Person Page - 20

     Sena Ellen Teets was born on 28 September 1867 in West Virginia.^{2,1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} She was the daughter of Martin Teets and Mary Ann "Polly" Lantz (Lance). Sena Ellen Teets married Ulysses Grant Beer, son of John Beer and Barbara A. "Barbary" Casto, on 27 October 1889 in Upshur, West Virginia.^10,11,1 Sena Ellen Teets died in March 1937 at age 69.¹ She died on 14 December 1938 in Washington District, Hampton, Upshur, West Virginia, at age 71.^12,3,9 She was buried on 16 December 1938 in Elbon Cemetery, Washington District, Upshur, West Virginia.^12,13,9
     Sena Ellen Teets was also known as Cena.

     Catherine "Kate" Mowry was born in May 1824 in Upshur, West Virginia.^{8,9,10,2,4,11,12,13} She was the daughter of John Mowry and Nancy Dean.⁷ Catherine "Kate" Mowry was born on 10 June 1824 in (West) Virginia.^14,15 She married Henry Wilfong, son of Henry Wilfong [Jr.] and Mary Karahoof, on 9 September 1841 in Augusta, Virginia.¹⁶ Catherine "Kate" Mowry died on 9 August 1914 at age 90.^17,14,18 She died on 23 August 1914 at age 90.¹⁵ She was buried after 23 August 1914 in Bailey Ridge, Upshur, West Virginia.^19,20
     Catherine "Kate" Mowry was Catherine was a housekeeper per the census in 1870 and 1880.

     Samuel Henry Wilfong was born circa 1841 in Virginia.^2,3 He was the son of Henry Wilfong and Catherine "Kate" Mowry.¹
     Samuel Henry Wilfong applied for a Civil War Pension on in 1887 in West Virginia.⁴

     Mary Elizabeth Wilfong was born in 1848 in Virginia.^3,4,5 She was the daughter of Henry Wilfong and Catherine "Kate" Mowry.^1,2

     Eliza Jane "Elzie" Wilfong was born circa 25 April 1852 in Virginia.^3,5,6 She was the daughter of Henry Wilfong and Catherine "Kate" Mowry.⁴ Eliza Jane "Elzie" Wilfong married Andrew Grubb, son of Amos Grubb and Emily (?), on 14 April 1870 in Upshur, West Virginia.^7,8,9 Eliza Jane "Elzie" Wilfong died on 29 May 1877 in Upshur, West Virginia.³
     Eliza Jane "Elzie" Wilfong was also known as Louisa Wilfong.^5,6,10

     Columbus Wilfong was born on 5 July 1856 in Upshur, West Virginia; "None" stated as middle name on birth record.^{3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11} He was the son of Henry Wilfong and Catherine "Kate" Mowry.^1,2 Columbus Wilfong married Sarah A. Black, daughter of James M. Black and Sarah Yeager, on 28 April 1877 in Upshur, West Virginia.^12,13,14 Columbus Wilfong died on 8 September 1936 in at his residence, Upshur, West Virginia, at age 80.^3,15 He was buried on 10 September 1936 in Mount Washington Cemetery, Washington District, Upshur, West Virginia.^3,16,17

     Robert Denver Sweitzer is the son of Robert Wesley Sweitzer and Glenna May Harvey.¹

     Matilda Wilfong was born on 1 May 1860 in Upshur, West Virginia.^2,3 She was the daughter of Henry Wilfong and Catherine "Kate" Mowry.¹ Matilda Wilfong died on 11 September 1861 in Upshur, West Virginia, at age 1.⁴

     Phillip Peachy Wilfong was born on 5 August 1858 in Upshur, West Virginia.¹ He was born on 7 August 1858 in Ivy, Upshur, West Virginia.^{4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12} He was the son of Henry Wilfong and Catherine "Kate" Mowry. Phillip Peachy Wilfong was born in August 1860.⁹ He married Mary Elizabeth Rowan, daughter of E. Howard Rowan and Sarah Catharine "Kate" Allman, on 24 September 1881 in Upshur, West Virginia.^13,14,15 Phillip Peachy Wilfong died on 2 May 1936 in at his residence, Upshur, West Virginia, at age 77.¹ He was buried after 2 May 1936 in Mount Carmel, Upshur, West Virginia.¹⁶
     Phillip Peachy Wilfong was also known as Phillips Wilfong.¹⁷ Phillip Peachy Wilfong was also known as Phillip Wilfong.¹⁸

     Kenneth Gail Raynes is the son of Luther Buell Raynes and Clella Opal Bess. Kenneth Gail Raynes married Patricia "Pat" Janelle Parks on 31 March 1973.

     Billy Ray Raynes is the son of Luther Buell Raynes and Clella Opal Bess.

     Drema Gay Raynes is the daughter of Luther Buell Raynes and Clella Opal Bess.

     Margaret Ann Raynes is the daughter of Luther Buell Raynes and Clella Opal Bess.

     Larry Keith Raynes is the son of Luther Buell Raynes and Clella Opal Bess.

     Patricia "Pat" Janelle Parks was born on 13 May 1939. She married Kenneth Gail Raynes, son of Luther Buell Raynes and Clella Opal Bess, on 31 March 1973.

     Dale Raynes was born circa 1907. He was the son of Walter Brent Raynes and Emma May Jones. Dale Raynes died circa 1910.

     Mont Clarence Melton Sr. was born on 1 December 1889 in Bluecreek, West Virginia.^2,3,4,5,6 He was the son of James Monroe "Jim Andy" Melton and Emeline C. "Emma" Blackshire.¹ Mont Clarence Melton Sr. married Allie Hayes, daughter of Albert Paintner Hayes and Mary Isabell Derrick, on 19 July 1910 in Charleston, West Virginia.⁷ Mont Clarence Melton Sr. died on 20 June 1945 at age 55; Heart, and severe asthmatic.⁷
     
The Mont Clarence Melton - Allie Hayes Family

Mont Clarence Melton was born on December 1, 1889 in Kanawha County, possibly at Narrow Branch, to James Monroe "Jim Andy" and Emily "Aunt Em" Blackshire Melton. He was the eldest of their eleven children. As was common in those days, Mont received little formal education, completing only the fourth grade, but he did continue learning throughout his life.

On July 19, 1909 Mont married his childhood sweetheart and schoolmate, Allie Hayes. She was the third child of Albert Paintney and Isabel Derrick Hayes' family of eight, and had grown up at Walgrove, where Walnut Creek empties into the east side of the Elk River.

Early in their life together, Mont worked as a logger in Cabin Creek, where he furnished and fed his own team of horses - and got paid $1.00 per day. At various other times, he worked as a farmer, a deputy sheriff for Kanawha County, Superintendent of the French Creek Game Farm (now known as the West Virginia Wildlife Center), as Superintendent of a child care "shelter" for wayward teenagers in Dunbar, and as a security guard for the Naval Ordinance Plant in South Charleston, where he was on duty on June 20, 1945 when he suffered a fatal heart attack, and subsequently died at what is now Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston.

When Mont and Allie were living in Elkview with their first five children, one of her sisters who had been living with, and caring for, their widowed father, came to them with a request for Mont and Allie to move back to the home place to relieve this sister and her husband, because of dissention between the husband and his father-in-law.

So in 1925, Mont and Allie, along with their four boys and one girl, moved back to the A. P. Hayes home place at Walgrove. There they did live in harmony with her father, even after the family further expanded.

Shortly after the move back to Walgrove, Allie's invalid younger sister Josie, and her husband Benjamin A. Melton (Mont's first cousin known as "Jinx"), died within months of each other. They left five children, four boys and a girl. So practically overnight, Mont and Allie found themselves parenting ten children. These children were Mont and Allie's children Donald, 14, their Virginia, and Josie and Jinx's Ruby, 9, Mont Jr., and Josie's Helen, 7, Josie's Freda, and Allie's Hayes, 5, Allie's Floyd, and Josies's Brenford, 3, and Josie's Ruth, 15 months. In a year and a half, Alene was born. Seventeen more months and Jacqueline's birth brought the number of children to an even dozen - 7 girls and 5 boys.

With the brunette Hayes girls having married blond Melton boys, their children had the same physical characteristics, mixed coloring, personality traits and last name. Assimilation into one family was amazingly easy. As an adult, Ruby observed another family's insecurity after the death of a parent, and commented, "you know, we never went through that. I guess we just knew that we were loved so much - and we were going to be all right."

During the years at Walgrove, Mont worked as a deputy sheriff and at farming. Like his Dad, he knew and loved horses and dogs. He kept a close eye on the boys, making sure the outside chores were done. He was strict. What he said, went - period. Nobody argued with him. But everyone knew where he stood when anyone of them was in need. He was security itself.

Allie, on the other hand, was the nurturer. She was "Mom" to all. And to get her total attention, all anyone had to do was hint that maybe Josie's children would fare better if various ones were parceled out to other relatives and friends. Her quick response to that was "I promised Jo I'd keep them together, and I'll do it - or be found scratching for them."

Before the Melton families combined at Walgrove, there was no elementary school closer than Blue Creek. With the influx of the Melton children, the powers that be decided to build the one room Walgrove grade school. The first teacher Virginia remembers was a Mildred Miller, then came Mabel Matthews, Mr. Albert Chandler, Mrs. Florence Fizer and Gerald Burford also taught Meltons at Walgrove.

When students finished sixth grade at Walgrove, they crossed the Elk River by boat to be bused to Elkview Jr., and then Sr. High School.

Allie was appreciative of the bus driver's consideration. She felt the driver must have realized what it took to get such a bunch fed breakfast, lunches packed, and ready for river crossing and school, for if a Melton kid came from the house and headed down the bank toward the boat, the bus waited for that student. But with Mont and Allie heading up the household, there weren't many mornings when that bus was held up. No one slept after Mont called, "boys, girls, time to get up!"

Education remained high on the priority list for the Meltons. Eleven of the twelve graduated from high school. The boys were a welder, a painter, a Greyhound bus driver, an electrician, and a Missouri state employee. Of the girls, five became R. N.'s, and one an L. P. N. Even Virginia (who married Edward Evans, an Elk District High School graduate of 1931, shortly after her own graduation) successfully completed a Nurses Aide Course after years of being a farmer's wife.

Looking back, life wasn't easy for the Melton's at Walgrove. By today's standards, conditions were somewhat primitive. No indoor plumbing, and no electricity. Only natural gas could be considered as any kind of modern convenience. This served to provide light, fuel for the cook stove, and heat for the house.

The lack of running water necessitated river water being hauled up to the house by hand when laundry day found empty rain barrels at the house corners. Everyone had a water bucket according to size (a four pound lard bucket for the smallest child), and even carrying water up a steep bank was fun when you had so much company.

Once the water was at the house, it was strained to remove the wax from an up-stream refinery. This salvaged wax was used to make the aptly named "Sad Irons" glide smoothly over Tuesday's day-long ironing. The strained river water then filled the gasoline powered Maytag washer and the galvanized wash tubs to clean the mountains of dirty clothes.

The laundry was monumental, as was the fixing of school lunches and the myriad of other daily tasks in such a family. Mont was appreciative of Allie's efforts. He tried to keep "hired" girls, but few stayed longer than a few days. They had to work too hard.

There is no question that Allie Hays Melton was a most remarkable woman who worked like one possessed to feed, clothe, and care for her children. But she never failed to realize the fact that had Mont been cut from different cloth, there would have been no way she could have supported those twelve children.

And there were always more. Mont repeatedly found hungry, homeless men on Charleston streets in that time of the great depression. He brought them home, and Allie took them in and made them a part of the family, often for years at a time. He and Allie were a pair. And only once was their generosity betrayed.

In the midst of World War II a boy brought home by Mont decided to return to the streets. He took with him Navy winter clothing that Brent had shipped home as he left to spend more than two years on a P.T. boat in the South Pacific.

In 1933, Mont, like his father Jim Andy, had always been a dedicated worker for the Democratic Party, was appointed Superintendent of the French Creek Game Farm, now known as the West Virginia Wildlife Center. So Mont, Allie, and the younger ten children moved to Upshur County. They left behind Donald, his young wife Olga Layne Melton, and their baby boy, Jimmy, along with Virginia, who stayed to finish high school at E.D.H.S.

The move was a good one. Mont enjoyed his job and was responsible for major renovations on the game farm. Under his guidance, white-tailed deer were raised, and as young breeders, were released into the State Forests. Several huge brooder houses were constructed, and pheasants, quail, and turkeys were incubated towards the further restocking of the State Forests. A sawmill was brought in to harvest timber from the woods for the brooder houses and a modern new barn. There was ample ground to grow vegetables to feed the family. There were berries and fruit trees they had brought with them from Kanawha County. Personally, Mont made friends easily, and was soon active in the Buckhannon branch of the Knights of Phythias lodge, and a rod and gun club. He enjoyed riding his thoroughbred horse, and did well in local horse shows.

He also appreciated the fact that life was easier for Allie. A Delco generator provided power for lights, a washer, and iron and a radio - though as at Walgrove, fresh meat and milk were still refrigerated by being lowered into the well. The biggest boon, of course, was running water and indoor plumbing.

Allie continued to can, and can, to preserve, and to jell. Huge crocks of sour kraut and pickled corn, along with "hills" of cabbage and carrots livened up winter meals. During long winter evenings, she pieced quilts. Where they were ready for the frames, she, the girls (and sometimes neighbors) quilted. Supporting her husband in his lodge endeavors, she became active in the Pythian Sisters lodge in Buckhannon.

Upshur County schools were great, too. No more river to cross, and ¼ mile was the most they had to walk to the bus stop. Ruby, Jr., and Helen entered Buckhannon High School. The rest, except five year old Jackie, went to the four-room French Creek Grade School. Jackie had to wait until she was six before she could enter elementary school. Like Walgrove, there was no Kindergarten.

Although the Game Farm was 12 miles from Buckhannon, the boys participated in High School sports, hitchhiking home in time to do the milking and other chores. During the Game Farm years, Ruby, Helen, Hayes, Freda, Floyd and Brenford were graduated from Buckhannon High School.

The political climate changed with the elections of 1940, and Mont lost his position at the Game Farm. In 1941 the family moved back to Kanawha County, this time buying the Charles Given farm at Wills Creek. The only children still in school were Ruth, Alene, and Jackie. They entered Elkview High School, from which they all, in turn, were graduated.

Mont was inordinately proud of his children. When they were younger, often to their chagrin, he "showed off" their dancing and musical abilities. Then at the onset of World War II Mont and Allie saw Donald, Hayes, Freda, Brent, and Ruth all in uniforms of various branches of the Service.

During this time, he was superintendent for two years of a "shelter" for wayward teenagers at Dunbar. While there, a gung-ho social worker decided that Mont's discipline was too strict, and brought against him charges of child abuse. There was a hearing, the judge examined the 15 year-old boy in question, and the balsa wood paddle made from a wood crate. His decision was that the boy was unharmed, and that anyone who would look at Mont Melton's record of helping the homeless, and raising his own twelve children would have known better than to bring such charges. The case was thrown out of court, but the damage to Mont was irrepairable. He left the "shelter" and was hired as a Security Guard at the Naval Ordinance plant in South Charleston. Within weeks, while on duty, he suffered the heart attack that ended his life before his children were home from the war.

After Mont's death, things were never the same for Allie. Around 1950, she sold the Wills Creek place, and moved to Spencer to be with the Evans'. Shortly thereafter, she began to suffer from Arteriosclerosis and Parkinson 's disease. She died in a Spencer Hospital at the age of 72.

Allie and Mont are buried side by side in the Melton Cemetery at Elkview.

(submitted by Alene Melton Slater - daughter).⁷
Mont Clarence was a strict disciplinarian but a loving father of both the born and adopted children. He was very musical, and sang second tenor in quartets; also was an avid dancer, for both tap and square dancing.⁷ Melton Happenings Remembered

Daddy leaving the car on the way to Sunday School to help fellow deputies break up a moonshine still operated by neighboring teenage boys. Donald took over the steering wheel and the rest of the family continued on to church.

Grandmother Emily Blackshire Melton came to Walgrove to help make apple butter in a big copper kettle over an outside fire. At the Game Farm, Mom made apple butter in the kitchen - in the oven.

Pete remembered that when the families first joined, Mom announced that everyone had a perfectly nice name so there would be no nicknames. What a losing battle that was!

La (Helen), fell off a grapevine swing and broke her arm. A clean fracture, it healed without problems. Floyd at age 7, fell off Dixie, the family pony, and broke his left elbow. This was a horrible compound fracture, with a resulting infection. He had only limited use of that arm from then on. In 1945, Floyd married Helen McCoy, a 1945 graduate of EDHS.

Brent slipped on house linoleum and broke his leg. Sixteen year-old Pete (Ruby) and Jin, babysitting, diagnosed the problem and decided to "set" it. Pete, already aspiring to be a nurse, told her sister, "Jinny, you hold him around the waist." Virginia did as directed, and Peter grabbed Brent's foot and pulled - hard. When mom got home from grocery shopping and Brent was transported to the doctor for casting, the doctor commented, "somebody did an excellent job of setting that bone!"

Ten of the children had the "Big" measles at the SAME TIME - no doctor except Mom. She and Don's young wife, Olga, cared for the sick.

In summer, the Elk yielded fish, frogs, and recreation, but was also a cause for concern for the "three little girls", Ruth, Alene, and Jackie. Pete convinced the little ones that she often napped as she floated on her back, and the girls worried that she'd be carried down river, and they'd lose her! Pete probably fostered this idea to make sure the youngsters stayed close by.

Dr. Amick, a Charleston physician, performed tonsillectomies on Alene and Floyd in his office, both on the same day. Floyd, awake first, told his Mother, "Don't let them take little Ene in there - they'll kill her!"

Dr. Amick also removed pounds of abdominal tumors from Mom. In the hospital, she watched the rain fall, and fall, and fall. Daddy, on his daily visits, reassured her that the river was high, but within it's banks. Not so. A row boat floated through the front yard to the porch and carried the children down the railroad track to the school house to join flooded neighbors. Mr. Fred Strickland (who lived next door to the school house), came over and invited the girls and babies to spend the night at his house, leaving the school to the men, boys, and older women. Next day, we returned home to find water in only one low corner of one room. When Mom came home, all was well except that water had ruined some pictures that had been stored in an outbuilding while the house was being remodeled.

Brent and Ruth decided to get roots for sassafras tea. They got poison ivy. Brent was OK, but poor little first grader Ruth missed days and days of school with her eyes swollen shut. Her teacher, Mr. Albert Chandler, kept checking on her and sent word to Mom to "never mind her appearance, if she wants to come to school, and she can see and eat, let her come to school."

Donald had "blood poisoning" from an injured leg, the doctor was talking amputation. Mom said "huh-uh". She never left Don's side, keeping hot Epsom salts on his injured leg until the infection localized. Don kept his leg.

When Jr. and Hayes, or Brent and Floyd, came to blows as they infrequently did, Daddy drew a ring in the dirt, put boxing gloves on the boys, and made them slug it out.

As long as she was able, Aunt Cora Davis came across the river every Monday morning to help Mom with the week's wash.

Mom saved and boiled ragged sheets for us to walk up the railroad track to Aunt Annie Hopkins for use as bandages for Uncle John's external (and terminal) cancer.

Ruth's grandfather, J. D. Melton, visited at the Game Farm and got what Mom termed "snow blinded" from watching the deer come to feed with the sun glaring on deer park snow.

Freda was brought from French Creek to Charleston for Dr. Amick to remove her tonsils in his office. Nothing was yet known about the Rh factor, so they never understood why Freda hemorrhaged half-way to Mars.

Pete (Ruby) needed her tonsils out, and was so intrigued by the prospect that she sat in a chair and held a mirror so that she could watch the procedure.

Mr. Gresh, Daddy's new boss at the Game Farm visited, and spent some time with the family. "Mrs. Melton," he said, "I know that there are two groups of children here, but I can't tell who's who. How do you keep from making a difference between your children and the others?" Mom looked him straight in the eye and told him "Huh. I might make a difference, but there's not that much money. There's just enough to go around, and that's it."

Freda (Pee Wee) and Hayes were graduated from the same class at Buckhannon. Not quite five foot tall Freda led in the class, Six foot two and one half Hayes brought up the rear.

Eighth grader Ruth was the marble champion of French Creek Grade School. When principal Cecil Reed wanted her to represent the school in a County-wide tournament, Mom said "Absolutely not! And you will no longer play marbles at school. It's not ladylike". End of Ruth's marble career.

Brent's deep bass voice at table often requested, "Mom please butter my bread." When asked why he didn't butter his own bread, he answered "Because it tastes better when Mom butters it."

The State Photographer, a Mr. Johnson, wanted the big buck, Denny, on the rock in the deer park. Daddy led Denny up on the rock with a black Smith Brothers cough drop, and droped flat in front of the rock. Thus a post card was born.

A lady named Maude Hanna came to visit for a week or so - I think she was from Frame - and she and Mom made lye soap over an outdoor fire.

At Walgrove, there was a deep well near the kitchen door. The well water was cold, but it turned everything it touched a dark, dark red. So in addition to sometimes carrying laundry water up from the river, we carried drinking water nearly ¼ mile from a spring down near the school house.

At the Game Farm, Sunday afternoons were pleasant, we might find Mom missing. Instead of allowing her a little time to herself, we'd track her down, and find her sitting on a log in the woods listening to the birds and watching squirrels and rabbits play around her.

At the Game Farm, Freda and Helen were the dishwashers. They did a million of them, and sang with each one. Out of the kitchen, Hayes accompanied them on guitar, and they made a credible trio.

Jackie and I harmonized too, but we had no accompanist. Hayes was in the Air Force. Don and Jr. both could play nearly any kind of string instrument, but nothing as well as Hayes played guitar.

Daddy helped form, and sang second tenor in a neighborhood quartet. One song that never got old was "Precious Memories." And they are.

These memories are from "down under," looking up through the eyes of the eleventh of our twelve, and therefore are no doubt biased.⁷

Mont Clarence Melton Sr. was also known as Montie C. in 1900 U. S. Federal Census.³ He registered for the WWI Draft on on 5 June 1917 in Kanawha, West Virginia.² During the school years of the children, most of the time they would cross the Elk River in a row boat to get to school.⁸ When Benjamin Adlai Melton and Josie Hayes died, their five young children were "taken in" by Mont Clarence Melton Sr. No formal adoption took place. They all grew up along the Elk River.⁸ Hattie Ruth Melton was adopted.⁸ Helen Mae Melton was adopted.⁸ Brenford Benjamin "Brent" Melton was adopted.⁸ Ruby Ellen "Pete" Melton was adopted. Ruby never married. She was 9 years old when her dad shot himself to death, and her mother died of asthma about 6 months later. Of the children's grief for their parents, Pete once said to me "Ene, we never went through that; I guess we just all knew that Mom loved us so much we were all right." A Registered Nurse for over 40 years. At Walgrove, Brent (her brother) once broke his leg when Mom was in town. Pete directed Jin (Virginia) and the two of them "set" the break. Pete was a rock for all of us. She and Jin were especially close.^8,7

     Allie Hayes was born on 9 June 1888 in Blue Creek, Kanawha, West Virginia.^2,3,1 She was the daughter of Albert Paintner Hayes and Mary Isabell Derrick.¹ Allie Hayes married Mont Clarence Melton Sr., son of James Monroe "Jim Andy" Melton and Emeline C. "Emma" Blackshire, on 19 July 1910 in Charleston, West Virginia.¹ Allie Hayes died on 9 January 1962 at age 73.
     Allie was a loving and hard-working peson, and very practical. She mothered seven (7) natural born children and five (5) adopted children, four (4) nieces and one (1) nephew when Benjamin and Josie Melton died in 1925 and 1926.¹

     Donald Dwight Melton married Olga Layne. Donald Dwight Melton was born on 7 August 1911 in Elk, Kanawha, West Virginia.^1,2,3 He was the son of Mont Clarence Melton Sr. and Allie Hayes. Donald Dwight Melton died on 9 April 1978 in Charleston, Kanawha, West Virginia, at age 66.¹
     Donald was a welder by trade, was musically inclined, and boxed professionally under the name "Jimmy Davis". He served in WWII (seabees).⁴

     Olga Layne married Donald Dwight Melton, son of Mont Clarence Melton Sr. and Allie Hayes. Olga Layne was born in 1914. She died in 1974.

     Jimmy Dwight Melton was born on 23 August 1932.¹ He was the son of Donald Dwight Melton and Olga Layne. Jimmy Dwight Melton died on 11 October 1953 at age 21; Jimmy Dwight Melton was in military service in England with the U.S. Air Force, and was killed in a motorcycle accident.^2,1

     Virginia Catherine Melton was born on 2 January 1915 in Elk, Kanawha, West Virginia.^1,2 She was the daughter of Mont Clarence Melton Sr. and Allie Hayes. Virginia Catherine Melton married Edward H. "Eggie" Evans on 20 October 1934.³ Virginia Catherine Melton died on 23 January 2002 in Spencer, Roane, West Virginia, at age 87.¹
     Virginia was a homemaker, friendly and a second "mother" to her younger siblings. She Loved music and dancing.³ She lived on 6 October 1999 in Spencer, Roane, West Virginia.⁴

     Edward H. "Eggie" Evans married Virginia Catherine Melton, daughter of Mont Clarence Melton Sr. and Allie Hayes, on 20 October 1934.¹
     He was a steel worker and a farmer.¹

     Larry Edward Evans married Ethel Marie "Pat" Walker.¹ Larry Edward Evans was born on 23 August 1935.¹ He is the son of Edward H. "Eggie" Evans and Virginia Catherine Melton.