Frieda Nell Bridges Sumner
Frieda Nell Bridges was born on May 25, 1933 on Beechy Fork Creek in the Maple Grove community of Trigg County, Kentucky. She was the youngest of four children born to Ira Clifton Bridges and Flo Templeton Bridges Bridges. Ira was a farmer and a carpenter who had worked on the construction of several dams and bridges on the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. He and Flo were both natives of Trigg County and were distant cousins. Ira and Flo were both descendants of Drewry Bridges.
Frieda’s siblings were Morris Dale “M.D.” Bridges, born in 1918 and married Lora Dean Cunningham; Barbara Mae Bridges, born in 1920 and married William Eugene McBride; and Ira Clifton Bridges, Jr., born in 1923 and married Margaret Frances Church.
Because her father worked in construction and traveled widely, Frieda lived in numerous locations during her early life. She lived in Hamburg, Tennessee when very young but the family was back in Kentucky when she started school in the one-room Maple Grove School with her cousin, Hilda A. Bridges, being her first teacher. She then moved to Calvert City, Kentucky where she attended school for four years and then to Jefferson City, Tennessee for several years. Finally, she was back in Trigg County where she graduated from Trigg County High School in 1951.
On May 25, 1951, on her 18th birthday, Frieda married Eugene Lewis Sumner in Corinth. Mississippi by a Baptist minister after obtaining their marriage license at the local courthouse. Gene was born on November 10, 1927 in Trigg County, the son of Durwood Floyd Sumner and Lillie Jane Thomas Sumner. Floyd was a farmer and Lillie Jane a homemaker. Both were natives of Trigg County. Floyd was a descendant of Drewry Bridges and Lillie Jane was a descendant of Starkie Thomas.
After they were married, Gene engaged in farming and he and Frieda lived in a small house on his mother’s farm which had been built for his grandparents in the early 1920s. Just after five years later they moved into the family house where Gene had been born. Frieda and Gene later became the owners of the Twin Lakes Electric Company in Lake City, Kentucky. Frieda was a homemaker who was active in the Trigg County Homemakers Association. She liked to sing at their state conventions and was a member for over 50 years. She was very interested in the family history and collected numerous photos and news articles about her family members. She was also an active member of the Thomas-Bridges Association.
Frieda and Gene were the parents of three children, Elizabeth Janie Sumner, born in 1953 and married Dale Woodson Harper and later married Robert Lacy Wall; Ernest Lewis Sumner, born in 1956 and married Suzanne Rachael Kovary and later married Kathleen Futrell Haney; and Eugene Christopher Sumner, born in 1959 and married Danita Dawn Williams.
Gene died on January 8, 1985 at the age of 57 at the Jennie Stuart Medical Center in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He was buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery in Trigg County. Frieda died on September 18, 2017 at the age of 84 at the Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Kentucky. She was buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery next to her husband.
Frieda Bridges Sumner
Eugene Lewis Sumner
Frieda and Gene tombstone
LINEAGE: (Frieda Nell Bridges was the daughter of Ira Clifton and Flo Templeton Bridges Bridges, the granddaughter of Durwood Stanley and Jane “Jennie” Thomas Bridges and Mark Dale and Mallie Mae Lancaster Bridges and the great-granddaughter of Drewry and Peachie Ann Tart Bridges and Cullen Thomas and Virginia Thomas Bridges. Drewry was the fourth child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges. Cullen was the twelfth child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges. William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)
No comments:
Post a Comment