In a prior post, a letter written to my grandma expressed sympathy over Jud Westover’s passing. The name sounded familiar, and I have a memory of grandma mentioning the Westovers when we went through a box of photos once. If I’m remembering right, she mentioned helping them out in their older years. Well sure enough, I did find the photo I was thinking of!
Judson Westover and Esther Youngkin were married in about 1936. Newspaper archives showed they applied for a marriage license on 13 March 1935 in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, with a 19 year age difference between the two with Esther being 48 at the time. Their marriage license found on the Clearfield County website is dated 14 March 1935. This was Jud’s 2nd marriage since his first wife, Annie Flickinger, passed away in 1924, and as far as I can find, it was Esther’s first marriage. Esther shows up in the 1930 census, living alone with status “Single” written down for her marital status. It appears she may have stayed home to help out with her mother after her father died.
Jud passed away on 10 Feb 1951 and Esther later on 17 August 1963. Grandma was off at nursing school at that point, but someone either sent her the funeral notice or she was able to make it home for the services since she saved the funeral card.
It doesn’t appear that the two had children together, though Judson had two children with his first wife. Saved photos and things like funeral notices remind me every time I do genealogical work that the people who shape our lives are both biological relatives and friends and neighbors. The whole story isn’t just a list of vital statistics on birth, marriage, and death, but little snippets like this that show who we knew and where we went.
One more bonus I found before publication date! A photo of Esther’s brother Loy, his wife Grace Troxell, and an unnamed grandchild.