Thompson Lineage

Tom Boughner's mother, Mabel, was a Thompson. Emma M. Cannon (March 28, 1880 – November 24, 1967) married James Lorenzo Thompson on February 10, 1904 in Wimberly, Alabama. They had three children: Mary Alice, David Lorenzo, and Mabel Sunshine.

James is (allegedly) buried in the Glendale Baptist Church cemetery in Glendale, Mississippi, a suburb of Hattiesburg. However, there is no marker, and the church records burned in a fire in the 1970s or 80s. The only record they have is through reconstruction. He's with some Cannons, his wife Emma's people. My mother Sharon remembers Mabel telling her that her father was there, and Leon Lee recalls the same information. However, since human recollection is not infallable, and since the church records are lost, I need to get an obituary and death record for him to help corroborate this.

Mabel was born in Montgomery, Alabama, January 4th, 1922. She died in Hattiesburg, Mississippi October 14th, 1992. She was my only grandparent living when I graduated from college and got married in 1992.

My paternal grandmother hated her middle name. Whenever she signed anything, it was "Mabel T. Boughner." When her husband, Charles Edmund Boughner, died of cancer in 1983, members of the family were shocked to learn that both Grandpa and Grandma had been previously married! When they married in 1946, is was both of their second marriages.

We used to travel to Mississippi to visit my dad's parents every summer. When I was 12 or 13, I was talking to Grandma and telling her about a friend I had who was not very close anymore, and whose reputation was slipping rapidly. Grandma's vehement suggestion was that I cease being friends with this girl, to save my own reputation. Then she said that all a girl had was her reputation; a product of her generation, or of her own history?

From the Danville (IL) Commercial News, October 18, 1992 obituary:
“Hattiesburg, Miss. -- Mabel T. [Thompson] Boughner, 70, formerly of Danville, died Wednesday (Oct. 14, 1992) at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Miss.

She was born in Montgomery, Ala., Jan. 4, 1922, and lived in Danville several years before moving to Hattiesburg.

She married Charles E. Boughner March 1, 1946. She was a Methodist.

Survivors include: two daughters, Janice A. (Lyn) Hoggard, Hattiesburg; Deborah S. (James) Stewart, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey; a son, Thomas A. (Sharon) of Fithian; seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

She was preceeded in death by her husband, a brother, David. L. Thompson, and a sister Mary Alice Thompson Lee.

Services: 10 a.m. Monday at Moore Funeral Home, Hattiesburg, with the Rev. David E. Steele officiating. Pallbearers will be John Mosely, Felton Alton, Robert Lindley, Scott Lindley, Brent Lindley and Walker Lindley. Burial: Highland Cemetery. Visitation: 5-8 p.m. today at the funeral home.”

Mary Alice (whom Grandma always called "Sister") married Harvey Lee. They had six children: Leon Linder (b 1933), Robert Newton (b 1936), David Lorenzo (August 17, 1917 – October 16, 1945), Benny Hilton, Lynda Sue (b 1944), and Albert Harvey (b 1950).

Aunt Alice was quite old when I met her, and still smoked like a chimney, her voice was rough with it and emphysema. I remember her house, near a stand of woods, and sandy soil surrounding it. I was always barefoot, even though there was a chance that rattlesnakes might be in the yard. She had a small, nasty chihuahua named Nero (of all things) and I can still see the white crocheted bedspread with the huge and bright dimensional flowers that was in the room my brother and I shared.

(Thumbnail biography of David is pending...)

Visit the Thompson message board at Ancestry/RootsWeb - for others looking into their Thompson heritage, or try the mailing list.

And don't forget to try a Google search; who knows what will turn up!