Selected Families and Individuals

Notes


Ruby Jean THOMAS

1.  Ruby Jean had died prior to her mother's death.


Ulysses THOMAS

1.  Ulysses died one week after his mother Effie passed away.


Ermadine "Erma" THOMAS

1.  This is what Lola Womack had to say regarding her niece, Ermadine:  "Ermadine was their second child, and grew into a beautiful young woman, who was known as being the prettiest girl that ever walked down the streets of Malakoff.  However, tragedies and grief were to follow most of her younger live, and took its toll on her beauty.  She married Troy Dean Haynes of Malakoff.  He was drafted late in WW II, and after being discharged from service, he became an alcoholic.  He abused Ermadine by beating her and threatening to kill her if she left him.  Once she walked, carrying her baby in her arms, three miles across a pasture filled with bulls, in order to get to her mother and dad.  When Lawrence saw her swollen face and blackened eyes he took his shotgun, against Ermadine and Effie's plea not to commit murder, to hunt for Troy, but fortunately Lawrence couldn't find him.  Troy appearing at Lawrence and Effie's house about a week later, begging Ermadine to come back;   promising all kind of good things, but also telling Ermadine in secret that if she didn't come back, he would kill her, the baby, Lewis Dean, Effie, Lawrence and himself.  Ermdine was scared of him and knew he was capable of doing anything, because his mind was warped with alcohol, so she went back to him.

He would get a job;  pull a big drunk and lose the job.  Once he got a job with a freight company in Dallas and was sent on his first trip to Shreveport, Louisiana where he got drunk and left the loaded truck on the street.  The company finally located the truck and had to send another man to take care of getting it unloaded and returing it to Dallas.  No one knew where Troy was until he showed up about a week later.

Next he got a job with Lucas Dairy Farms near Mesquite, where he and Ermadine were provided with a house to live in on the farm.  Ermadine hated it from the start because it had a large, unfenced pool of water at the back of the house.  Her baby was only two years old, and every time he was outside to play, Ermadine had to watch him like a hawk to keep him out of the pool.  Her washing machine was on the back porch, and one afternoon she was washing and trying to keep an eye on the baby at the same time.  Lewis was playing with his little dog and his ball at the steps.  In less than two minutes she looked again and saw Lewis was missing;  his ball was floating on the water, and the little dog was standing at the bank of the pool, she ran screaming to find Lewis' body under the water.  She was eight months pregmant and unable to swim, but she went into the eater anyway.  Another employee heard her screaming and by the time he got there, Ermadine was in water up to her ears, nose and mouth.  He slapped her enough to bring her to her senses, shoved her to the bank, and then got Lewis out of the water and brought him to Ermadine.  Then the man got cramps, fell into the water and drowned without Ermadine being able to save him.  The man left five children of his own.  Ermadine still says that she believes that she could have revived Lewis if she had not been too large to bend over to give him artificial respiration properly, but she had to lay him across her lap and try to push him with her hands.  Even though water would come out of his mouth when she pushed, she could'nt save him, and it was at least twenty minutes before an ambulance got there from Mesquite, and by then it was too late.

Although it did not seem to bother Troy, the loss of her baby and and the fact that Ermadine wasn't financially able to help the five fatherless children nearly drove her to a nervous breakdown.  When it looked like they were at the end of thie rope, Ermadine was hired by Collins Radio and started earning their living.  By that time, she had two more boys and two girls.  Troy would disappear for weeks at a time and by then he was a complee sot and contributing nothing to the family support.

Effie came to live with Ermadine to take care of the children while Ermadine worked, since she was not making enough to pay for a baby sitter.  One afternoon Ermadine had just gotten home when Troy drove up.  He was drunk and began brandishing a gun, threatening to kill all of them and himself.  The rest of the family ran to the car, and spent the night in a cheap motel.  The next afternoon Ermadine had to return to get clean clothes, evern if Troy was still there.  His pickup was still sitting where he had left it the past day.  When she opened the door, Ermadine saw a note propped up on the coffee table.   It said, "Don't let the children come into the bathroom".  She opened the bathroom door and Troy had blown his brains out with a deer rifle.  She called the police, sat down alone with her thoughts and began to wonder if it would be possible that the police accuse her of killing Troy.  Thank God they didn't, but again she was devasted with tragedy in her young life.

Ermadine stayed with Collins Radio and finally married Don Scott, a good man, and they appear to be happy.  She did her best in raising the children, but the youngest boy took after his daddy;  not only drinking, but robbing and stealing as well.  He even stole from his grandmother, Effie.  He disapeared years ago, and Ermadine told Effie that at one time he was in New Orleans.

Ermadine and Don built a new home in Princeton, Texas in 1984.  They provided Effie with a place to live with them, and one week later Ermadine came home from work to find her mother dead, lying out in the yard.  Ermadine had already gone through the loss of her sister Ruby Jean, then one week after Effie died, her brother Ulysses was killed and his wife died.  So, Ermadine has had her share of sorrow.

Ermadine says she always hated her name.  She used the first part and went by Erma.  I don't think she ever volunteered to tell anyone what her real name was.  She didn't have a middle name.  In about 1962, she phoned a friend, whose young child answered the phone.  When she asked to speak to the friend and told the child her name was Erma, she said she heard the child go and tell his mother, Mommie, it's a GIRL and her name's HERMAN!

She once met up with Uncle Vermon, whom she hadn't seen in several years by coincidence while at the hospital for tests where he volunteered one day a week.  She said he looked familiar and looked at his name tag.  When she said, "I think I know you", he said "Well who are you?"  She said , "well I think you're my uncle".   He said, Ermadine, is that you?"  She says she looked around to see if anyone had heard him call her "Ermadine" before she admitted to it.

This article came out of Bobby R. Huggins book.


Ronald Lynn HOLLINGSWORTH

1.  Ronald & Delores were divorced in June 1976.


Laurentz - Lawrence SCYPEART

1.  E-mail from Richard Jones:  It is a tradition in the family that the Cypert family originated in Germany, probably Alsace-Lorain.  The father being Larrance, (Laurence, Lawrence), Scypeart and the mother being Margaret, married in Germany.


Dr. Herbert Wayne JONES

1.  Herbert became an Anesthesiologist in Dallas/Fort Worth area.

2.  He was a Medical Doctor and practiced in Monahans, Ward, Texas, until 1961.

3.  He lives somewhere in New Mexico now.