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Submitted: 9/3/08 • Approved: 9/3/08 • Last Updated: 7/28/12 • R51953-G0-S3
Birth: Apr. 19, 1891
Murray
Newton County
Arkansas, USA
Death: Mar. 23, 1971
Harrison
Boone County
Arkansas, USA
William 'Will' Nelson Vaughn is the son of to Joe Vaughn and Nancy (Richardson) Vaughn.
He married Mary Sue Snow on January 11, 1912.
Together they had seven children, Lawrence, Columbus (Dood), Joe, Gracie, Mina, Fern and Lynzo (Doc).
Will was a farmer and lived out his life in the community of Wayton, Arkansas. He served as a justice of the peace for Newton County for a few years. Will was a member of the Masons, Buffalo Lodge #366 at Wayton, Arkansas. He was a skilled woodcrafter, making numerous items from carved, 'whittled' wood, including small cedar boxes, walking canes with realistic looking snakes climbing their way to the grip of the cane and was always up for making a hickory whistle for a grandchild when the sap was up. He could sit for hours out under the ole hickory tree or in one of the porch swings and tell stories and sing songs to his grandkids. There was also a lot of cracker and cheese eatin' and orange Kool-aid drinkin' done in the shade of that old hickory tree in his yard. One frequent request for him to sing was 'My Ole Beaver Cap'. Only the good Lord above knows how many times he's sang just this one song, much less all the other he knew, such as' 'Froggy Went a Courtin' and 'Lilly Lea'. If the grandchild was small enough they would be perched upon his bouncin' knees as he sang at the top of his voice. Or he could take a hickory leaf and fold it just so and make music with it. This is a trick that no one was ever able to learn no matter how hard we tried.
Will could raise the best watermelons in the county and folks would come from all over the community to have a 'watermelon feed' as he called it. He suffered from asthma most of his adult life and as he aged it became progressively worse. He passed away while in the hospital with a really bad 'spell' of it.
His wife, Mary had passed away April 2, 1971 and he'd told different people that he wouldn't live a year after her death. Some of the closer family members believe that Will died of a broken heart, he passed away just ten days before the first anniversary of her death. He passed on March 23, 1971. He is buried beside her in the Snow Cemetery at Wayton, Arkansas
Contributed on 9/3/08 by silver-b
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Record #: 51953