COUNTY LIFE
Search for tombstone’s home finally concludes
(Left) Jeanette Findley and her mother, Jean Miller, the last remaining relative of Ila Mae’s generation, stand with the tombstone. (Photo by Dani Blackburn)
By DANI BLACKBURN
A little girl’s original 97-year-old tombstone is being returned to her grave after a decade’s long search for the owner.
The only little girl in a family full of boys, Ila Mae Miller was born April 21, 1911 as the oldest child of John and Dena Miller.
She passed away just shy of her eighth birthday on Jan. 16, 1919, from the Spanish Influenza. The autopsy showed the little girl had pneumonia in two of her lungs.
Her original tombstone, believed to have been stolen, sat in the evidence room of the old Montague County jailhouse. When the new jail was built in 1980, the tombstone was left behind in what became the Old Jail Museum.
The stone has sat all alone at the bottom of the metal staircase, waiting to be returned where it belonged.
That search was over this week as descendants traveled from Oregon to retrieve the stone for Ila Mae. Read the full feature in the weekend News.
Top photo: Jeanette Findley smiles as she touches her ancestor’s long lost tombstone. (Photo by Dani Blackburn)
Nocona is preparing for the 74th annual Chisholm Trail Rodeo May 8 and 9 at the Chisholm Trail Arena.
The rodeo will take place at 7:30 p.m. Nightly with the Ryan Ready Band playing for the rodeo dance afterward on Saturday night. Tickets in advance are $12 and $15 at the gate.
All the traditional rodeo events are planned along with non-sanctioned events of junior barrels for 16 and under. There is $250 added each night, a jackpot nightly and contestants have a $50 entry fee. Entries open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 4-5.
The new Chisholm Trail Rodeo Queen and Princess will be crowned during Saturday night’s performance. Read about these young ladies in your Thursday Bowie New.
Clara Anderson
TxDOT is hosting a virtual meeting to review projects included in the 2027-2030 Rural TIP.
The program is at 4 p.m. on May 6 and 11:59 p.m. on May 19, all online at https://bit.ly/4uhDwMG
The Rural TIP is a list of local projects to be funded during the next four years in the Wichita Falls District of the Texas Department of Transportation.
The counties included are Archer, Baylor, Clay, Cooke, Montague, Throckmorton, Wichita, Wilbarger, and Young. Transportation projects cannot receive federal funding unless they are included in the Rural TIP. This includes projects for private vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, public transport, and commercial vehicles.
A section of Roach Street has been closed for the last few weeks as a new sewer line was installed replacing old clay tile line. It is phase two of multi-phase sewer line project across the city funded through a Texas Water Development Board loan of more than $9.7 million. The project will replace nearly10 miles of aging lines. (News photo by Barbara Green)
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