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Submitted: 9/3/08 • Approved: 9/3/08 • Last Updated: 7/15/14 • R51948-G0-S3
Birth: Jun. 3, 1918
Wayton
Newton County
Arkansas, USA
Death: Dec. 16, 2005
Newton County
Arkansas, USA
Joe Wiley Vaughn is the son of William Nelson Vaughn and Mary Sue (Snow) Vaughn. He married Rhoda Victoria Self on April 23, 1955 at Wayton, Arkansas. They had four children, Beverly Joe, Franklin Dean, Clifton Wiley and Tamara Lynn.
Joe lived all his life in Wayton, Arkansas, (Newton County) where he was an active member of the community. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. He was a farmer and carpenter. When it came to making anything from nothing there was no one that could out-do him. The concrete and native stone gateway at the Snow Cemetery where Joe is now buried was handmade by him, his dad, Will and one of his nephews. He was a master story teller and could keep an audience of any age captured with tales of his childhood and 'haint tales' passed on to him from his mom.
He could be seen sitting for untold minutes as he would 'call' a quail to him. The male of the species would fly to within yards of Joe thinking he was courting a female. Joe played the guitar and loved to sing as he strummed out the tune. His favorites were the old cowboy ballads, Little Joe the Wrangler, Blood Stained Saddle, Ole Shep and gospel music, The Old Rugged Cross being one he sang often.
Joe was a longtime member of the Masonic Lodge, Buffalo Lodge #366, at Wayton, Arkansas, as was his father and paternal grandfather before him.
After giving his life to Jesus in the early 1980's, Joe wrote a song about his road to redemption. He named it "Mountain of Love". It tells of his struggle to find the right way to ask God for forgivness and the gracious amount of love and forgivness he recieved once he finally kneeled at the alter and prayed the one prayer that would set him free.
In Joe's last weeks of life, as he was tended by his wife, Rhoda, he asked her several times if she could hear the beautiful singing. She never did, but he insisted he could hear 'the most beautiful singing' passing above him as he lay on his bed.
After his death, we as a family, agreed that he had been hearing a heavenly choir calling him home. We thought it appropriate that this be put on his stone, as there could never be a more fitting epitaph than one he'd repeated over and over during his last days on this earth.
At Joe's funeral service, his song, 'Mountain of Love' was sung, as was 'Daddy's Hands'.
Joe left to find the singing on December 16, 2005. He passed away at Jasper, Arkansas. He was buried in the Snow Cemetery at Wayton, Arkansas on December 20, 2005.
"Daddy said he heard the most beautiful singing, now he's gone home to find it."
Joe's maternal great grandfather, Wiley Snow, was the first person buried in what was to become the cemetery. During Wiley's life he requested that when he died that he be buried under a big Walnut tree in his pasture. From that grave has grown the Snow Cemetery.
Joe is buried only a few yards from his great grandfather, Wiley.
Contributed on 9/3/08 by silver-b
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Record #: 51948