MATTIE ESTELLE THARP
.....Services for Mattie Estelle Tharp will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at First Wesleyan Church in Frankfort.
.....Mrs. Tharp, 91, 105 N. Perry St., Kirklin, died at 5 p.m. Feb. 17, 1999, at Clinton House Convalescent Center.
.....She was a homemaker, and a member of Kirklin Wesleyan Church, where she taught Sunday school for 63 years. She moved to Indiana from Arkansas in 1953.
.....She was born Jan. 18, 1908, in Tichnor, Ark., to Harry and Carrie Alma Best Hughes. She married James W. Tharp on Aug. 31, 1926, and he died April 9, 1998.
.....She is survived by five sons, the Rev. James W. Jr. of Dothan, Ala., Burl and Russell of Kirklin, Carroll of Winter Haven, Fla., and Joseph of Manson: four daughters, Jeanette Menard of Doniphan, Mo., Anniece Shelburne of Zionsville, Shirley Abraham of Kirklin, and Martha Beecher of Frankfort; three sisters, Lorene Campbell of Grayson, La., Bernice Baker of Indianapolis, and Twilla Wells of Conway, Ark; 38 grandchildren, 52 great-grandchildre, and nin great-great-grandchildren.
.....A son, three sisters and two brothers preceded her in death.
.....The Rev. Robert Stubbs will officiate serves. Burial will be at Oak Hill Cemeteryin Kirklin. Friends may call from 4-8 p.m. Monday at Frye & Genda Funeral Home.
..... Memorials may be made to Gideons and Christian Renewal Ministries.
(Source: Frankfort Times, February 23,1999)

S.E. THIGPEN
S.E. Thigpen died at his home in the DeLuce community April 10.
He was born in Louisiana, April 11, 1857, and was married to Miss Mary Lamb at Greenwood, Ark., in 1882. To this union nine children were born, one son, John, passing away at the age of twelve. The surviving children are Bunyan, Andy, Carl, Joe, Kelly and Ezra Thigpen and Mrs. Viola Patterson, all of DeWitt, and Mrs. Leola Ray of Booneville; thirty grandchildren and eighteen grandchildren. Mr. Thigpen had been a devoted Christian over fifty years and was a deacon of Hebron Missionary Baptist Church.
He died at his old home, where he had resided since coming to Arkansas county 33 years ago. He made his home with his son, Ezra Thigpen, and family. He was a farmer by profession, a real neighbor and a lover of home.
Funeral services were conducted at Hebron church Saturday, April 11, by Elder L.E. Ross and Elder John Engle. Pallbearers were Frank Childers, Claud Childers, Jim Padgett, Eldon Shadle, Bruce Wilson and Henry Rhodes.
Burial was in the DeWitt Cemetery.
(Source: DeWitt Era-Enterprise, April 16, 1942, Page 1)

MARY THOMPSON - ARKANSAS WOMAN BORN IN 1882 DIES.
A woman who might have been recognized as the world's oldest person if her birth certificate hadn't been lost in a house fire has died. Mary Thompson was 119, two months and six days old. Thompson, who had a taste for Crown Royal whiskey and Juicy Fruit gum, became ill Friday and died Monday at a hospital. She had lived since age 112 at Crestpark Nursing Home in DeWitt.  At her 119th birthday Aug. 2, Thompson was inundated with cards, flowers and money. A British television station recorded her saying "Happy Birthday" to the Queen Mother, who turned 101 the next day, and the Wrigley Co. sent her a case of Juicy Fruit.  Social Security records show that she was born on Aug. 2, 1882, in Shelby, Miss. Her parents were former slaves. Thompson lost her birth certificate in a fire about 50 years ago. The Guinness Book of Records says the document would have been necessary to certify her as the world's oldest living person. Guinness lists Maud Farris-Luse, 114, of Michigan as the oldest person in the world with documentation. Historians in Arkansas and Mississippi could not find Thompson on census rolls from the late 1800s but acknowledge records for blacks in that period are sketchy. According to Robert Landfair, the administrator of Thompson's estate, she was married twice, but her nurses say she talked about three husbands. She had no children.  --
Source:  Associated Press Archive - October 10, 2001.