The Second One Didn't Count

I came across the 1952 obituary of Belle (Norton) Mitchell, former restaurant owner of Hobart and Valpo, and found that she died as the wife of Miles Garland …


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 9 June 1952.

… but she was buried as the wife of Tymon Mitchell.

As the obituary states, she died while visiting one of her children. It occurs to me to wonder whether Miles Garland went with her on this visit, and whether he paid for the funeral, and whether he put up any kind of a fight about the name she would be buried under. Perhaps he understood how the children felt about their mother being Belle Mitchell for eternity.

He had children of his own. His first marriage, in 1899, was to Ida May Martin. But it appears that Miles and Ida divorced some time after the 1930 Census — the last census where they are recorded living together. By 1940 they were living apart, and Ida described herself as widowed. (In the 1950 census, she was listed as divorced.)

In fact, the first Mrs. Garland died shortly before the second.


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Courier and Press (Evansville, Ind.), 20 Apr. 1952.

Normally, a husband would be mentioned, either as surviving or as having "preceded her in death."

Divorce was not common in those days, as we all know — there had to be something seriously wrong in the marriage. Now I'm wondering whether Belle went to Hebron to get away from her unbearable second husband.

This stuff is like a cross between putting together a jigsaw puzzle and writing a novel.