Thornton Cousins: The Wagoners

The Southern Kentucky Thorntons' Wagoner cousins descended through the aunt of Mary Susan Cooper Thornton, wife of Jesse Benton.  Tabitha Josephine "Jocie" Cooper was born November 26, 1859, to Francis "Frank" Marion and Tabitha Sullivan Cooper.  In approximately 1873, she married David E. Wagoner (1842-1901) and had at least ten children.  In the picture above, Jocie Wagoner is in the front row, third from the right.  In the front row, we find her sons, left to right: Robert Lucian (1896-1976); Frank Herbert (1880-1936); Walter Edmond (1875-1956); Will Marshall (1878-1948), and Ervin Samuel (1884-1953).  In the second row, we have Ruthie T. (1899-1942); Laura Bell; Beulah Josephine (1892-1970), and Bessie.  Hershel Tharston Wagoner (1882-1955) is not pictured.  Jocie died December 5, 1943, in Allen County, Kentucky. 

Tabitha Josephine Cooper Wagoner.

Beulah Josephine Wagoner was born July 28, 1892, and died November 28, 1970, in Allen County, Kentucky.  On June 27, 1907, she married Ben Wilson Rippy (1890-1932) in Sumner County, Tennessee, and they had at least eight children: Noah Matthew (1909-2002); Lawrence Albert (1912-1954); Lela Mae (1914-2004); Minnie Bell (1915-1987); Cordell Elizabeth (1918-2005); Nellie; Delbert (1923-1968), and Robert Ray (1927-1995).

Photos from the Rippy family.

Gloria Dean Reagan Moore (1935-2003)

Gloria Dean Reagan (seated in chair in photograph) was born in Warren County, KY, to Thomas Odell and Pauline Thornton Reagan. She married William Odell Moore (b: 1933) and had two children: Bonita Kaye (b: 1956) and Mark. Bonita married James Allen Cooper (b: 1954) and had two daughters: Heather Kaye (b: 1977) and Allison Renee (b: 1979). Mark Moore had two sons: Barry Joe and Nick. Most of Dean's grandchildren now have their own growing families, some of whom are pictured below.

Frances Kathleen Thornton

Fannie was born July 10, 1916, to Jesse Benton and Mary Susan Cooper Thornton. In 1940 she gave birth to a son, Donald Wayne Thornton, who died in 1945 from complications from surgery.

In 1947 Fannie married Virgil Anderson Rippy and had a son, Jesse Sammy Rippy (b: Feb. 25, 1950). (Pictured above) Fannie died in 2000, Bowling Green, KY.

Photo Session: My great-grandfather, Jesse Benton Thornton

In the first photo, we see Jesse Benton and Susie Cooper
Thornton with my Great-Aunt Evaline (apr. 1907).
















Jesse and Susie had ten children: can you identify the Great-Aunts and Uncles?

Evaline, Porter, Ruby, Nora Clay, Pauline, Fannie, Roy, Jess, Bob, and Carene. There were also two girls who died in infancy: Gracie and Hazel.







This was more than a decade later, but it still had the same cast, including Lillie Bell Goosetree Mathias, Jesse Benton's second wife (m. 1951)









A family reunion of the Thorntons and Coopers.










In this photo, we have Jess and Susie with a young Carene.











Jesse Benton Thornton, son of John H. and Elizabeth Kitchens Thornton, with Lillie Mathias Thornton.