Wordless Wednesday - A Baby in the Flower Bed

Digital image. Original held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD
FOR PRIVACY], Portland, Oregon, 2012.

I believe this is my brother,

Archie Anthony Neil "Tony" Sherrell,

circa 1943, probably El Monte, California.

© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - The Men in My Life

Digital image. Original held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD
FOR PRIVACY], Portland, Oregon 2012.

From left to right:

My brother Arny Sherrell holding me, brother Tony Sherrell,

brother-in-law Gary Hutchcraft, father Jack Spurlock, and

family friend Verne Phelps.

Circa 1956, probably El Monte, California.

© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Let's Go For a Ride #4

Digital image. Original held by Denise Spurlock, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR
PRIVACY], Lomita, California, 2013.

My nephew, Mark Sherrell

c1972, Alaska

© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Love is in the Air #4

Digital image. Original held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD
FOR PRIVACY], Portland, Oregon, 2012.

Arnold Lee Sherrell and

Sandra L. Svoboda

and their wedding party

(my brother and sister-in-law)

14 February 1959

Los Angeles County, California

© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Love is in the Air #2

Digital image. Original held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR
PRIVACY], Portland, Oregon, 2012.

Gary Arnold Hutchcraft and

Deanna Dale Sherrell

(my brother-in-law and sister)

29 August 1953

Temple City, Los Angeles County, California

© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Out for a Little Fun!

Digital image. Original photograph held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD
FOR PRIVACY], Portland, Oregon, 2012.

Gary Arnold Hutchcraft and Deanna Dale Sherrell

circa 1953, probably Long Beach, California

© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - A Happy Reunion

Digital image; original photograph held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY],
Portland, Oregon, 2012.

Arnold Lee Sherrell,

Beaulah Belle (Yawman) Sherrell, and

Archie Anthony Neal Sherrell

circa 1955

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Mom, Deanna and Tony

Digital image; original photograph held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS
WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY], Portland, Oregon, 2012.

Beaulah Belle (Yawman) Sherrell, with

daughter Deanna Dale Sherrell, and

son Archie Anthony Neal Sherrell

circa 1949

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Three Generations

Digital image; original photograph held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY],
Portland, Oregon, 2012.

From left to right:

Beaulah Belle (Yawman) Sherrell,

Archie Anthony Neal Sherrell,

Myrtle Arminta (Snider) Yawman,

William Lee Yawman

circa 1946

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Mom and Tony

Digital image; original photograph held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY],
Portland, Oregon, 2012.

My mom, Beaulah Belle (Yawman) Sherrell,

holding my brother Archie Anthony Neal Sherrell,

circa 1944

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - School Days #2

Digital image. Original held by Deanna Golden, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY], Portland, Oregon, 2012.

Columbia School

El Monte, California

8th Grade

April 1951

My sister Deanna is in the second row, second from right.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - School Days #1

Digital image. Original held by Arnold Sherrell, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY], Dripping Springs, Texas. 2011

Columbia School

El Monte, California

Fall 1949

Miss Colby

Sixth Grade

My brother Arny is in the second row far right.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - My Brother Tony

Digital image. Original held by Denise Spurlock.

Archie Anthony Neil "Tony" Sherrell

5 September 1943 - 8 October 2001

Rest in Peace

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wedneday - Guys and Cars

Digital image. Original held by Arnold Sherrell, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR
PRIVACY], Dripping Springs, Texas, 2011.

 My brother, Arny Sherell, and

Gary Hutchcraft,

c1955, California.

Digital image. Original held by Cheryl Beaver, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR
PRIVACY], Lone Grove, Oklahoma, 2011.

My brother-in-law, Dale Chaney, and

unknown driver,

c1955, California.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Grandparents and Grandchildren

Digital image. Original held by Arnold Sherrell, [ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY],
Dripping Springs, Texas, 2011.

My maternal grandparents, William Lee and

Myrtle Arminta (Snider) Yawman,

with my siblings,

Arnold and Deanna Sherrell, 

c1941, probably El Monte, California.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Wordless Wednesday - Ride 'Em Cowboy!

Digital image. Original held by Arny Sherrell,
[ADDRESS WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY], Dripping
Springs, Texas, 2011.

My brother,

Archie Anthony Neil "Tony" Sherrell,

circa 1945.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock

Another Tragedy at Pearl Harbor

Today marks a day of remembrance for those who lost their lives in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But I write of another event that occurred on December 6.

It was 1962. In Honolulu, a sailor aboard the destroyer escort USS Willhoite fell from a ladder and hit an angle iron. As a result of the fall, that young man, just 19 years old, lost a precious sense—his sight. That sailor was my brother, Archie Anthony Neil “Tony” Sherrell.

I was only 6 years old at the time. I do not remember how my family learned the news. And we never talked about it. I never asked my mother about it. When I was in Texas recently and could have talked with my brother Arny about it, I didn’t. It just seems like it would be too painful.

What I do know I learned from this newspaper article:

"Aeromedical Groups Hauls 100,000th," Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 1 Feb 1963,
p. 10, col. 7; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 Mar  2010).

Tony went on to live a full life. He married and raised a family. He earned a degree in social work from Pacific Lutheran University. He worked as a Veterans Affairs counselor for those with visual impairment and lectured for the National Federation of the Blind. He sold talking computers in the early 1980s and later sold antiques. He traveled. I have wonderful memories of the times we spent together.

Tony died on 8 October 2001; his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, the islands he loved.

My hero, my brother—

Archie Anthony Neil "Tony" Sherrell with his wife Bonnie.
Digital image; original held by Jennifer Spurlock, [ADDRESS WITHHELD
FOR PRIVACY], McKinney, Texas, 2011.

 © 2011 Denise Spurlock

Tombstone Tuesday AND Tuesday’s Tip – Two Posts in One!

First, for Tombstone Tuesday, I am posting pictures of the front and back of the tombstone memorializing my parents, Jasper Jackson and Beaulah Belle (Yawman) Spurlock, located in Lone Grove Cemetery, Lone Grove, Carter County, Oklahoma.

Now for Tuesday’s Tip: Don’t accept what you find engraved on a tombstone as your only proof for a genealogical fact. You could be lead astray!

My father is the only person buried in the grave pictured above. My mother died in Bakersfield, Kern County, California; at her request, her body was donated to the University of Southern California for medical research purposes. My siblings and I chose to have a new marker made for my dad’s grave to remember my mom as well.

You might surmise from the listing on the back of the marker that my parents had six children, but they did not. Jane was my father’s daughter from his first marriage to Mattie Lee McBride. Deanna, Arny and Tony are my mother’s children from her first marriage to Archie Sherrell. Jenny and I are the only two children born of my parents’ union.

Perhaps you know of a unintentionally deceptive tombstone in your own family. If you do, make a record of it so that future descendants will not be mislead.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock