THANK YOU, VONETTE!
Von Toble Shelton, Sr. was born in Henderson, Kentucky on May 4, 1914. He died on March 5, 1986. He married Rebecca Pruett Henley on July 1, 1946. They bought the family farm from his dad, J Z Shelton, Sr.., in January of 1948 and moved to Kentucky. Von was named after a musician and singer from Henderson, Kentucky, Harry Vontobel. Grandma Zula Shelton liked to listen to Harry Vontobel play and sing so much that she named her son after him.
Von left home at the age of 14. He hopped on a train in Sebree and went to St Louis and Indianapolis, Ind. He served two terms in World World ll and then settled down on the farm of his begininng on Green River and the mouth of Deer Creek, where he raised his two children, Vonette and Von Toble Shelton, Jr. He had a step-son, Donald Leon Henley, by Rebecca Pruett and John L Henley, that lived with them also. He was a member of the Sebree First Christian Church and a deacon of that church, a Mason at the lodge in Sebree, and served on the Sebree City Council, and enjoyed hunting.He was a very friendly and out going person. He loved the Green River and caught many, many large fish from its waters.
Family story - After Von, Jr.'s birth, the doctor told the family that he had weighed the baby on Von, Sr.'s fish scales, and he weighed 25 pounds!
Von is buried in Springdale Cemetery in Sebree, Ky by his third wife Stella Buchanan. But he has two graves marked in the Springdale Cemetery. When he died, he was buried by Stella, against family oppostion as he had bought and had a stone with his family (Shelton's) so, I had this stone carved out with his date of death with us for genealogical sake. This stone is with his mother and father, and Rebecca Pruett Henley Shelton Steinwach and his son Von Toble Shelton, Jr., his brother Joseph Marvin Shelton and where the next generation of Shelton's from his line will be buried.
The above bio was written by Vonette Curtis, Von's daughter, and my dear cousin.
