New Headstone for Annie Lewis (Alexander) Coffey

The following was submitted by Kevin D. West [kdwest@sandspringsok.org]. Annie was his GG-grandmother:

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Annie Lewis Alexander was born on 24 Jan 1863 in Parker Co., Texas.  She was the daughter of Lewis and Sarah E. (Culwell) Alexander.  Around 1878, while still residing in Parker Co., Annie married Frank Hudson Coffey.  Frank was born 10 Jan 1861 in Texas, the son of Elijah D. Coffee and Margaret “Peggy” Armstrong.  Frank and Annie Coffey later moved to the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in late 1889 or early 1890.  They were still residing there when the 1900 Census was taken.  A decade later they were living in Oldham and Carson Cos., in the Texas panhandle, where Frank worked for the railroad.  But, by 1920 Frank and Annie had moved back to Oklahoma, settling in Tulsa, where they remained into the 1930s. 

Photo by Kevin D. West

Annie Lewis (Alexander) Coffey passed away sometime in early January of 1936.  Regrettably, no death certificate is on file for her at the State Health Dept.  I have attempted to determine her exact date of death, having searched in newspapers, funeral home and other records, as well as by submitting queries both printed and online, all without success.  Fortunately, Tulsa’s Memorial Park Cemetery, where Annie Coffey is buried, does have a record of her date of internment, that being 7 Jan 1936.  For nearly eighty years, my great, great-grandmother’s grave has remained unmarked, but no longer.  Her specific date of birth and date of burial are inscribed on the headstone. 

After his wife’s death, Frank Coffey moved to Bristow, Creek Co., Oklahoma where he later passed away on 13 Jun 1940.  According to his death certificate, he is buried in the Bristow City Cemetery.  Unlike his wife Annie, Frank’s grave is still unmarked.  And, unfortunately, the City has no record of where in the cemetery he is buried.  My paternal grandmother, Annie Jewel (Smith) West, daughter of Arizona Pearl (Coffey) Smith, often said of her maternal grandparents, Frank and Annie Coffey, that they were “good, Christian people.”  What better epitaph could anyone wish?  

John William & Virginia Pearl Coffee Voris

John William Voris
All Photos are courtesy of
Jennifer Hoy Orton

John William Voris was born in Kentucky on Apr. 14, 1868.  His parents have not yet been identified.

He left Kentucky sometime before Dec. 23, 1898 when he was married to Virginia Pearl Coffee in Albany, Shackelford Co., TX.

"J. W. Voris and bride, nee Pearl Coffey, who were married December 23, at Albany, Texas, are expected to arrive tomorrow night.  Mr. Voris, who is a well known resident of Globe, will receive hearty congratulations from his many friends.  Mr. Voris will serve as deputy to Sheriff-elect W. T. Armstron."¹[sic]

He and Virginia appeared in the 1900 census in the Globe Pct., Globe, Gila Co., Arizona Territory. In March of that year he was a deputy sheriff in Gila Co. and covered the county collecting taxes on, among other things, sheep and cattle.²

Virginia Pearl Coffee Voris

John, or William as he was apparently called by friends, was one of the lawmen who attempted to arrest a pair of Apache warriors for trial in 1895.  The two Indians had been earlier indicted for robbery.  The particular band of Apaches were part of the White Mountain Apaches and lived on the San Carlos reservation - sometimes called the Fort Apache reservation - along the Cibecue creek.  According to local news stories, they were known to be cattle thieves and said to have robbed and murdered a number of ranchers in the area.

When Voris and other deputies appeared at the camp to take the Indians into custody a skirmish broke out and Voris ended up killing one of the Indians known as Nock-ay-det-Klinne and referred to in local newspaper articles as Nan-tan-go-Tayz.  He was acting chief in place of his brother Cooley who was apparently away at the time.  According to newspaper reports, the lawmen had given up on arresting the two Indians and were attempting to leave the encampment in peace.  They were set upon and in the course of defending himself, Voris shot and killed the acting chief.

John William Voris continued to work as a lawman from time to time but spent more time raising cattle.  He quit law enforcement in 1905 and went to work in Pinal Co., AZ Terr. for the A. C. Sieboth mines.  In 1910 he and Virginia were raising cattle on their ranch in the Tonto National Forest near Gila.  He died on Jun. 18, 1917 of an apparent heart attack while driving in an automobile near Globe, AZ.  He was buried on the 21st at the Globe Cemetery.³

Kentucky Mildred Voris

Virginia Pearl Coffee was a daughter of Robert Marion and Emma Gaines Reynolds.  She was born on Jun. 12, 1871 in Lavaca Co., TX and died on March 9, 1966 in Globe, Gila Co.  She and John William were parents of four children:

Kentucky Mildred was born Oct. 28, 1899 in Globe  According to her death certificate, she died of Typhoid Fever on Apr. 29, 1918 in Tucson, Pima Co., AZ.  Descendants say she died of "Spanish Flu" and was never married.  She is buried at the Globe Cemetery in Gila Co.

Robert Edward Voris

Robert Edward, born 1902 in AZ and died there in 1981. He too is buried at Globe.  Robert married a widow (apparently) with three children and a tad older than him.  She was Zella Ruth Kinsey, born Nov. 11, 1901 in Bartlesville, Osage Co., OK and died in Los Angeles Co., CA on Sep. 21, 1945. She had been previously married to Chester Lester Ferguson with whom she had three children:  Cline Elizabeth, Clemmie Beatrice and Winifred Fay. She and Robert apparently had no children together. The burial place of Zella Ruth is not known to me.

Emma Marie, born c1905 in AZ, died unknown.  She married Oscar Elihu Clendennen [sic] who was born in Haskell Co., TX on Oct. 24, 1900.  He died in Jan., 1964 at Midland, Midland Co., TX and was buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Odessa, Ector Co., TX.  I have not yet found Emma's death date or place of burial.  There were at least three children born to this union:  Marion Bradford, born 1925; Melba Marie, born 1926; and Minnie Charlotte, born 1927.

Georgia Virginia Voris

The last child born to John William and Virginia was Georgia Virginia on Jan. 6, 1911 in Gila Co., died May 5, 2000 in Kansas.  In c1929 she married Richard Toliver, sometimes Tolliver, Underwood.  To that union was born two daughters, Mildred Elizabeth in 1931 at Flagstaff in Coconino Co., AZ and Margaret Voris in Gila Co. in 1933.  Mr. Underwood appears to have married and divorced a number of times and finally passed away in Arizona on Aug. 5, 1987.  He was buried at the Hall Cemetery in Howe, Grayson Co., TX.  Georgia later remarried to Louis Lieber Weinstein. born 1910, died 2001.  They apparently had no children together.  Both she and Louis are buried at the Meriden cemetery in Meriden, Jefferson Co., KS.




Additions and corrections are welcomed!

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Sources:

¹The Daily Arizona Silver Belt, Globe City, Pinal Co., AZ, Dec. 22 [sic], 1898, Page 2, Col. 3.
² The Oasis - Arizola, Pinal Co., AZ 1893-1920, Mar. 10, 1900, Page 10, Col. 2; citing the Globe Silver Belt newspaper,
³ William Voris, death certificate No. 527 (18 June 1917), Arizona Department of Health Services, Health Services, Phoenix, Maricopa Co., AZ. http://tinyurl.com/o5fyv2c

For context see: http://tinyurl.com/oepozyg, ttp://tinyurl.com/muenm47, and http://tinyurl.com/nyaofb6

The Red Ryder

I am getting a jump on Memorial Day by honoring this WW2 Bomber Crew today.

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Standing (R-L): Pilot, 1st Lt. George N. Ryder, Jr, husband of Mary A. Ryder, Decatur, GA; Co-pilot, 2nd Lt. Wayne A. Kretschmar, son of Otto B. Kretschmar, Venturia, ND; Navigator, 2nd Lt. Billy K. Isbell, son of Ray E. Isbell, Charleston, IL; Bombadier, 2nd Lt. Easton W. Duval³, Jr., son of W. E. Duval, Sr., Austin, TX; Right Waist Gunner, T/Sgt Robert D. McIntire, son of Ella McIntire, St. Louis Park, MN

Kneeling (R-L): Ball Turret Gunner, S/Sgt Bud W. Armstrong, son of Mrs. Ima M. Armstrong, Shattuck, OK; Top Turret Gunner, T/Sgt Charles E. Doane, son of Mrs. Katie Doane, San Diego, CA; Nose Turret Gunner, S/Sgt James H. Williams, son of Mrs. Loretta Williams⁴, Kingsland, AR; Tail Gunner, S/Sgt Julius J. Bryson, son of Mrs. Eva Marie Bryson, Greensboro, NC; Left Waist Gunner, S/Sgt Raymond H. Bourgeois, son of Mrs. Josephine Bourgeois, Gramercy, LA

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This photo is of the crew of The Red Ryder, a WW2 B-24 Bomber on which my wife's youngest maternal uncle S/Sgt Raymond H. Bourgeois was a gunner.  He was a son of Henry Joseph and Josephine Corinne Caillouet Bourgeois of Gramercy, LA and he and his crew were lost on May 31, 1944 while returning to their base in Italy following a bombing run over the Polesti, Rumania oil fields.  He was six days shy of his 22 birthday.

The aircraft cleared the coast of Yugoslavia and was over the Adriatic sea, near the island of Vis when the pilot feathered the number 3 engine, but maintained air speed of about 150 knots. The crew was seen throwing guns, ammunition and equipment out of the aircraft in order to maintain altitude. Other planes attempted to contact the crew by radio, but were unsuccessful. At about 5000 to 6000 feet, the crew began to bail out, and 10 chutes were seen to open. All landed in the water, but none were recovered alive.

From all reports by others in formation with the Red Ryder, the bomber was not in severe distress, but no one will ever know for certain! It must have been however, since the crew did abandon it.

How we came to be in possession of the photo is forgotten.  We knew that one of the men was Raymond but unsure which.  There are no sisters or brothers remaining alive to identify him. 

It took some time for me to identify and eliminate all of the other crew members before determining that Raymond was the airman kneeling left.  Later I discovered that at the time, a protocol existed for such photos: From right to left standing, the pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier and crew chief/right waist gunner.  Then kneeling right to left was the  ball turret gunner, top turret gunner, nose turret gunner, tail gunner and left waist gunner.  But, because I did not know which gun Raymond manned, I still would have been lost.  My wife and her oldest sister thought he might have been kneeling second from right.

After obtaining the official US Army Air Force accident report and learning the names and hometowns of the men, I began a letter writing campaign to newspapers, libraries, court houses, etc. in an effort to find anyone who could identify the men.  Somewhat to my surprise, many people contacted me, including a phone call from a surviving brother of one of the men.  All of the people who wrote expressed their gratitude for the photograph and information that I had gleaned from the accident report.  Reports they had received at the time from the military either contained scant information or, were long ago lost in the dusty attics of time.

Only one newspaper - a daily in St. Louis Park, MN - refused to run my letter to the editor saying instead that it was not "public interest" and, I would have to pay advertising rates for them to include it in their publication!

My wife told me that her grandfather Bourgeois never acknowledged his son's death.  He reasoned that because his body had not been recovered, his son was not dead.  I feel certain that belief comforted him until his own death in 1953.

Readers interested in viewing more information about this research effort, and letters from relatives should click on the blog title to reach my website that feebly attempts to honor these men.

The plane in the photo is not the Red Ryder.  This photo was taken in Fresno, CA c1944, before the crew went overseas.


No. 990