Page 19 - The CRAIG family

The 2 children of Park and Garfield Sparks -- I am explaining the following in detail primarily for my brother David because our Daddy spoke of Helen Sparks quite often. Daddy knew that he was related to Helen and Alden but never really understood how. Pearl was the sister of Marshall so that would make Pearl Daddy’s Aunt and Helen and Alden Daddy’s first cousins.
Helen was 32 years old when she married Leslie Forest Bennett on November 27, 1935. They had no children. Helen was 49 years old when she died at their home in Sellersburg on August 31, 1952. Helen had surgery for breast cancer in October 1951 and the cancer metastasized to her spine. For the last 8 months of her life she had paralysis of the bladder and rectum, and she also had a vaginal and rectal fistula. For the last 9 months of her life she had Paraplegia of the lower extremities which is a form of paralysis in which function is impeded from the waist down. The immediate cause of death was Azotemia, which is basically kidney failure because the kidney’s blood filtering is not sufficient. Helen had an 8th grade education.
Helen Sparks and her husband Leslie Bennett
Ruth “Alden” Sparks married Nancy “Leona” Barnes McKinley in 1927-1928. She had been married and divorced from Lloyd Frances McKinley and had a daughter who was less than 2 years younger than Alden. Leona was a minimum of 15- 18 years older than Alden (her birthdate varies from 1897 to 1890).
014