A Professional Photographer

St. Joseph News-Press, 3 Sep 1996

As I look into the long life of Mary Isabelle Cox, sister of Pearl Cox, I start with her obituary. She lived a few months short of 100 years. In her life, she was a professional photographer and world traveler. This line definitely caught my attention to see if I could learn more about her travels. She certainly lived a fascinating life, escaping rural Jefferson & Hamblen Counties in Tennessee, only to retire there in her later years.

She grew up watching her older sisters marry significantly older men. Her oldest sister Bessie married minister C. F. Sneed in 1903 when she was 19 and he was 59. I've already noted how Pearl married Joseph Jones when she was 19 and he was 70 in 1907. Pearl was on her second marriage by 1911, to another Civil War veteran, Harvey Bales (then 66).

Her world would have been shaped by the untimely passing of her youngest sister Grace in March 1914, who died of measles and pneumonia. Mary would have been 16 then.

It's unclear where Mary was living in 1920, as she does not appear in the household of her parents in Jefferson County, or with any of her siblings. Perhaps she went off to college. Her father's obituary in 1922 gives a hint of her whereabouts, as she is listed as Mrs. W. G. Irvine of Salt Lake City.

Mary's years with William George Irvine will cover several posts. She and William were married in Salt Lake City on 1 November 1922, appearing in the Utah Select Marriages database on Ancestry. William was an Irishman who arrived in the US when he was one year old. He was 16 years older than Mary, and divorced from a previous marriage. Other than this marriage record and Nicholas' obituary, I haven't found them in the City Directories for Salt Lake City for 1922. The reason for this is that William and Mary were living in Sioux City, Iowa. How Mary went from Jefferson County, Tennessee to Sioux City, Iowa off all places, I don't know. But, the Sioux City papers give a hint at how the two linked up.