Ring Family History

Children of Thomas McCord and Nancy Carr

1. Fred McCord [24480] was born 14 February 1876 in Stone County, Missouri and died 1 May 1963. died on an unknown date. Fred married Lillie Fay Kerr, daughter of Amos Buchannan Kerr and Julia Marie Melton. Fred and Lillie are booth buried in thee Crane Community Cemetery in Stone County.

Children from this marriage were:

1.  Helen McCord married (first name unknown) McCoy.

2. Charles C. McCord [24482] was born about 1879 in Stone County, Missouri. Charles was was in the hardware, harness and furniture business, a primary float fishing outfitter for merchants and railroad officials in Galena, Stone County, and assisted his father in the undertaking business. In 1903 he married May A. Kennedy in Stone County. May was born 1 May 1880 in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. She moved to Galena with her parents when she was five years old. She attended Selden's Private College in Aurora. After living in Galena for fourteen years Charles and May moved o Springfield, Greene County, Missouri. There May developed her interest in preserving the heritage of the Ozarks and made quite a name for herself. In 1920 she sold a short story called "Buryin' in the Ozarks" to The Sample Case magazine, a national publication. That story led to a weekly newspaper column entitled "Hillbilly Heartbeats" which ran in the Springfield newspaper for eleven years. He story "Partin' in Smoky Holler", published in the American Mercury, became required reading for literature classes at Columbia University. Her writing career led to radio. In the 1940s she began a popular radio show titled after her newspaper column, in St. Louis and eventually moved it to KWTO in Springfield. May told stories, read poetry, interviewed the occasional guest, and sang Ozarks folk songs for her listeners. She traveled the country telling stories and singing. May was dubbed First Lady of the Ozarks in a article published in the Midwest Motorist in August 1973. She recorded 100 ballads for the Library of Congress handed down from the Elizabethan era. May was a director of the National Folklore Federation and founded many folklore festivals. In 1950 she was named Missouri Mother of the Year, a unanimous selection from among the thirty nominees. May died February 1979 at the age of 98.

1. Lelsie McCord.
2. Charles McCord.
3. Maudeva McCord married Herman Janns.