1944 :: Last of Confederate Veterans in County Has 100th Birthday

Probably the oldest citizen in Milam county is Mr. William Persky, of Sharp, who on Tuesday, November 21, reached his 100th milestone.

Mr. Persky has lived in Sharp for the past twenty years and is the father of five sons and a daughter, Mrs. E.J. Rinn, with whom he makes his home.

Mr. Persky is a native of Germany but has lived in Texas since a lad of eight years, coming to America at that age with his parents and settling in Austin county. He is a Confederate Veteran, the last in Milam county. Mr. Persky followed the farming industry most of his life. For the past four years due to ill health he has not led an active life. He is the grandfather of E.H. Rinn of Rockdale. The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 23, 1944 Page: 20 of 20 

1944 :: Death of W.H. Marshall

W.H. Marshall Sr., 89, Rockdale pioneer, died at his home here Wednesday at 2:45 p.m. after a long illness.

Funeral services are being held at the family residence here this afternoon at 4 o'clock, with the Rev. R. Burtis Bates, pastor of the First Methodist Church, officiating, and burial will be in the family plot at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

Mr. Marshall was born October 7, 1855, at Richmond, Ft. Bend county, Texas. He came to Rockdale on Feb. 4, 1874, on the first train over the I.&G.N. railroad that came to Rockdale, and in point of years is probably Rockdale's oldest citizen. 

The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 27, 1944

1944 :: Dana Andrews Remembers Rockdale

"Dana Andrews' most vivid and lasting impression of a home is the parsonage in Rockdale, a two-story frame house of the vintage 1910."

The above quotation is from a story, "Portrait of a Minister's Son," in a recent issue of Photoplay Magazine. The writer was speaking of Dana Andrews of the films, who might be better known in Rockdale as "Hoddy" Andrews, who spent his young boyhood in Rockdale when his father, the Rev. C.F. Andrews, was pastor of The First Baptist Church of Rockdale a number of yeras ago. 

The Rockdale parsonage, a two-story frame house, which the Andrews family lived in, is now a modern white bungalow and would probably not be recognized by Andrews should he visit it now.

Dana's father, Rev. C.F. Andrews, died in 1940. He served as Baptist pastor in Rockdale, as well as in San Antonio, Uvalde and Huntsville. Dana's full name is "Carver Dana Andrews," and Rockdale citizens remember his as Carver, or the nickname "Hoddy," given him by his father for the way he said "Howdy" as a youngster.

Young Andrews graduated from Sam Houston State Teachers College, Huntsville, worked as a plumber's apprentice between high school and college age, worked for an oil company in Houston, and was working for a filling station in Van Nuys, Calif., when his first break for the movies came. Among his pictures was 'The Purple Heart,' in which, according to the Photoplay magazine writer, he gave a "magnificent performance."

Andrews told the magazine author that he visited his old home in Rockdale fifteen years ago at which time he visited the old two-story frame house and a favorite childhood hiding place -- underneath the ground floor, between the central beam and the floor, where he found undisturbed after fifteen years things he had cached there: a monkey wrench, a jackknife and a mess of marbles. Rockdale Reporter and Messenger, November 16, 1944 

1944 :: Death of R.W.H. Kennon

R.W.H. Kennon, pioneer Texas publisher and former Editor of The Cameron Herald and Rockdale Reporter, died in Cisco at 1 a.m. Wednesday, January 19, 1944. Mr. Kennon, advanced in age, suffered a pneumonia attack some weeks ago and was in a hospital in Ranger. Funeral services will be held there Thursday, January 20, with interment in the Cisco cemetery. Mr. Kennon was an uncle of Ben Kennon of Cameron and a brother of the late C.B. Kennon. He established the Rockdale Reporter more than 40 years ago. At one time he edited and published The Herald and was with the plant at Cisco for a long time. The Cameron Herald (Cameron, Texas), January 20, 1944, Page 1

1944 :: Death of Madora Oxsheer Letcher

Dallas Morning News, April 2, 1944. Mrs. M.O. Letcher Dies at Houston. Mrs. Madora Oxsheer Letcher, 86, whose father was W.W. Oxsheer, early Texas legislator, a resident of Dallas from 1889 until a few years ago, died Saturday at her home in Houston. Her husband was Dr. Joseph Stephen Letcher, who practiced in Dallas until his death a number of years ago. She was born April 4, 1857, near Cameron. She was a member of the First Baptist Church here. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. C.C. Slaughter, Dallas, and Mrs. G. Arnold Bailey, Houston; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. [her findagrave memorial page]

1944 :: Death of Elizabeth H. Sitman

Dallas Morning News. February 4, 1944. Mrs. Sitman, 88, Dies at Her Home. Mrs. Elizabeth H. Sitman, 88, a resident of Dallas for thirty years, died at her residence, 612 Sunset, Thursday following a brief illness. A native of Louisiana, she attended school there and lived at Rockdale, Milam County, and Austin before moving to Dallas. She was the wife of the late Joseph Sitman, cotton buyer. Christian Science services will be read Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Guardian Funeral Chapel. Burial will be at Hillcrest Memorial Park. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. S. G. Bell and Mrs. Minnis M. Lasater, both of Dallas; five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. findagrave