Grady County GaArchives Obituaries.....McKown, J. A. June 1909
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Janet Sumner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002510 May 23, 2004, 2:12 pm

The Cairo Messenger, Friday, July 2, 1909
An Excellent Citizen Gone
In the death of Mr. J. A. McKown, Grady county has lost one of its very best 
citizens.  Born in this section, sixty-five years ago, he had spent his whole 
life within a few miles of Cairo.  For quite a number of years past, he had 
occupied a neat and comfortable home, on a productive and remarkably well-
managed farm, less that two miles out of town, and all of the somewhat 
considerable property that he owned had been acquired by his own honest labor, 
supplemented by the industry and economical management of an energetic, 
faithful wife.

In early life, he was married to a Mrs. Wynne, nee McLendon, a young widow with 
two small children.  Toward those little girls, he acted the part of a real, 
devoted father, and up to the day of his death, those daughters, now ladies of 
middle age, were as tenderly attached to him as if he had been their own 
father, indeed.  They are Mrs. J. F. Godwin, now a widow residing in the home 
of her mother, (who has no children by her second marriage) and Mrs. M. G. 
McManeus, a resident of Cairo.  Mrs. L. G. Merritt, the only surviving child of 
Mrs. Godwin, lives in this town.  Mrs. McManeus has four sons and one little 
daughter, all of whom, except one of the boys, who has a situation in 
Jacksonville, reside with their parents here.

Mr. McKown's first church membership was at Pleasant Grove; but, for many 
years, he had been identified with Long Branch, as one of its most useful 
members.  Although never a deacon, because he would not consent to be so 
promoted, he was one of the main supports to his church and to his pastor; -- 
always safe, reliable and true.  'Twill be many a day before he shall cease to 
be missed in that old Baptist institution!

The last illness of our brother was protracted and extremely painful, but he 
bore his excruciating sufferings with the fortitude of a Christian soldier and 
died, at last, like a hero, triumphant.  The end came, at six o'clock, last 
Sunday morning -- and how opportunely!  It was the regular meeting day of his 
church and, thus, it occurred that his pastor, whose residence is in Mitchell 
county, could be with him, toward the close.

The funeral services, conducted by his pastor, Rev. Geo. F. Taylor, assisted by 
this writer and Elders J. P. Swann and G. T. Hurst, were held at Long Branch, 
on Monday morning, at about eleven o'clock, and the church building was 
literally packed with sympathetic friends, many of whom were from Cairo.  Elder 
Taylor directed the exercises, Elders Swann and Hurst leading in the two 
prayers and the writer delivering the discourse, by request of the pastor, who 
was suffering from bronchitis, Miss Lena Mauldin, of Cairo acted as organist 
and the congregational singing was led by Mesdames W. B. Roddenbery, a 
neighbor, and W. H. Robinson, with Misses Kathryn Brown and Mae Crawford, the 
last three of Cairo.  Those four ladies sang a lovely processional, during the 
entry of the cortege, and at an appropriate point in the service, Mrs. Robinson 
and Miss Brown rendered a beautiful and soul-moving duet that brought tears to 
many an eye.

At the close of the exercises inside the building, the casket, handled by the 
pall-bearers, Judge P. H. Herring, Postmaster John B. Crawford, Ira Robinson 
and J. W. Hurst, of Cairo and Coroner Ed. Harrell and W. C. Barrow, from the 
country, was tenderly borne to the adjacent cemetery, where it was solemnly 
committed to the cemented brick vault prepared in the grave for its final 
reception.  And thus ended one of the most impressive events in the history of 
our county.

Robert H. Harris 
 

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