Mattie Talitha (Williford) Mertzmann (1900 - 1991)

Born 12 Feb 1900 in Wagoner, Oklahoma

Ancestors

Wife of Bernard Harry Mertzmann — married about 1921 in California

Descendants

Died 19 Sep 1991 at age 91 in Nevada City, California

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Robert Green [send private message]

From Robert Green: Mattie Mertzmann was my mother's mother and I knew her well.

Biography

Mattie was born in 1900 in Indian Territory. At the tender age of 2 she was packed by her parents overland by train to California where she grew up in Porterville. Mattie loved to dance and was no doubt a Roaring 20's flapper! She married Bernard Mertzman, a local druggist around 1921 and had a daughter, Melba. Mattie got her lifelong nickname bestowed on her by Melba who when little pronounced mother as muver. That name soon became Muv and everyone who knew her well would usually call her that. Bernard and Mattie would divorce and then remarry in 1927 when their 2nd child, Helene June was born. Bernard had served as a medic in WWI in Europe where he was gassed. He passed away in 1928 due to heart and lung damage leaving Mattie to raise their two daughters on her own. She worked for years for the Bell Telephone Company where she became a supervisor in charge of operators. Later she became an officer with what was known as the Telephone Pioneers of America, a nationwide group of active and retired telephone company employees with at least 20 years of service.

Mattie retired around 1965 and eventually left Porterville to live out her years near June in Watsonville, California. She suffered a debilitating stroke in 1989 and passed away after 2 years of being bed ridden in 1991.

Sources

• Daryl McBride & Deanne Brewster Family Home Page: Information about Mattie T. Willeford [1]

• ["United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSTM-8ZH : accessed 16 May 2016), Mattie T Williford in household of Henry M Williford, Township 17 N. Range 18 E. Wagoner, Creek Nation, Indian Territory, United States; citing sheet 16B, family 361, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,241,853.1990 U.S. Census]

• ["United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVPS-T4L : accessed 16 May 2016), Mattie T Willeford in household of Henry Willeford, Porterville Ward 2, Tulare, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 197, sheet 12B, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,374,124.1910 U.S. Census]

• "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHHS-P3F : accessed 16 November 2016), Mattie Williford in household of Henry Williford, Porterville, Tulare, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 211, sheet 2B, line 87, family 44, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 153; FHL microfilm 1,820,153.

• ["United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCJ8-LQ3 : accessed 16 May 2016), Mattie T Mertzman in entry for Henry M Williford, 1930.1930 U.S. Census]

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K96J-B2C : accessed 16 November 2016), Mattie Mertzman, Porterville Judicial Township, Tulare, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 54-51, sheet 6A, line 37, family 12, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 359.

• Find A Grave Memorial [2]

• "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VP9L-BHQ : 26 November 2014), Mattie Talitha Mertzmann, 19 Sep 1991; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.