Sunday's Obituary

Born Nora Jemima Elizabeth Hott, on Sept. 5th 1873 in Hampshire County WV, she was the daughter of Mary M. Henderson and Samuel William Hott. 

On October 31, 1891 she married Benjamin Lee Shanholtz (NO doubt a distant cousin but who's counting?) and had three children; Mandel, Charles, and a daughter named Ida.     I am unaware of what became of this marriage, but do know that she married another man, Raymond Franklin Roles prior to 1909.   From this marriage she had three children; Archer, Edward and a daughter, Virgil.

In 1910 she was living with her husband Raymond and their children in Aquia, Stafford, Virginia.   In 1920 the family was in Providence, Fairfax, Virginia.  In 1930 Nora was living in Washington DC with her sons Edward Roles & Charles Shanholtz and her widowed sister, Sally Anderson.

This is the only photograph that my family has of Nora.  She is standing in the photo below.  Seated is her sister Sally (my Great Grandmother) and an unidentified child in Sally's lap.    The date of this photo is unknown.

 

Sunday's Obituary - William P. Bellew

Usually obituaries can hold a treasure of information, and this one is no exception. However, it also raised a question - one to which our family still has no answer - The Arlington Question.   I wrote about this when I began wondering why my Grandfather, a decorated war hero, wasn't buried there.   I have recently asked again about this and my Grandmother replied "They told me that he had to be killed in action to be buried there."    If you refer to the Arlington National Cemetery website requirements for burial, you will clearly see that this isn't the case, at least not today.  I haven't any idea what the requirements for burial at Arlington were in 1975, but have a feeling that they don't differ much.

I have tried many times to find the records from the funeral home, in hopes that they would provide some clue.  The funeral home was purchased by other funeral homes over the years, changing hands more than four times, each time being purchased by a larger company and none of the locations seem to know what became of the records from 1975.    I started seeking them when I found this announcement of his death in the papers that my Grandmother has saved.   This announcement clearly says what should have been true...  but I may never know why it didn't happen.