Carson Blevins b 14 Jan 1895 Lawrence Co KY d 12 May 1972 Ashland, Boyd Co KY of pancreatic cancer; buried Rose Hill Memorial Gardens, Ashland, KY; s/o Thomas "Tommy Tucker" Blevins and Margaret Triplett. Carson Blevins m. 29 Jan 1916 Lawrence Co KY to Alice Jeanette "Nettie" Boggs b 27 MAY 1900 Orr, Elliott Co KY d 29 Nov 1963 Ashland, Boyd Co KY; buried Rose Hill Memorial Gardens, Ashland, KY; d/o John Milton Boggs and Nicy Margaret Wheeler. Children of Carson Blevins and Alice Jeanette "Nettie" Boggs;

1. Marguerite Gertrude "Gertie" Blevins b 30 JUN 1917 Orr, Lawrence Co KY d 18 Aug 2002 Ashland, Boyd Co KY; buried Rose Hill Burial Park, Ashland, Boyd Co KY; m. 7 Sept 1940 Commercial Point OH; to Kermits Collis Rice b 24 Feb 1919 Hamden, Vinton Co OH d 7 Nov 2005 Ashland, Boyd Co KY; buried Rose Hill Burial Park, Ashland, Boyd Co KY; s/o Charles Henry Rice and Ila Mable Brothers.

Gertie Blevins Rice was one of the kindest, most gentle spirited people that I have known. She was born while her family was still living on Needmore in Lawrence County, Kentucky, but moved to Ashland, Kentucky, when she was just a small girl. The family lived at 313 Harrison Street for some time before moving to 2760 Monroe Street. Gertie graduated from Ashland High School in 1935. She worked for several years for Armco and signed all of the invoices to build the Bellefonte blast furnace. She eventually went to work for the C&O Railroad and retired with 25 years of service. Gertie had a great passion for antiques and ran an antique store from a building beside her home on Terrace Blvd. in Ashland called Railroad Antiques. Many members of the family bought (or received as gifts) items that had been used on the dining cars on the C&O. Gertie was diagnosed with arthritis when she was just 11 years old. She suffered with it during her whole life, but she never complained. While I was visiting with her once, her younger brother J.M. came to see her. He asked how she was doing and in her typical calm way she said she was fine. J.M. responded that she was full of **BEEP** and she quickly scolded him for speaking that way in front of guests and reminded him that it would do her no good to complain about her condition. Gertie genuinely disliked her first name - Margaret or Marguerite. During a hospital stay, the staff put her first name on her wrist band and she told me that she just didn't like to look down and see that.

2. William Daniel Blevins b 14 MAR 1920 Orr, Lawrence Co KY d 2 Feb 1943 Avon Park, Highlands Co FL; buried Rose Hill Burial Park, Ashland, Boyd Co KY; m.

William Blevins enlisted in the Army Air Corps in January 1941 or 1942. He served in WW II and received his wings at Williams Field, Chandler, Arizona. Along with five other soldiers, Bill was killed when a medium bomber that they were training in crashed in Avon Park, Florida. He was a second lieutenant. The funeral was held at Pollard Baptist Church and was attended by many, many people. A cousin, Helen Thompson Graham, recalled attending the funeral and the many people who came to pay their respects to Bill's family. In a short story that Bill wrote about his life, he recalled spending time with his Blevins grandparents. He also recounted a story from his childhood in which he and some boys were playing and threw a rock. The rock broke a window and Bill was accused of throwing it, because he was left-handed and could throw quite far. When he was a boy, Bill carried the Ashland Independent newspaper. Bill attended Ashland High School, graduating in 1938. While in high school, Bill was captain of the school's ROTC unit and a member of the rifle team that finished first among secondary schools in the Fifth Service Command. He also attended Ashland Business College and was among the first graduating class in 1940. He also worked for Ashland Oil and Refining Company. In the same short story he had written about his life, Bill spoke of the hopes he had of being successful in the future. While serving in Florida, Bill met a young lady named Marjorie Jeannette Wells and fell in love. They were engaged to be married on Easter Sunday the year he was killed. Marjorie's younger sister Betty Wells Camp told us about the day that the military came to tell her family that Bill had been killed. She was the one who answered the door and was terribly upset by the news. Her family traveled to Kentucky to attend the funeral. Betty said that it was bitterly cold outside and she did not have anything to cover her legs. Gertie Blevins, Bill's sister, gave her a pair of hose to wear and that was the first time that she could recall wearing hose. They had intended to stay in the Ventura Hotel in Ashland, but when the Blevins family found out, they sent Gertie to get them and bring them back to stay at their house.

3. John Milton "Jaybird" Blevins b 26 APR 1922 Orr, Lawrence Co KY d 9 Jan 2001 Ashland, Boyd Co KY; buried Ashland Cemetery, Ashland, Boyd Co KY; m. 14 Feb 1945 Boyd Co KY to Virginia Monsie Easterling b 7 Feb 1927 Ashland, Boyd Co KY d Feb 1999 Ashland, Boyd Co KY; buried Rose Hill Burial Park, Ashland, Boyd Co KY; d/o R Dennis Easterling and Clara Goble. Virginia Monsie Easterling m. John A Lewis b ? d 1979. John Milton "Jaybird" Blevins m. before 1963 to Virginia Lou Faulkner b 2 Oct 1928 Boyd Co KY; d/o Kathleen Stewart.

4. Lloyd Carson Blevins b 5 DEC 1924 Ashland, Boyd Co KY d 18 Nov 1996 Ashland, Boyd Co KY; buried Rose Hill Mausoleum, Ashland, Boyd Co KY; m. 12 Feb 1946 Boyd Co KY to Myrtle Margaret Filmore b 18 Nov 1925 Ashland, Boyd Co KY; d/o Charles Filmore and Lula Wellman.

5. Male Blevins m. Female Childress; d/o Charles William Childress and Enid Elizabeth Fuller.

Carson Blevins worked for Armco Steel Corp. in Ashland, Kentucky, for 32 years. When he first moved his family to Ashland from Lawrence County, they resided on Harrison Street. Carson and his brother-in-law Att Clark would meet at the end of Harrison and 6th Streets and walk all the way to Armco together. Carson retired from Armco in 1956. My dad can recall that Carson was an excellent gardener and had a very large garden. Carson and Nettie moved from Harrison Street and lived at 2760 Monroe Street in Ashland, Kentucky. Carson suffered with asthma and emphazema, but he did not let that stop him from working. Many members of the family recalled that Carson was always working. Although he wouldn't loan out his possessions, he was very willing to help his family if they needed it. My dad could recall when his parents decided to build a concrete porch on the front of their house. The foundation had to be built up and Hugh asked his brother-in-law Carson if he could borrow his pick-up truck. Although Carson wouldn't loan the truck, he offered to (and did) help Hugh make many trips back and forth to Armco to gather slag to build the foundation of the porch. He is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Ashland, Kentucky. NOTE: Kentucky Vitals misindexed Carson's death certificate under the last name "Blevines."

According to the 1900 census, Nettie Boggs' full name was Alice Jeanette Boggs. I mentioned this to Gertie Blevins Rice and she said that she had never heard her mother referred to as "Alice" and didn't know that to be her first name. Nettie met Carson Blevins when he came to help John Milt Boggs shear sheep. They were married at John Milt Boggs' home when Nettie was just 15 years old and the witnesses to the marriage were James Slone (her brother-in-law) and Harry Triplett. Together Nettie and Carson raised a family of five children. Nettie and Carson moved to Ashland after the birth of their son J.M. Blevins and lived on Harrison Street. Later on they lived at 2760 Monroe Street in Ashland. Gertie told me that Nettie often had dreams which later came true. She dreamed about a family member's house burning down and received a call the next day that the house had in fact burned down. Another family member could recall a dream that Nettie had about a little chicken in a hog pin. She tried to save the little chicken, but the hogs trampled it to death. She knew the next morning that something terrible had happened to her son Bill. Thereafter, she received the news that he had been killed while serving in the military. A niece of Nettie's could recall that she was a very good cook. She particularly remembered her making a sandwich spread of pinto beans and relish. Another niece recalled her baking bread and have perfect loafes on her kitchen counter. Nettie had a very sweet personality and is fondly remembered by many members of the family. She was a member of the United Baptist Church. Later in life, Nettie had a very serious case of Alzheimer's disease or some form of dementia. Some family members believed that this was brought on by the loss of her son Bill during WWII. Her daugther, Gertie Blevins Rice, told me that this wasn't so. Undoubtedly Nettie was greatly upset by the loss of her son and requested that he be buried in a place where she could see his grave from her house. Gertie and her brother Gene took Nettie to a hospital in Lexington to have her evaluated and the doctor told them that she was developing Alzheimer's, but that it did not relate to Bill's death. Interestingly, there has been more modern research that indicates that traumatic events can be a trigger to these types of health problems. She is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Ashland, Kentucky.

(Source: Barbara Jacobs - blacklickmachine@insight-bc.com)