Memorials › Leslie Leon Grizzle

Leslie Leon Grizzle

5 Jan 1899 – 1 Oct 1939

Birth5 Jan 1899
Death1 Oct 1939
CemeteryOaklawn Cemetery
Cooper , Delta County , Texas , USA
Added byLeigh Moseman on 03 Oct 2023
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51610721

Bio

Leslie Leon Grizzle was buried in an unmarked grave. After many decades, a stone was placed in the Cooper City Cemetery. I am researching the history on this and hope to update this record, or delete it from this cemetery, with verified information. Find A Grave lisings for Leslie Leon Grizzle in this cemetery duplicate the same individual also listed in the Cooper City Cemetery. Leslie is one of 6 children produced by the marriage of William Franklin Grizzle (1873-1965) and Harriett Newton Austin (1876-1933). I have not yet been able to locate the grave of Leslie's mother. Danny Grizzle (grandson) June 2011 ============ Update January 2013 The marker for Leslie Grizzle in Oaklawn Cemetery in Cooper, Texas is a double marker shared with his brother, Austin. I believe this marker was purchased and placed by Harriet Malinda "Linda" Grizzle Barnes, Austin's daughter. With the death of his last remaining son, Granville Wayne Grizzle, this memorial is complete with all three sons and wife listed. The only missing family link at this point is that of Leslie Grizzle's mother. Danny Grizzle ============ [Excerpt from an account written by grandson Danny Grizzle on occasion of a trip with Leslie's sole surviving son, Wayne, on October 29, 2000.] These years were the decade before World War II, in the depression. Work was hard to come by, and this area of North Texas, along with Oklahoma and Arkansas, was one of the most hard hit. My grandfather Leslie did anything he could to make a living, including sharecropping, well digging, and any other hard manual labor that might be available. That is what brought Leslie and Iva to Mt. Joy, and the reasons were apparant. The day we were there, it had been misting light rain and the ground was getting wet. This is black earth country, with heavy clays. As my Uncle Wayne said as I tried to remove the thick clay muck clinking to the soles of my shoes, "You grow an inch with each step." After getting going again, we tried to make our way up another unpaved road (I'd call them a dirt road, except this heavy black clay soil can hardly be called dirt.) Leslie and Iva had lived in another house less than a mile or so from the on still standing. It turned out that all the other houses that used to sit in a row along the field edge had been removed. Our challenge became to find a spot where the van could be turned around without getting stuck. Fortunately, the clay does not absorb water and become mud. The surface remained firm. The real danger was to slide off into a ditch and become stuck. These difficulties brought home to me a small portion of how tough life was before 1940 in the blacklands of North Texas. Any wet weather, and the roads became impassible. What brought Leslie to Mt. Joy was a quarry job. In a rock quarry within walking distance of the house in which he died, Leslie had a job using pick and sledgehammer to produce rock out of a white rock formation which underlies the black clay gumbo soils of the area. This white rock was in turn crushed to provide paving material for highway construction. I'm not sure if it were the same material, but I can remember glistening white rock paved roads in Franklin County surrounding the Purley community years ago before asphalt pavers became ubiquitous. At the rock quarry, Leslie had some sort of accident, and the shin of his leg was badly lacerated, perhaps as he slid and fell against a rock face. I don't know what the capabilities of medicine were in the late 1930's, but no doubt a common antibiotic would have saved my grandfather's life. But Uncle Wayne said no medical attention was available, or perhaps they felt they could not afford it, and Mt. Joy is fairly remote even today with modern transportation and paved highways, located close to the south bank of the North Sulphur River. For 6 days, Leslie lay in bed in the front left room of that little shack of a house in the woods, and finally died of what the family has always called "blood poisoning". Uncle Wayne told us it was a hard, lingering death. GPS Coordinates for the Mt. Joy house where Leslie Grizzle died N 33° 28'30.9" W 95° 36'52.6"

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