Obit: William Thomas Clemmons

William Thomas Clemmons was my Great-Uncle.

Obituary from the Wayne County Press – April 21st, 2008

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William Thomas Clemmons, 77, Fairfield, Dies; Was City Mail Carrier

Tom Clemmons, 77, a well-known Fairfield man, died Saturday, April 19, 2008 at his home. He had been ill with Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Mr. Clemmons had been a Fairfield city mail carrier for 25 years. After retirement he had worked at Wal-Mart.

Services Tuesday

Funeral Services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Fairfield First Christian Church. Visitation is Monday from 6-8 p.m. (tonight) at Johnson & Vaughn Funeral Home. Burial is in Maple Hill Cemetery.

He was born April 24, 1930 in Jefferson County, the son of Earl and Mary Alice Clemmons. He married Dolores Vest August 7, 1964. She survives.

He was a member of the Fairfield First Christian Church and had served as an Elder and Deacon. He served in the U.S. Army reserves.

Mr. Clemmons was a member and co-founder of the Fairfield Coin Club and served as auctioneer for 25 years. He had served as a Fairfield alderman and Jasper Grade School Board member.

Survivors

He and Dolores had one daughter, Gina (Tony) Thomason of Keenes. Mr. Clemmons had three children from a previous marriage; Debbie (Rick) Reese of Ohio, Rand (Laura) Clemmons of San Diego, Calif., Robert (Susan) Clemmons of Fairfield; four grandsons and two granddaughters; one brother Howard (Fairfield) and several nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers and two sisters.

Memorials may be made to the Fairfield First Christian Church

William Thomas Clemmons

My dad called me today and told me that Uncle Tom died this morning. He was born April 24th, 1930. He went with me a few times to the Clemmons Family Reunion in Lebanon Tennessee and always had wonderful stories to tell me. The picture below was taken at the Clemmons Reunion in 2005. I will miss him greatly.

Jan 19th Update

I have added the following publications to the database including images of the obituaries:

Wayne County Press:

• Dec. 27th, 2007
• Jan. 3rd, 2008
• Jan. 7th, 2008
• Jan. 10th, 2008
• Jan. 14th, 2008

Wayne County, IL Obits update

Since I have somewhat caught up on the Obit Index, I have started to go back and scan the obituaries and attach them so that they can be viewed. I have uploaded the December 2007 images. I am also going to work on a way to view the obituaries by year and month. Will probably be a week or so before I can get that accomplished.

More Updates

I have added over 16,000 new records to our web site. I have added the Marriage Index for Wayne County 1793-1900. The searching and viewing of the data is much easier than it is on the Sec. Of States Web Site.

I also added the Wayne County Death Index 1916-1950. Again, the searching and viewing is much better than the SoS Web Site.

Where I am heading with this is providing everyone an easier way to search all records at the same time. I want to be able to type in Puckett in to the search box and have it show me all the Marriages, Deaths, Cemetery Entries, Obituaries, etc. all at the same time. One of the things that I hate about alot of the genealogy web site search engines, is that when you do a search, it doesn't show you the results. It shows you a link and about 128 lines of text that may or may not help me decide if that what I want to go look for.

Well, that is where i am heading anyways. At the moment, we have well over 20,000 records in our database. Hopefully in the coming year, we will be able to double that number.

Wayne County Press Obits

I have added nearly 1,100 new obituaries to the index. We now have nearly 4,000 names in the index! All of 2007 is in the index (up through today).

Woodrow Wilson Baird

This is a little over a month old but wanted to get it out on the blog. Woodrow was the son of Ridley Baird (1876-1957) and Mattie Pearl Clemmons (1882-1949). Mattie's father was Elam Alexander Clemmons (1843-1917), her grandfather was James Clemmons (1794), and her great grandfather was Samuel Thompson Clemmons (1751-1837). The obituary was from the The Post in Wilson County, Tennessee

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Woodrow Baird, 88
LHS grad, member of Rocky Valley Baptst Church
MT. JULIET - Funeral services have been scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, November 15 at Bond Memorial Chapel for Mr. Baird, 88, of Mt. Juliet.

The son of the late Ridley and Pearl Clemmons Baird, he died died November 12, 2007.

Mr. Baird was a member of Rocky Valley Baptist Church and a proud graduate of Lebanon High School.

Visitation will be 12-8 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Thursday at Bond Memorial Chapel, N. Mt. Juliet Road and Weston Drive, Mt. Juliet.

Services will be conducted by Chuck Groover and Joe Coleman officiating. Interment will follow at Mt. Juliet Memorial Gardens.

Survivors include: daughters Austelle (Don) Smartt and Myra (John) Simms; grandchildren Kerry (Chad) Swallows, Lisa Simms, Jack Simms and Joshua Smartt.

Also surviving is: great-granddaughter Ellie Swallows; sister-in-law and brother-in-law Myra and Verner Bates; sisters-in-law Mamie Baird and Clara Baird as well as devoted caregiver Dorothy Carter.

In addition to his parents, Mr. Baird was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Eleanor Burnett Baird, brothers Alex, Clyde, Hugh and Richard Baird and sisters Sarah Smith, Lucy Alsup, Johnnie Kate Gourley and Alleen Smith.

Family members will serve as active pallbearers.

Flowers accepted or memorials may be made to Alive Hospice.

Bond Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Lack of Posts

I apologize for the lack of posting. Working two jobs and the amount of hours that I have been working has taken any time I had away from blogging to genealogy research. I am finally on vacation now and plan on catching up over the next week or so.

NARA Raises Fees

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is raising the fees for reproductions. I have been using them lately to get copies of the civil war pension files. So far I have ordered three pension files and will need to order a few more before October 1st. This is when the new fees will be imposed. Currently, they are $37.50 per file. After October 1st, it will start at $70 and for every page over 100, it will cost an additional 65 cents per page.

If you would like to read more about this, click here and you can see the pdf copy of the Federal Register

John Ray Clemmons in the news

John Ray Clemmons was in the Dixson Herald Newspaper on August 13th, 2007. The article is about Bob Clement who is running for Mayor in Nashville and about who he seeks council from. John Clemmons is one of his trusted advisors. John Ray Clemmons is the son of John & Margaret Clemmons of Lebanon, TN. And he is the grandson of John Wilson Clemmons & Marilyn Christine Marler.

John Ray Clemmons

Clemmons is probably the youngest non-family member of Clement’s inner circle. A former legislative assistant to Clement in the U.S. Congress and former political director of the Tennessee Democratic Party, the Lebanon native was 29 and just out of law school when Clement tapped him as campaign manager in April.

Clemmons was promoted to co-chairman of Clement’s campaign the weekend after the general election. He said he is focused on the runoff but will probably stay close to Clement in some capacity, official or informal, if his boss is elected.

“Once you’re part of the Clement family, you’re always part of the Clement family,” Clemmons said. “Once you’ve worked for him, you’re always involved, whether formally or informally.”

Clemmons is a graduate of Columbia University in New York City and the University of Memphis law school.