Aunt Jennie And Uncle Merriman

The lady with the swooped up hair and maybe a bow is Larry’s Great Great Aunt Jennie,  the girl in front of her is Nettie, her oldest child.  She is 4 years old.  The baby is Leonard.  He’s less than one.  The guy with the fiddle is John Merriman  Whisenant.  The rest are Merriman’s family.  Aunt Jennie and Merriman  married near Snowball in 1905.  Nettie was a twin.  Her sister Ettie died at age two.  Aunt Jennie had reason to be sad but she always tried to look on the bright side.

John M. Whisenant was born May 20, 1889, near Snowball, Arkansas.  John Whisenant was his father and his mother was Mary Jetton. He married Mary Jane “Jennie” Renfroe on September 17, 1905. They had eight children.  He died on March 13, 1958, at the age of 68, and was buried in Muskogee, Oklahoma.    

The story told by Walton Renfroe's granddaughter was that his sister Mary Jane was going to get married riding a mule.   Walt said no one can go to their wedding on a mule and had her ride his horse and he rode the mule. 

Mary's granddaugther told me that Mary's husband always taught school and Mary ran the farm.  She loved baseball and would go to all the games she could and would also listen to baseball on the radio.  Another thing that Mary Jane loved was ice cream.  She never passed up a chance to have ice cream.  Hearing about her from her granddaughter made me think that was was a very happy person who found pleasure in many small things!  She was born in Searcy County, near Snowball but lived most of her life in near Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Here you can see Aunt Jennie as an old woman, smiling and happy.  They had a family of 8 but only 6 lived to adulthood.  Ettie died at 2 and Dorcie, a son, also passed young.

Jennie is with three of her children.  Dorothy is holding a doll.  Aunt Jennie had a second set of twins after the first.  The second was a boy Alfred Dorcie and a girl, Anna Dorothy.  Aunt Jennie had an older niece come and live with her and help her with the twins.  And still Aunt Jennie lost Dorcie.  He  died young of spinal meningitis, only 15.

Dorothy and Dorcie above 

Merriman and Jennie much older

Dorcie and Dorothy

Marriage License

Marriage License and below Jennie’s copy of her family record.  She asked her niece to type it.