Fred Garfield Lyon and Ethel Lee Doherty

Fred Garfield Lyon was born in Clinton County, Missouri, on August 21, 1881, the last of the fifteen children and ninth son of John and Sarah Groom Lyon. Garfield grew up on a farm in Clinton County, south of Stewartsville, Missouri. He was called Garfield or "Zip" his entire life. Ben Lyon's Bible lists him as Freddie Garfield, so I would guess he was called Freddie by his brothers and sisters. Garfield attended school a short distance north of their home at Long Branch School, District #7. He probably attended secondary courses at the high school in Stewartsville. Following his secondary education, he attended Kirksville Missouri Academy for a time.

In 1902, Garfield's parents moved to Osborn. Garfield was no longer attending school at Kirksville, and he moved with them to Osborn. There, he worked in a mercantile store. It was at the store that he met a lovely young woman, Ethel Doherty, who was also working there. Ethel wrote, "I met a young man that I fell in love with. He went to St. Louis Mo., to an Embalming College to learn to be an undertaker and he came back with flying colors."

F. G. Lyon of Stewartsville and Ethel L. Doherty of Osborn were married at Cameron, Missouri on October 17, 1906 by Charles O. Mills, Pastor of the First Methodist Church in Cameron. Ethel Doherty was born October 6, 1887, the daughter of Robert Lee Doherty and Elizabeth Belle Sydebotham. They were "at home in Stewartsville by November 1, 1906." They moved into a frame house on the southeast corner of 4th and DeKalb Streets, which would remain their home for the next forty-one years. Garfield and Ethel had three children.

Garfield operated a furniture store and Funeral Service on the west side of Main Street between 3rd and 4th, known as Shewey & Lyons, Furniture & Undertaking business. Between 1919-1920, Garfield and Ethel purchased the furniture and funeral business. In the early 1930s, Garfield and Ethel remodeled their home to include the funeral parlor, preparation room, and merchandise display rooms and closed the furniture store.

Both Garfield and Ethel were active in the Methodist Church and civic affairs of Stewartsville. Garfield served on the school board and was a Mason. Ethel was a member of the Order of Eastern Star.

Garfield remained in business until 1948, when at the age of sixty-seven, he sold the house and funeral home to a native of Stewartsville. They built a country home on the southwest edge of Stewartsville. They planted two oak trees in the front yard, and called their acreage "Twin Oaks." Many are the memories of the farm.

As they grew older, Garfield and Ethel decided it would be better to move to Plattsburg where their son, Darrell, and his family lived . . . Garfield was seventy-eight, Ethel, seventy-two. They had a lovely home, with a huge screened in porch.

Garfield's health continued to fail. In 1962, he was hospitalized, and eventually required surgery. They finally brought Da home to Plattsburg. He died at home, on Thursday, July 26, 1962, and was laid to rest in Greenlawn Cemetery at the side of his daughter, Mimi.

Grandmother continued to live in Plattsburg after Da's death. She had many friends in Plattsburg, and always enjoyed playing cards. For a few years, Grandmother would spend the winter months with Lillian and "Uncle Johnny" in Little Rock. Ethel moved to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1968, to be closer to Lillian. She enjoyed a lovely apartment for four years. She still played cards and entertained her friends. Eventually, her health began to fail, and she moved to Lillian and Paul's home, where she lived for the next four years, still enjoying life despite her frailties.

Ethel Lee Doherty Lyon died in a hospital in Little Rock on Sunday, February 29, 1976. Ethel returned to Missouri for the last time. Her funeral service was held on Wednesday, March 3rd, She was laid to rest beside Garfield, her husband of fifty-six years

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