Sequatchie County, Tennessee Obituaries R. V. BELL Pioneer Cooke Lawyer, Dies GAINESVILLE, Texas. March 21 R. V. Bell, first County Attorney of Cooke County, died at his home here Sunday. He also had held several other public offices in Cooke County. He was 80 years old. He was born in Tennessee and was graduated from Sequatchie College and Cumberland Law School. Funeral services will be held here Tuesday afternoon. He is survived by his wife and seven children, some of whom live in Dallas. Source: [22 Mar 1927; Dallas Morning News - KT - Sub by FoFG] HADE C. GATES Funeral services were held Wednesday for Hade C. Gates, 61, former Dallas resident, at Trinity Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Mo. Dallas services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday in Weiland-Merritt Funeral Chapel. 2909 Live Oak. Dr. Arthur V. Boand, associate minister of Highland Park Presbyterian Church, will officiate.; Burial will be in Restland Memorial Park. Gates died Monday morning at his St. Louis home. A native of Sequatchie County, Tennessee, he had lived in Dallas for thirty-two years before moving three years ago to St. Louis, where he was assistant credit-collection manager of the Rice-Stix Company. Gates served overseas in the Army during World War I and was a thirty-second degree Mason, a Shriner and a member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. He worked for Oliver Farm Equipment in Dallas. Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Alice Gates; a stepson, William P. Autry of St. Louis; two brothers, Sperry L. Gates of Bakersfield, Calif., and Winslow W. Gates of Levelland, Hockley County, and four sisters, Mrs. Buna Smith of Fort Worth, Mrs. Dappye Jo Dennis of San Francisco, Calif., and Mrs. Beatrice Kingsbury and Mrs. Agnes Ballard, both of Dallas. The Pentagon Masonic Lodge will conduct graveside services. Source: [August 14, 1952, Dallas Morning News - KT - Sub by FoFG] B. L. SHIRLEY Parker County Patriarch, 114, Dies at Home in Springtown. WEATHERFORD, Texas, Feb. 17 -- B. L. (Black) Shirley, 114, died at his home in Springtown, eighteen miles north of here, early Friday morning. His age was well authenticated. He served in the Union Army from Hamilton County, Tennessee, during the Civil War. Some of Mr. Shirley's friends claim he was the oldest man in Texas. He came to Texas about 1880 and had lived at Springtown since. His oldest daughter, Mrs. Sadie Fitts of Burneyville, Ok, is 87, and his youngest, Mrs. W. W. Waters of Springtown, 22. His other surviving children are Mrs. Mary Freely and Mrs. Kitty Fitts of Electra, Mrs. W. H. Casey of Paradise, J. C. and F. L. Shirley of Springtown. He was married three times. Funeral services will be held Saturday at 2 p. m. at Springtown. Burial will be in Opal Cemetery. Mr. Shirley was born in Sequatchie Valley in East Tennessee, and was the youngest of a family of fifteen children. He grew to manhood in the Tennessee mountains, married the first time and had five children when the Civil War opened. Three years after the war ended, his wife died, and ten years later the family emigrated to Texas, Mr. Shirley having married again. They settled in Parker County, where they have since resided, and where Mr. Shirley found his third wife, following the death of the second. Mr. Shirley was active and rode horseback at 80, but had spent most of his last two years taking things easy. Source: [18 Feb 1933, Dallas Morning News - KT - Sub by FoFG] THOMAS LAWRENCE STEWART Winchester, Tenn. - Funeral services will be held here tomorrow morning for Thomas Lawrence Stewart, 87, retired chancellor, who died of a heart attack yesterday. Burial will be in Dunlap, Tenn. Stewart was a chancellor from 1918 until his retirement in 1947 and was the father of former Sen. Tom Stewart, now practicing law in Nashville. Source: The Kingsport Times, December 30, 1953 - transcribed by Amanda Jowers