Bertha Caudill 1947

Sanford Caudill Father	Bert Caudill	Nora Farler Mother
	Jerry Ferrell Spouse

Bertha Caudill
Name	Bertha    Caudill
Gender	Female
Family Search:	LKV3-Y14
Find-a-Grave:	98448104
Validated ?	Yes - Well Sourced
Birth and Death Information
Born	26 Jan 1947
	Farler, KY
	United States of America
Deceased	15 Feb 1982
	Cincinnati, OH
Family Relationships
Father	Sanford Caudill
Mother	Nora Farler
Spouse	Franklin Ferrell 1939
Marriage Date	3 Oct 1964
Children	David Ferrell Brett Ferrell
Siblings	Jean Caudill Frances Caudill Patsy Caudill David Caudill June Caudill Elmer Caudill Jerry Caudill John Caudill
Service and Honorary (DAR/SAR)
Revolutionary
War of 1812
Civil War
Spanish American
Korea
Vietnam
Gulf War
Sources and References
BC:     DC:     MC:     Obit:     Will:
Birth Certificate	1947 Bertha Caudill Birth Certificate
Death Certificate	Bertha Caudill 1982 Death Certificate
Marriage Certificate	Ferrell Caudill Marriage Cert
Obituary	Bertha Caudill 1982 Obituary
Will/Estate
1950 Census	1950 Census
1940 Census
1930 Census
1920 Census
1910 Census
1900 Census
1890 Census
1880 Census
1870 Census
1860 Census
1850 Census
1840 Census
Children below:	\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/

David Ferrell
Brett Ferrell

This one is mom, so it's reasonably well documented, though there a few holes here and there that I wished I'd asked her sisters before they were gone. I did reach out to my uncle John, but he didn't recall her going to Berea College/Prep High School, for instance, because he was the baby of the family and it just didn't make that big of an impression on him.

But, she was born 26 Jan 1947, to Sanford Caudill and Nora Farler in Farler, KY. She died of cancer 15 Feb 1982, and is buried in the W. H. Caudill Cemetery in Farler, KY.

Family

Bert was born towards the end of her mom's 10 kids, the 3rd youngest of six girls and four boys (Jean, Frances, Pat, Dave, Dot, June, Otis, Bert, Jerry Wayne, and John). It's interesting how the past repeats itself. I never really internalized that Bert's dad Sanford died when she was 12, the same age I (Brett) was when she passed.

I don't know a bunch about my mom's childhood other than she and her mother didn't always see eye-to-eye, my mom had a bit of a temper and maybe just a bit of a mean streak, and was fairly stubborn; and apparently her and mammaw (Nora) would get into a row as a teenager and mom would disappear up into the hills for hours or days.

The old home was in the bottom of a hollow on the right fork, the creek running right behind the house. The house was built on about a short cinderblock foundation, I think partly to protect the house from the creek when it would flood, and partly to give space under it for a coal crib to heat it in the winter. I think grandma maybe stored canned/preserves down there to keep them cool as well maybe, but I never went down there. The house had a large kitchen with a table big enough to seat the whole family, 10 or 12 all told, 1 bathroom, and a long hallway with two largish sleeping/bedrooms with (at the time I was little at least) two big beds in each. I'm sure at various times those rooms were arranged very differently. Incidentally, I recall the family talking about how the broad but shallow (most of the time) creek served as the first road in the area, and even at times in the modern era. I can't recall if the bridge was out, but one story that I believe my uncle Elliott told me was that they had to drive down the creek to get to mom and dad's wedding.

The property was largish, with a field next to the house that over the years was variously planted with corn and beans (tasty "shucky beans" that I still don't know what variety they literally are, but wikipedia tells me they're just dried green beans) and other crops, and I think maybe they had chickens and pigs (I don't recall anyone to have mentioned them having a cow). The yard was big enough that, by the time I was really aware of what was going on there was always at least one trailer on the property for uncle Dave, and I think maybe at one point uncle John lived in a trailer there as well.

Mom was very close to her siblings, but particularly Dot, Frances, Jean, and June - Jean partly because she also left for Ohio to pursue her fortune (and June as well, but June had some sort of broken courtship in Middletown and ran back home and married AJ Sparkman I was told, but I don't know the details). She was also very close to Jerry Wayne, so she was devastated when he died young in the mines.

Education

I'm not sure how much school each of grandma's kids got, but I know my mom didn't get her GED until much later, after having us and living in Ohio. I found an student ID from Berea College after she passed away, and thought she'd taken some college classes, but after contacting them realized this was for the "Foundation" program, which is now a separate college-preparation High School. They could not provide me a transcript, but uncle John said that the family had a relation at Berea, maybe his uncle, and that he figured she must have taken part of a year of high school while staying with them. This was for the 1962-63 school year when she would've been only 15. Her Perry County schools transcripts (below) show her finishing 11th grade, but then she came to Middletown to visit her cousins the Kilburns, meets pop, and is married by 17 (in October 1964)

But, at some point she did get her GED, and I think this was a requirement for one of the several promotions she got at Kroger to move into management, but I'm not sure where or how she got it. But it also reinforced with her the value of an education, and she and dad always harped on it, and made it clear that college would be an expectation for Dave and I, and not an option. To reinforce this I distinctly recal her making a point to take us to a football game at historic Nippert Stadium for the  University of Cincinnati vs.  Miami University game. This is cool because it's one of the oldest rivalries in the country, played in one of the oldest and most historic stadiums in the country, but she mainly wanted to make sure we knew there were 2 quality colleges close to home, and help us feel part of that environment. So, it was especially cool for me to take my nephew Jake to games here, and to be there when they were the first non "Power-5" school to earn a bid to the  College Football Playoffs.

Berea College Foundation School

I dug up a little bit of information on the Foundation program. It was, as stated below, only open a couple of more years after she was there (her ID was for the 62/63 school year recall).

The Foundation School served as a secondary educational institution as a part of Berea College for over fifty years, from 1911 through 1968. This institution was established under the administration of William Goodell Frost and flourished under his supervision. The Foundation School’s primary goal was to educate and fulfill the needs of boys and girls from the Appalachian Mountains. President Frost observed that, “The mountains were full of respectable and brainy people who could not read. Here was, and is the largest mass of native white illiteracy in our country – a condition to be attacked from every side.”


Frost not only wanted to educate students in mathematics, literacy, and science, he aspired to teach the Foundation Students skills that would come in handy for their careers in the mountains. He placed a great deal of emphasis on furnishing “facilities for a thorough education to all persons of good moral character – not only those of different races, but to those of different life-careers.” He explained, “It is not enough to train selected boys for the learned professions. Christian education must take account of more than preachers, lawyers and doctors. Every boy, every girl, must find at Berea training for whatever is to be his or her life’s calling.”


Student Life at the Foundation School
Students fifteen and older were admitted into the school, and lived away from home in the school dormitories. These dormitories were built in 1916. Talcott and Kentucky Hall were built to house the Foundation School girls until the time school closed. They were both three story brick buildings with over 50 dormitory rooms in each and dining rooms in the basements. That same year two boys’ dormitories were built: Blue Ridge and Cumberland Hall. It has been said that Cumberland Hall was built within a 90 day period – the fastest that any building of its size has ever been built on campus.

Occupation

Mom and dad both worked at Kroger. I can't say when mom started there exactly, but seems like by the time I was going to kindergarten at Amanda she was working at the Engel's corner store in Trenton, because she introduced me to Peggy Burnside, her coworker, and her son Scott, who is still a good friend of mine. We shared classes all the way through high school. Mom worked a cash register, and worked her way up the rungs to be the front-end supervisor over all the cashiers, and moved to Briel Blvd, where she installed the first UPC scanning registers. This turbocharged her career as she moved into the general offices, and was placed in charge of opening all of the Cincinnati-Dayton Division stores that got the new registers. She was on the road so much that she occasionally took us kids along, and we were with her at the Maysville, KY store when the earthquake hit nearby.

Mom really enjoyed her work, and the lifestyle of being in management and hobnobbing over hors d’oeuvres and drinks, and meeting people. Dad, not so much, and I'm sure that, and the inequality in their pay and responsibilities at work caused some friction between them, but it was never clear exactly how much. But Kroger loved her, and after she got sick the second time, and was back in the hospital I think everyone knew where it was inevitably going to lead. The story as Pop related it to me, was that someone (Mr. Saffron, I think) showed up at the hospital to 'check up on' mom. It was late in the year, October or November, but "open-enrollment" time for benefits, and she had not been in the office to sign up. If you do not update your elections, in most companies, your last ones are automatically renewed. Well, apparently, someone had pre-populated the forms with the maximum in life insurance and other elections, and simple said "here, you forgot to sign these". She did, in fact, slowly slide away and finally passed the following February 15th, and this random act of kindness awarded significantly more in benefits than we would've otherwise received. Dad mentioned it often, and how it was not something he was able to think about at the time, but it had a big impact on us, and how he would be loyal to Kroger pretty much no matter what after that. I will be too. I joked from then on that I "went to college on the Kroger scholarship", with most having no idea what I truly meant.

Other

Not a lot of extra notes here, her life was short and happened while I was really young. I know she had another job, which looked to be in a lab from the one picture I have, maybe it was at NCR while dad was there? I'm not sure. I know that my aunt Faye also told me that, although they struggled in Florida because Dave and I were always sick, that she had found a good 'office job' down there.

Life on the move

Mom wanted the best for her kids, and to live where it was warmer. In my story I talk about getting hit by a car, at which point she basically threatened dad with divorce if he didn't find a safer place for her kids to grow up (we'd also been struggling a bit with local bullies). But this was also after she'd convinced him to move to Florida for a time.

When Bert and Jerry were in Florida, I was super small. There are a couple of pictures, and I'm walking around, so I must have been 2 or 3, and Dave was maybe in kindergarten. Aunt Fay tells me that they stayed with them for a short bit before finding work and getting an apartment, and apparently we spent a fair amount of time at the beach and things, but I guess the salt water was giving us ear infections and various things, and they were always having to pick one of us up at school/day care because we were sick, and it just wasn't tenable.

Cancer Treatment

Mom got sick a couple of times before finally succumbing to cancer. Dave may remember some of this better than I, but much of it was hidden from us, because serious illness and cancer is an ugly business, even for adults, but it's brutal to kids. And the simple, terrible fact, is you have no idea if it's "going to be OK" or not, which is a child wants to know. And they want people to be honest with them - or at least I did.

The way I recall it, she had gotten ill earlier, maybe '76 or '77, with breast cancer - I think during a routine screen they found a lump. Again, my recollection is the biopsy didn't go well, and then a scan revealed it was serious. I think they did both chemo and a mastectomy almost immediately, and that first bout was considered successful. It feels like she had annual or maybe biennial checkups after that, and I think the first couple were OK, but then the dreaded recurrence. And this time the tone was much more sober. I can't remember the order in which everything happened but at some point there was talk of going to MD Anderson for treatment. Nobody said it, but reading of the situation was that the local doctor's had told them she basically incurable, and they were looking for someone to give them hope. Everyone put on a brave face, and aunt Jean and uncle Ted stayed with us, and took us to the movies, and mom endured her treatments like a trooper, but it wasn't to be.

She did take one last trip with her sisters to Florida, and I think it was right after her diagnoses, but before she started chemo. That got in her big car and drove to Florida for about a week, and acted silly and took a bunch of pictures. I'm pretty sure she was pretty sure she wasn't going to make it and wanted to reconnect with Jean and Dot, and leave them with some good memories.

And her illness came shortly after an incident in the yard where we were cleaning up the trees and bushes, and somehow or another mom got tangled up in a wasp's nest and got badly stung a few times (in my memory it was only 3 or 4, but it might have been more) and had a very bad allergic reaction and almost died. I know that mom and dad both kind of linked this to her cancer and not the fact that she'd been smoking Kools since she was at least 16, maybe earlier, but I don't believe that anymore. It was a strange coincidence at the time, though. She was only 35 when she passed, and had been seriously ill twice already. She was married at 17, had David at 19, and me at 22.

Timeline

Bert's timeline

Previous Addresses

6090 Serena Way
Middletown, OH 45044
Bert and Jerry moved here after Brett was hit by a car - Bert insisted Granada neighborhood wasn't safe. 6090 Serena way was our Bert's dream home, and she and Jerry installed the pool and considered putting in a lighted tennis court (that was the big family activity for the family!

510 Grenada Ave
Middletown, OH 45044
Bert and Jerry lived here while the kids were in elementary school. There were some rough kids around that would bully the boys, and eventually Brett was struck by a car.

843 Foster St
Franklin, OH 45005
Bert and Jerry lived her for a couple of years, but moved shortly after Brett was born for more room.

Right Fork Maces Creek
Farler, KY 41774
The old homestead, torn down by John Caudill about 2018 for being beyond repair.

Pictures

• Pictures of Bertha
• 

  1981 The last Thanksgiving... I'm guessing she was truly thankful for this meal, but dreaded what it meant

• 

  1981 The last Christmas

• 

  1981 Dave on the football team as a Freshamn?

• 

  1981 Mom was in chemo and had lost her hair

• 

  1981 Mom was in chemo and had lost her hair

• 

  1980 in our Steelers finest...

• 

  Bert at work

• 

  ~1978 Bert work friends

• 

  1976? Bert June Dot trip

• 

  1979 Troy Super Store Opening Bert

• 

  1980 Bert promotion newsletter

• 

  Bert at work

• 

  Bert Suite work

• 

  Bert at work event

• 

  1978 Mom and Brett at Serena Way... my nephew acts out like this when getting pictures taken also...

• 

  1977 Mom's "Business" photoshoot

• 

  Mom and her sisters June and Jean about 1975

• 

  Mom and Dave in Florida

• 

  1968 Mom, Dad, and Dave in Franklin

• 

  1966 Bertha and Baby David

• 

  1965 Corting mom, Pop - at the Kilburn's house??

• 

  Bert at NCR?

• 

  Glenn Parsons walks Bert down the aisle

• 

  ~1962 dating Jerry and Bert

• 

  Caudill homestead

• 

  Siblings around the kitchen table

• 
• 

  Berea College 1963 FOUNDATION HS ID

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

  Happier times

• 

  Dot, Bert, Nora, and grandmother Ella Farler front, Peggy, Shirley, Jean, John, Heather in back

Documents and Sources

For Documents and sources for Bert (my mother), I have her birth and death certificates, obituary, and the 1950 Census (the last available, and the first since her birth in 1947 that would list her) and first hand knowledge of her parents and siblings, so this one is complete. Grandpa Sanford passed before my (Brett's) birth (born 1969, and he passed in 1959), so I didn't know him, but I knew all of my aunts and uncles pretty well. So, my parents are a lead-pipe-cinch, fully documented.

1947 Birth Certificate-reprint	1982 Death Certificate-reprint	1982 Middletown Journal Obituary Bertha Ferrell Mrs. Bertha "Bert” Ferrell, 35, of 6090 Serena Way, died at 9:15 a.m. Monday at Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, where she had been a patient for the past 4 1/2 weeks. The Perry County, KY, native had lived here for the past 17 years. She was a manager of front end operations for the Cincinnati-Dayton Devision of the Kroger Co. where she had been employed fro the 10 years. Mrs. Ferrell attended the Towne Boulevard Church of God. Survivors include her husband, Jerry; two sons, Jerry David and Brett Daniel, at home; her mother, Mrs. Nora Caudill of Farler, KY; five sisters, Mrs. Imogene Burch of Fairfield, Mrs. June Parkman of Farler, KY, Mrs. Patsy Ruth Williams of Viper, KY, and Mrs. Joyce Ann Farler of Jeff, KY; and three brothers, Elmer Otis Caudill of Arkansas and David and John Caudill of Farler, KY. Local services will be Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Towne Boulevard Church of God with the Rev. Billy Ball officiating. Friends may call at the Joseph R. Baker Funeral Home Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m and at the church after 9 a.m. Thursday. Graveside services will be Friday at 10 a.m at the Caudill Cemetery, Farler, KY. Visitations will be Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m at the Brashear Funeral Home in Viper, KY.
1982 Dayton Journal Obituary	1980 Bert Ferrell Promotion Announcement	Released from hospital
Bert and Jerry Marriage License	Bert and Jerry Marriage License	Bert and Jerry Marriage Bond
Perry County Schools Transcript	Jerry Ferrell Bertha Ferrell Headstone	1950 Census Record Link to Original
1950 Census Record Page 1	1950 Census Record Page 2