The Skaggs-Files

More About Clarence Lee Coon:
Burial: Evergreen Cemetery II, Woodville, Wilkinson County,Mississippi

1930 United States Federal Census <http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6224&enc=1> about Lee Coon
Name: Lee Coon
Home in 1930: Beat 5, Tunica, Mississippi
Age: 34
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1896
Birthplace: Mississippi
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Mary
Race: White

Household Members: Name Age
Lee Coon <http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=37909744> 34
Mary Coon <http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=37909752> 26
Lee Coon <http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=37909748> 5
James H Coon <http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=37909724> 3
Eula G Coon <http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=37909780> 9/12
John Best <http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=37909728> 55

Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Beat 5, Tunica, Mississippi; Roll: 1169; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 10; Image: 120.0.

His son, Lee, says that CL was the finest person he ever knew. He always wanted what was right to be done. He was a very successful man, worked for Conn. General Life Insurance and ran a farm that they had taken ownership of. There were many sharecroppers on the farm, and CL treated them so well that they all wanted to work for him. Later, he bought his own farm in addition to the one he ran and also had a few sharecroppers.

One afternoon, a sharecropper who worked a field for W.P. Brown, the largest land owner in the delta, came seeking a job. He told how the overseer had cheated him. CL called Brown and asked for him to make things right for the man. Brown sent the overseer to pick the sharecropper up, and as soon as they were out of sight, the overseer beat the sharecropper almost to death.

When CL heard about it, he went over to see Brown as angry as anyone had ever seen him. He demanded that Brown pay the poor man's hospital bills, give him $1000 (a huge amount of money--CL was making $200 a week-and he was well off!), and fire the overseer. If Brown refused, he threatened to have him arrested for the beating.

Brown not only agreed, but agreed CL was right in his demands.

***

During the depression, his family lived well. Grace says that her dad was forever selling the house they lived in. CL would come home from work and announce, Mary, get packing, I've sold the house. He was always wheeling and dealing.

***

He died 18 months after his wife Mary's sudden death from a blood clot. Grace says he died of a broken heart. Lee says he died of "retirement", but as he got sicker, he didn't have the will to fight back and get better.

***

Grew up in Woodville, MS and only acquired a tenth grade education. He was a talented baseball player and played professional ball for a Minor League team in Clarksdale, MS. He was supposed to play to the Memphis Chicks, but never did. When he was 21, his father appointed him to Deputy Sheriff of Woodville.

He later worked in a shoe store in Baton Rouge. He met Mary on Thanksgiving Day 1922. They married year later and Lee Jr was born about a year later. They then moved to Drew, MS.

CL worked for Iler Netterville on a farm for two years before he started working for Conn. General.

He served on the School Board at Drew --where Lee Jr. graduated from High School. In fact, he signed Lee Jr.'s diploma.