About a week ago, Sheila contacted me to ask if we would be interested in some obituaries from the 1929 Twice-a-week Providence Enterprise, as it was called back then. Knowing that Webster County researchers seemingly can't get enough of obituaries I responded, "Show us the obituaries, Sheila!"
I was unaware of Sheila's capacity for work and her typing speed, and before I could even get this introductory page ready, Sheila had e-mailed me about one hundred and thirty obituaries. And now she is filling my mailbox with marriage and birth notices from the 1929 newspaper, which we will be adding to this collection very soon. That's where the "....and more" comes from.
Sheila has lived in Providence, Kentucky all her life and says she is a country girl. She loves and collects old things. She and her husband Richard have two children and one grandbaby. By the way, Sheila says the grandbaby "helped" her while she was typing up the obituaries - she may have a budding genealogist on her hands.
Sheila and her dad, the late Harold Eugene "Gene" Smith, were tracing the family tree before he died in July, 1994. The newspapers from 1929 had been given to Harold by Sheila's husband, Richard, who was doing some remodeling work at the Enterprise newspaper office; he found these papers in some trash he was hauling away from the site and knew his father-in-law would enjoy reading them. Once again we find that one person's trash is another's treasure. Sheila is so grateful her dad held on to these papers and she only wishes now that Richard had brought more of the "trash" home with him.
Sheila says she started looking for genealogy data on the internet and found the Webster County page. She saw my comment that we hoped we would be able to get more obituaries in the future and decided to get in touch. What a lucky break that was for us! And Sheila is looking for more material for the Webster County web page, too.
How is it that our Webster County ancestors have such generous descendants? Do you suppose it's because they were such great folks themselves? Thank you, Sheila. And if you want to write and thank her yourself, you can click here on her name Sheila Penrod
The obituaries have been listed in chronological order. If there are other surnames mentioned in the obituary they are in parenthesis after the name of the deceased.
Be watching for the marriage and birth notices coming soon!
