Re: What's it say around the Star?

Laurie Nelson

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Feb 12, 2012, 8:05:38 PM2/12/12

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> Opinions welcomed, cold facts feted with fatted calf --
>
> http://www.findagrave.com/
>
> Memorial # 43499853
> name on stone is Fern WARD
>
> There is a 5-point star in a circle which has a rim of text.
> Can anyone read what the text is? American Society
> something, is my best-guess. It's not an OES emblem.
>
> Cheryl Singhals <sing...@erols.com>

It's too distorted for me to read, even using Magnifying Glass Pro.
Maybe someone with younger eyes can.

Laurie Nelson

Dale H. Cook

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Feb 20, 2012, 11:12:07 PM2/20/12

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> It's not an OES emblem.

I would think not, unless the carver was incompetent or had an
aversion to inverted stars. An OES star often (but not always) has
the letters "F A T A L" between the points.

The depicted star has the outline of a pentagram. AL usually has a
distorted star, not quite true to a pentagram outline. GAR used an
inverted, somewhat distorted star (but could not apply here, though
a daughters' society might).

I would think it one of the orders associated with masonry or
shriners -- there must be some other than OES and White Shrine, but
I have insufficient experience with latter-day masons and shriners
to say which it might be.

Some of the collections of gravestone and graveyard symbols are:

http://www.graveaddiction.com/symbol.html

http://www.txgenweb9.org/Emblems/index.htm

The latter has links to some similar sites at its end.

"Dale H. Cook" <bridgewate...@plymouthcolony.net>

Keith Nuttle

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Feb 20, 2012, 11:15:50 PM2/20/12

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Two guesses. My first was she was a member of the Eastern stars, a
women's group associated with the Masons. However and I don't know
how important it is, it is rotated from the star on my wife's
grandmothers grave. Was her husband associated with some other
organization like the Mason, and could she have been in the women
group associated with that group? Shriners?

Do you what church she attended? I noticed the cross at the top,
could the star be associated with the church.

Keith Nuttle <Keith_...@sbcglobal.net>

cecilia

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Feb 21, 2012, 12:03:08 PM2/21/12

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>> > http://www.findagrave.com/
>> > Memorial # 43499853
>> > name on stone is Fern WARD
>> >
>> > There is a 5-point star in a circle which has a rim of text.
>> > Can anyone read what the text is?
>

> Two guesses. My first was she was a member of the Eastern stars, a

> women's group associated with the Masons. [...]

> Do you what church she attended? I noticed the cross at the top,
> could the star be associated with the church.
>
> Keith Nuttle <Keith_...@sbcglobal.net>

If Jerry had not suggested American Legion Auxiliary on 13 Feb
2012, I would have myself.

singhals

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Feb 21, 2012, 12:03:59 PM2/21/12

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> > It's not an OES emblem.
>

Thanks. I'm still not seeing anything that is "close-enough". By
1993, most of the widely-known emblems would have had a pattern for
sand-blasting, so I thought it would be easier to ID than it's
turning out to be.

Odd. But then, if it weren't, I'd have found it and not had to ask.
(g)

Cheryl

singhals <sing...@erols.com>

singhals

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Feb 21, 2012, 12:04:51 PM2/21/12

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> Two guesses. My first was she was a member of the Eastern stars, a

> women's group associated with the Masons. However and I don't know
> how important it is, it is rotated from the star on my wife's
> grandmothers grave. Was her husband associated with some other
> organization like the Mason, and could she have been in the women
> group associated with that group? Shriners?
>

> Do you what church she attended? I noticed the cross at the top,
> could the star be associated with the church.
>
> Keith Nuttle

No clue. Her ancestral family is mostly Episcopal or Methodist.
Her husband -- I don't know enough about him to know. Which would
include knowing whether he was a Mason -- his stone doesn't say so,
at all events.

Thanks, Keith.

Cheryl

singhals <sing...@erols.com>

Carol

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Feb 21, 2012, 2:17:22 PM2/21/12

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cecilia wrote:
>>>> http://www.findagrave.com/
>>>> Memorial # 43499853
>>>> name on stone is Fern WARD
>>>>
>>>> There is a 5-point star in a circle which has a rim of text.
>>>> Can anyone read what the text is?
>>

>> [ s-n-i-p ]

>
> If Jerry had not suggested American Legion Auxiliary on 13 Feb
> 2012, I would have myself.

I agree with Cecilia (& Jerry) -- American Legion Auxiliary. Their
logo has the right shape and spacing as the words on the tombstone,
and once you assume those are the words, you can pick out a few
letters that fit.

Carol S.

Carol <sch...@spamcop.net>

J. Hugh Sullivan

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Feb 26, 2012, 3:33:36 PM2/26/12

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> Carol S. <sch...@spamcop.net>

Googling "American Legion Auxiliary Logo" the 4th star from the left
looks very much like that on the stone. One more endorsement...

Hugh

singhals

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Feb 26, 2012, 3:35:09 PM2/26/12

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> cecilia wrote:
>>>>> http://www.findagrave.com/
>>>>> Memorial # 43499853
>>>>> name on stone is Fern WARD
>>>>>
>>>>> There is a 5-point star in a circle which has a rim of text.
>>>>> Can anyone read what the text is?
>>>

>>> [ s-n-i-p ]

>>
>> If Jerry had not suggested American Legion Auxiliary on 13 Feb
>> 2012, I would have myself.
>

> I agree with Cecilia (& Jerry) -- American Legion Auxiliary. Their
> logo has the right shape and spacing as the words on the tombstone,
> and once you assume those are the words, you can pick out a few
> letters that fit.
>
> Carol

I have now heard back from the county Historical Society, who has
also never seen the emblem but reports that the lady's obituary says
she was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary for more than 50
years.

Thanks everyone!

Cheryl

singhals <sing...@erols.com>