Myrtle Hilton

Myrtle is my mother. She lived in Florida most of her adult life. She never worked when I was growing up. After I left home she did some fruit picking, stripped copper, and what ever she could find to support herself. She moved back to Kentucky in 1981, 3 yrs before she passed away at the King Daughters Hospital in Frankfort, Kentucky. She died at the age of 64 yrs old from cervical cancer that had matastasized to the brain, liver, kidneys and went all over her. She is sadly missed and remembered often by her grandchildren and daughter and James. (submitted by daughter Margaret Ann) 3-09

Myrtle was the 5th born child of Maggie and Clell Richardson. She was born in Irvine, Ky. Myrtle had two marriages, one to Ernest Montgomery , which she had one daughter by, Margaret Ann. The next was to Mack McKinney which lasted longer, but did end in divorce. She had been single for many years, before her death. Margaret Ann was her only child. Aunt Myrtle is the one who pierced my ears and my sisters and my next door neighbor Glenna Brown's, when we were pretty young. I was 9 when she did mine, while my parents were away for the weekend at Renfro Valley. My parents were surprised and not too happy when they returned home and their 9 yr olds' ears were pierced. When I went to school on Monday morning, boy I was teased.........called a gypsy, mainly for having pierced ears, cause nobody then, especially children, had pierced ears. I loved my earrings then and now. Aunt Myrtle was an excellent seamstress, making many of my beautiful baby clothes when I was born. She could quilt, crochet and sew. She was a good cook. I remember her being at our house in the summertime when the garden was in and she would have me going to get bell peppers and green onions and tomatoes for her "summer slaw" and her goulash!! I loved them both and have tried to make those recipes myself and pass them onto my children in my cookbook. She was wirey for her size. I remember one story my mom Margie told of how her brothers caught aunt Myrtle coming into the barn and they were perched above her on rafters and peed all over her, when she got under them.........terrible what boys do when they are bored! She is buried not too far from my dad in the Sand Spring Cemetery, here in Lawrenceburg. Info submitted by Linda Gillis Sherwood/McElwain