The Children of Frances McLean (Mackey) Shumate

The inscription says Frances McLean Thomas, Age four months and three weeks however this cute little baby is also known as Marion Frances THOMAS.  She was the daughter of James Vernon THOMAS and his first wife Frances McLean (Mackey) SHUMATE, 1887 -1965.  Mackey was born in Tennessee and died in California.  At this time the location of where she is buried is unknown. She was the daughter of Quincy SHUMATE and Louise Elizabeth McLean.  Mackey was a shortened version of her middle name, McLean.

Frances McLean Thomas aka
Marion Frances Thomas

Her daughter Frances was born in 1913 and died in 1972.   We think that in all likelihood the divorce was acrimonious and perhaps Mackey was even painted as being an unfit mother since her daughter remained in the custody of her ex-husband, James Vernon THOMAS.  It's also very likely that her name was originally Frances McLean Thomas just as it's written above but after the divorce which occurred before 1919 as that's when he remarried,  was changed to Marion Frances Thomas. Of course this is all just speculation on our part and we could be wrong.  Frances married Collin Lyle DURHAM.  She is our second cousin, once removed.

Mackey and James were married in 1909.  After the divorce he married Rebecca SPICER and they had three children James Thomas Jr, Robert Spicer and Elizabeth Ann.

Thomas Ogilvie MacPherson III,
half brother of
Frances McLean THOMAS

Mackey's second husband was Thomas Ogilvie MACPHERSON II.  They lived in California and had one child, Thomas Ogilvie MACPHERSON III.   His father was listed as an "inmate" at the Patton State Hospital for the Insane in the 1940 Census.  His father died in Riverside California on March 2, 1982.  Sadly, I discovered today that Thomas the third died at the age of 23 from head injuries sustained in an automobile accident.  He had enlisted in the Air Force  Jan. 12, 1951.  He re-enlisted on February 9, 1952 and was stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. He died on July 1, 1952.  He was a 2nd Lieutenant..  Interestingly enough on the South Carolina Death Certificate for Thomas the third it indicates that his father was deceased when in actuality he was very much alive and would survive his son and wife.  We speculate that back in the fifties the stigma of mental illness was probably so great that he would not have been a suitable candidate for the military, particularly since he was an officer.  So it seems probable that he and his mother had lied about his father being dead.