Fearless Females: Unexpected Death

March 11 — Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family?

Ellen (King) Wright, standing, third from right

Ellen (KING) WRIGHT, my maternal 2nd-great grandmother, died on Christmas Eve in 1913 at the age of 45.  The official cause of death was mitral regurgitation.  Her obituary states :

From: Alexandria, IN Times-Tribune, December 26, 1913

Mrs. John Wright, age 45 years, passed away after several years illness of heart trouble.  Mrs. Wright had been a sufferer from heart trouble for years and six weeks ago the case developed into a leakage of the heart.   She is survived by a husband and two sons, Virgil and Chester, age 17 and 18.  James King and Ben King, residing at Orestes, are brothers of the deceased, and Mrs. Mary Young of Orestes, is a sister.  The funeral will occur from the country home four miles southwest of the city tommorrow morning at 10:30 o'clock and burial will be made in the Odd Fellows cemetery.

 The story I've been told was that my great-grandfather, Virgil, didn't like to celebrate Christmas as an adult because of the memories of the death of his mother.  I can understand why.


In writing this post, I realized that I don't really have a good picture of her.  The picture above is a gathering of the King side of the family, I believe.


Once again, in honor of National Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.