A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
"Tess" was born in a tar-paper shack in the oil fields of Midwest, Wyoming, daughter of Alvin Henry Kissick and Lula May Simmons, who moved soon after to Kaycee, a few miles north in Johnson County, Wyoming. Her parents separated and both remarried leaving "Tess" with a step-father, John Emil Judson Barnum, who moved the family to Arkansas during the American Depression. There Tess met and married Harvey Laverne Paul, her first husband, and the father of her three boys, William LaVerne "Vern", Jackie Dean "Jack", and Harvey LeRoy "Roy". World War II intervened and she found herself in California where Harvey was a boilermaker during the war. They moved to Wyoming and divorced. Tess then married Elmer Leonard O'Neill, a marriage that also failed. On her own with three young boys, Tess changed her nickname to Trixie and went to work as a waitress. She met and married Edward David Vickery, a plasterer by day and a Country Western musician by night. Tess gave up waitressing for Country Western singing and home cooking. Her marriage to Ed lasted 25 years. Finding herself once again on her own, she moved around a bit and eventually settled in Reno, Nevada, and married Mark VanDyke Rudoff. Trixie died from a heart attack after struggling many years with poor health, survived by three of her four husbands, her three sons, 8 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
AncientFaces - Family History Photos
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