Tombstone Tuesday - January 12, 2010

Ada Burdette Bean

15 Dec 1883 - 15 August 1929

Ada Burdette was born 15 December 1883 to Hugh H. Burdette and Annie S. Level in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. She was the eldest of twelve children born to the couple. The other children were: Sarah Ozella, Edgar, Susan, Anderson, Isabelle, Charles, George, Dwight, Fred, Bessie and Harry.

Ada married widower, John Monroe Bean [1866-1954] on 04 March 1907 in Greenbrier County. [John had three children from his first wife, who had died in 1902.] Ada became an “instant” mother to Rita, Lama, and Pauline [who was ill her entire life with tuberculosis].

Ada and John began having children the following year. The couple had nine: John Jr. [1908], Emmette [1910], Blanche “Audrey” [1912], Anna “Margaret” [1914], William “Bill” [1917, Samuel Maxwell “Max” [1919], Ada “Eleanor” [1921], Dorothy “Eloise” [1923] and Jack [1929].

The couple was faced with heartache, not once, but three times during their marriage. In 1923 little Max died from whooping cough. Then on 14 February 1925, little Eloise, who had slept with her big sister, Pauline, died from tuberculosis. Pauline died just 4 months later.

On 10 August 1929 Ada gave birth to Jack. She had not received any pre-natal care. She was 45 years old, and had developed toxemia. She died just five days after Jack’s birth.

Ada was laid to rest in front of the three children she had seen buried. Her tombstone a sentinel watching over their little graves. They are buried at Carmel Cemetery in Gap Mills, Monroe County, West Virginia.