Elsie May McKinney Barney

A letter found on Ancestry.com from Joe Conway, Attorney General of Arizona, dated April 15, 1940, about Elsie reads as follows:

Office of Attorney General, Capitol Building, Phoenix, Arizona, Joe Conway, Attorney General

TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,

G R E E T I N G S:

THIS WILL SERVE TO INTRODUCE and identify the bearer, MRS. ELSIE BARNEY, a real Pioneer of Arizona and a well known resident of Pomerene, Arizona.

Mrs. Barney has been a resident of Arizona since 1890 and during those fifty years she has witnessed and been a part of the substantial and historical development of our State.

She may have occasion to visit in the different counties of this State or in the other states of the Union and this is to ask that, wherever she may be, she be extended every possible courtesy, to the end that upon her return home she may remember with true old time spirit the many kind favors and treatment she received during her visit with you.

Her signature affixed hereto is evidence of her identity.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal of office this 15th day of April, 1940.

Signed: Joe Conway, Attorney General of Arizona.

Elsie was born February 23, 1890, in Mammoth, Arizona. She passed away July 16, 1981, in Willcox, Arizona. She married Thomas Crawford McKinney on March 1, 1908, at age 18, in Mammoth, Pinal County, Arizona. They had five children, Pearl Irene, December 13, 1908, Margaret Julia, July 21, 1911, Jewell Elsie, January 2, 1913, John Clinton Caddell McKinney, December 20, 1915, and Verna May (Midge) on May 12, 1917. They later divorced and in 1938, at the age of 48, she married Ollie Oswald Barney. He passed away in 1957 at the age of 77 years old from uremia, rental insufficiency and possibly had prostate or bladder cancer. He was buried in St. David's Cemetery. At one time Elsie had also married to Royal Arch (Roy) Norton (1898-1977) and Wiley Shirley (1889-1977), but they had no children together.

Regarding Elsie's funeral....Services were held Monday, July 20, 1981, at 2:00 P.M. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in St. David, Arizona. Officiating at her funeral was President, Thomas M. Goodman. She was buried at St. David's Cemetery. Her casket bearers were Jack McKinney, John McKinney, John K. Clayshulte, Sr., Gene Thomsen, Nelson Clayshulte, Noland Clayschulte, and John Clayschulte, Jr.