Nellie Pearl Stanley (1905 - 1974)

Born 23 Jun 1905 in Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA

Ancestors

Daughter of Charles Franklin Stanley and Sarah Elizabeth White

Wife of Porter Burnett Simonds — married 3 Oct 1922 in Anson, Jones County, Texas, USA

Descendants

Died 23 Oct 1974 at age 69 in Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Shari S [send private message]

Biography

Biography below composed by great-granddaughter Shari S for FindaGrave:

Pearl, as she was always known, was the fifth child and last daughter of Charles and Stanley and Lizzie White. She was born in 1905 in Nacogdoches County but was still a young child when her parents and their six children found a permanent home in Huntington, near Lufkin, in Angelina County.

Pearl was not quite a teenager when the Spanish Flu took the lives of her two sisters Roxie and Dorothy, young women of 23 and 17. Her remaining sister and close confidant, Mattie, married soon after.

The mood of the household in those years with only Pearl and her brother Clyde left is unknown to us now, but in 1922 the family took a road trip that included traveling through Anson, Texas, far west of their home in the piney woods. While staying at an auto camp, Pearl met and soon after married Burnett Simonds. To hear Burnett's younger brother describe it, it wasn't long after the two were married that Pearl's parents confessed that the entire point of the trip was to find their 17-year-old daughter a husband.

By all accounts, Pearl was a lively young woman with a heart so warm and welcoming that even her great-grandchildren remember her fondly today. She liked baking and photography, and she loved children, caring for neighborhood children as if they were her own and showing that same motherly instinct to all her relations, be they brothers, in-laws, or distant cousins.

Pearl and Burnett had three children right away: a boy, a girl, and another boy. Life would be hard for the next decade as they traveled around Texas in search of painting work for Burnett, often doing any job - such as seasonal produce picking and temporary factory work - as the Depression grew worse. Mattie, Pearl's remaining sister and dear friend, died during this time.

By the mid-1930s the family was living in Fort Worth, where Burnett had been raised. Here they remained, albeit not always in the same place, until their three children were grown and married and the grandchildren started coming in at the end of World War II. Pearl's mother, widowed by this time, lived the last ten years of her life with the couple.

In their later years, Pearl and Burnett lived in simple retirement in Azle near Eagle Mountain Lake, their home always likely to be full of grandchildren or nieces and nephews. Burnett passed away six years before Pearl, but she continued to live in Azle, sewing toys for her infant great-grandchildren.

At the end of summer in 1974, colon cancer quickly spread to Pearl's lungs. She passed away on a Wednesday evening in late October. We still miss her.

DNA Notes

Descendants of Pearl are close matches to descendants of her brothers William and Clyde and her sister Mattie. Said descendants match descendants of Pearl's maternal aunt and uncle at a distance consistent with them actually being half-aunt and uncle (see mother for theory). Descendants likewise match appropriately to descendants of theorised half-brother's of Pearl's father, and in all cases continue to match descendants deriving from her great-grandparents and back.

Sources

• Family Bible. Originally owned by Henry Clay and Louie (Buck) Simonds. Now in possession of great-grandson C. Simonds.

• Texas, Deaths, 1890-1976. "Pearl Simonds". Image of original death certificate: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K387-WP3

• United States Federal Census. 1910. Texas. Angelina County. Page 158. Charles F. Stanley household. Image of original document at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1910USCenIndex&h=136577977&indiv=try

• United States Federal Census. 1920. Texas. Angelina County. Page 6a. Charles F. Stanley household. Image of original document at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1920usfedcen&indiv=try&h=112749798

• United States Federal Census. 1930. Texas. Jefferson County. Page 39b. Thomas Simonds household. Digital image of original document at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=62582509

• United States Federal Census. 1940. Texas. Tarrant County. Page 9a. Thomas Simonds household. Image of original document at Ancestry.com: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1940usfedcen&indiv=try&h=157981622

• FindaGrave.com. "Nellie Pearl Stanley Simonds". Memorial created by great-granddaughter Shari S based on visits to cemetery. Photo of headstone on memorial page. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14709836

• Marriage record for T. B. Simons and Pearl Stanley. Anson County, Texas. 3 October 1922. First Baptist Church. Photocopy of record provided by county clerk and in possession of great-granddaughter Shari S.

• Texas, Birth Certificates, 1903-1932. "Charles Burnett Simonds" (son). Database hosted at Ancestry.com. Digital image of original document.

• Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-1935. "Billy Urban Simonds" (son). Digital image of original document at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-17253-78338-29?cc=1803956

• Paternal and Maternal relationships are both confirmed by an autosomal 23andMe test match between Chuck Simonds and LA, his 2nd cousin . Their most-recent common ancestors are Charles Stanley and Sarah White, the great grandparents of both Chuck Simonds and LA. Predicted relationship from 23andMe: second cousins, based on sharing 316.4 cM (4.34% DNA shared) across 17 segments.