MY DAUGHTER-TAMI MICHELLE MARLAR WHITE-11-8-1968

Graduation Southaven High School    1986

Michelle's first birthday 11-8-1969

11-11-1969

Michelle and James     Smokey Mountains October, 2010

On a cold, rainy Friday morning in Memphis, Tennessee at Baptist Hospital my daughter Michelle was born. She was due on November 16 but decided to make her appearance with a bang.  I had a short  labor and she was born only four hours after I arrived at the hospital.  In those days there were no ultrasounds so you had no idea if you were having a boy or girl.  That was part of the excitement. We already had a daughter, Jan who was five and a half.  I thought Jim wanted a boy but secretly I really wanted another girl.  When she was born I thought he would be disappointed but he wasn't.  She was  always (and still is) his baby.
The next day around 11 AM I noticed that the TV was shaking on the wall and the building was shaking a little.  I thought it was just my imagination but to my surprise when Jim came in he told me Memphis had experienced an earthquake. Then on Monday when we went home it snowed all day.  So I guess she just wanted to make her presence known. :-)
We have been so blessed to have her in our lives. She is now married to a wonderful man and has two children. She works hard and is the one that we depend on to find out about our medical problems and be there to help us solve them.
Thank you Michelle for all that you have done for us.  We love you very much!

JIMMY WAYNE MARLAR AND BETTY JANE FELL 11-4-1961

Forty nine years ago today I married my best friend.  It was a rainy, Saturday in Iuka, MS. We had really just thought that we would go to a preacher's house and get married. But my sister in law had other ideas. My brother was attending school to be a preacher but could not marry us. He was attending the First Pentecostal Church in Iuka and his wife insisted that we have a small ceremony there with just a few friends and family members. We had no money, I actually borrowed a hundred dollars from the Credit Union were I worked. I was working at the shoe factory and Jim was working at the local newspaper, The Vidette. I made 75 cents an hour and Jim got a raise to 75 cents when we married. We had a small reception at the preacher's home and then left for a "short" honeymoon in Sheffield. Al.
We both had to be at work on Monday. When I went to work, the first thing they did was lay me off for lack of work. A great way to start a new marriage. No place to live, we stayed with his mother for 3 weeks, only one job, I was off for three weeks, but who cared. Not us we had each other and that was all we needed.
We have been through a lot in that 49 years. Both good and bad. Jim has been  in bad health for the past 25 years and has outlived almost everyone in his family except for one cousin. He has had a massive heart attack, two open heart surgeries, numerous stents and angiopasties, along with MRSA in a broken ankle, and is now fighting a return of melanoma cancer,  But the good has outweighed the bad. We have two daughters, two son in laws, 2 grandsons, 2 granddaughters, one grand son in law and 2 great grandsons. They all live close by and it makes for a happy, noisy life!
Even after all these years, he is still my best friend,

I love you Jimmy Wayne Marlar!!!!

Good News!!!!

Today was a good day! A year and a half ago I had a corneal transplant. I had cataract surgery several years ago and after the second one contacted herpes simplex in my eye. After several attacks I had lost  almost all my sight in my right eye. Finally I decided it was time for a transplant. I had problems after surgery and almost lost my eye but my doctor in Southaven, MS was able to save both my eye and my transplant. I was in the hospital two times, one time having drops in my eyes four times an hour 24 hours a day for 48 hours. I was so tired when I finally left the hospital I slept all the way home!!! So three weeks ago when I went back for my check up I was surprised to find that  I had a little rejection of my transplant. When I asked my doctor if it was bad, he says, "No, if it was, instead of drops in your eyes I would be giving you a injection."  Needless to say I was thankful for drops! Today when I went back to see him, he gave me the good news that we had dodged another bullet. And for that I thank God!

Marlar Cemetery, Sawyer, Kentucky

Recently I received a friend request on Facebook from a Marlar who lives in Kentucky just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. He had decided that he wanted to befriend as many Marlars on facebook as he could, and I am so glad that he did. He is my husband's fourth cousin and is descended from the one brother who stayed in Kentucky while the mother and other children moved to Mississippi in the middle 1800's. I had not been able to prove who the other was but he gave me access to his website which gave me lots of information and I am now in the process of adding it to my website on tribal pages. This was very exciting information but the strange part was that most of the deceased members of the family are buried at Marlar Cemetery near Sawyer, Ky, in the southern most part just north of Knoxville, Tennessee. This cemetery is located in the Cumberland Falls State Park and my husband has vacationed near there twice and did not know it was there. Several years ago we made a trip to Sterns with our friends, Bobby and Judy and last year we spent one night in Somerset, Ky, which is about ten miles from the cemetery!
When I found this out I immediately started planning a trip to go to this cemetery and another one near by. Two weeks ago Jim and I along with our daughter Michelle and her husband James made the trip, combining it with a trip to Gatlinburg.
While there we were able to make pictures at both cemeteries. I am sure we did not get pictures of all the Marlar graves as there were many unmarked graves. Some of the tombstones had deteriorated and some had been replaced with newer ones, leaving the old ones there also.
While we were there we also visited Cumberland Falls. This was the first trip there for Michelle and James. We had such a wonderful time. The leaves were beginning to turn, the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed being with family talking about older family members.
I make a lot of pictures for findagrave.com and I had noticed that there was a request for a picture of a grave that was not one of my husband's relatives. I made sure that I made a picture to post. I received the sweetest thank you. It was from a young man in the service and the grave was his father's. He was so happy to receive the picture and I was happy I could make it for him as he was protecting our freedom!
Hope you enjoy some of the pictures we made!!!

Knocking down a brick wall!!!

I love genealogy. I love knowing where I came from and also my husband. I have been doing research since 1995 and during that time I have found and knocked down several brick walls. It is so exciting when you are able to finally find that one (or several) people that you have been searching for, sometimes for years.
That was the case with my husband's Marlar family. We knew who the first Marlar was that came to Tishomingo County. She was Mary "Polly" Barnes Marlar and came here a widow with several children. We didn't know who her husband was or where he was buried, only that she came from Kentucky. I had searched but with no name or information to go on could not find any concrete information of any of the Kentucky Marlars that could be related.
Flash forward to two weeks ago. I received a friend request from William Marlar of Kentucky. He had looked and found about 500 Marlars on facebook and had decided to see how many he could befriend. I immediately confirmed him and sent him a message to ask if he and my husband could be related. When I received his reply I was so happy I could have danced around the room!!! Now not only do we know his great great great grandfather's name (Allen Rubin Marlar) but where is buried. William is my husband's fourth cousin and descended from the one child who remained in Kentucky.
The most ironic part of this story is that this cemetery is named Marlar Cemetery and located in the southern part of Kentucky, north of Knoxville and Oak Ridge, Tennessee and last year my husband and I took a weekend trip that area and were within ten miles of the cemetery! About 12 years ago we had also been on vacation there and spent the night about 20 miles from there. Now I am planning another trip there, hopefully this fall so I can make pictures and see all the graves for myself.
I am so happy to find William and although he lives further north maybe in the not too distance future we will be able to meet. If he had not decided to befriend me I might never have found the information that he has been able to give me.
You just never know where that one lost piece of info will be that will connect you to many family members. Always be on the outlook and never say no!!!!!
Thank you so much, William, for finding us and welcome to our side of the Marlar Family!!!!!

Vela Artesia Frederick Fell 3-25-1905 7-2-2001

obit for Vela Fell
Vela Fell, 96, died Monday, July 2, 2001, at Beverly Health Care in Southaven. She was a member of Iuka Church of Christ.
Services were at 1 pm Thursday at Curshall Funeral Home Chapel with John Hardwick officating. Burial was in Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
Survivors include two sons, Elgen Berry Fell Jr., and his wife Lola, of Sheffield, Ala, and Billy Fell and his wife, Lillian of Southaven; three daughters, Polly and Buddy VonBoeckman of Walls, Virginia and Jo e Schulte of Muscle Shoals, Ala, and Betty and Jimmy Marlar of Iuka; two sisters, Edith Morris of Indiana and Edra Rhodes of Corinth, 15 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and 13 great-great grandchildren.
Pallbearers were Mike VonBoeckman, Phillip VonBoeckman, Tommy Dale Brewer, Gary Schulte, Richard Fell, James White and Berry Schulte.
Memorials may be made to the Iuka Church of Christ

Today it has been nine years since you left us. I have missed you everyday for that nine years. As the years have gone by and I have aged, I realize how fortunate and lucky I was to have had a mother as sweet and kind as you. In my lifetime I will never forget your smile and your kind, soft hearted ways. My girls miss you as much as I do. We will never let your memory die. Love forever!

Elgen Berry Fell, Sr. 7-3-1903 6-28-1973

Thirty seven years ago today I lost a part of my heart. After a two year illness my Dad passed away. Even though we knew he had been ill for those two years we were not prepared for him to die. The last memory I have of him is after they rushed him to Memphis and as I was walking into his room the response team stopped me and wouldn't let me enter. They couldn't save him and I have always had that memory of him trying to breathe.
He had been in the hospital in Iuka and we had traveled from Horn Lake to visit but he was so ill that he couldn't even talk. Among other problems he had emphysema and was under an oxygen tent. The medical field has advanced tremendously since those days.
When he took a turn for the worse, the doctor suggested that he be moved by ambulance to Baptist Hospital in Memphis. My mother finally agreed and regretted it for the rest of her life. She rode in the ambulance with him and my brother, Billy and his son, Billy Joe, was driving behind. A lady stopped and the ambulance was able to pass her but my nephew hit her car in the rear. My mother saw what happened and had to go on to the hospital not knowing if my brother and nephew were injured or not. Thankfully no one was injured but the lady saw an opportunity to defraud the insurance company and sued. It started a long battle of legal problems which ended with the people being seen for the crooks they really were! We never knew if my Dad knew of the accident. He died within an hour of reaching the hospital and my mother always said she wished she had let him die in peace.
I have such happy memories of my Daddy. I was the baby of their eight kids and by the time I arrived most of the older kids were grown and on their own. My Dad doted on me and I have those memories. During my high school years we would go on vacation to Florida and would always have such a great time. He lived Florida, especially fishing. I have loved the beach ever since.
My father's death was hard on the entire family as we had lost my oldest sister in 1968 and my youngest brother in 1970, both after long battles with cancer. In the five years before my Dad died my mother had lost him, a son, a daughter, and two brothers.
Everyday I think of my Dad and I think since living back in Iuka there is certainly more to remind me of him. He will always live in my heart.