JOHN ELVIS HODGE
(1885-1918)

JOHN ELVIS HODGE, known by his middle name, was the son of John Robert Hodge and Jane Emeline Forest. Elvis was born May 26, 1885 in Henry County, Tennessee, and died January 17, 1918 in Rosiclare, Hardin County, Illinois. He married (1) NANNIE JANE DUNLAP August 07, 1903 in Henry County, Tennessee, daughter of PHINAS DUNLAP and MARGARET ROBERTSON. She was born January 18, 1885 in Tennessee, and died July 09, 1973 in Paris, Henry County, Tennessee. He married (2) MARGARET "MAGGIE" ZANONE November 28, 1912 in Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, daughter of CHARLES ZANONE and HELEN HANNON. She was born September 05, 1889 in Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, and died December 10, 1980 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Nannie and Elvis had two children, a daughter, Suelah, who was born April 12, 1905 and died 10 days before her 17th birthday on April 2, 1922, in Paris, Tennessee, and a son, Hubert Lee Hodge born July 27, 1907. By 1910, Elvis and Nannie were divorced and he is listed as single and working as a blacksmith in the census of 1910 in Smithland, Kentucky. Both remarried in 1912. Elvis married a second time on November 28, 1912 in Smithland to Maggie Zanone, whose father, Charles, of Italian descent, worked in the spar mines with Elvis. Elvis and Maggie had one child together, also named Elvis, who was born and died on the same day, December 17, 1913. The baby is buried in the Smith Cemetery, in Smithland, Kentucky near his mother, Maggie. Nannie remarried on January 26, 1912 to Ed Clarence Smith and they had three daughters together: Merle, Ruedell, and Pauline. Nannie died July 9, 1973 and is buried in the Maplewood Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee alongside her second husband.

Tragically, Elvis was killed in a mine accident in the Fluor Spar Mine at Rosiclare, Illinois, on January 17, 1918. Newspaper articles about the event state that his body was in the mine 15 days before he was found. John R. Hodge, with his grandson, Finis Dewey Webb, traveled by boat to the mine and saw the place where his son went into. In a letter dated February 7, he described the scene as "a dark gloomy picture in my mind ... and always will be."

Although Elvis was buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery near the mine in Rosiclaire, at some point in time, his wife Maggie erected a joint grave marker for him and for herself back home in the Smithland Cemetery in Livingston, Kentucky. Despite a second marriage to a Rev. George Gailor, Maggie is buried alone in this grave.

Children of JOHN ELVIS HODGE and NANNIE DUNLAP are:

i. SUELAH HODGE, b. April 12, 1905, Henry County, Tennessee; d. April 02, 1922, Henry County, Tennessee.

ii. HUBERT LEE HODGE, SR., b. July 27, 1907, Mansfield, Henry County, Tennessee; d. October 31, 1984, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee; m. (1) ONIE ESTELLE TURNAGE, April 02, 1927, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee; b. March 16, 1903, Munford, Tipton County, Tennessee; d. February 16, 1989, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee; m. (2) FLORENCE ECHLIN MORRIS, Abt. 1946, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee; b. June 30, 1908; d. November 1985, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee.

Notes for HUBERT LEE HODGE, SR.:
Worked as a foundryman and owned his own foundry at one time.

Memorial Park Cemetery - entombment
5668 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38119

More About ONIE ESTELLE TURNAGE:
Cremation: Memorial Park Crematory, Memphis, Tennessee

Child of JOHN ELVIS HODGE and MARGARET ZANONE is:
iii. ELVIS HODGE, b. and d. December 17, 1913, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky.

More About ELVIS HODGE:
Burial: Smithland Cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky

SOURCES

1. Census of 1900, Henry County, Tennessee, 19th District, E.D. 64, sheet 5.
2. Research of David Webb, webbdw@hotmail.com.
3. Henry County, TN Marriage Bonds, Vol. 5, Jan. 1903-Apr. 1906, p. 84, Roll 65, TN State Archives, Nashville.
4. Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Orem, UT: Ancestry, Inc., 2000.
5. Nannie Jane Smith, death certificate #73-022202 (1973), Tennessee Department of Public Health, Nashville.
6. Livingston County Marriages, p. 417, County Clerk's Office, Smithland, Kentucky.
7. Margaret Z. Gailor death certificate #871368, Kentucky Registrar of Vital Statistics, Frankfort.
8. Kentucky Death Index, 1911-present [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000.
9. Headstone, Smithland Cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky.
10. Hardin County, Illinois Deaths 1884 - 1919 and Notes from the Pleasant Hill Church Register, compiled by Marion Lavender Reynolds, 1995, 125.
11. John Elvis Hodge, death certificate #18817 [1918], Illinois Department of Public Health, Springfield.
12. Census of 1910, Livingston County, Kentucky, Smithland Township, E.D. 99, Family 154.
13. Suelah Hodge death certificate #281, Tennessee State Board of Health, Nashville.
14. Hubert L. Hodge, death certificate #84-038123 (1984), Tennessee Department of Health, Nashville.