Alene Garland was born on July 30, 1918, in Trigg County, Kentucky, the first of nine children of John Doyle Garland and Drucilla Hargrove. Alene married Frank Colson who was 28 years her senior. Frank had previously been married to Alice Garner who had died in 1936 at the age of 35.
Alene and Frank settled in Golden Pond, Kentucky, in the land between the rivers area of Trigg County. They were the parents of twelve children during their marriage. Their lives came to an end in 1962 as a result of a tragic “murder-suicide” event.
On the morning of April 17, 1962, Frank Colson, who was 70 years old at the time, went to his neighbor’s house and asked to borrow his shotgun. Colson told the neighbor that he had heard some wild turkeys near his home and wanted to shoot them. Colson then returned to his own home and parked his car some 200 yards from the house. He then walked to the house with the shotgun and went around to the back door of the home. He apparently knocked on the back door and Mrs. Colson came to the door and opened it. Colson then shot his wife after she opened the door. His 13 year-old son, Stevie Colson who was evidently standing near his mother ran through the house and out the front door. Colson followed his son into a nearby field and shot at him but did not hit him. Mrs. Colson, by that time, had made her way through the house and out the front door. She fell in the yard and died about 15 feet from the front porch. Colson, after firing at his son, put the barrel gun against his forehead and pulled the trigger. He was found dead about 20 feet from the back door. Mrs. Colson had been shot in the left side just below her heart and the blast had also severely damaged her left arm. Three other small children who were at home when the shooting occurred wee in another part to the house and did not see the slayings.
The double slaying was not the only tragedy that the Colson family had faced within the previous 20 months. On September 11, 1960, the Colson’s son, Bobby James Colson, 16, was killed in an automobile accident. He was a passenger in a car driven by his 22 year old brother that careened off a road about two miles north of Golden Pond, Kentucky and crashed head on into a tree. The young Colson was pronounced dead on arrival Trigg County Hospital in Cadiz, Kentucky. His brother survived the crash and was admitted to the hospital with multiple facial lacerations.
Another son, 22 year old Riley Bill Colson died on December 21, 1961 as a result of a drowning in four inches of water just a few yards from his home as a result of a freak accident. Riley was one of three youths in a 1949 car when a tire went flat while crossing a narrow creek. The boys remained in the car for some time before Riley started walking down the creek bed toward his home. He fell face forward into the shallow water of the creek and drowned. Apparently carbon monoxide had been filtering into the car and the youth, dazed by the poison was unable to lift himself from the water. The body was discovered the next morning by his 9 year old brother who was enroute to school. The other two boys were still inside the car and were taken to the Trigg County Hospital in serious condition from carbon monoxide poisoning and fortunately survived.
Years later, the Colson’s oldest child, Benjamin Franklin “Frankie” Colson died on August 9, 1985 after he was wounded in a shooting incident near Aurora, Kentucky. Frankie was the father of two sons.
LINEAGE: (Alene Garland Colson was the daughter of John Doyle and Drucilla Hargrove Garland, the granddaughter of James Ouford and Virginia Marquess Hargrove, great-granddaughter of Francis Marion and Mary J. Thomas Marquess and the great-great-granddaughter of Peyton and Sarah L. Ethridge Thomas. Peyton was the third child of Cullen and Elizabeth Futrell Thomas. Cullen was the first child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)
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