Welcome to our Thornton family

In this blog we attempt to create a visual history of a main southern Kentucky Thornton branch, descended from Scots-Irish Thorntons who may have arrived in Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s. If your goal is to check whether or not you or a family member are listed in our genealogy file, the first eight posts contain more than 1,500 names, listed generationally. Use the 'find' command to scroll through the material...Good luck.

Also, if you have photos, corrections, or inquiries, please feel free to contact us at thorntonsoky@gmail.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Odessa McClain Thornton Wilkerson (1892-1990)

Odessa McClain was born January 31, 1892, to John and Fannie Looney McClain in Missouri.  Prior to 1913, she married James Erwin Thornton, son of Allen "Tobe" and Sallie Miller Thornton.  Allen was the son of Robert Benton and Elizabeth Smith Thornton.  James and Odessa had three daughters: Ruth Esther, born January 5, 1913; Leona Mildred, January 6, 1914; and Elsie Lee, April 14, 1918. Prior to James's death just after World War I, the family lived in Big Hill, Osage, Oklahoma.  James died in 1920; afterwards, Odessa lived in the home of her sister-in-law, Gertrude Thornton Looney who married Odessa's uncle William Walter Looney.  Odessa met Stillman Atley Wilkerson (1887-1962), and the two married and moved to Perryton, Ochiltree County, Texas.  Odessa gave birth to a son: Stillman Jr.  Before her death in 1990 in Amarillo, Texas, she was married to Delmar Rutledge.

In the above photo, she is posed with her three daughters, approximately in 1920/21.



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