Page 71 - The CRAIG family

remember him to be sweet. The first picture was taken with all of us cousins on Easter Sunday in grandmas’ driveway, the second picture was taken in 1968 at Disney World when as Butch says “This was the best in the entirety of Rick’s life”. He was 100% clean and sober and had a good job in a restaurant, lived with Butch and Shirley in Malibu, California and they had just bought him a motorcycle for transportation. The third picture was from a mug shot.
When I remember Ricky, I remember him coming to our house. He always behaved for my mother and she seemed to be able to handle him very well. I remember him swiping some candy from Walk’s Drug Store and mother marched him back into the store and made him apologize and return the candy. I also remember him being at Grandma’s house, he helped her and was very respectful. He came to her house one time to “hide out” upstairs but Grandma, in a way only she had, talked him into letting her call Uncle Ed to let him know where he was.
I had not seen Ricky since 1968 until 2012-2013 when I was in Indiana for a visit. I knew Ricky lived across the street from Mary, so Celia and I drove down the street and when we turned around, Ricky came out. We called to him and he came over to the car. When I asked him if he knew who I was he gave me a big grin and said “I sure do” – he remembered Celia too. We visited with him for about an hour in Mary’s front yard. He seemed genuinely happy that we came to see him. I wish I had taken a picture. So, my last memory of Ricky is a happy one – seeing him with that impish grin. I hope he knew that he was loved because Uncle Ed, Butch and Donna were always there for him, even when Uncle Ed would say “Ricky’s away at school” ... he was never forsaken by the family.
Ricky’s obituary named his daughter and said he had 3 grandchildren. I did some research and came up with some interesting facts that the family may or may not know.
Ricky had just turned 22 when his daughter Melissa Dawn Hoyland was born on May 17, 1973. She is 46 years old and lives in Louisville. I cannot find marriage records on her and all public records refer to her by her birth name of Hoyland. Her mother was 20-year-old Martha E. Vertress (11/26/1952) from Louisville. When Melissa was born, her mother Martha lived with Terry Monroe Hoyland at
6609 Kenmore Avenue in Louisville, in a 884 Sq Ft - 1 bedroom, 1 bath house built in 1958.
Marriage Records show that Martha (age 24) married Jacob Singleton on February 3, 1977, and records show that this was her 2nd marriage. I cannot find a record her first marriage, but the marriage certificate of when she married Singleton, says her last marriage ended in divorce. Maybe she and Terry Hoyland were married, got divorced and then remarried each other.
Martha (with the last name of Singleton) did marry Terry Monroe Hoyland (he was 29 and she was 30) on September 27, 1983. It appears that he lives in Michigan now (where he grew up and went to school) and is married but it is not clear if he and Martha are still together. Their last known address in Louisville that I can locate that shows them together was in 2002.
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