Ancestors
Minnie Lou Dowdy
1916-2010 · Troup TX
Born 1916, Troup, Texas
Died 2010
Father: James Jackson Dowdy
Mother: Mary Evaline Stinecipher
Children include Willim
Minnie Lou Dowdy was born at Troup, Texas, on 21 April 1916. She was the youngest child of James Jackson Dowdy, a farmer who had lived around Troup since the 1890s, and Mary Evaline Stinecipher. Her mother had been married twice before and brought older children to the family.
In 1920 the Dowdys were farming in Justice Precinct 5 of Cherokee County, at the Troup end of the county, and the census listed Minnie Lue, 3 or 4, with her brothers George and Claud and her sisters Millie and Maudie. In 1930 she was 13 and still at home in the same precinct with her parents, Jim J. and Mary A. Dowdy.
She married Ray William Jennings, a young oil field worker from Oklahoma, by 1935. Their son Bobby James was born at Troup on 21 March 1935. A second son, William Leon, called Bill, was born at Turnertown in Rusk County on 30 January 1937.
Minnie followed Ray to the Kansas oil fields. In 1940 she was 23 and keeping house in Lone Tree Township, McPherson County, with Ray and the two boys. Kenneth Dwain was born at McPherson in 1941, Danny in 1944 and her only daughter, Jackie Lueller, in 1948. In April 1950 the family of seven lived half a mile south of Canton, where Ray pumped oil wells.
In August 1964 her father was struck and killed by a car in front of his home at Troup. His obituary named her among his three daughters as Mrs. Ray Jennins of Loving.
Ray died in December 1977, and they were later buried together near Troup. On 15 April 1983 Minnie married Walter E. Bland in Cherokee County. She outlived her son Bill, who died in 1986, and her son Kenneth, who died in 2007.
Minnie Lou Bland died at Jacksonville, Texas, on 25 July 2010, aged 94. Her funeral was held at the Autry Funeral Home in Jacksonville. She was survived by two sons and their wives, a daughter and her husband, 23 grandchildren, and great- and great-great-grandchildren. She is buried at Union Grove Cemetery, Troup, under the stone she shares with Ray Jennings: "Minnie Lou, April 21, 1916, July 25, 2010".
Sources
Obituary of William Leon Jennings, East Texas newspaper, datelined New Summerfield, February 1986, clipping photographed on Find a Grave memorial 54497470, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54497470
United States census, 1940, Kansas, McPherson County, Lone Tree Township, enumeration district 57-18, sheet 4B, line 79, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRKV-NT8
United States census, 1950, Kansas, McPherson County, Canton, enumeration district 57-4, page 5, lines 7 to 13, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F7L-TBBR
United States census, 1920, Texas, Cherokee County, Justice Precinct 5, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHTR-PFK
United States census, 1930, Texas, Cherokee County, Precinct 5, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:C7NQ-4W2
Texas, Birth Certificates, 1903-1936, Bobbie James Jennings, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VXGV-T5Y
Obituary of Kenneth Dwain Jennings, Tyler Morning Telegraph, 20 December 2007, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 102471875, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102471875
Obituary of Bobby James Jennings, Dickens Family Funeral Home, Sedan, Kansas, April 2025, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 281738464, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/281738464
Obituary of Mrs Minnie Lou Jennings Bland, Jacksonville Daily Progress, Jacksonville, Texas, FamilySearch, United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, Births, and Marriages, 1980-2015, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK2Z-N7H2; and Tyler Morning Telegraph, July 2010, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 102356161
Find a Grave memorial 54822559, Union Grove Cemetery, Troup, Texas, photograph added 6 July 2013
Tyler Morning Telegraph, Tyler, Texas, 13 August 1964, page 13, clipping photographed on Find a Grave memorial 54787228, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54787228
United States census 1920, Justice Precinct 5, Cherokee County, Texas (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:MHTR-PFK); United States census 1930, Precinct 5, Cherokee County, Texas (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:C7NQ-4W2); United States census 1940 and 1950, McPherson County, Kansas (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:VRKV-NTD and 1:1:6F7L-TBBY); Texas Marriages 1966-2010, Minnie L Dowdy and Walter E Bland, 1983 (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:VTP4-QZS); obituary of James Jackson Dowdy, Tyler Morning Telegraph, 13 August 1964, page 13; obituary of Minnie Lou Bland, Tyler Morning Telegraph, July 2010, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 102356161; obituary in the Jacksonville Daily Progress (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:QK2Z-N7H2); gravestone photograph, Find a Grave memorial 54822559
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Cite: Heirology, "Minnie Lou Dowdy (1916-2010)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/minnie-lou-dowdy-1916-2010-71f6fa.