Individual Details
Mabel "May" Claire "Tot" Rivers
(March 31, 1912 - April 15, 1992)
"Mabel "Mae" Claire Rivers was also known as Tot Rivers all her life, my mother was named Mabel Claire by her parents. She decided as a girl to call herself Mae Claire instead. The name change is a West family tradition.
"Marks papers show she was a good student in school. She spent one year at Blue Mountain College, where "Prof" Griffith was a teacher. She lived with Uncle Prof and Aunt Clara.
"Mother worked as a secretary to a lawyer. She recalled how Uncle Arthur Cox taught her to do research in the deed books.
"I don't know where she and my father married, except that it was not in Marks. I do remember that they went someplace after church one Sunday, with Uncle George and Aunt Bonnie as the only family members present.
"My father was working at the Federal Compress, as he did most of his life. After several years in Marks they moved to Inverness, MS. That was after I was born, but I don't know exactly when. He continued to work for the Compress. I recall living in a tiny house next to Dr. and Mrs. Newell (who owned the house) on the highway south of the school. Later, we moved into a larger house across the street from the school there in Inverness. Bert and I started to school while we were living there.
"In 1949 my father was lured away from the Compress by a good offer to manage a new gin there in town. After another year, however, Federal Compress offered him more money and a superintendant's job in Clarksdale. Although he hated to leave Inverness, he wanted us to have a chance at the better school in Chlrksdale. We moved to Clarksdale on the first of June, 1950.
"My mother took a job with the heating and air-conditioning firm Kremser's, where she worked for many years. After retirement she accepted an offer to work as a secretary in Mr. Charles Sullivan's law practice, and she remained there a number of years.
"The little house at 511 Anderson Blvd. was bought in the fall of 1954. We, then my mother and father, lived there till he died in 1983. My mother bought a house at the end of Elm St. in Marks the next year, and she lived there till she died in 1992.
"The last years were peaceful. My mother saw her sisters, also widows, nearly every day, often staying over at Milly's or having Milly to stay with her. She seldom went out otherwise. In 1991 my Mother was diagnosed as having cancer of the oviduct, which had already spread. She had an operation in March and little problem after that. In 1992 she began taking radiation treatments in Biloxi and probably died as a result. She developed high fever on her 80th birthday. Claire took her to the hospital, where was able to walk in on her own, but within a few hours she was in a coma. She died two weeks later without regaining consciousness." (Walter V. Turner, email: turner@mail.urz.uni-wuppertal.de>, 1999.)
"Marks papers show she was a good student in school. She spent one year at Blue Mountain College, where "Prof" Griffith was a teacher. She lived with Uncle Prof and Aunt Clara.
"Mother worked as a secretary to a lawyer. She recalled how Uncle Arthur Cox taught her to do research in the deed books.
"I don't know where she and my father married, except that it was not in Marks. I do remember that they went someplace after church one Sunday, with Uncle George and Aunt Bonnie as the only family members present.
"My father was working at the Federal Compress, as he did most of his life. After several years in Marks they moved to Inverness, MS. That was after I was born, but I don't know exactly when. He continued to work for the Compress. I recall living in a tiny house next to Dr. and Mrs. Newell (who owned the house) on the highway south of the school. Later, we moved into a larger house across the street from the school there in Inverness. Bert and I started to school while we were living there.
"In 1949 my father was lured away from the Compress by a good offer to manage a new gin there in town. After another year, however, Federal Compress offered him more money and a superintendant's job in Clarksdale. Although he hated to leave Inverness, he wanted us to have a chance at the better school in Chlrksdale. We moved to Clarksdale on the first of June, 1950.
"My mother took a job with the heating and air-conditioning firm Kremser's, where she worked for many years. After retirement she accepted an offer to work as a secretary in Mr. Charles Sullivan's law practice, and she remained there a number of years.
"The little house at 511 Anderson Blvd. was bought in the fall of 1954. We, then my mother and father, lived there till he died in 1983. My mother bought a house at the end of Elm St. in Marks the next year, and she lived there till she died in 1992.
"The last years were peaceful. My mother saw her sisters, also widows, nearly every day, often staying over at Milly's or having Milly to stay with her. She seldom went out otherwise. In 1991 my Mother was diagnosed as having cancer of the oviduct, which had already spread. She had an operation in March and little problem after that. In 1992 she began taking radiation treatments in Biloxi and probably died as a result. She developed high fever on her 80th birthday. Claire took her to the hospital, where was able to walk in on her own, but within a few hours she was in a coma. She died two weeks later without regaining consciousness." (Walter V. Turner, email: turner@mail.urz.uni-wuppertal.de>, 1999.)
Events
| Birth | March 31, 1912 | Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi | |||
| Marriage | December 31, 1939 | Walter Vernon Turner | |||
| Death | April 15, 1992 | Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi |
Families
| Spouse | Walter Vernon Turner (1904 - 1983) |
| Child | Walter Vernon Turner (1941 - ) |
| Child | Bertram Rivers Turner (1942 - 1992) |
| Child | Mildred Claire Turner (1943 - ) |
| Father | Bertran Dair (or Dare) Rivers (1884 - 1926) |
| Mother | Mildred Marie "Milly" West (1885 - 1956) |
| Sibling | Bertram "Bert" Dare Rivers (1908 - 1982) |
| Sibling | Walter "Boy" Rivers (1910 - ) |
| Sibling | Margaret Lee Rivers (1916 - 1990) |
| Sibling | Joel Lewis "Bubba" Rivers (1918 - ) |
| Sibling | William Moughan Rivers (1921 - 1984) |
| Sibling | Mildred Marie Rivers (1923 - ) |