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Homer
Boyd Thurston |
Homer Boyd Thurston was born in April 1889 or 1892 in Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, PA, the son of Charles and Emma (Minerd) Thurston.
In about Oct. 1916, at the age of 27, Homer married Florence Elizabeth Miller (1893-1974), daughter of Jacob Miller of East End in Mount Pleasant. Her mother held a shower after the wedding and, reported the Connellsville Daily Courier, "Nice presents were received by Mrs. Thurston. A pleasant evenign was spent and refreshments were served."
Their children were Jay M. Thurston and Lois Jean Thurston, and perhaps others.
In 1920, when the federal census was taken, the couple was living in Mount Pleasant.
The family was blanketed in heartache when one-year-old daughter Lois Jean, stricken with meningitis and pneumonia, died on Oct. 30, 1920. Her tender remains were placed into repose in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Her grave marker is adorned with a lamb at the top.
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| Postcard showing Mount Pleasant's Main Street, looking east. |
When the federal census was taken in 1930, the family home was on Mount Pleasant's Main Street. Homer, age 44, was employed as a foreman in a local coal mine. The family is known to have attended a Thurston family reunion at the home of Homer's sister Myrtle McVay in Mount Pleasant on Aug. 7, 1932.
By 1932, the Thurstons made their home in Renton, Allegheny County, PA.
Homer died at the age of 46 on July 10, 1935 at St. Margaret's Hospital in Aspinwall, near Pittsburgh. He was laid to rest in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. A short obituary was published in the Daily Courier.
Florence outlived him by almost 40 years. She died in 1974, and is buried beside her husband and daughter Lois Jean.
~ Son Jay M. Thurston ~
Son Jay M. Thurston (1917-1977) was born in about 1917.
He graduated from New Kensington High School and circa 1938 was employed at Bryce Brothers' Company glass factory in Mount Pleasant.
On Sept. 18, 1938, in nuptials held at the Methodist Episcopal Church of Napoleon, OH, Jay was united in wedlock with Annaruth Beatty (1920- ? ), daughter of George Beatty of Dickerson Run, Fayette County. Rev. Dr. Young officiated, with Annaruth's brother Cleon Beatty serving as witness. In reporting on the wedding, the Connellsville Daily Courier said that Annaruth was "one of the best known young women of the Tri-Town Community."
They were the parents of Joyce Thurston and Ricky Thurston.
Jay earned a living in 1940 as a truck driver for a general contractor business. The couple made a home in North Dawson, Fayette County in 1939, in Mount Pleasant in 1941, Apollo, PA in 1953 and in McKeesport, PA in 1964.
Jay passed away in 1977 at the age of about 60. Burial was in Mount Vernon Cemetery in Elizabeth, Allegheny County.
Annaruth survived her spouse by 15 years. She succumbed on June 12, 1992.
Daughter Joyce Thurston
Son Ricky Thurston
Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2018 Mark A. Miner