Alabama, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1805-1967 - 1814-1935
Mary Parham
Mary "Lil" Parham, a parishioner at St. Matthew's Catholic Church, died Sunday at her home after a lengthy illness. She was 69.
Mrs. Parham, a native and resident of Mobile, was a former member of a mystic society. She also was a member of Take Off Pounds Sensibly Chapter 99 in Mobile for nearly 27 years and an alumna of the Convent of Mercy class of 1948.
Survivors include three daughters, Kathy Parham, Debbie Parham and Cindy Aspinwall; a son, Jerry Parham; and a sister, Dolores ¢cm DSQºBuddy" Statkewicz, all of Mobile; a brother, George Browne of Fairhope; nine grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.
Mrs. Parham donated her body to the University of South Alabama for medical research.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at St. Matthew's Catholic Church.
Memorials may be made to St. Matthew's Restoration Fund, 906 Garrity St., Mobile, AL 36605; or a favorite charity.
[Published date: 11/11/1999]
Jesse W. Englett
HOHENWALD, Tenn. - Jesse Willard Englett, a former longtime resident of the Mobile and Semmes areas, died Oct. 31 at a hospital in Linden, Tenn. He was 84.
Englett was a native of Pine Hill, Ala. While in living in the Mobile area, he had worked at International Paper Co. He also worked at Brookley Field until it closed, then went to work for Haas Davis Packing Co. He later moved to Melbourne, Fla., before settling on a ranch in Hohenwald.
He was a U.S. Air Force veteran of World War II.
Survivors include his wife, Virginia "Jenny" Englett; and a son, Joseph Englett, both of Hohenwald; a daughter, Margie Ann Myers of Merritt Island, Fla.; and three grandchildren.
Services took place Nov. 2 at First Baptist Church, with burial in Swiss Cemetery in Tennessee.
[Published date: 11/11/1999]
Thomas E. Howell
SAN DIEGO - Thomas Edward Howell, a native of Semmes, died Oct. 22 in San Diego after an extended illness. He was 86.
Howell was a 1932 graduate of Murphy High School. He served as a private in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1932 to 1936, and later joined the U.S. Army. He retired from the Merchant Marine after many years of service.
In addition, he had served as an officer with the Mobile Police Department from September 1940 to August 1941.
Howell's family lived in the area for generations. His late grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Howell, deeded the land in Semmes on which the one-room Semmes School was built in 1902, as well as the land across the road on which the original First Baptist Church was built shortly thereafter. The church no longer exists on the site.
The schoolhouse was rededicated last year and is being refurbished to serve as a museum. Plans are also under way to build a replica of the church, which was formerly called Mount Pleasant Baptist Church and renamed First Baptist Church in 1904.
Survivors include his sons, Thomas Ray Howell of Mobile, Donald Stuart Howell of San Diego and Robert Eugene Howell of Los Angeles; a sister, Beatrice Howell Gaiennie of Houston; and a granddaughter.
Graveside services are set for 11 a.m. Friday at Allentown Cemetery in Semmes.
Memorials may be made to the Mobile Genealogical Society, 1261 Elmira St., Mobile, AL 36604.
[Published date: 11/11/1999]
Ella L. Williams
DETROIT - Ella Louise Cooper Williams, a native Mobilian and longtime resident of Detroit, died Oct. 22 in a local hospital. She was 75.
Mrs. Williams also formerly lived in Chicago.
She was a member of Unity Baptist Church in Detroit, where she served as a choir member, a president and vice president of the Busy Bee Club and chairwoman of the pastor's anniversary committee.
Survivors include a son, George Alfred Ankrom of Detroit; one sister, Daisy Elizabeth Duke of Mobile; two brothers, John B. Cooper and George Cooper of Mobile; her stepmother, Odessa Cooper of Prichard; and two half-sisters, Bertha Parker of Maywood, Ill., and Theresa Kirpatrick of Lynwood, Calif.
Services were held Oct. 29 at Unity Baptist Church, with burial in Detroit Memorial Park. McFall Brothers Funeral Home in Detroit handled arrangements.
[Published date: 11/11/1999]
Mack Willis
Mack Willis, a former Mississippi sharecropper, died Saturday at a local hospital. He was 106.
Willis was a native of Madison County, Miss., and had been a sharecropper for many years before moving to Mobile.
Survivors include three grandchildren, Dan W. Jackson, James K. Willis and Debra W. Parker; three great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.
The cortege will leave Memorial Funeral Home in Prichard at 8:30 a.m. Saturday for the 11 a.m. services at Andrews Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Flora, Ala.
Mack Willis had a hard life working as a sharecropper. Though he never dwelled upon it, he still spent his twilight years trying to make younger generations realize and appreciate how much better off they are than he was growing up, relatives and friends said.
Today, family and friends will pay their final respects to Willis, who died at a local hospital Nov. 6 at the age of 106.
Willis, a Mobile-area resident since 1994, was born Feb. 7, 1893, in Madison County, Miss., and marveled at the changes he witnessed during his life, his family said.
His niece, Lueberta Vaughns of Prichard, who took care of Willis for the past seven years, recalled hearing her uncle talk of how hard he used to work on a Mississippi plantation.
"He had a pretty rough time, " she said, remembering how he would talk of working in cold weather until his feet were frostbitten. He would also tell how his mother and grandmother would make his clothes from flour sacks, dying the material with walnut hulls in water, she said.
Mrs. Vaughns' longtime friend Mary Sheppard of Prichard, got to know Willis over the past seven years.
"He was a very sweet, sweet, understanding person, " Mrs. Sheppard said. "He cared about everybody. He loved little children."
Mrs. Sheppard remembered how Willis, whom she affectionately called "Uncle Willie, " talked of working on the farm from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. at times. Sometimes there was no horse to grade land and he had to do it with a hoe and shovel, she recalled him saying.
He often remarked that he had seen a lot of things that he put in the back of his mind and didn't want to remember, she said. Mrs. Sheppard recalled a story Willis told of hearing Ku Klux Klan members ride by the shack where he lived only to awake the next day to find a neighbor's shack burned down.
"He gave me a lot of insight, " Mrs. Sheppard said. "He was a very understanding person. I could go to him and talk about anything."
He enjoyed his snuff, going for car rides, watching others fish, and sitting on the porch to chat with neighbors and relatives of all ages, she said.
Since his death, Mrs. Vaughns said she still starts to fix his food whenever she's ready to eat. "I just can't get out of that. It hurts me so bad. I miss him."
Willis had been a longtime deacon at Andrews Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Flora, Miss., where services are scheduled for 11 a.m. today. The cortege will leave Memorial Funeral Home in Prichard at 8:30 a.m. for the services in Flora.
Among Willis' survivors are three grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
[Published date: 11/12/1999]
Phyllis L. Marshall
Phyllis Lou Marshall, a volunteer with the American Red Cross, died Thursday at a local hospital. She was 70.
Mrs. Marshall, a native of Tiffin, Ohio, was a resident of Mobile. She was a former member and nursery director of Roseland Park Baptist Church in Picayune, Miss.
Survivors include her husband, Robert W. Marshall of Mobile; four children, Christine L. Clarkson, Kenneth N. Marshall and Ruth A. Marshall, all of Mobile, and Robert L. Marshall of Brookland, Ark.; and five grandchildren.
Visitation will be at 1 p.m. Monday, with services at 2 p.m., at Radney-Belmany Funeral Home on Grelot Road. Burial will be in Mobile Memorial Gardens.
[Published date: 11/12/1999]
Earl W. Moore
Earl Wayne Moore, president of E. Wayne Moore and Associates, died Monday at his home.
Moore, a native of Selma, was a resident of Mobile and a member of University Boulevard Church of Christ.
Survivors include his wife, Sarah Raine Moore; two sons, Michael Wayne Moore of Gulf Shores and Dean Alan Moore of Mobile; two daughters, Allison Moore Harris and Stacey Moore Posey, both of Mobile; five brothers, Troy Moore, Billy Moore, Ludie Moore and Robert Moore, all of Selma, and Charles Moore of Montgomery; two sisters, Virginia Lawson and Louise Hopkins, both of Selma; and three grandchildren.
Services were Thursday at Radney Funeral Home on Dauphin Street, with burial in Pine Crest Cemetery.
[Published date: 11/12/1999]
