Williams, John Edgar

Passed: 1955-05-06

Age: 65

Source: Jackson Herald

Death Notice:

Obituary Date: 1955-05-13

Information: HEMLOCK MAN TAKES HIS LIFE EARLY FRIDAY - John Williams, a 65 year old farmer of Hemlock, took his life on the farm a short distance from the farmhouse last Friday when he fired a .22 caliber bullet into his left temple.  He went out with the gun and told members of the family he was going hunting about eight o'clock Friday morning.  He was found about five o'clock when they went searching for him.      Justice R. J. Riley went to the scene as acting coroner and he was accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Ezra Randolph and Police Chief Harold Whitehouse of Ripley, who was off duty here at the time.  They said that their investigation disclosed that he had told members of the family that he was going out to shoot ground squirrel.  When he had not returned late in the afternoon his wife, Nellie, and their daughter went in search of him and found the body about 70 feet from the home where he had rolled down an embankment into a fence.  The Williams family was reported to be living at what has generally been known for years as the Henry Puckett farm which is five miles from Ripley, officers said.  The body was brought to the Vail mortuary in Ripley after Justice Riley had investigated the case and determinded that it was suicide and that an inquest was not necessary.      He was born at Foster, W. Va. on June 29, 1889,  a son of Ashford H. and Nancy Kirk Williams.  He was a veteran of World War I and his wife is the former Nellie Francis Clinton.  Survivors in addition to the wife are two sons, Edgar Dewitt and Dana Leon and a daughter, Velda Jean; two brothers, Jesse Williams of Fairmont and Henry Williams of Foster and two sisters, Mrs. Eliza Greene of Charleston and Mrs. Sarah Shakleford of Blooming Rose, W. Va.  The funeral service was held from the Vail mortuary chapel on Sunday afternoon with Rev. R. M. Fuqua officiating and the burial was in the Clinton family cemetery, near Ripley.