Re: Fontelle Kennerly of TX
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In reply to:
Re: John Selwyn Kennerly of TX
8/21/99
This is in reguard to my uncle Fontelle Kennerly, who I feel sure is the one you have listed as "Fontaine". He was married to my father's sister, Lucile Spann Steadman, who ran the boarding house in Savannah. It was located at the corner of 37th Street and East Broad (could be 37th & Montgomery St.), and was called the "Rest-A-While." The sign was there for a long time after they sold the house. Fontelle worked for the Pulman Company. He died in September of 1960 at the age of 80 (I think. He told me once he had lied about his age to get the job with the Pulman Company, so he might have been older), and is buried with his wife (Aunt Sister as we called her), in Grenwich Cemetery (adjacent to Bonaventure Cemetery) in Savannah. Fontelle was my favorite uncle, and was something of a second father to me after my father died in 1946. He and Aunt Sister had three daughters: Sara Mae, Harriette, and Fontelle. They are all dead, and I don't know where the grandchildren (all girls) are, or if they are still living. Two of the three daughters are buried in Grenwich Cemetery, and the third (Harriette "Tat") in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah. According to a pretty untrustworthy genealogy of the Steadman family, Fontelle was born in Heard, Texas, in 1880. I have one or two pictures of Uncle Fontelle, and he looked more like Spencer Tracey than Colonel Sanders. I guess there could be a mistake here, but it doesn't seem likely. Fontelle said his father sold his property in Columbus, Georgia, after the Civil War, and went to Texas. I believe he had two families (the first wife died), and Fontelle's mother was the second wife.
More Replies:
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Re: Fontelle Kennerly of TX
1/26/01