In Memory of Mrs. Lydia Ann Hood

I found this sweet memorial to Lydia Hood in the February 21, 1946 issue of The Itawamba County Times. Obituaries were becoming more and more common by that time, but still, most newspapers did not carry death notices of all deaths of the county's citizens. Today, information for obituaries is collected by the funeral home and distributed to the appropriate newspapers. In early days, any obituaries that appeared in the newspaper were written by the publisher or editor of the newspaper based on information he (or she) had collected. If you are looking for an obituary for an ancestor and do not find one, it pays to look well beyond the death date for "memorials" or "tributes" that were written by a loved one and submitted for publishing in the local newspaper. I've even found tributes that appeared a year later. These articles usually contain lots of good genealogical information not found elsewhere. In Lydia's memorial, I found out that she had a third given name, Rebecca, that I did not know. There is also indication that she had suffered for years from the effects of a stroke.

The tribute was written by her youngest child, Eula, who was married to Wister Curtis Conwill. The Conwills made their home in Dorsey.

Lydia was the daughter of Thomas and Martha Minyard, who moved to Mississippi from St. Clair County, Alabama. She was married to Harrison Hood, son of Joshua and Margaret Hood, who also moved from St. Clair County to Itawamba County. Lydia and Harrison were grandparents of Pearl Johnson Dulaney, my husband's grandmother.

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Itawamba County Times
February 21, 1946

In Memory of Mrs. Lydia Ann Hood

Mother Lydia Ann Rebecca (Minyard) Hood was born August 27, 1863 and on Sept. 8, 1945 God in his wisdom saw fit to send his holy angel into our home and call from our midst a kind, gentle, sweet and loving mother, at twenty minutes after 9 o'clock of that morning the still small voice whispered, child come up higher and rest from your sufferings, making her stay on earth 82 years and 12 days.

For many years she had been afflicted, and for six years confined to her bed and very patiently and without suffering even though for some time she could not move hand or foot, she had lived in our home a little more than twenty years and God in his mercy saw fit to bestow upon us such blessings as would permit us to provide for her ever comfort for which we are indeed thankful to God and have no regrets concerning our efforts to care for her in her declining years, everything was done for her that loving hands could do.

Many times we have talked with her concerning scriptures in the Bible and she seemed to enjoy our little effort in explaining them to her, according to the Bible and according to the evidence she gave us, God had taken away that hard and stony heart and given her a heart of flesh and she is now basking in the sunlight of God's eternal love on the sunny banks of sweet deliverance where there will be no more sorrows pain nor death and troubles and trials will be no more.

Mother dear has gone
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in our home
That never can be filled

How we miss you mother dear
Since you went away
The days so sad and lonely
As we go on day by day

We know if you could speak
Dear children do not weep
Mother's in the arms of Jesus
In a quiet and peaceful sleep

But some day we hope to meet you
On that bright and happy shore
Where we'll sing God's praise forever
And our trials all are o'er.

We sincerely and deeply appreciate every kind deed and word by friends during the illness and death of mother, also we sincerely appreciate the beautiful flowers as a token of love, but the kindness our friends have shown us we treasure as a very beautiful memory. May God's richest blessings be upon each one who by word or deed lent a helping hand.

W. C. Conwill
Eula Conwill