Margaret Evelyn (Calvin) Wing (1906 - 1993)

Born 16 Apr 1906 in Dennard Van Buren Co Arkansas

Ancestors

Wife of Lester Leroy Wing — married 20 Mar 1946 in Fort Smith Sebastian Co Arkansas

Died 3 Feb 1993 at age 86 in Van Buren Crawford Co Arkansas

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Cindy Brownfield [send private message]

Biography

Twenty-seven people drowned early Tuesday, when St. Louis and San Francisco west bound passenger train number five, St. Louis to Texas, ran into a cloud burst two miles west of Lebanon, Missouri, and two passenger cars toppled into a deep gully full of water when the track bed was washed out and too soft to hold the weight of the train. Instead of trying to go on through the water the engineer stopped causing the bed under the track to crumble away. The engine and 2 cars were submerged in about 15 feet of water. The chair car filled fast. Twenty-seven were drowned, many of them while they were sleeping. Others busted through the windows of the submerged cars and swam to safety. Perry and wife Mollie and their 4 children were on that train. Vernon the youngest and oldest sister Elsie drowned and they were recovered in the train car when the water subsided. Family storys say Vernon was still holding his teddy bear. Mollie was pulled from the train car and sat on the side of the overturned train car while daughter Oma helped to hold her head above water while she also kept an aye on younger sister Evelyn. Mollie died in the hospital from pneumonia 2 days later. Daughters Oma and Evelyn and husband Dave survived.

In looking at Evelyns birth info in the census and given she was in the 1914 train wreck with her family and comparing it to her headstone , obit and Social Security information you will see they do NOT match. Evelyn did not tell the truth about her age when she got married because she was quite a bit older than her husband and she did not want people to know this. It was not discovered until her nieces helped her get signed up for her social security. They did not have a birth certificate so they had to get written statements from family members, copies of census to prove her year of birth as closely as they could. I am not sure that her family still knew after that how old she really was since the "fibbed" ages and dates appear on her headstone and in her obit and on her legal documents. Her headstone says her birth year was 1920 and the obit says she was 75 at her death....the correct information is she was born in 1906 and she was 87 when she passed away. She could NOT be born in 1920 when she shows up in the 1910 census and was in the 1914 train wreck with her family.

Sources

• ["Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVZ-CHB9 : 11 July 2016), Margaret Evelyn Calvin Wing, 1993; Burial, Fort Smith, Sebastian, Arkansas, United States of America, Woodlawn Memorial Park; citing record ID 16641108, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.] http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16641108

• ["United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKK7-NB4 : 29 October 2015), Margaret E Calvin in household of Perry D Calvin, Linn Creek, Van Buren, Arkansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 125, sheet 7A, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,374,079.]

• ["United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDFL-41L : 14 December 2015), David Calvin, Linn Creek, Van Buren, Arkansas, United States; citing sheet 6B, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,083.]

• ["United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMGL-TPX : 8 December 2015), Evelyn Calvin in entry for Dane Calvin, 1930.]

• ["United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQV8-MN8 : accessed 31 August 2016), Evelyn Calvin in household of Adam Gearey, Plummerville, Howard Township, Conway, Arkansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 15-10, sheet 3A, family 58, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 127.]

• ["Arkansas, County Marriages, 1837-1957", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N949-DTR : 24 June 2016), Lester L Wing and Evelyn Calvin, 1946.]

• ["United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JYG4-D48 : 20 May 2014), Margaret E Wing, Feb 1993; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).]