THOMASVILLE Carol Dean Shuler Brooks, 52, of Thomasville, died Monday, Aug. 16, 1999, at the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home in Winston-Salem.
The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at J.C. Green and Sons Funeral Home by the Rev. Warren stetCasidy. Entombment will be in Holly Hill Cemetery.
Mrs. Brooks was born Feb. 7, 1947, in Guilford County to Moody Shuler and Ora Nifong Shuler. She was a homemaker and member of Emanuel Reformed United Church of Christ.
Surviving are her husband, Leonard Brooks of the home; and two brothers, Jerry Myers and Johnny Russell, both of Thomasville.
The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 tonight at the funeral home.
The above obituary is for Carol Dean Schuler Brooks. Mrs. Brooks is listed as a half-sister of the Davis twins, along with Jerry Myers and Johnny Russell, listed above.
They were not from the Davis side of the twins family, so it's natural to assume they must have been the children of Alta Valedia Kinney Davis Peace, their mother. Or were they?
Opening the door to one mystery, always leads to the doors of many others. Why do these other half-siblings all have different last names? Valedia married a Carl Peace between 1940 and 1947. He died in 1947 and she died in 1949. Could these three be their orphans who were perhaps adopted?
James T and Jenny Lee Davis were born May 8, 1932. They were the twin children of John Teeter Davis and his third wife, Alta Valedia Kinney of Healing Spring, Davidson County, North Carolina. Their birth certificates tell some of the sad story, just in the information included. On Jenny Lee's birth certificate, under where it lists the profession of her father as a farmer, it says "Died in January".
The twins were born posthumously, 4 months after their fathers death.
John Teeter Davis was born May 30, 1877. His own father died while he was very young, in 1882. He was the son of the second sheriff Stanly County, Edward Winfield Davis, whose family called him Ned and his young wife, Rebecca Hathcock Davis.
At 26, J. T. married Nannie Farmer, daughter of a local family, George and Betty Farmer. They had one son, Dewey, and Nannie must have died between the time the census was taken in 1910 and when J. T. married his second wife in December 1912.
J. T. and Jenny Lenora Hooks Davis had several years together and 6 children, Ray, Christine, Maxine, William Woot, Esau and Jewel Lee. Lenora died shortly after the death of Jewel Lee in 1929. J. T, who had moved from Stanly to Hoke county, took his infant daughter to his half-brother, Travis Crump, to raise, as his wife Mary, had 2 teenaged daughters to help her care for an infant. There he met their boarder, Valedia Kinney.
J. T. and Valedia returned to the Little River farm. She is shown as his wife on his death certificate in January of 1932. He died of symptoms of TB. The pregnant Valedia returned to the Healing Springs Community of Davidson county, her home.
The Davis twins never married and are buried side by side. Their obituaries seem to insinuate that they had some sort of handicap, as their uncle, John Pinkney Kinney, who was 22 years their senior, was their caretaker.
DENTON - Miss Jenny Lee Davis: Newspaper Obituary and Death Notice
Charlotte Observer, The (NC) - Sunday, June 20, 1993
Deceased Name:DENTON - Miss Jenny Lee Davis
61, died June 18, 1993, at High Point
Regional Hospital. Funeral is 11 a.m. Monday at Lanier-Briggs Funeral Home.
Visitation is 7 to 8:30 tonight.
Survivors are her guardian, John Kinney; half brothers, Johnny Russell of
High Point, Jerry Myers of Thomasville, Essau Davis of Florida; half sisters, Mrs. Carol Brooks of Thomasville, Mrs. Jewel Lee Morris of Albemarle, Mrs.
Christine Cantrell, Mrs. Maxine Craver, both of Vass.
Also listed are several new half-siblings that are not the children of J. T. Davis. They must be children of Valedia born after the twins.
There are still several mysteries surrounding the twins. Why did they never marry? If they have a handicap, requiring a guardian, what was it? Why do their mystery half-siblings all have different last names? And where did J.T's still minor children with Lenora go after his death. Ray and Dewey remained in the area and were on their own and Jewel Lee went to the Crumps, but where did Christine, Maxine, Woot and Esau end up?
DENTON - Mr. J.T. Davis: Newspaper Obituary and Death Notice
Charlotte Observer, The (NC) - Monday, May 4, 1992
Deceased Name:DENTON - Mr. J.T. Davis
59, farmer, died May 3, 1992, at High Point
Regional Hospital, High Point. Funeral is 11 a.m. Tuesday at Lanier-Briggs
Funeral Home. Visitation is 7 to 8:30 tonight.
Survivors are his sister, Miss Jenny Davis; half brothers, Johnny Russell
of High Point, Jerry Myers of Thomasville, Essau Davis of Florida; half
sisters, Mrs. Jewel Morris of Albemarle, Mrs. Christine Cantrell, Mrs. Maxine Craver, both of Vass; Mrs. Carol Brooks of Thomasville; uncle, John Kinney.
I called the Pastor, a Rev. Davis, of the church next to the cemetery where they are buried. This was the next step in my search. The early 90's were not so long ago, that maybe some of the elder church members might remember the Davis twins.
I found out a few things about the cemetery by talking to him. First, the cemetery predates the church.
The Clear Springs community existed first, the cemetery being the community cemetery and the church being named for the community.
Now to wait. Maybe someone knew the Kinney family of the Springs area and remembered the twins.
The above obituary is for Carol Dean Schuler Brooks. Mrs. Brooks is listed as a half-sister of the Davis twins, along with Jerry Myers and Johnny Russell, listed above.
