The Wikipedia entry for Rensselaer lists some notable people who came from our town. One is Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson. She has one of the three small markers in Milroy Park that was mentioned in a blog post in 2009. (The website listed there does not work for me but I found it on the wayback machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20130601212643/http://eleanoratkinson.org/.) Looking at the article about her on Wikipedia, I noticed that she was the grandmother of a well-known movie and TV actor, Wally Cox, who was active in the 1950s and 1960s. He died in 1973, not yet 50 years old.
Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson is buried in Weston Cemetery. The Lane-Wood directory has this entry: Atkinson Eleanor (Ashes) Burial Jan 12 1943 Sec D Bl 32 Lot 2 foot of 5 (Isaac M Stackhouse). She died in Manhasset, Long Island on November 4, 1942, so her ashes were buried two months later. There is no marker for her, but there is for three others, her father Isaac, her mother Margaret Smith Stackhouse, and a brother, Walter. The 1870 census lists her as Nellie, age 7. The other children in the family are Harry (age 9), Fredrick (age 5), Minnie (age 3), and Walter (age 1). The family is in Southport, Indiana for the 1880 census and Walter is no longer listed, so he died as a child.
I thought it was interesting that Wally Cox had a Rensselaer connection even if it is a very weak connection. I know he means nothing to younger people, but older people almost certainly recognize the name.
1 comment:
Thanks for the Wally Cox connection. Sounds like a possible story...
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