52 Ancestors 52 Weeks - Week 49

Bizzie Lee Beard

Bizzie Lee Beard was born on May 28, 1909, in Attalla, Etowah County, Alabama. She was the first and only daughter of Charles Pinkney Beard and Beatrice Brown. Beatrice died October 1, 1911 when Bizzie was only 2. Her father married again in 1914, giving 5 year old Bizzie a new step-mother and a step-brother and 3 step-sisters. She did tell me how she felt very close to her step-mother, I she also told me that she spent a few years with her grandmother, as well. I'm sure this helped to shape the woman she became.

She first appears in the 1910 census, in Etowah County, Alabama. She is with her parents, Pinkney C., 22, and Beatrice, 18. She is listed as Lee B., 9 months old. Her father is farming.

In 1930, still in Etowah County, Alabama, she is with her family, her father still farming. The household consists of Charley P., 25, Myrtle, 28, Busylee, 10, Louie L., 5, Franklyn P., 9 months, James Haney, 15, Beatrice Haney, 11, Georgia Haney, 9 and Zelma Haney is 8 years old. Here is the blended family, all still at home.

On November 13, 1929, in Keener, Etowah County, Alabama, she married Rufus Marvin Brock. I asked her once what her wedding was like. She laughed at that, and told me it was pouring rain and they had to take the wagon down to the store to find the preacher and was married on the back of a buckboard wagon in the pouring rain. I can't ever be sure this is true, but she wasn't the type to make it up. I believed her!

In the 1930 census she is shown in the house of her father, still in the same place, Etowah County, Alabama. The people in the household were: Chas. P, 43, Ada M., 41, Zelma Haney, 18, Louie, 15, Frank P., 11, John H., 8, Bertha M., 4, Leonard H., 3, Frances E., 1, Rufus Brock, 20, and Bessie L. Brock, 21. Quite a household! Both her father and her husband are listed as farmers. I know my grandfather, Rufus M., did not like farming, so he is not a happy camper.

In the 1940 census, she is with her husband in Van Buren Township, DeKalb County, Alabama. He is farming and they own the farm. Rufus was the one that gave the information to the census taker. Rufus is 30, Bizzie Lee is 30, Rufus Lee, my father, is 9, Robert, 6, Marcell (Morris), 2 years old.

Rufus and Bizzie moved from Collinsville, Alabama to Seymour, Indiana in 1950. He moved first on July 29, 1950, and Bizzie followed on September 10, 1950.  He was working at Arvin Industries and moved to Seymour to work in the new plant. She did not like winter.

Bizzie died on January 8, 1989, in Seymour, Indiana at the age of 79. She was buried beside her husband, in Riverview Cemetery, in Seymour.

Sources:
Birth Certificate Unnamed, birth certificate no. 304842 (1909), Attalla Department of Health, Attalla, Etowah County, Alabama, United States.
Amended January 3, 1972.
1910 US Census, 1910 US Census, (Cox, Etowah County, Alabama); Page: 12 Dwelling 37 Family 37, T624, no. 13, HeritageQuest.
1920 U.S. Census, 1920 U.S. Census, (Cox, Etowah County, Alabama); Page: 80 Dwelling 302 Family 305, T625, T625, NARA, Heritage Quest.
"Alabama, County Marriages, 1809-1950", database with images, FamilySearch, Rufus Brock and Bizzie Lee Beard, 1929.
1930 US Census, 1930 US Census, (Cox Precinct No.11, Etowah County, Alabama); Sheet No. 7 B + 8 A; Dwelling 118; Family 119; Line 5, Affiliate Film Number: 16; GS Film number: 2339751, Image Number: 00738, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
1940 US Census; Alabama. Dekalb County. Van Buren. Elec. Reg.5. 1940 US Census. NARA; Washington, DC 20408. 
Death certificate; Indiana, Marion, Indianapolis. Indiana State Department of Health, Vital Records; Bizzie Lee Brock, Seymour death certificate No 89-001198 (1989).

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