when their second child, Shirley, was born,
and the birth of their third child, Richard, in May 1933, Bill and Florice left
Kansas City and moved to a farm at Merriam, Kansas. They remained there for
about two years before relocating to Bethel, Alaska, probably in the spring of
1935. In Bethel, Bill took a job working in the gold mines and saw mill with
Florice's father and two brothers. Bill's daughter, Shirley, tells about an incident
at the saw mill that almost cost Bill his life:

Just before my sister Dorothy was born [in August 1935], my father was
pulling some logs with a Caterpillar tractor. The logs hit a snag and pulled
the tractor over on him, breaking his leg and almost crushing in one side of
his head. By the grace of God, he survived with no brain damage.

Unfortunately, however, his injured leg required amputation. Following his ac
-cident, Bill and his family remained in Alaska another three years. In 1938, they
returned to Arkansas and filed a claim on 120 acres of virgin forest land near the
town of Rudy. There they cleared a building site and constructed a house with
logs from the trees they had cut down.

Bill and his family moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in the fall of 1942, where a
relative had offered Bill a job making artificial limbs. According to his daughter,
Shirley, Bill became very good at his new occupation "and was soon one of the
top men with this type of expertise in the Midwest", working up to manager of
his shop. About 1956, Bill (as Shirley puts it) "got the wanderlust again", quit
his job, and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he opened a pet shop.

Bill and Florice lived in Minneapolis for over fifteen years. In the early 1970s,
however, Florice began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and Bill moved back
to Des Moines to obtain some assistance in caring for her. On July 14, 1975, he
died, in his sleep, of a heart attack. Florice, despite the burden of Alzheimer's,
survived Bill by sixteen years. She died of breast cancer on November 2, 1991.
Bill and Florice are both buried in Chapel Hill Gardens Cemetery in Des Moines.
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William married Florice Mae Brown. Florice was born in 1904; died in 1991. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3741

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3691

William married Susan Maseltine Yates Yates. Susan (daughter of Joseph J Yates and Nancy Elizabeth Sudbury) was born in 1868; died in 1942. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3689

Notes:

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From the Valdo James Smith Research document, The Sudburys of Virginia and Tennessee.

SUSAN MASELTINE YATES was apparently known as "Tina" (pronounced to
rhyme with "China"). There is some uncertainty as to the date of her birth. Her
granddaughter, Shirley Travis, cites two sources, including Tina's son Bill, as
giving a birthdate of May 11, 1867. However, the date on her parents' marriage
certificate is November 14, 1867. One of these dates is probably wrong.

Tina is listed at age 12 in the 1880 Tennessee census for Dyer County, which
suggests a birth year of 1867 or 1868. She is identified in that census as "Sousey
M." Her unusual middle name is remembered by her grandchildren, and may be a
family name of some sort.

The Smith Family Bible lists the date of Tina's marriage to WILLIAM A.
STEVENSON as October 20, 1892. The location of their marriage remains
unknown. Shirley Travis gives William's birthdate as March 1858, but the place of
his birth also has yet to be identified.

By early 1907, when William died at age 51, the Stevensons were living in
Okmulgee, Oklahoma. An undated obituary entitled "Death Claims Him" states
that William died at the home of his father-in-law, J.J. Yates, of pneumonia. The
funeral service was conducted by Reverend W.M.P. Rippey, pastor of the
Methodist church. A "Card of Thanks" printed in the local newspaper at that time
states that the "bereaved families of the late J.J. Yates and W.A. Stevenson wish to
thank their many friends who rendered such valuable service and showed such
sympathy, in their recent sad afflictions". The two men died within eleven days of
each other, on March 19 (William) and March 28 (J.J.), respectively.

Following William's death, Tina was married a second time. Nancy Yates's
obituary in 1923 identifies Tina as Mrs. CHARLES SHEARRY of Kansas City,
Missouri. Tina and Charles made a handsome couple. Tina's fashionable
eyeglasses gave her a sophisticated look, while Charles sported a well-groomed
handlebar moustache.

In later life, according to Shirley Travis, Tina made her home between daughter
Edna, in Cushing, Oklahoma, daughter Beulah, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and son
Bill, also in Arkansas. She had suffered several strokes and was bedridden for
several years before her death. Some measure of her spirit, even in her weakened
condition, can be gained from the following anecdote, told by Shirley Travis:

When Grandmother Shearry would stay with us, she was helpless but heart
-broken because she had to lie there and be waited on. She would beg me to
put a pan of dirty dishes by her bed so she could wash them and feel useful.

According to Shirley Travis, Tina died at the home of her daughter Edna, in
Cushing, Oklahoma, in July 1942.
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