Gaylord & Orva Rae Pennington

Gaylord Pennington was my grandfather Fessie's brother. Younger brother, by two years. He married Orva Rae Rutledge, the daughter of HenryAllison Rutledge and his third wife, Melissa Booker. Aunt Orva Rae was much younger than her two half-brothers who were born nearly forty years earlier. Henry was 58 years old when his only daughter was born.

Gaylord and Orva Rae were married in 1935. They lived in the old Rutledge antebellum home located in the Cardsville community of Itawamba County. This home was a two-story structure started by Orva Rae's grandfather, Alfred Rutledge, prior to the Civil War. Alfred was killed in the Battle of Murfreesboro, and his son Henry finished the house. Sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, Gaylord and Orva Rae tore down the antebellum home and replaced it with a modern brick house which is no longer standing. Today, the only sign of the old houseplace are a couple of large trees that mark the spot.

Gaylord began his married life as a farmer, farming the land originally owned by his wife's family. Later, he got a job with the state highway department under Roy Adams where he worked until his retirement. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the army, joining his two brothers, Fessie and Frelon, in the war effort. Like Fessie, Gaylord participated in the Second Battle of the Philippines although Fessie was a sailor while Gaylord was a mess sergeant with the army.

Gaylord died of colon cancer in 1974. Orva Rae continued to live at their home in Cardsville until her death in 1992. They had one daughter, Gary, pictured with them in the above photograph.