The History of the Starr Family calls her Alice Barnum, apparently in error. She appears in various sources as Alethene, Alethea, Althea and Alathea. Descendant Diane Rousseau notes that she was named Alethene at birth but Alethea became the way she spelled her name in later life. The latter spelling is used on the death certificate of her son Lewis Henry, in the Family Bible record, in various mortgage records on file in the Sullivan County Government Center, Monticello, New York and also on her tombstone. Alethea married (2nd) Joel W. McKee, before the 1850 Census, and is shown in the Town of Fallsburgh, Sullivan County, NY (Nov 8, 1850): McKee, Joel W., 59, M, $700, b. CT; Alathea, 57, F, b. CT.
Alethea died at Glen Wild, Sullivan Co., NY. Source: Obituary published September 2, 1863 in the Republican Watchman & Jeffersonian Democrat, Pub. weekly Jas. E. Quinlan, Editor, Reel # 13, MNH 1032. Died. At, Glen Wild, on the 27th Mrs. Alethea McKee, formerly widow of Platt Barnum, aged 72. For over thirty years, she was a consistent communicant of Saint Johns church, Monticello. [Note: Her exact age at death was 71 years, 6 months, 4 days; born Feb. 23, 1792].
Birth: Feb. 23, 1792, Danbury, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA; Death: Aug. 27, 1863, Glen Wild, Sullivan County, New York, USA. Wife of Platt Barnum; daughter of Abel Barnum and Annis Turner; mother of Grandison Miller, Lucia, Maria, Annis Minum, Abel, Lewis Henry, Albert Starr; widow also of Joel W. McKee Burial:
Grays Cemetery, Sullivan County, New York, USA.