GENE AND GOLDIE LAWSON

[Angela]

I spoke this morning with Goldie Lawson, wife of Gene Lawson, son of Marion Lawson, brother of Charlie Lawson. Goldie is a delightful woman who lives in Ohio. She told me how Marion's son Gene left his family in Stokes County in 1944 and went to work in his Uncle Jim's milk company because the war was on and jobs were scarce. His Uncle Jim was Charlie Lawson's brother. Gene was 20 years old when he left home. Goldie said Gene had one pair of pants, one pair of shoes with a hole in each one, and less than one dollar to his name. He never looked back and never returned to North Carolina. She has some of the original photos of the murders that she is going to send Rubye Tuttle for Rubye to give me. I like the description she gave of the photo of the murder scene we're all familiar with. She called it "the room where he did the damage". I've never heard it described that way before!! She said all of the Lawsons were real good Christian people. I've heard that one before......and we all know my opinion of that!! Jim Lawson's milk business did real well...it made him a millionaire. He gave 48 of his relatives $10.000.00 each.

[Angela]

That was a great post Maria. Very interesting and informative. Thanks for the info. Jim Lawson was very generous to help his family that way as families should do.
LuvmyDog

[Angela]

YES!!! Giving 48 of his relatives $10,000.00 a piece is more than generous. That was so cool. I hope I would do the same if I was ever in that position.
Angel71242

[Angela]

My Dad Hillary Boulding also went to Ohio and worked for Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary. My Dad was one of the 48 who got $10,000.00 From Uncle Jim. I'm glad you got two of the original pictures Maria rather than just copies of them. Hold on them!!! When you said Rubye Tuttle were you talking about Norman Tuttle's wife there on route 8 beside the cemetery?
Doug Boulding

[Angela]

Yes, that's the one Doug. Norman and Rubye Tuttle. They live a stones throw from South Stokes High School. Rubye was very generous with her photos. In addition to the ones she gave me from Goldie she gave me a REALLY nice one of Jim and Mary's son Richard Lawson, one of Jim and Mary's daughter Gene Ann and Gene Ann's husband Bruce Becker and their daughter Mary, one of Marion Lawson and one of Marion's daughters Lillian and Lizzie, and one of Gene Lawson.
Maria

[Angela]

A lot of people have been very generous with you Maria. You have been given so many photos of people who are very important in their connection to this story and the Lawson family. That benefits all of us who are interested in the true story of the Lawson Family Massacre in 1929.
Sissy

[Angela]

You are so right Sissy. The people from Stokes County have been very generous with me and I am very grateful to them. I never thought I would be privileged to receive photos of some of the people I've been given. If you treat the people in Stokes County right they treat you right in return and always go the extra mile to help you out with what you need.
Maria

[DT2000]

Hello, I am married into the Tuttle Family. My mother in law is Rubie Tuttle that lives near South Stokes High school and she was married to Tommy Tuttle Who passed in Sept 2008. Tommy's mom and Dad was Lilly and Norman Tuttle who lived in the white house on Number 8 near the road that leads to the Browder Cemetary. Goldie and Gene where Tommy's aunt and Uncle who lived in Ohio. Goldie just passed away last year. Rubie has a copy of the WC/BC and I read it many years ago and I was so scared that someone could do this amount of crime to a "FAMILY" that I could not sleep for days. We went to the Browder Cemetary a few days ago onour way to visit Rubie and you do get a creepy feeling from that grave. Mainly from the site of Charlies grave. It was precious, someone had put toys onthe grave for the children and necklaces for the lil girls. But what was odd and maybe because I do not know the reason behind it was that everyone of their graves had a penny on the foot of it where the stone was that says MOther and Father and each of their names. My son (11years old) asked what that was for. IF someone know please fill me in so I can reassure him it was not a ghost!

[angel71242]

Well hello!! Thank you for posting!! That is definitely odd - the penny on each of the footstones of the graves! I will have to look into that and see if it means something special! I've heard in the past about people putting toys on the children's graves around Christmas time. I've never witnessed that, but it sure would be a little sad.

[dt2000]

Hello it's me again, just wondering if anyone has found the meaning behind the pennies on the foot of the graves? We went back out there last week and they were still there. We went by the "OLD LAWSON" property and we got to see the memorial bridge. It was beautiful. Wish you cold actually go up to it. I would love to have taken a close picture of my son on it. Thanks for letting everyone know about it.

[angel71242]

Hello again! I spoke with Maria and she said she had never heard of that before. If you look it up on the internet they have several possible reasons listed. I have pasted these below. But first I want to say that I also wish I could go on the memorial bridge!! I would love to do that! Maria has actually been on it (with permission from the previous owners of the property) and has a picture of herself on it. **sigh** Maybe one day.... :-)

**In American tradition, pennies are left on Benjamin Franklin's grave. There is a photo of his funeral in Philadelphia; his grave is adorned with pennies, no doubt placed there as a token by some of the 20,000 people that came that day to pay their respects. This custom was eventually associated with good luck and may have spread to graves in general in America. Some use pennies as a prayer token for the line "In God we trust" which appears on the American penny.


**Some people hold to the tradition of leaving something of yourself when visiting a grave. If nothing else, a coin from your pocket serves as a marker of your passage and esteem for the departed. It also signifies to any that pass by that the grave was visited, and that the deceased is well loved and esteemed and has not been abandoned or forgotten. Coins are also an older form of leaving flowers, a practice prompted by the heavy Romanticism of the Victorian era.

**Some believe that to leave a coin on a grave brings good luck. Students in some areas are known to leave pennies on the graves of their school's founder in the hopes of good luck with exams.

**Some are, perhaps unwittingly, mimicking the ancient tradition where gold coins were buried with the corpse in order to pay the toll charged by Charon, the boatman of the Underworld, for passage to the other side of the river Styx. It was considered impious not to leave this toll with the dead as it would condemn them to forever wander the shores without cease.

**It started as an old tradition to leave a penny at the grave site of a loved one as a gesture of deep love and missing. However, when tourists pay their respect to Benjamin Franklin, pennies dot his tombstone, as a local tradition claims that such a practice will bring the penny-tosser luck.

Of course he is a a man famous for the line, "A penny saved, is a penny earned,".


Read more: wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_pennies_put_on_a_grave#ixzz1k0Qalqze