Lois Jackson (1904 - 1981)

Born 23 Jan 1904 in Florence, Williamson Co., TX

Ancestors

Died 3 Apr 1981 at age 77 in Houston, TX

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Biography

Lois Jackson was born 23 Jan 1904 ^[1]on the family farm near Florence, Williamson Co., TX, to John Mayfield Jackson and Rilla Skaggs Jackson. She was their first child.

Lois attended schools in Florence and graduated from high school in Lampasas, TX, where her grandparents lived, since Florence did not go all the way to the 12th grade.

In the 1920 Census, the family lived on the Briggs and Fiorello Road in Burnet Co., just across the line from Williamson Co.^[2] It included John M. Jackson, 42; Rilla L. Jackson, 38; Lois, 15; Laurence, 11; and There, 10.

On 28 Feb 1925, Lois married Clint Fowler Fagg of Austin.^[3] They were married by George Green, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Austin. Clint was an embalmer, working for his brother-in-law, Charles B. Cook, owner of Cook Funeral Home in Austin. The 1927 Austin City Directory shows both Clint and his brother Charles B. Fagg as embalmers. The Fagg brothers and their wives lived a few doors apart on Bowie Street in Austin.^[4] According to family stories, Lois sewed the shrouds for the funeral home.

The 1929 City Directory shows Clint and Lois had moved to 407 W. 11th in Austin, just a short distance from the Cook funeral home.^[5]

Clint Fowler Fagg Jr. was born to the couple on 12 Jun 1929 in Austin.^[6] But scarcely five months later, the father died. Clint Fagg Sr. died 20 Nov 1929 at the Seton Infirmary from "Influenza pneumonia."^[7]

The 1930 Census shows Lois, then 24, and her young son, not yet 1 year old, living with the Cook family. Ruby Cook was Clint's sister. The census lists Charles B. Cook, 37; Ruby Cook, 31; Lois Fagg, 24; Ruby's parents, Mary T. Fagg, 62, and Walter W. Fagg, 73, all living at 1210 Colorado St. (across the street from the funeral home), along with two women listed as "servants."^[8] Lois was working as a saleswoman at E. M. Scarbrough & Son, Austin's leading department store, according to the City Directory.^[9]

Although Lois remained close to her sister-in-law, Ruby Cook, all their lives, she decided to move to Virginia with Clint's brother, Charles. By 1932, Charles owned Fagg's Frozen Custard in Norfolk, VA.^[10] Charles and his wife Eleanor, Lois and her son Clint Jr., and Charles' mother, Mary Fagg, all lived at 618 W. 37th in Norfolk.

Lois' father, John Mayfield Jackson, died on the family farm in Texas on 27 Mar 1932. Her mother, Rilla, went to live with Lois in Virginia for a short period of time. Later in life, Rilla would make her permanent home with Lois.

In 1933, Lois remarried. She and Horace Lee Kee married in Roanoke, VA on 3 Jul 1933 ^[11] but apparently made their home back in Norfolk. The 1935 Norfolk City Directory shows Horace as a clerk at Bill's Barbecue in Norfolk. It also gives his wife's name as "Lois D." Kee. This is the only known usage of the middle initial D for Lois.

Tragedy struck again for Lois when on 6 Aug 1935, Horace Kee died.^[12] Clint Fagg had been buried in Austin's principal cemetery, Oakwood. Now Lois had Horace's body shipped back to Austin, also to be buried at Oakwood, with a space for herself left between the two husbands. She returned to Austin to make her home again with her mother.

The 1940 Census finds Lois and Rilla living at 602 W. 16th in Austin.^[13] Lois, now 36, was working as a keypunch operator for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Rilla was 59; Clint Jr. was 10.

In November 1940, Lois once again married. She wed Charles H. Ballard, a Corpus Christi dry goods salesman, in Nueces Co. on 28 Nov 1940.^[14] This, too, was a short-lived marriage, but in this case the husband lived on. The marriage ended and Lois took back the Fagg name which her son, Clint Jr., bore.

Later Lois moved to Houston, where she worked downtown as a keypunch operator for The Texas Company, also known as Texaco. Her mother, Rilla, lived with her at 333 Harvard St. in the Heights until Rilla's death in 1962. Her son Clint Jr. had lived with them until he married in 1948.

From her girlhood in Florence and throughout her life, Lois was an active member of the Church of Christ.

Lois died 3 Apr 1981 in Houston. She was buried, as she had planned, in Austin's Oakwood Cemetery Annex, between her husbands, Clint Fagg and Horace Kee.

Sources

1. ↑ Texas death certificate, Lois J. Fagg, 1981
2. ↑ 1920 U.S. Census, Burnet Co., TX
3. ↑ Texas Marriage Records
4. ↑ Austin City Directory, 1927
5. ↑ Austin City Directory, 1929
6. ↑ Texas Birth Certificates
7. ↑ Texas Death Certificate
8. ↑ 1930 U.S. Census, Travis Co., TX
9. ↑ Austin City Directory, 1930
10. ↑ Norfolk City Directory, 1932
11. ↑ Virginia Marriage Certificates
12. ↑ Virginia Death Certificates
13. ↑ 1940 U.S. Census, Travis Co., TX
14. ↑ Texas Marriage Licenses, Nueces Co.

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