The Saucier Family - Page 20
Alfred Ellis Saucier was the twelfth and youngest son and the last child born to Henri (Henry) Severin and Elizabeth Jane Tanner. He was born on Tuesday April 27, 1880 at Lyman and died on Friday February 16, 1940 in Long Beach, Mississippi at the age of fifty-nine. He was the grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; first great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, second great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, third great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and he was a fourth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On May 14, 1905, at the age of twenty-five he married eighteen-year old Clara Eola Conerly, born on Thursday July 15, 1886 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and died on Sunday February 9, 1919 at their family home. She was the daughter of Luke Ward Conerly of Pike County, an attorney, author and newspaper editor, and Emma Eoline Quin, the daughter of Judge Hugh Quin of Pike County, Mississippi. During the first few years of their marriage they lived near Saucier, Mississippi on the east side of Highway 49. Eventually Alfred constructed a home near his brother Calvin and they made their home in the Beulah community, just down the dirt road from his brother. Like his brother, he made his living in the timber and logging industry as well as in farming. Alfred Ellis and Clara Eola had seven children, including one set of twin girls, the children were, Ellis Elmer, Ruby Mae, Emma Elizabeth, Percy James, twin, Beatrice, who died at birth, twin, Hazel and their last and youngest son, Clarence Alfred Saucier. During the influenza outbreak of 1919, Clara Eola, sick and weak from the flu and the stress from the birth of Clarence on Saturday February 8, 1919, died the next day, Sunday February 9, 1919 at the age of thirty-two at the family home in the Beulah community. Since Alfred Ellis had six small children to care for at the time, the youngest being just three years old, his sister-in-law, Martha Ophelia Saucier, widow of his brother Calvin, took Clarence to her home, just down the road, to care for him. He remained with his aunt until her death in 1923, (Clarence was four years old when his aunt died) and afterwards he remained living on and off with Martha Ophelia's children, his older cousins until 1943.
In 1921, two years after the death of Clara, Alfred Ellis married his second wife, Bessie Henrietta Hopkins Tatum at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Bessie Henrietta was born in 1899 and died on Thursday April 21, 1944 in Long Beach. Alfred Ellis had run an advertisement in the local newspaper on May 3, 1920 seeking to hire a house keeper for his home and to care for his children. Bessie, a widow with four children, answered the ad and became their house keeper, later, in 1921, marrying Alfred Ellis. Alfred Ellis and Bessie made their home in the family community at Beulah before moving and establishing their home in Long Beach, Mississippi. Nine years after their marriage, in 1930, Alfred Ellis and Bessie sold the homestead in Beulah to Amos Jamerson, a relative, and moved with their family to a home on Trautman Avenue in Long Beach where they resided until their deaths. The old home in Beulah was a total loss when it burned on September 19, 1949. Alfred and Bessie together had four sons, Ward Henry, Harold Hopper, Alvin Jackson, who died young, and Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr. Alfred Ellis Saucier, his wives, Clara and Bessie are all buried at Beulah Church Cemetery along with Alfred and Clara's second born son Percy and infant twin daughter Beatrice. Alfred and Bessie's son Alvin Jackson is also buried at Beulah Church Cemetery. All eleven of Alfred’s children were born and raised in the family community of Beulah.
In September of 1911, Alfred Ellis, was living in the Beulah community when an Ox wandered upon his property joining his oxen in the field adjoining his home. Not knowing who it belonged to, he proceeded to care for and use the Ox along with his own in his logging operations nearby. After several weeks the owner, a Mrs. Bullock, was found and she was very unhappy that he had used her Ox in his logging operations during this time. In turn she obtained an attorney and proceeded to sue Alfred Ellis for $25.00 in damages to her Ox. During court proceedings the Judge found that the Ox had been well fed and cared for by Alfred and ruled that no injuries or damage was done to the Ox and dismissed her case.
In early 1905, Alfred Ellis Saucier, Sr., his brother Calvin Jackson Saucier, their cousin (and also brother-in-law), Daniel Lee Saucier, who was married to their older sister Ada Saucier, and several area lumber companies that contributed the materials, built the present day Beulah Methodist Church in their community for their growing families on the site of an earlier family church. Calvin's son Randolph, a minister, was to become the Pastor of the family church, Beulah Methodist, in the mid 1920's for several years. They, their family members and some descendants are buried in the family cemetery in back of Beulah Church, as well as their parents, Henry (Henri) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner Saucier. Church services are no longer held at the Beulah Methodist Church building since it was combined with another church in 1990 to form Gateway Methodist. Beulah’s building was restored through a state grant after being heavily damaged by hurricane Katrina in 2005 and can be used for family gatherings or functions. Hopefully in the future it will be placed on the state’s historical building register.
Ellis Elmer Saucier was the first born child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. He was born on Friday October 5, 1906 at the family home in Beulah. Ellis died in Conroe, Texas on Sunday October 9, 1994 at age eighty-eight. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On July 22, 1928, he married Virdalee Scarborough in Stone County, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Peter Hudson Scarborough and Louise Nobles. Virdalee was born on Wednesday June 20, 1906, in Bossier City, Louisiana and died in Houston, Texas on Friday March 14, 1975, at age sixty-eight. Ellis made his living in the oil industry with Standard oil until his retirement. He and Virdalee have one son, Ellis Wayne Saucier and one daughter, Joyce Eloise Saucier.
One story about my uncle, Ellis Elmer, that was told within the family and also reported in the local newspaper, was his success at farming and gardening as a young boy of thirteen years of age. He was so successful at gardening that his father, grandfather Alfred Saucier, bought him a mule to help in plowing the field and gave him permission to hire someone to help him. After talking to his older family members that lived around him and learning that there was good money to be made in growing and selling tobacco, he decided to branch out into raising tobacco plants on their land in the Beulah Community. Ellis purchased tobacco seed from a large seed company and proceeded to plant them. He also kept beehives to harvest the honey he needed in processing his tobacco. According to family and the newspaper account, he seems to have been good at raising tobacco and had a “fine crop” as stated in the local newspaper. Ellis would go on in his adult years to work in the oil industry, Standard Oil Company, in oil exploration.
Ruby Mae Saucier was the second child and first daughter of Alfred Ellis and Clara Eola Conerly, she was born on Saturday November 23, 1907, at the family home in the Beulah community at Lyman. She died on Sunday March 20, 1994, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama at age eighty-six. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On December 23, 1928, she married William Samuel Thompson at Tuscaloosa. He was born on Wednesday 15 May 1907 in Eutaw, Alabama to William Samuel Thompson and Velma Grubbs. William passed away on Saturday March 20, 1976, from complications from his diabetes; he was sixty-eight years old. At the time Ruby and William married she was living with her aunt Ida Campbell, her mother's sister, and working for Olan Mills Photography Studio in York, Alabama. William owned and operated a Billiards Parlor in downtown Tuscaloosa and another in a shopping center near the University of Alabama. On several occasions during visits I had the opportunity to watch him re-cover pool tables in the downtown location as well as the University location and listen to him talk about the different pool players of the 1930's/1940’s that came into his hall to play. As teenager, I'll always remember him telling me to stay out of pool halls as they were a place I did not need to be at. Ruby Mae Saucier and William Thompson had one son, William Alfred Thompson, whom we called Billy. Billy took over the Billiard Parlors after his father's death and continued to operate them until his death in the late 1990’s.
Emma Elizabeth Saucier, the third born child and second daughter of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly was born at Lyman on Saturday February 20, 1909. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On September 3, 1941 she married George William Hodges in Houston, Texas. George was born on April 17, 1901 in Texas and died in Sugarland, Texas on August 8, 1970 at age sixty-nine. He was the son of James Harvey Hodges and Sallie Winfred Quinn. Emma had moved to Texas and was living with her sister Hazel at the time she met and married George. Emma and four of her siblings, Ellis, Hazel, Percy, and Harold had all moved earlier to Houston after the death of their father in 1940. Emma died in the hospital at Houston on Thursday May 4, 1947 at age thirty-eight after a short illness. Emma and George had no children. Both are buried in Houston.
Percy James Saucier, the fourth born and second son of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly was born in Lyman on Thursday February 2, 1911 and died on Tuesday April 21, 1936 at Henderson, Texas at the age twenty-five. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On June 15, 1934, Percy James had married Bonnie Athalee Junell in Harris County, Texas at the Pasadena Methodist Church. She was born on Monday April 14, 1914 and died in Hanford, California on Thursday August 31, 2000 at the age of eighty-six. She had remarried twice after the death of Percy James, first to Bruce Jenkins and then to Edward Wagner. She was the daughter of Tobias Junell and Maude Dalrymple of Texas. Percy James was employed by a Houston auto dealer and was in route, accompanied by his brother-in-law, to his home in Pittsburg, Texas to see his wife and child. Near the city of Henderson, Texas, they were involved in a crash with another vehicle and Percy James Saucier died at the scene from his injuries. Athalee, who owned a Beauty Shop in Pittsburg, Texas, eventually sold it and moved to California, where her family helped her open another shop. His brother-in-law was seriously injured but recovered from his injuries. Percy was brought home to the Beulah community where he grew up and buried in the cemetery at Beulah. For many years after his death his wife would send money to my mother on the anniversary of his death to purchase flowers for his grave. She continued this practice until the mid 1950's. Percy James Saucier and Bonnie Athalee Junell had one son before the untimely death of Percy, Tobias James Saucier, called Jim, who died tragically in California in 1975 at the age of thirty-nine, when the car he was a passenger in slipped off the road into a canal and he drowned. Jim, at the time of his death, had just graduated from Law School.
Hazel Delphine Saucier was the fifth born child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. She was born at Lyman on Tuesday July 4, 1916, the first born of twin girls. Hazel died in Houston, Texas on Saturday May 20, 1996 at age seventy-nine. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. She married her first husband, Thomas Crowder Bolin, on April 12, 1935 in Houston, Texas. Thomas, born on December 1, 1907 was the son of Thomas Rayford Bolin and Francis Tutle of Morris County, Texas. Thomas Crowder Bolin died in Houston on 27 Mar 1954; he was forty-six years old. Three years after Thomas Crowder's death she met and married William Rad Matthews on July 10, 1957 at Houston. William was born on December 17. 1917 in Texas and died in Houston on January 14, 1984 at age sixty-six. Hazel Delphine Saucier and Thomas Crowder Bolin had one daughter, Linda Jean Bolin.
Beatrice Saucier, born on Tuesday July 4, 1916, the second born of twin girls, would have been the sixth child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. Beatrice died shortly after her birth on July 4, 1916. She is buried in the Beulah Cemetery along with her parents, older brother and other family members. Her resting place at Beulah Cemetery is unmarked and no one knows its location, but we think it is in the plot next to her older brother Percy. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary.
Clarence Alfred Saucier was the seventh and last child born to Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. He was born on Saturday February 8, 1919 at the family home in the Beulah community near Lyman, Mississippi. He died on Tuesday March 8, 1977, age fifty-seven years, at his home in Gulfport after a massive heart attack. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. After his mother Clara Eola died the day after Clarence's birth, his aunt Martha Ophelia Saucier, the wife of Alfred's late brother Calvin Jackson, took Clarence to her home located just down the road to care for him until his father would be able to take over his care. Clarence remained in the household of his aunt after her death in 1923. He was four years old at the time of his aunt’s death. His father Alfred as hard as he tried could not get his son to return to his home, as Clarence was determined to remain with his cousins, and the cousins themselves did not help the situation as they also wanted him to remain and did all they could to encourage him to stay. One of whom told me in later years that "we would tell Clarence to run and hide, that his father was coming to take him home and of course he would do so out of fear of being taken back to his father's home". Bertha Saucier in telling me the story of those events said to me "that in later years we regretted doing this to Uncle Alfred, and to Clarence, whom we all thought of as our brother".
The year before his father's death in 1940, father and son did become closer and Clarence was still living with his cousins when he met his future wife, Nettie Lee Anderson. On August 23, 1940 he married Nettie Lee Anderson in Gulfport. Clarence and Nettie were married in a double ceremony along with his close friend Elmer Roberts and Nettie's older sister Earlene Anderson at the residence of a local Baptist minister. Nettie was born in Sumrall, Mississippi on Friday January 21, 1921 and she died on Monday August 29, 2011 in Gulfport at age ninety years. Nettie was the daughter of James Eugene Anderson and Nancy Marcenia Graham of Sumrall. After the death of Nettie's father in 1934, she and her older sister traveled from Sumrall to Gulfport for work to help support their younger siblings, living in a boarding house for young women and returning home on the weekends. She first worked as an elevator operator at the Markham Hotel, then at the MacSmith Garment Factory until 1941. In early 1943, Clarence and Nettie, along with their son, moved from the home of his cousins Leona and Bertha Saucier where they had been living into a new home that had been constructed on property they had purchased on Gulf Avenue in Gulfport. Nettie had used the money from an inheritance from her grandfather, Daniel Anderson, to purchase the land and build the home. Tragedy hit them on December 16, 1943, when their new home was destroyed by a fire which started at the kitchen stove from leaking kerosene. The home was a total loss. Clarence and Nettie then bought a small home nearby on Tennessee Street where they lived for the next few years.
In May of 1944, during WWII, Clarence Alfred, while still employed at the Gulfport Creosote Plant, along with numerous other family members, joined the Army at Camp Shelby, near Hattiesburg, and he was then sent to Camp Blandings in Jacksonville, Florida for his basic training. Clarence Alfred was assigned to the 210th Battalion, Company B, when injured in a jeep accident during training maneuvers and spent several months in the base hospital before being medically discharged due to a spinal injury and returning home to Gulfport and his wife and son. The spinal injury would plague him for the rest of his life, requiring special shoes furnished by the government. After being discharged from the Army, Clarence Alfred went to school at night to become a hospital orderly (nurse's aide), and later a male nurse at the Veterans Hospital in Biloxi.
While living on Tennessee Street, Clarence with the help of family and friends cleared the remains of the burned home on Gulf Avenue with the intent of selling the lots. But Clarence and Nettie decided to purchase part of one of the old barrack buildings from the former Gulfport Army Air Base that was being dismantled and sold to the public and move it to the lots. After purchasing the building Clarence and Nettie opened a small neighborhood grocery in the building, which was called Saucier's Grocery and Market. Clarence continued working at the Veterans Hospital in Biloxi and Nettie who operated the store would walk the three blocks from their home on Tennessee every morning to open the store. The store became very successful and Clarence and Nettie decided to add living quarters to the rear so they would be there and not have to travel every day back and forth to the store. They operated the store until 1948 when several people joined together, made an offer, and purchased the business and operated it for a number of additional years, but it was not nearly as successfully under their ownership and it finally closed and the building reverted back to the family and became our residence for a number of years. Clarence worked at the Biloxi VA Hospital for ten years and then transferred to the Base Hospital at Keesler AFB where he worked another ten years, then after accepting the position of Maintenance Supervisor for the Keesler AFB Hospital, he worked in that capacity until his early death in 1976 at age fifty-six. During the years he worked at the Biloxi Veterans Hospital and at the Keesler Hospital, Clarence owned and operated a Standard Oil Service Station on 25th Avenue (Hwy 49) in Gulfport where the Auto Zone store is presently located and a Gulf Oil Service Station near Washington Avenue on Pass Road in Gulfport where the Domino's Pizza Store is now located. Clarence would suffer for the remainder of his life from the injuries received during his Army basic training. According to Nettie, in early 1953 she had gone with her sister, who wanted to get her fortune told, to the home of a nearby fortune teller, while leaving, the fortune teller stopped Nettie and told that there would be two car accidents involving her and her husband. She also told mom that her husband would die within ten years after the second one. In June of 1953, during a trip to visit his cousins Bertha and Leona Saucier for Sunday Dinner, which was a regular custom with his family at Beulah, the car driven by Clarence was broadsided by another car that ran the stop sign at the intersection of Three Rivers Road and O'Neal Road completely demolishing their car, sending Clarence, Nettie and Wayne to the hospital with numerous injuries. Fifteen years later in 1968, Clarence and Nettie were involved in another accident at this same intersection, again on their way to visit the family in Beulah, resulting in serious injuries to both when a car ran the red light there and crashed into them. With Clarence’s death nine years later, all events predicted in 1953 to Nettie by the fortune teller had occurred as had been foretold to her.
Ward Henry Saucier, was Alfred's eighth child, but was the first child and first son born to Alfred Ellis and his second wife, Bessie Henrietta Tatum. Ward was born on Sunday August 13, 1922 at the family home in Lyman, Mississippi. He died on Saturday February 12, 1944 during WWII in the invasion of Italy. In 1941, before his Army unit shipped out overseas he married Letha Wanda Paige in Bay St. Louis. Letha was born on July 15, 1926 in Gulfport and died on September 27, 1997. She was the daughter of John Paige (Stiglets) and Clara Page. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary.
A family story told often over the years was that after receiving the notice from the War Department that Ward Henry had been killed on February 12, 1944, was that Grandmother Bessie took to her bed in grief over the loss of her first born son and that she died in 1944 of grief and a broken heart due to his death in Italy during WWII and the fact that his body was not returned home for burial in the family cemetery.
In 2012 records were received from the War Department concerning Ward's wounds and death in Italy during WWII. Records show that grandmother Bessie received the very first telegram from the Red Cross on March 30, 1944 stating that Ward was "missing in action". Two weeks later a second telegram was sent dated April 14, 1944 stating that he was "killed in action". Grandmother Bessie suffered a stroke and died at home six days after she received the final telegram confirming Ward's death. From these records we now know that she never knew Ward had been buried in Italy or that his body was never returned home for burial. She only knew that he had died in Italy. After numerous telegrams from the Red Cross to Grandmother Bessie were returned to the Red Cross marked "undeliverable - addressee deceased", the Red Cross began sending telegrams to Alfred, Jr, asking for instructions on handling Ward's burial, these too were returned to the War Department as "undeliverable". Notification eventually was sent to his sister Emma in Houston in an effort to locate Alfred. Alfred had been listed along with his mother as his next of kin on Ward's service records and insurance. They now needed Alfred's authorization on how to proceed with Ward's body. Due to the ongoing war, it was almost two years before they were finally able to contact and get conformation from Alfred on how to proceed with Ward's burial. His other brother, Harold, was serving in the army somewhere in Europe at this time and was unaware of the events. Alfred, who was serving in the Navy and at sea during this time, eventually was contacted in 1947, according to records received. The War Department gave the choice of burial in Italy or return home. Alfred telegraphed his permission to bury Ward in Italy, instead of returning him home for burial. He was disinterred from his temporary resting place in Naples on July 1, 1948 and permanently reinterred on July 6, 1948 in the American Cemetery near Rome, Italy.
Ward had married after he enlisted in the army, shortly before being shipped overseas; he went AWOL from his training site in Maryland and returned home due to their marriage problems. He was returned by the Military Police to his assigned base and returned home a second time trying to straighten out their problems before being shipped to Africa. There were several newspaper articles about him being home AWOL during this period. He and his wife separated on December 3, 1942, but had not legally divorced. After Ward's death, it took several years for the War Department and Ward's family to locate his former wife. As his official widow, who had remarried, she received all his possessions, and his Purple Heart from the Department of the Army. His military life insurance was received by his brother Alfred. In 2013, I requested and received a photo of his burial site and marker along with photos of the American Cemetery from the Department of the Army. He is buried about 20 miles from where he died in battle on February 12, 1944 in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettunia, Lazio, Italy.
Harold Hopper Saucier, the ninth child of Alfred was the second born son with his second wife Bessie Henrietta Tatum. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. Harold Hopper was born on Wednesday February 27, 1924, at Lyman in the Beulah community. He died at age sixty-seven on Sunday April 7, 1991, in Columbus, Georgia. Harold had enlisted in the Army during WWII in 1942 and retired in 1963 from the Army as a Supply Sergeant. He made his home near Fort Benning, Georgia. While in the Army and stationed in the Houston, Texas area, he met and married Lucille Marie Lamb, born on Tuesday June 5, 1928, and died on November 5, 2011, in Texas. They were divorced on July 11, 1947, after their daughter was born. In about 1952 he married his second wife, Jeanette Holland who was born on Thursday November 30, 1930, and died at age seventy-three on Tuesday October 26, 2004, in Columbus, Georgia. She was the daughter of Johnie Holland and Pauline Mulling. Jeanette was a registered nurse and worked in later years at the Fort Benning Base Hospital. Harold and his first wife had one daughter, Mary (Saucier) Acker, who was born shortly before they divorced and went by her stepfather's last name surname. In his second marriage to Jeanette Holland, he had two sons, Johnie Alvin and Harold Glenn Saucier.
Alvin Jackson Saucier, tenth child of Alfred and the third born son with his wife Bessie Henrietta Tatum was born on Tuesday December 21, 1926, at Lyman in the Beulah community. Alvin Jackson Saucier was only six years old when he died on Friday January 27, 1933, at the family home in Long Beach, Mississippi. The cause of death for Alvin was a case of severe Pneumonia of which the doctors could not get under control. He was buried at the family cemetery at Beulah Methodist Church at 2:30 pm on Sunday January 29, 1933. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary.
Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr., called "Junior" by the family, the eleventh child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and the fourth son born to him and his second wife Bessie Henrietta Tatum. Alfred Ellis, Jr. was born at Lyman in the Beulah community on Saturday November 26, 1927, and died in Gulfport on Wednesday July 1, 1998, at age seventy. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great-grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr. enlisted in the US Navy on June 19, 1943. After basic training, on September 15, 1943, Uncle Junior was assigned to the battleship USS Idaho, on which he served until it was decommissioned in 1946. In January 1945, while his ship the Idaho was in port at San Diego, California for repairs, Uncle Junior, for an unknown reason, wound up in the brig until his ship set sail for Pearl Harbor to join the fleet for the invasion of Iwo Jima. This information was found in records submitted to the War Department by family members when the War Department was trying to locate Uncle Junior to inform him, as next of kin, about the death of Uncle Ward in Italy on February 12,1944 and for instructions as to burial. Uncle Junior received the Purple Heart for injuries he suffered aboard the Idaho during battle. He was discharged from the Navy in January 1949 with the rank of Seaman 2nd Class. On February 16, 1949 Alfred Ellis married his first wife, Margie Ruth Holland, the daughter of William Holland and Allie Page. She was born on February 22, 1927 in Gulfport and died in Gulfport on November 25, 1999 at age seventy. Alfred Ellis, Jr. and Margie Holland were divorced on March 18, 1959. On May 2, 1959 he married for a second time to Patricia A. Edwards. Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr. with his first wife Margie Holland had one daughter, Marshe Althea Saucier and with his second wife Patricia Edwards had two daughters, Patricia and Teresa Saucier
In 1921, two years after the death of Clara, Alfred Ellis married his second wife, Bessie Henrietta Hopkins Tatum at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Bessie Henrietta was born in 1899 and died on Thursday April 21, 1944 in Long Beach. Alfred Ellis had run an advertisement in the local newspaper on May 3, 1920 seeking to hire a house keeper for his home and to care for his children. Bessie, a widow with four children, answered the ad and became their house keeper, later, in 1921, marrying Alfred Ellis. Alfred Ellis and Bessie made their home in the family community at Beulah before moving and establishing their home in Long Beach, Mississippi. Nine years after their marriage, in 1930, Alfred Ellis and Bessie sold the homestead in Beulah to Amos Jamerson, a relative, and moved with their family to a home on Trautman Avenue in Long Beach where they resided until their deaths. The old home in Beulah was a total loss when it burned on September 19, 1949. Alfred and Bessie together had four sons, Ward Henry, Harold Hopper, Alvin Jackson, who died young, and Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr. Alfred Ellis Saucier, his wives, Clara and Bessie are all buried at Beulah Church Cemetery along with Alfred and Clara's second born son Percy and infant twin daughter Beatrice. Alfred and Bessie's son Alvin Jackson is also buried at Beulah Church Cemetery. All eleven of Alfred’s children were born and raised in the family community of Beulah.
In September of 1911, Alfred Ellis, was living in the Beulah community when an Ox wandered upon his property joining his oxen in the field adjoining his home. Not knowing who it belonged to, he proceeded to care for and use the Ox along with his own in his logging operations nearby. After several weeks the owner, a Mrs. Bullock, was found and she was very unhappy that he had used her Ox in his logging operations during this time. In turn she obtained an attorney and proceeded to sue Alfred Ellis for $25.00 in damages to her Ox. During court proceedings the Judge found that the Ox had been well fed and cared for by Alfred and ruled that no injuries or damage was done to the Ox and dismissed her case.
In early 1905, Alfred Ellis Saucier, Sr., his brother Calvin Jackson Saucier, their cousin (and also brother-in-law), Daniel Lee Saucier, who was married to their older sister Ada Saucier, and several area lumber companies that contributed the materials, built the present day Beulah Methodist Church in their community for their growing families on the site of an earlier family church. Calvin's son Randolph, a minister, was to become the Pastor of the family church, Beulah Methodist, in the mid 1920's for several years. They, their family members and some descendants are buried in the family cemetery in back of Beulah Church, as well as their parents, Henry (Henri) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner Saucier. Church services are no longer held at the Beulah Methodist Church building since it was combined with another church in 1990 to form Gateway Methodist. Beulah’s building was restored through a state grant after being heavily damaged by hurricane Katrina in 2005 and can be used for family gatherings or functions. Hopefully in the future it will be placed on the state’s historical building register.
Ellis Elmer Saucier was the first born child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. He was born on Friday October 5, 1906 at the family home in Beulah. Ellis died in Conroe, Texas on Sunday October 9, 1994 at age eighty-eight. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On July 22, 1928, he married Virdalee Scarborough in Stone County, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Peter Hudson Scarborough and Louise Nobles. Virdalee was born on Wednesday June 20, 1906, in Bossier City, Louisiana and died in Houston, Texas on Friday March 14, 1975, at age sixty-eight. Ellis made his living in the oil industry with Standard oil until his retirement. He and Virdalee have one son, Ellis Wayne Saucier and one daughter, Joyce Eloise Saucier.
One story about my uncle, Ellis Elmer, that was told within the family and also reported in the local newspaper, was his success at farming and gardening as a young boy of thirteen years of age. He was so successful at gardening that his father, grandfather Alfred Saucier, bought him a mule to help in plowing the field and gave him permission to hire someone to help him. After talking to his older family members that lived around him and learning that there was good money to be made in growing and selling tobacco, he decided to branch out into raising tobacco plants on their land in the Beulah Community. Ellis purchased tobacco seed from a large seed company and proceeded to plant them. He also kept beehives to harvest the honey he needed in processing his tobacco. According to family and the newspaper account, he seems to have been good at raising tobacco and had a “fine crop” as stated in the local newspaper. Ellis would go on in his adult years to work in the oil industry, Standard Oil Company, in oil exploration.
Ruby Mae Saucier was the second child and first daughter of Alfred Ellis and Clara Eola Conerly, she was born on Saturday November 23, 1907, at the family home in the Beulah community at Lyman. She died on Sunday March 20, 1994, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama at age eighty-six. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On December 23, 1928, she married William Samuel Thompson at Tuscaloosa. He was born on Wednesday 15 May 1907 in Eutaw, Alabama to William Samuel Thompson and Velma Grubbs. William passed away on Saturday March 20, 1976, from complications from his diabetes; he was sixty-eight years old. At the time Ruby and William married she was living with her aunt Ida Campbell, her mother's sister, and working for Olan Mills Photography Studio in York, Alabama. William owned and operated a Billiards Parlor in downtown Tuscaloosa and another in a shopping center near the University of Alabama. On several occasions during visits I had the opportunity to watch him re-cover pool tables in the downtown location as well as the University location and listen to him talk about the different pool players of the 1930's/1940’s that came into his hall to play. As teenager, I'll always remember him telling me to stay out of pool halls as they were a place I did not need to be at. Ruby Mae Saucier and William Thompson had one son, William Alfred Thompson, whom we called Billy. Billy took over the Billiard Parlors after his father's death and continued to operate them until his death in the late 1990’s.
Emma Elizabeth Saucier, the third born child and second daughter of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly was born at Lyman on Saturday February 20, 1909. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On September 3, 1941 she married George William Hodges in Houston, Texas. George was born on April 17, 1901 in Texas and died in Sugarland, Texas on August 8, 1970 at age sixty-nine. He was the son of James Harvey Hodges and Sallie Winfred Quinn. Emma had moved to Texas and was living with her sister Hazel at the time she met and married George. Emma and four of her siblings, Ellis, Hazel, Percy, and Harold had all moved earlier to Houston after the death of their father in 1940. Emma died in the hospital at Houston on Thursday May 4, 1947 at age thirty-eight after a short illness. Emma and George had no children. Both are buried in Houston.
Percy James Saucier, the fourth born and second son of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly was born in Lyman on Thursday February 2, 1911 and died on Tuesday April 21, 1936 at Henderson, Texas at the age twenty-five. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. On June 15, 1934, Percy James had married Bonnie Athalee Junell in Harris County, Texas at the Pasadena Methodist Church. She was born on Monday April 14, 1914 and died in Hanford, California on Thursday August 31, 2000 at the age of eighty-six. She had remarried twice after the death of Percy James, first to Bruce Jenkins and then to Edward Wagner. She was the daughter of Tobias Junell and Maude Dalrymple of Texas. Percy James was employed by a Houston auto dealer and was in route, accompanied by his brother-in-law, to his home in Pittsburg, Texas to see his wife and child. Near the city of Henderson, Texas, they were involved in a crash with another vehicle and Percy James Saucier died at the scene from his injuries. Athalee, who owned a Beauty Shop in Pittsburg, Texas, eventually sold it and moved to California, where her family helped her open another shop. His brother-in-law was seriously injured but recovered from his injuries. Percy was brought home to the Beulah community where he grew up and buried in the cemetery at Beulah. For many years after his death his wife would send money to my mother on the anniversary of his death to purchase flowers for his grave. She continued this practice until the mid 1950's. Percy James Saucier and Bonnie Athalee Junell had one son before the untimely death of Percy, Tobias James Saucier, called Jim, who died tragically in California in 1975 at the age of thirty-nine, when the car he was a passenger in slipped off the road into a canal and he drowned. Jim, at the time of his death, had just graduated from Law School.
Hazel Delphine Saucier was the fifth born child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. She was born at Lyman on Tuesday July 4, 1916, the first born of twin girls. Hazel died in Houston, Texas on Saturday May 20, 1996 at age seventy-nine. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. She married her first husband, Thomas Crowder Bolin, on April 12, 1935 in Houston, Texas. Thomas, born on December 1, 1907 was the son of Thomas Rayford Bolin and Francis Tutle of Morris County, Texas. Thomas Crowder Bolin died in Houston on 27 Mar 1954; he was forty-six years old. Three years after Thomas Crowder's death she met and married William Rad Matthews on July 10, 1957 at Houston. William was born on December 17. 1917 in Texas and died in Houston on January 14, 1984 at age sixty-six. Hazel Delphine Saucier and Thomas Crowder Bolin had one daughter, Linda Jean Bolin.
Beatrice Saucier, born on Tuesday July 4, 1916, the second born of twin girls, would have been the sixth child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. Beatrice died shortly after her birth on July 4, 1916. She is buried in the Beulah Cemetery along with her parents, older brother and other family members. Her resting place at Beulah Cemetery is unmarked and no one knows its location, but we think it is in the plot next to her older brother Percy. She was a granddaughter of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great granddaughter of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great granddaughter of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great granddaughter of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary.
Clarence Alfred Saucier was the seventh and last child born to Alfred Ellis Saucier and Clara Eola Conerly. He was born on Saturday February 8, 1919 at the family home in the Beulah community near Lyman, Mississippi. He died on Tuesday March 8, 1977, age fifty-seven years, at his home in Gulfport after a massive heart attack. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. After his mother Clara Eola died the day after Clarence's birth, his aunt Martha Ophelia Saucier, the wife of Alfred's late brother Calvin Jackson, took Clarence to her home located just down the road to care for him until his father would be able to take over his care. Clarence remained in the household of his aunt after her death in 1923. He was four years old at the time of his aunt’s death. His father Alfred as hard as he tried could not get his son to return to his home, as Clarence was determined to remain with his cousins, and the cousins themselves did not help the situation as they also wanted him to remain and did all they could to encourage him to stay. One of whom told me in later years that "we would tell Clarence to run and hide, that his father was coming to take him home and of course he would do so out of fear of being taken back to his father's home". Bertha Saucier in telling me the story of those events said to me "that in later years we regretted doing this to Uncle Alfred, and to Clarence, whom we all thought of as our brother".
The year before his father's death in 1940, father and son did become closer and Clarence was still living with his cousins when he met his future wife, Nettie Lee Anderson. On August 23, 1940 he married Nettie Lee Anderson in Gulfport. Clarence and Nettie were married in a double ceremony along with his close friend Elmer Roberts and Nettie's older sister Earlene Anderson at the residence of a local Baptist minister. Nettie was born in Sumrall, Mississippi on Friday January 21, 1921 and she died on Monday August 29, 2011 in Gulfport at age ninety years. Nettie was the daughter of James Eugene Anderson and Nancy Marcenia Graham of Sumrall. After the death of Nettie's father in 1934, she and her older sister traveled from Sumrall to Gulfport for work to help support their younger siblings, living in a boarding house for young women and returning home on the weekends. She first worked as an elevator operator at the Markham Hotel, then at the MacSmith Garment Factory until 1941. In early 1943, Clarence and Nettie, along with their son, moved from the home of his cousins Leona and Bertha Saucier where they had been living into a new home that had been constructed on property they had purchased on Gulf Avenue in Gulfport. Nettie had used the money from an inheritance from her grandfather, Daniel Anderson, to purchase the land and build the home. Tragedy hit them on December 16, 1943, when their new home was destroyed by a fire which started at the kitchen stove from leaking kerosene. The home was a total loss. Clarence and Nettie then bought a small home nearby on Tennessee Street where they lived for the next few years.
In May of 1944, during WWII, Clarence Alfred, while still employed at the Gulfport Creosote Plant, along with numerous other family members, joined the Army at Camp Shelby, near Hattiesburg, and he was then sent to Camp Blandings in Jacksonville, Florida for his basic training. Clarence Alfred was assigned to the 210th Battalion, Company B, when injured in a jeep accident during training maneuvers and spent several months in the base hospital before being medically discharged due to a spinal injury and returning home to Gulfport and his wife and son. The spinal injury would plague him for the rest of his life, requiring special shoes furnished by the government. After being discharged from the Army, Clarence Alfred went to school at night to become a hospital orderly (nurse's aide), and later a male nurse at the Veterans Hospital in Biloxi.
While living on Tennessee Street, Clarence with the help of family and friends cleared the remains of the burned home on Gulf Avenue with the intent of selling the lots. But Clarence and Nettie decided to purchase part of one of the old barrack buildings from the former Gulfport Army Air Base that was being dismantled and sold to the public and move it to the lots. After purchasing the building Clarence and Nettie opened a small neighborhood grocery in the building, which was called Saucier's Grocery and Market. Clarence continued working at the Veterans Hospital in Biloxi and Nettie who operated the store would walk the three blocks from their home on Tennessee every morning to open the store. The store became very successful and Clarence and Nettie decided to add living quarters to the rear so they would be there and not have to travel every day back and forth to the store. They operated the store until 1948 when several people joined together, made an offer, and purchased the business and operated it for a number of additional years, but it was not nearly as successfully under their ownership and it finally closed and the building reverted back to the family and became our residence for a number of years. Clarence worked at the Biloxi VA Hospital for ten years and then transferred to the Base Hospital at Keesler AFB where he worked another ten years, then after accepting the position of Maintenance Supervisor for the Keesler AFB Hospital, he worked in that capacity until his early death in 1976 at age fifty-six. During the years he worked at the Biloxi Veterans Hospital and at the Keesler Hospital, Clarence owned and operated a Standard Oil Service Station on 25th Avenue (Hwy 49) in Gulfport where the Auto Zone store is presently located and a Gulf Oil Service Station near Washington Avenue on Pass Road in Gulfport where the Domino's Pizza Store is now located. Clarence would suffer for the remainder of his life from the injuries received during his Army basic training. According to Nettie, in early 1953 she had gone with her sister, who wanted to get her fortune told, to the home of a nearby fortune teller, while leaving, the fortune teller stopped Nettie and told that there would be two car accidents involving her and her husband. She also told mom that her husband would die within ten years after the second one. In June of 1953, during a trip to visit his cousins Bertha and Leona Saucier for Sunday Dinner, which was a regular custom with his family at Beulah, the car driven by Clarence was broadsided by another car that ran the stop sign at the intersection of Three Rivers Road and O'Neal Road completely demolishing their car, sending Clarence, Nettie and Wayne to the hospital with numerous injuries. Fifteen years later in 1968, Clarence and Nettie were involved in another accident at this same intersection, again on their way to visit the family in Beulah, resulting in serious injuries to both when a car ran the red light there and crashed into them. With Clarence’s death nine years later, all events predicted in 1953 to Nettie by the fortune teller had occurred as had been foretold to her.
Ward Henry Saucier, was Alfred's eighth child, but was the first child and first son born to Alfred Ellis and his second wife, Bessie Henrietta Tatum. Ward was born on Sunday August 13, 1922 at the family home in Lyman, Mississippi. He died on Saturday February 12, 1944 during WWII in the invasion of Italy. In 1941, before his Army unit shipped out overseas he married Letha Wanda Paige in Bay St. Louis. Letha was born on July 15, 1926 in Gulfport and died on September 27, 1997. She was the daughter of John Paige (Stiglets) and Clara Page. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary.
A family story told often over the years was that after receiving the notice from the War Department that Ward Henry had been killed on February 12, 1944, was that Grandmother Bessie took to her bed in grief over the loss of her first born son and that she died in 1944 of grief and a broken heart due to his death in Italy during WWII and the fact that his body was not returned home for burial in the family cemetery.
In 2012 records were received from the War Department concerning Ward's wounds and death in Italy during WWII. Records show that grandmother Bessie received the very first telegram from the Red Cross on March 30, 1944 stating that Ward was "missing in action". Two weeks later a second telegram was sent dated April 14, 1944 stating that he was "killed in action". Grandmother Bessie suffered a stroke and died at home six days after she received the final telegram confirming Ward's death. From these records we now know that she never knew Ward had been buried in Italy or that his body was never returned home for burial. She only knew that he had died in Italy. After numerous telegrams from the Red Cross to Grandmother Bessie were returned to the Red Cross marked "undeliverable - addressee deceased", the Red Cross began sending telegrams to Alfred, Jr, asking for instructions on handling Ward's burial, these too were returned to the War Department as "undeliverable". Notification eventually was sent to his sister Emma in Houston in an effort to locate Alfred. Alfred had been listed along with his mother as his next of kin on Ward's service records and insurance. They now needed Alfred's authorization on how to proceed with Ward's body. Due to the ongoing war, it was almost two years before they were finally able to contact and get conformation from Alfred on how to proceed with Ward's burial. His other brother, Harold, was serving in the army somewhere in Europe at this time and was unaware of the events. Alfred, who was serving in the Navy and at sea during this time, eventually was contacted in 1947, according to records received. The War Department gave the choice of burial in Italy or return home. Alfred telegraphed his permission to bury Ward in Italy, instead of returning him home for burial. He was disinterred from his temporary resting place in Naples on July 1, 1948 and permanently reinterred on July 6, 1948 in the American Cemetery near Rome, Italy.
Ward had married after he enlisted in the army, shortly before being shipped overseas; he went AWOL from his training site in Maryland and returned home due to their marriage problems. He was returned by the Military Police to his assigned base and returned home a second time trying to straighten out their problems before being shipped to Africa. There were several newspaper articles about him being home AWOL during this period. He and his wife separated on December 3, 1942, but had not legally divorced. After Ward's death, it took several years for the War Department and Ward's family to locate his former wife. As his official widow, who had remarried, she received all his possessions, and his Purple Heart from the Department of the Army. His military life insurance was received by his brother Alfred. In 2013, I requested and received a photo of his burial site and marker along with photos of the American Cemetery from the Department of the Army. He is buried about 20 miles from where he died in battle on February 12, 1944 in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettunia, Lazio, Italy.
Harold Hopper Saucier, the ninth child of Alfred was the second born son with his second wife Bessie Henrietta Tatum. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. Harold Hopper was born on Wednesday February 27, 1924, at Lyman in the Beulah community. He died at age sixty-seven on Sunday April 7, 1991, in Columbus, Georgia. Harold had enlisted in the Army during WWII in 1942 and retired in 1963 from the Army as a Supply Sergeant. He made his home near Fort Benning, Georgia. While in the Army and stationed in the Houston, Texas area, he met and married Lucille Marie Lamb, born on Tuesday June 5, 1928, and died on November 5, 2011, in Texas. They were divorced on July 11, 1947, after their daughter was born. In about 1952 he married his second wife, Jeanette Holland who was born on Thursday November 30, 1930, and died at age seventy-three on Tuesday October 26, 2004, in Columbus, Georgia. She was the daughter of Johnie Holland and Pauline Mulling. Jeanette was a registered nurse and worked in later years at the Fort Benning Base Hospital. Harold and his first wife had one daughter, Mary (Saucier) Acker, who was born shortly before they divorced and went by her stepfather's last name surname. In his second marriage to Jeanette Holland, he had two sons, Johnie Alvin and Harold Glenn Saucier.
Alvin Jackson Saucier, tenth child of Alfred and the third born son with his wife Bessie Henrietta Tatum was born on Tuesday December 21, 1926, at Lyman in the Beulah community. Alvin Jackson Saucier was only six years old when he died on Friday January 27, 1933, at the family home in Long Beach, Mississippi. The cause of death for Alvin was a case of severe Pneumonia of which the doctors could not get under control. He was buried at the family cemetery at Beulah Methodist Church at 2:30 pm on Sunday January 29, 1933. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary.
Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr., called "Junior" by the family, the eleventh child of Alfred Ellis Saucier and the fourth son born to him and his second wife Bessie Henrietta Tatum. Alfred Ellis, Jr. was born at Lyman in the Beulah community on Saturday November 26, 1927, and died in Gulfport on Wednesday July 1, 1998, at age seventy. He was a grandson of Henri (Henry) Severin Saucier and Elizabeth Jane Tanner, great grandson of Pierre Phillip Saucier and Isabelle Nicaise; second great-grandson of Philippe Saucier and Ursula Grelot, third great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Pelagie Tixerand, fourth great grandson of Henri Saucier and Barbe LaCroix, and the fifth great grandson of Jean Baptiste Saucier and Gabrielle Savary. Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr. enlisted in the US Navy on June 19, 1943. After basic training, on September 15, 1943, Uncle Junior was assigned to the battleship USS Idaho, on which he served until it was decommissioned in 1946. In January 1945, while his ship the Idaho was in port at San Diego, California for repairs, Uncle Junior, for an unknown reason, wound up in the brig until his ship set sail for Pearl Harbor to join the fleet for the invasion of Iwo Jima. This information was found in records submitted to the War Department by family members when the War Department was trying to locate Uncle Junior to inform him, as next of kin, about the death of Uncle Ward in Italy on February 12,1944 and for instructions as to burial. Uncle Junior received the Purple Heart for injuries he suffered aboard the Idaho during battle. He was discharged from the Navy in January 1949 with the rank of Seaman 2nd Class. On February 16, 1949 Alfred Ellis married his first wife, Margie Ruth Holland, the daughter of William Holland and Allie Page. She was born on February 22, 1927 in Gulfport and died in Gulfport on November 25, 1999 at age seventy. Alfred Ellis, Jr. and Margie Holland were divorced on March 18, 1959. On May 2, 1959 he married for a second time to Patricia A. Edwards. Alfred Ellis Saucier, Jr. with his first wife Margie Holland had one daughter, Marshe Althea Saucier and with his second wife Patricia Edwards had two daughters, Patricia and Teresa Saucier