b. ca. 1897m. February 11, 1912, John Leonard Watlington
d. August 3, 1990
pb. Forest Park Cem., Shreveport, La.
Aunt Velma died August 3rd in Shreveport Louisiana, where she had lived since the early forties. She was buried in Forest Park Cemetery beside her husband, John Leonard Watlington, who died in 1955 of a heart attack. He was a train engineer with the Kansas City Southern Railroad.
Aunt Velma was a daughter of Marvin M. Needham and granddaughter of John W. Needham, Jr., both of Gibson Co., Tenn. Her parents moved with a lumbering operation from Dyer Co., Tenn. to northern Louisiana about 1911, and John L. Watlington moved with them. They were buried at Pineville, La., across the Red River from Alexandria. After her marriage to John L. Watlington in 1912 they lived in various parts of Louisiana but settled in Shreveport during World War II.
She leaves three children: John Needham, Albert Edwin, and Velma Louise Carnahan.
The first court records of the newly organized County of Gibson in West Tennessee, opened for settlement in 1819 by the Jackson Purchase from the Chickasaw Indians, records that John W. Needham was one of the organizing settlers of that county. He was elected by the organizing County Court as the Sheriff for the new county, and was bonded for $5,000. He was later elected by popular vote and served from Jan. 6, 1824, until Nov. 1833. His father, Louis Needham, served as a Deputy Sheriff with him for some years.
Early records of the Hopewell Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church indicate that he was an ordained minister of that church and participated in various presbyteries. J. W. Needham took part in the 1844 and 1849 sessions and his son Benson in 1876. His younger son John W. (Jr) (b. 1841-d. 1925) was also a Cumberland Presbyterian minister and took part in the sessions of 1878 and 1879. Their home church was North Union, which was located just a mile and half southwest of the village of Kenton, and probably served some families of Obion and Dyer Counties as well as Gibson. John W. Jr. was in Obion Co. census in 1880. The farm houses of John W. Jr. and two of his sons were located in nearby Dyer County in the 1900 Census. These two Needham ministers are buried in well marked graves at the North Union Cemetery along with their wives and many of their relatives.
The only other early Needham found in Gibson Co. is Lewis Needham who married Mattie Oglesby there in 1829 or 1831 (both dates recorded). Lewis is listed on a bond made for John W. Sr. as sheriff on Jan. 3, 1826, which may indicate that he was a deputy sheriff at that time. Other Needhams appear at later dates who may have been kinsmen.
In recent years I have had opportunity to trace the Needham family of Gibson Co., Tenn. I first located them there in some Cumberland Presbyterian church records, but on investigation found that two Needham families, were in Gibson Co. in 1824-26. They were Lewis and John W. Needham, Sr. John W. Needham, Sr., was the first sheriff of Gibson County. Lewis Needham may have served as a deputy under John in 1826 according to one document. Lewis does not appear in the 1850 census of the county and therefore may have died or moved on. Needhams were in Randolph Co., N.C. earlier and a John and Lewis appear there as given names, therefore it may well be their North Carolina connection. Information in the biographical notes [15, pp. 2276-77,] of Jesse Needham indicate that Lewis Needham was the father of ten children, of whom John W., Sr. was one. Lewis and his new wife, from Gibson Co., Tenn., settled later in Panola Co., Texas.
John W. Needham, Sr. (1799-1854) was a prominent farmer and by 1844 figures as a leader of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at North Union, one and a half miles southwest of Kenton, Tenn., very near the county line. His youngest son, John W. Jr. (1841-1925) also lived there and in the 1870's was also an ordained minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. This does not mean that they were ``full-time preachers,'' but that they were acknowledged leaders in the local congregation.
John W. Jr. married Margarette Tilghman (Tillman) and Marvin Mavel Needham (1867-ca. 1928) was their oldest son. At least four Needham siblings married Tilghmans so there was a strong bond between these two pioneer families. Marvin lived near Mount Union also, but may have worked in lumbering more than in farming, although both jobs were often seasonal. However, it was the lumbering business that took Marvin and his family to Richland Parish, La., where his daughter Velma Idell married John Leonard Watlington. Although working for a lumbering company, John L's work was related to operating the steam engines and trains used in lumbering, a skill he learned in Jackson, Tenn., street car barns.