Monday, April 17, 2006

John David Nelson's obituary, 1973

In response to an obituary lookup request for John David Nelson I made this morning on an Ancestry.com message board, a very nice volunteer, provided the following:

Arizona Republic Newspaper, 21 Mar 1973
John D. Nelson
PRESCOTT - Services for John D. Nelson, 47, who died Saturday in the Veterans Administration Center, will be at 2 p.m. today in the VA Center Chapel. Burial will be in the VA Cemetery.

Mr. Nelson was born and reared in the Crown King area, where he resided until 1966. He was a great-grandson of the late George P. Harrington, who was the founder of the Crown King and Phil mines. He had several mining claims in that area.

He was a Navy veteran of World War II. He had been employed by the Grant Tile Co. of Prescott for the past 10 years.

Survivors include his wife, Betty Jo; his mother Mrs. Vivian F. Nelson; his grandmother, Mrs. Ella B. Tewksbury of Crown King; two daughters, Mrs. Jay Lynn
Howell of Cottonwood and Mrs. Debbie Lee Harper of Welton; three sons Walter H., Samuel D. and Joseph A., all of Prescott and two grandchildren.

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NOTE The newspaper obituary states he was born in Crown King however his birth certificate at: http://genealogy.az.gov/lists his birth location in Maricopa County.

This is from 33 years ago, but provides the names of John's family members, and confirms that his mother is Vivian F. Nelson. I can now track down John's children, who are the great-grandchildren of Ella Tewksbury, sister to Lucretia Carothers. It is my hope they can shed some light on Lucretia, because as far as I know, she has no descendants.

To learn about the George P. Harrington mentioned in this obituary, check at the Crown King, Arizona website.

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