Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Update on the "Final William Ware"


Death Cert. of William Ware
Many thanks to cousin Tom Ware he stuck with things and was finally able to obtain Death Certificates for both William Ware (1864-1926) and his wife Minnie Lee Smith (1867-1938).  Neither died in Texas as the obit in 1938 mentioned, they both actually died in Jonesboro,  Arkansas.  Both Certs are from Arkansas.

My physician husband says that William probably died of a heart attack and they just chose not to autopsy him.  The attending physician mentions "Angina pectoris" as a contributing factor.  Most likely he had plaque filled arteries leading to a myocardial infarction.  








From Tom Ware;
Death Cert. of Minnie Lee Smith Ware







Per Arkansas Cert of Death copy dated 07-20-2012, Minnie Ware, widow of William Ware passed away in St. Bernard's Hospital, Jonesboro, Craighead Co., AR,  2:15 pm, Nov. 10, 1938.  She was attended by S.T. (Astlriiand ??), M.D. from Aug 17, 1938 until her death Nov. 10,1938, and died from Encephalitis - non epidemic and non contagious, with onset Nov 7, 1938,( Hubby say he doesn't know of any "non contagious" encephalitis)  with other contributory cause of importance being (Chronic or Aherria ??) Myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle generally caused by a virus.)  diagnosed 1937.  Informant   Mrs. C C. Watson (who is Rhoda E. Smith her sister.  Rhoda married Caleb C. Watson  4 Nov 1902 in Collin County TX) of Jonesboro, AR, also provided the following: Residence 3529 Mc Farlin Blvd, Dallas, TX, DOB 29 Dec 1867 Arkansas, Father - William Smith of GA, Mother - Alabama Adams of AL, and Husband - William Ware. The hubs take on this is she may have had encephalitis but probably more likely what caused her death was the Myocarditis, all though that is a tough one to diagnose even today.  (from Wikipedia; Because a definitive diagnosis requires a heart biopsy, which doctors are reluctant to do because they are invasive, statistics on the incidence of myocarditis vary widely.)[1]    We are discussing medicine as it was practiced in 1937-38, heart biopsies were not a routine test, probably not done at all.


 So now we can say we have the final documentation on that family as the 1900 and 1910 census' seem to indicate that there were no surviving children for this couple. 

Thanks again to Tom Ware for his work and effort on final documentation on this couple.
We are still searching for answers to the two older sister, Martha Ophelia Ware (Howell C.) Barker and Mary Elizabeth Ware (Royal) Baxter.

Love to hear from any "cousins" in the comments.