Clyde Carlyle Porter (1891 - 1925)

Growing up, I never understood why other kids had two sets of grandparents and I only had one. Later, I would ask my Mom (Ruth Porter Stegner) about her parents and she would say something like...they died when I was young. I didn't pursue it because it seemed like it caused my Mom a great deal of pain. Many years later, this is the story that my Mom told me: Cevia (her Mom) married Clyde. I don't really know anything about their personalities, but was told that Clyde was a bootlegger and very mean when he was drunk. My Mom said he stopped the car, after he had been drinking, with his wife and three kids in it, on the train tracks, with a train coming. My Mom remembers thinking that she was going to die. He finally moved the car as he was laughing. Cevia's Daddy, John Zinn, had told Clyde, if you ever do something to hurt my daughter, I will kill you. Clyde came home one night and shot Cevia as she was in bed with her youngest child, Nellie. Then he told my Mom and her older brother, Vincent, to go get their Grandpa, John Zinn. They did as they were told and their Grandpa returned and shot their Daddy. On that night, all three children became orphans. Their grandparents took them in and raised them. They were extremely poor. I asked my Mom which piece of the fried chicken was hers when they ate. She replied either the feet or the tail. Their Grandpa was later acquitted by a Coroner's Jury. My Mom remembers how people would point at them and gossip about them, she thought it was because they were orphans.