Otis Pierce

1889-1959 · Kentwood LA

Born 1889, near Kentwood, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana

Died 1959

Father: Bedford Pierce

Mother: Mary Ellen Booty

Children include Shirley

Otis Pierce was born on 2 September 1889 near Kentwood, in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, the piney-woods parish on the Mississippi line north of Lake Pontchartrain. His parents were Bedford Pierce and Mary E. Booty. When he applied for a Social Security number he named them both, and his death certificate names them again as Bedford Pierce and Mary Booty. The certificate gives his full name as Otis de Witt Pierce.

He married Eardy Simmons, who was eight years younger and had been born on Christmas Day 1897. They raised a family of at least seven in Tangipahoa Parish: Wesley, Wayne, Mary, Esther, Carl, born on 4 December 1932, John Fulmer, called Johnny, born on 11 June 1934, and Shirley Mae, the youngest known, born on 12 October 1939, when Otis was fifty. In 1940 the family was living in Ward Two of the parish.

In 1942, when the United States registered the older men left out of the earlier Second World War drafts, Otis Pierce registered in Tangipahoa Parish at fifty-two, giving his birth date as 2 September 1889.

Otis Pierce died at Independence, Tangipahoa Parish, in November 1959, aged seventy. He was buried in Beulah Church Cemetery near Kentwood, under a double stone carved PIERCE with his name and Eardy's. The stone gives the day as 11 November 1959; his death certificate gives 12 November.

Eardy lived another sixteen years. Most of their children stayed around Independence. Carl made the army his career and served in forward infantry units in Korea and Vietnam. His obituary in 2015 named his parents as Otis Pierce and Eardy Simmons Pierce. When Shirley died in 1994, her obituary named Otis and Eardy as her late parents.

Parents

Bedford Pierce 1841-1922

Mary Ellen Booty (1849-1945)

Children

Shirley Mae Pierce 1939-1994

Sources

The Advocate, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 3 June 1994, page 42; clipping in two parts on Find a Grave, memorial 45317994

Obituary of Mrs. Shirley Mae Pierce Robertson, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, 3 June 1994, page 42

Find a Grave, memorials 46389601 and 46389595, Beulah Church Cemetery, Kentwood, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, photograph added 2014

United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007, Otis Pierce, FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:6K7F-GHPH

Louisiana, Deaths, 1850-1875, 1894-1960, Otis de Witt Pierce, 1959, FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:QLQJ-RDKM

United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Otis Pierce, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:X5M2-746

United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007, Mary Evan Pierce and John Fulmer Pierce, FamilySearch arks 1:1:6K7D-QSGL and 1:1:6K7H-G4YY

Obituary of Carl Pierce, Harvey Funeral Chapel, Dawson, Georgia, October 2015, transcribed on Find a Grave, memorial 154146755

United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007, Otis Pierce (FamilySearch ark 1:1:6K7F-GHPH); Louisiana, Deaths, 1850-1875, 1894-1960, Otis de Witt Pierce, 1959 (ark 1:1:QLQJ-RDKM); United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (ark 1:1:X5M2-746); United States Census 1940, Ward Two, Tangipahoa Parish (ark 1:1:VY52-8N6); Social Security applications of Mary Evan Pierce and John Fulmer Pierce (arks 1:1:6K7D-QSGL, 1:1:6K7H-G4YY); obituary of Mrs. Shirley Mae Pierce Robertson, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, 3 June 1994, page 42; obituary of Carl Pierce, October 2015, on Find a Grave memorial 154146755; gravestone, Find a Grave memorials 46389601 and 46389595

If Otis Pierce is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Otis Pierce (1889-1959)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/otis-pierce-1889-1959-56078c.