52 Ancestors 2015 Edition - Week #16:100 years and Counting

My Aunties: Ethel Becton Artis and Leona Reed Becton

This week’s theme is based on those relatives who lived a long life aka Centenarians. Well I am happy to say that I had two female relatives who were Centenarians. In addition to living to the ripe old age of 102; they were both my father’s aunts: Ethel Artis and Leona Becton.  Something else they had in common was that they were the first born in their families and they outlived their siblings. A lot of times, it’s the youngest child who outlives everyone else in their families but these two ladies defy the odds.

Ethel Pearl Becton Artis

While these weekly posts are supposed to be dedicated to one ancestor, I could not see myself not including Aunt Ethel. Aunt Ethel was born in 1892 and she was my paternal grandmother’s (Minnie Becton Powell Coley) oldest sister who happened to be the first born of William and Phoebe Taylor Becton’s nine children.  Aunt Ethel married June Scott Artis in 1912; they had 3 children Amanda, James and Edgar Artis when she died she had 15 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great-grandchildren. Aunt Ethel lived all her life in North Carolina until she passed in 1994.  

Leona Becton

Leona Reed Becton married Ethel’s brother, George Becton (April 25, 1910 – August 8, 1987) on November 18, 1945; their union lasted 42 years.  Aunt Leona was born on July 30, 1908 in Marion County, South Carolina to Session and Mary Johnson Reed. She had two brothers, McKinley and Allen, and one sister, Liza Reed Dickson. 

Aunt Leona was the only one of her siblings who had children and to this day no one knows what became of her son James Ward whom she had by her first husband. There were two stories that I heard about James. The first was that he visited his mother in the late 1960s but no one knows what happened and why he never returned.  Another story was told by Aunt Leona to her caretaker, Ann. Ann asked her why she never had children and she told Ann; “I had a son and his name was James.” She said that when she moved to Washington that she left James in South Carolina with her sister but her sister could not “handle” James; so James came to live with Aunt Leona and Uncle George.  One day James told Aunt Leona that he was going out to meet some friends but he never returned home.  I believe that James suffered a terrible fate or he would had contacted his mother.

When Aunt Leona turned 100 her health began to decline.  Her last years were spent in a nursing facility where almost every weekend my mom and I would visit her.  Aunt Leona never wanted us to leave however, we always told her that we would return. Sadly, she always told us that “you just got here.” Once when she was hospitalized, she told me that she “Loved Her Bectons.” I told her that “we loved her too.” She died 8 days before her 103rd birthday; it was the date that she was buried on.

I believe that nobody wants to die but most of us don’t want to be the last to go. When you’re the last of your family or your generation or your friends, your lonely and that’s how I felt with Aunt Leona. She once mention that she did not know why she lived so long.  

Aunt Leona in 2010