The homemade tombstones for J. E. & Winnie Johnson with backwards and upside-down hand drawn letters are separated by the marble tombstone of their 2-year-old daughter Edith at Old Rockwall City Cemetery, Rockwall TX.
The three members of this sad, small family lie together forever in Old Rockwall City Cemetery. J. E. & Winnie Johnson lost their daughter Edith in 1915, when she was 2 years old. They themselves died within 75 days of each other in 1934 and 1935. Edith's tombstone is marble, but J. E. and Winnie's are concrete, inscribed by hand with upside down letters and oddly-drawn numbers. Perhaps these tombstones tell the tale of a family's decline into poverty in the Great Depression.
The 3 tombstones in a row read as follows:
"[L, homemade concrete]
JE Johnson
Apr-18.1885
Dec 5 1934
[Middle, marble with sleeping lamb]
Our darling little EDITH
Feb 20, 1912
July 12, 1915
Dau of
J. E. & Winnie Johnson
Budded on earth
To bloom in Heaven
[R, concrete homemade]
Winnie Wife of
JE Johnson
Way 2 1887
Feb 27 1935"
Looking a bit further on Ancestry, we found Winnie's death certificate. Her cause of death was pellagra, which is a horrible condition cased by a deficiency of niacin and protein in the diet. She suffered from pellagra from Jun 1932 until her death on 27 February 1935. Pellagra was common among the most impoverished people of the US Deep South. See: Wikipedia (
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Her husband J. E. (James Edgar) was a truck driver who died within 2 days of being diagnosed with pyloric stenosis - Acute dilation of the stomach, secondary to pyloric stenosis with peptic ulcer. This is a condition where the stomach cannot empty, causing projectile vomiting and pain. See: (
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We were surprised to find a death certificate for their young daughter Edith, who died of food poisoning after an illness lasting 6 days.
From Find-A-Grave: (
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"Ellen Winchester "Winnie" Wrye daughter of John Washington Wrye and Mattie Melvin.
Ellen "Winnie" Wrye married James Edgar Johnson 22 April 1908 in Rockwall, Texas
mother of Edith, Agnes, and Earl.
Obituary, name of newspaper unknown
Mrs. Edgar Johnson Departs This Life
Ellen Winchester Wrye was born May 2, 1887 in Wilson County, Tennessee and came to Texas with her parents when two years of age, moving to Rockwall with them in 1893.
She was married to Edgar Johnson April 22, 1908. To this union two children survive, a daughter, Miss Winnie Agnes Johnson and a son, Edgar Earl Johnson, also a sister, Mrs. D.L. Moore of this city. Mr. Johnson departed this life December 5, 1934. Mrs. Johnson had been a member of the Methodist Church for the past thirty years.
Mrs. Johnson died at the family home in this city, February 27, 1935 at 1:00 o'clock p.m. after an illness of several years.
Funeral services were held in the Methodist Church Thursday, February 28, at 3:00 o'clock p.m. being conducted by the Rev. C.D. King and assisted by Rev. John H Woodard, and Rev. A. B. Harrell. Burial in the Rockwall Cemetery. The pallbearers were Calvin Rochelle, Bob Fender, T. L. Townsend, J.D. Holt, Tom Deweese and Brown Walker.
The [local newspaper -BMB] Success joins with the entire community in extending sympathy to the bereaved."