Mr. Bobby Owens

Mr. Bobby Owens passed away yesterday. Bobby, a distant cousin of mine, was the son of Mr. Arlon Owens and Sis. Thelma Bunch Owens. More information regarding his funeral arrangements can be found below. My deepest sympathy to the Owens Family.

Obit:
Bobby M. Owens Nov. 27, 1943 - Sept. 17, 2013 Bobby Marlon Owens, 69, of Union Grove passed away Tuesday at a local hospital. Bobby was a native of Huntsville and a resident of Marshall County for the past 13 years. He retired from SCI Corp. in 1996 and also was a jailer with the Madison County Sherriff's Department. Survivors include his wife: Amy Owens; one sister: Wanda Mason; one brother: Kenneth Owens and a special nephew: Randy Mason. There will be no visitation. Graveside services will be held Thursday at 11:00 a.m. at Green Valley Cemetery in Big Cove with Lee Lawson officiating, Berryhill Funeral Home directing.
Published in The Huntsville Times from September 17 to September 18, 2013

Good-bye, Sis. Doris...

Sis. Doris Howell, a Godly woman of whom I have such cherished memories, finished her battle early Saturday morning, at the age of 80 years old. She was the daughter of Bro. Roy & Sis. Lucille McAllister and was the beloved wife of Bro. Robert Howell for sixty-three years. Bro. Robert and Sis. Doris has lived at the same residence on Terry Drake road for decades (exactly how long, I'm not sure - but one neighbor assured me that it was more than 40 years); and of my endearing memories of Sis. Doris, I would have to include her blue Christmas lights which were proudly on display for all the years of my childhood and up until her health no longer permitted her to drape her home and yard with the glowing strands of blue. She was a precious woman; and I know many from the Big Cove Community will mourn her loss, but none anymore than her faithful husband of more than six decades. Sis. Doris will be laid to rest today at the Green Valley Cemetery. And as one life leaves the beautiful community of Big Cove, another has taken up its abode there (or at least she will soon). My first cousin, Keith Cowan, is again a proud grandfather today as his son, Jeremy, welcomed his daughter, Autumn Rose, into the world this morning. Jeremy and Carrie plan to call their new 7+ pound bundle of joy "Rosie", in honor of Jeremy's late grandmother, my aunt Rosie Lucille Byrd Cowan. She would be SO proud!! Congratulations to the entire Cowan family for their new addition!

Happy Birthday, Paw-Paw!

Today is my Paw-Paw's 81st birthday. Luther Eural Stapler was born September 12, 1932, in New Hope, Alabama, to Raymond Hobert and Mary Lee Vann Stapler. And, he was born on HIS grandfather's birthday! Today is also the 150th birthday of my great-great-grandfather, William Silas Stapler! Silas was a member of the Big Cove Free Holiness Church and is buried in the Neal's Chapel Cemetery in Big Cove. You can check out his profile on Findagrave.com by clicking HERE.

George Marshall Bird Tombstone Dedication Ceremony

For the past couple of months, I have been coordinating a project in which I rallied members of the Bird Family to make donations towards the purchase of new tombstones for my great-great-great-grandfather, George Marshall Bird, and his wife, Martha S. Clark Bird. This is something that I have desired to do for quite a long time, as their graves at the Campground Cemetery are currently marked with a simple hand-hewn limestone rock, on top of which the name "BIRD" was chiseled by my great-great-great-uncle, Dick McPeters. The new tombstones will not only mark the graves of our grandparents, but will also pay homage to the fact that it was this ancestor who first brought the Bird Family into the Big Cove Community in 1904. As a project within a project, we also purchased a tombstone for my great-great-grandfather, John William Bird, who was shot and killed in a well dispute near Monrovia in 1902. He was buried in the Mount Zion Baptist Church Cemetery; however, his grave has been unmarked all of these years. The tombstones have been purchased; and I actually went by Klassics Memorials in Scottsboro on Friday evening to get a sneak-peak of them. They look GREAT! I can't wait for everyone to see them! We will have a small dedication ceremony at the Campground Cemetery at which time we will "unveil" the new headstone, memorialize our ancestors, and visit with kin! Everyone (Bird or otherwise) is invited to this event, which will be held at 2:00 p.m. on September 21, 2013. For more information, give me a call or send me an email! -BYRD

Happy Birthday, Mom!

This day in history, 1954 (a LONG time ago), my mother, Pamela Jane Stapler Byrd, was born in Orlando, Florida, where her parents had relocated in the early 1950's. Mom grew-up far away from Madison County, where both of her parents were born; but sometimes visited the Big Cove Community where her aunt, Mary Hinshaw Long, lived and attended the Big Cove Free Holiness Church. It was on one of those visits that she caught the eye of a young Big Cove boy - my dad, Ronald Dale Byrd. Several years later, March 25, 1977, they stood in the Big Cove Free Holiness Church and exchanged vows before Bro. Hoyt Dalton. And in those vows, Mom became not only a Byrd (Bird), but also a Big Covian. The rest, as they say, is history! Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you very much!!! -BYRD

Big Cove Women

I love old photos; and I LOVE old group photos! I have amassed a pretty large collection of old photos over the years (mostly just copies of the originals); and of the things I would grab first if the house was on fire (besides my wife and kids), my old photos are numero uno! This is a really cool photo I came across a few years ago. If features several of the women of the Big Cove Community. SOMEWHERE, I have the names of all of these women - thanks to a few friends like Sis. Catherine Simmons (affectionately known as Goody). I know several of them by heart - including my great-grandmother, Josie Hunter Bird, and great-great-grandmother, Rachel Bass Hunter. The photo was thought to have been made at a shower held for Julia Owens Pinkerton (kneeling next to the older lady in the chair). Julia Owens married John Pinkerton on August 23, 1930 (license date); and so the photo is from around this time. Or perhaps the photo was from a couple of years later, when John & Julia were expecting their first child. Others faces in the photo include Hattie Pinkerton Howell, Sally Howell Layne, Lizzie Simmons Drake, Kitty Hone, Mary Drake Howell, Bertie Ellett Terry, Lena Bird Pinkerton, Thelma Bunch Owens, Donnie Stone, etc. If anyone is interested in a full "who's who", let me know! -BYRD

George Marshall Bird

This is my great-great-great-grandfather, George Marshall Bird. He was the first of my Bird ancestors to settle in the Big Cove Community. Now before I go on, I'll answer the question that some of you are already asking - "Why is his name spelled 'BIRD', and yours spelled 'BYRD'?" My family gets this question a lot. My grandfather, Walter Bird, was the last of my direct line to use the spelling 'BIRD'. Eight of his ten children, including my dad, was given the spelling 'BYRD'. In the early part of the 20th century, many of our ancestors could barely read and write - much less spell correctly. Some of the school teachers started telling the kids in Big Cove that "'BYRD' was a person, and 'BIRD' was an animal". Some were convinced, some weren't. My grandfather always preferred 'BIRD'; however, my grandmother, Lorene, preferred 'BYRD'. That being said, our name WAS originally 'BIRD' - all the way back to when we came here from England in the 18th century; however, there was also a distinctly separate family in the country at that time, who spelled their name 'BYRD'. I guess that's where the confusion began. Anyhow, back to my g-g-g-grandfather - he was born the son of a wealthy Georgian doctor, Dr. George Lee Bird, in the pre-Civil War era of Crawfordville, Georgia, in Taliaferro County (pronounced locally as Tolifer). His mother died when he was a baby; and his father died a few years later, when G.M. was still a young teenager. He left home and supposedly joined the Confederacy, relaying stories to his children and grandchildren of how he was wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga. Note that no actual evidence of his involvement in the war can be located. After the war, he settled in Walker County, Georgia, where he married and had several children. Around 1894, he and his family loaded up in wagons and ventured west in search for a better life; however, what they found was death and misfortune. After a few years of this, the Bird's decided to return home to their native Georgia, and was found themselves in the area of Huntsville, Alabama, in 1902. They had stopped for a season of farming, during which time G.M.'s son, my great-great-grandfather, John William Bird (I'll blog about him later), was shot and killed in a well dispute. Because of this incident and the subsequent trial of the men that killed him, George Marshall Bird and his family remained in Madison County longer than expected. In fact, they never returned to Georgia as planned, but instead settled in beautiful Big Cove, Alabama, in 1904. George Marshall Bird died there in 1906, and his wife, Martha Clark Bird, in 1907. They were buried in the Campground Cemetery, where their graves are marked by a simple limestone rock with the name "BIRD" chiseled into the top. The stone was said to have been carved by their son-in-law, Uncle Dick McPeters. A project is currently underway in which the Bird Family will be marking the graves of George & Martha Bird with a new modern headstone, which they plan to dedicate with a short ceremony later this year. I'm sure I'll post more about that later! So, that's pretty much how the Bird's came to Big Cove! Talk to you later! -BYRD