In 1940 she was head of household, living with her son (Sam) and her father (Sam R. Beam) on Plum Run Road, Nelson Co., KY.

Mary Rebecca was my grandmother and a well ahead of her time.  She stayed active with piecing quilts, cooking for her family and taking care of her chickens until around age 96 when her health declined.  When she was 98, after a very long and tough decision, my mother and uncle had to put her in a nursing home.  Since she was so outgoing and a people person, she adjusted well. I loved her dearly.  She was born in a brick house on Old Bloomfield Rd.  I don't know what it was called then.  Until a few years ago, the house still stood.  She was the fourth child.  Albert Lucas Tichenor, William Carrothers, David Laura (died in infancy) Mary, named after her two grandmothers, John Randolf, James Cotton and Edgar died in infancy.

Nanny's first husband was George Whisman, a train engineer and a "silver tongued devil". Her brothers tried to talk her out of marrying him, but he was very handsome. She had Mary Ellen Whisman in Sept. 1911.  I have all the dates at home, but I am at work.  He was not a faithful husband.  He contracted TB, and she put him in an asylum where he later died.  He was from either Jackson or Wolff county Kentucky.  At one point, the brothers were living in Jacksonville, Florida.  She moved there for a while.  Aunt Ellen was a toddler. Mommy and Poppy and the brothers moved to Rockford, Ill where they ran a boarding house. The house is still standing.  A friend of mine was in that town and took a picture for me.   According to my mother, Poppy believed everything was greener on the other side of the fence.  I am not sure if my grandfather was courting her before she moved or not.  I have several letters he sent her.  Anyway, they married Jan. 8, 1918 in Rockford.  Uncle John, her brother stood up for them.  She was 29 and Granddaddy was 41. The brothers traveled around until they eventually married. After she and granddaddy married, they moved back to Bloomfield on his farm.  I own 51 acres of it.  They stopped in Louisville and stayed with his sister Octavia Neal Dupin and her family for a few days.  1918 was a harsh winter.  Mommy had a botched appendectomy surgery and died in late Jan.I have her last letter.  Uncle John had just been drafted and was the only unmarried son, and Mommy didn't want him to leave.I think he had already left at this point, but am not sure.    THe ground was so frozen, she couldn't be buried until May. Poppy and she had separated and later divorced.  We think.  My mother Ada Holden was born Feb. 12, 1920 and my uncle Samuel Bryant Neal Jr. was born Dec. 11, 1924. My grandfather died April 19, 1935 of TB.  She took care of him for two years  before he died.  Afterward, with his life insurance of $10,000, she built the house my family and I currently live in.  Poppy lived with her and died in 1944.  She, my grandfather and Poppy are buried in Bardstown Cemetery. 
-clabro98@aol.com