[Note from Mitch Fincher, 2025-10-14. These are letters I received from Rick Craig that his mother Barbara Fincher Craig Kelly had in her files. I have tried to preserve the essence of any info I thought valuable, while deleting any information that might reveal too much personal information like email addresses and phone numbers and birthdates. The letters are jumbled together and someone with more time may be able to put them in order.] From: "Barbara Kelly" To: "George Wallace" Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 3:20 PM Subject: Re: Visit to Washington DC 200K > George, ... skipping personal details ... > I married Bob Craig June 8, 1950, and we were living in Stamford when you > visited in 1952. Beth was born in 1951, Darrell in 1953, and Rick in 1958. Their dad died > Sept. 13, 1981. I met Dewane W. Kelly in June 1983 and we married in > His wife had died in December, 1981. > Bob and I moved to Hamlin in 1960 and owned and operated the Hamlin Herald. > Rick became Publisher when his dad died. We sold the paper in 1998 and he is > the internet provider for the Hood County News in Granbury (close to the > Metroplex). Darrell is a physician at the Catholic teaching hospital at Ann > Arbor. Beth and her husband, Karl Speak, have Beyond Marketing Thought in Minneapolis and he does seminars internationally. All three children and their families will be at the upcoming West Texas Press Association convention to be held at The Cliffs Resort at Possum Kingdom Lake July 15-17, 2004. I have been secretary-treasurer of WTPA for 35 years and have asked that someone else be selected to take over. I will continue to be active through the 75th convention in 2005. > I am eager to fill in the blanks for all the years that we missed out on > being cousins. > Hope I have not been too wordy. > > > > I sent the last E-mail to Sylvia from the WTPA account. I am sending this one from my personal account. However, either one will work. Best Regards, > -- > Barbara Kelly > > on 4/5/04 11:01 AM, George Wallace at gwallace80@comcast.net wrote: > > > Dear Barbara: > > > > I'm George, Dayle and Marguerite's son, and Sylvia's brother. Were you > > still home about 1952 when our family visited yours in Fort Griffith? I > > last visited family in Texas in 1972 when I had dinner and spent the night > > with Lurlene and Theron at the ranch as I stopped off on a business trip > > from Dallas to Lubbock. I remember "monkey bread". Lurlene was obviously > > pleased to give me something she had made my father. While I've been back > > to Texas a good bit in the last few years, its been pretty much high speed > > in and out of Dallas, and I've lost touch with the cousins, including you. > > Anyway, Sylvia tells me you may be getting to Washington around the 10th > > June, the day she flies off to Europe for the summer. My wife and I would Page 3 of 5 > > love to have you over for dinner or lunch or just a visit with my mother, or > > if you would like a place to stay, we have a guest room. > > > > My schedule is this. I am in town June 10 through morning on the 13th when > > I fly off to Bermuda to crew on a sailboat coming back to the US. Assuming > > you arrive on the 10th, that would leave us the 11th or 12th (Friday, > > Saturday), or if only the 13th will do, my wife, Gianne, will be glad to > > help, although she travels a lot in her job. Right now, she's home that > weekend, but that could change. > If you want to visit Mother, I'll be glad to make the arrangements. > Let me know. We'd love to see you. > George > > ----- Original Message ----> > From: "West Texas Press Association" V To: > Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 10:31 AM > > Subject: found your address > >> > >> Sylvia, >> I apologize for not keeping in touch but I misplaced your address and > > things > >> have been rather involved for me. >> > >> My daughter and her husband have invited me to join them on a road trip to > >> Washington, D.C. in June. > >> > >> If plans work out as planned, I will fly to Ann Arbor June 1 or 2 and be > >> with my son until June 10 when Darrell (my physician son) will get me > >> meet Beth and Karl and his parents in Toledo. We will be in D.C. for the > >> activities of Marine veterans with Karl's dad and mom. They will be > > driving > >> from Minnesota. > >> > >> My 96-year-old mother-in-law died Jan. 25 and she had been in the nursing > >> center for six months. I am gradually getting her things distributed to > >> various persons and organizations. >>> > >> Also, I have been secretary-treasurer of the West Texas Press Association > >> for 35 years and I have decided it is time to let someone else have the > > job. > >> I have really enjoyed it but at 74 in June, I want to have more free Page 4 of 5 SYLVIA HOLTON XXX A Street SE Washington, D. C. 20003 25 September 2003 Dear Barbara, I originally wrote this is an email and then the address I got from Buddy didn't work, so I have sent you a letter. But now Buddy has sent me a new email address for you and I am sending this on. You will be surprised to hear from me. I am your cousin Sylvia, eldest daughter of Dayle Wallace. I probably last saw you when you came to Detroit when I was still quite young. The reason for this note is that I have been going through family correspondence recently. My father, who could not throw away anything, stored 6 very large boxes of correspondence, probably 70 years of every piece of mail that came into the house. Since his death we have moved the boxes with my mother. My mother, who is now 97, is now in an assisted living facility in Alexandria, Virginia, and the letters have come to me. You may not know that my first husband, Milne Holton, died in 2000 after 35 years of marriage. I have recently married Bill Peterson, a friend o both Milne's and mine, and a professor and colleague of Milne's at the University of Maryland. Bill has become very much interested in the genealogy of my family. My mother's family is quite available, since there are lots of records for them. But, when we looked at the Wallaces, we could not get beyond our mutual grandfather, John W. Wallace. I have been sorting and reading your mother's letters to my parents. They are wonderful, because they are so full of news about all the people in their lives. The trouble is that I don't know who these people are. Do you have any information about the Wallace family? Can you tell me the names of brothers and sisters of John W. Wallace? Also, can you tell me name of brothers and sisters of our grandmother, Maggie Florence Casady? I assume some of them were living in and around Hubbard. How are the Robbins related? Are the Sheltons related? Mitch Fincher has done a wonderful job with the Finchers, and he can also trace the family of our grandmother. But the Wallaces seem to be a mystery. Since your mother knew all this family history, I am wondering if she passed it on to you. I have contacted Buddy, but he doesn't seem to remember much about the relations. But I am hoping that you can be of help. Buddy tells me that you are in touch with Doris Jean Wallace. I have never met her, unfortunately. Can you tell me something about her? And her sister Yvonne? I assume her mother was Clyde. Did Lavon and Marie divorce? Who is < Betty Lou? I assume she was a child of Lavon's that died young. Did Lavon marry Clyde? Apparently a child was born about a month after Lavon's death, a girl named Von. Do you know anything about her? I don't mean to overwhelm you, but I am really interested in the history of the family, and I would like to get it straight. I could probably figure out more by reading your mother's letters in chronological order, but they are not all sorted yet and I am involved in a very big job with the letters from everyone my parents knew. I also have letters from our grandmother--from about 1929 to 1940. My brother George talked to Lurline when he visited once and he understands that Grandfather Wallace's family had been in Mississippi and then Arkansas, where he was born, and then Texas. One more question. How is Hugh Wallace related? I only found out a couple of weeks ago, from searching on the web, that Lynette had died. I am so sorry. She also came to Detroit for a visit. I also remember a trip to Texas when I as about 14. We had a wonderful time. I am just sorry that we couldn't have come more often! Best wishes and love, Your cousin, Sylvia One more question. Do you know the legal name of "Uncle Boss"? I assume he was a brother of John W. Wallace. Is that correct? Who was his wife? And who were his children? Is Hugh Wallace a child of his? -------------- Fri, Sep 26, 2003 5:16 PM Herald weekly newspaper in Hamlin. After Bob's death, Rick became Publisher (at age 23) until August 1998 when we sold the paper. He is now employed as internet provider for the newspaper in Granbury, Texas. He commutes home on weekends to Hamlin. Darrell is a physician in the Catholic teaching hospital in Ann Arbor on the geriatric staff. Beth worked for 3M before meeting her husband. They have Beyond Marketing Thought and he travels a lot as consultant to major firms and conducts seminars. Go to www.beyondmarketingthought.com and in the upper menu click on About Beyond, then on that screen, click on People and you will see their pictures. Bob died Sept. 13, 1981. Dewane Kelly's wife died in December, 1981. We met in 1983 at a Christian Motorcyclists Association meeting. I was charter president of the chapter. (Bob and I had started riding motorcycles in 1995 after Rick wanted a motorcycle instead of a school car like the older two had had.) Dewane and I married in 1984 in Hamlin and I moved to Abilene. He died August 4, 1999. Lynette died at 8:30 a.m. Christmas Eve in 1997 in an Austin hospital. I was with her from Dec. 12 and was able to stay in the room with her except when her oldest daughter Deborah from Houston could be there on weekends. My mother-in-law, Myrtle Kelly, is 95 and her health has deteriorated drastically this year. She was still driving in December last year. She is in a nursing center. I spend a lot of time going there. She has had two falls recently and is now confined to her bed. I also do her laundry. My husband was her only child. Her niece and her husband from Garland come to visit once or twice a month and stay with me. They were here Wednesday night and went home at eight last night after visiting with her three times yesterday. I am very active in the Presbyterian Church as treasurer of Presbyterian Women and my circle and on the Membership and Evangelism Committee and the LifeLine Council (a ministry for older adults). I am also available to help my friends. I have two neighbors who live alone and are legally blind. I furnish transportation for one when others are not available. A dear friend lived with me from October to March while she was in the process of getting a divorce. Another friend will have an angiogram Monday morning and I will take her at 6 a.m. and bring her home with me to stay until she can drive. I went to Ann Arbor, MI Aug. 21-31 for the celebration of Darrell's 50th birthday. I met Rick at the Dallas airport and we flew together from DFW to Detroit. Beth and Karl flew in Aug. 22 for the Aug. 23 catered outdoor dinner party for Darrell. Rick, Beth and Karl had to return home on Sunday after brunch at the home of Darrell's friends. One of my fondest memories of your father was when he came to Albany to visit Mother and Daddy and attended Darrell's graduation when he was valedictorian at Hamlin High School. Mother and I had met him at the airport in Dallas. I would love to hear about your family and please send my love to your mother. I think of her often and had thought I would send a letter to her last address but as usual, I don't always get to follow through on my good intentions. My son Darrell has made contact with a Craig cousin in Detroit who is also a physician. Is your brother named George and is he in the medical field or in education? What about Zara? I thought at one time some of you were in the Detroit area. Beth and I visited a Craig relative in Wayne, ME on way back from Bar Harbor. Page 2 of 3