Falling Tree Kills Workman

Irene (Blake) & Ray Everett Cotton, Jr.
Leonard Ray "Joe" & Phyllis Cotton

I scanned the picture above from my grandmother's photo collection. I remember my grandmother talking about her brother who was killed in an accident in a beryl mine and my dad was close to his cousin, Joe. They were born in the same year. I remember visits with Joe & Jackie and their girls, Lisa and Jennifer but at the time I never connected the dots and understood how it was all connected. I figured it out when I started looking at the family tree and recently I found the following article in the Lowell Sun from July 30, 1952. 

Ray Everett Cotton, Jr. was the son of Ray Everett and Annie Florilla (Gibbs) Cotton. He was born on April 9, 1916 in South Paris, Maine and died on July 29, 1952 in Alstead, New Hampshire. He married Irene Blake on January 16, 1937. 

His children:

1. Phyllis born in 1937.
2. Leonard Ray "Joe" born in 1939.
3. Arthur born in 1941.
4. Gary born in 1943.
5. Alan born in 1945. 
6. Larry born in 1946. 

He is buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Mechanic Falls, Maine.

My grandmother, Fern Lyndell (Cotton) Carter was six years younger than her brother, Ray.