Re: Thomas Dutton and Mary K. Bates Desc.

Eula,
  I live about 25 miles from Rush Springs and remember the heart-breaking
story of those little boys well. Apparently, this all happened before I
knew I had a "Dutton" connection, because the surname didn't stick with me,
meant nothing at that time. 
Janice

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> From: ECol91234@aol.com
> To: [old-list]
> Subject: Thomas Dutton and Mary K. Bates Desc.
> Date: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 12:08 AM
> 
> Dear Sonya  and all the others:
> Found the Thomas Dutton and Mary Katherine Bates descendant who
> contacted me years ago:  She is Ilene (Starkey) Willingham, 2158 E. 
> Palo Alto, Fresno, CA (209)-299-0588.  She is the granddau. of Laura
> Bell Dutton, daughter of Thomas and M.K.(Bates) Dutton.  We never
> exchanged much information.  She told me more than this on the 
> phone when she called and I scribbled the whole time, but mixed it 
> up so some of it made no sense.  She said that Thomas Dutton was 
> born in the TUSCALOOSA area, that he left AL and went to MS before he
> married and married Mary Katherine in MS.  That much I was sure of
> and filed in my card file.  Ilene works at the Church of Latter Day Saints
> Family History Library in Fresno part time.  The way she got my name
> and phone number is through a very sad chapter in the story of the Sam
> B. Dutton family.  My cousin Luther whom I mentioned before had very
> much alienated himself from all his family years ago after an accident
> at work that left him bitter, so when that story hit the news, it came as

> gigantic surprise to all his relatives.  You may remember the story of
> a Herman and Drury Dutton in Rush Springs, OK who shot and killed their 
> father, Lonnie Dutton, whom all the community agreed needed to me
> put out of commission. That was our Luther's son.  The boys were young, 
> the mother had left them, there were two very young children besides
> Herman and Drury.  The boys were prosecuted but the community defended
> them to a person and the news called their dad a totally cruel and mean
> person who beat the children and was sexually abusing the boys younger
> sister, the latter being the reason for the shooting.  The mother then
> wanted custody, but the two boys were put in foster home for two years
> or so then given to Luther and his wife.  The two younger ones were
> given by the court to Luther's daughters.  Anyway, the story made the
> talk show circuits through the mother.  Ilene saw her and one of the
> boys' teachers on one of those sensational talk shows, I think Geraldo. 
> When she heard the Dutton name she called information in Rush Springs,
> talked to Luther who knew zilch of family history, but referred her to
> my cousin Mae McClure, who referred her to me.  (Mae is the one who
> put her family history files on a disk and sent in to The Family Tree
> Program.  Cousin Joe saw those records, contacted Mae, Mae referred
> him to me - - and as they say,"The rest is history"--in the making...)
> Now all of you know the skeleton in my family closet.  A bigger
> (worse) scandal would be hard to top. . . .
> 
> Changing the subject.  Why does my correspondence have all those little
> arrow marks at the beginning of each line?  And why to the lines print
> out in a different pattern than I type them???   I am making the lines
> shorter on this communique and hitting the return bar before the
> print gets to end of this internet message box.  Is that the answer?
> Help to educate me!
> 
> Eula Coleman