NELLIE DAWSON

Oct 29, 1953

Mrs. Nellie Dawson, 79, whose deep-seated Christian tenets had been reflected in a life of gentle service to her family and her friends, died at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday (28 Oct 1953) at her home in Solitude in Lynn township where she had resided for the last 45 years.

She was the widow of Eugene E. Dawson, Solitude store-keeper for 35 years whose death occured November 14, 1943.

In failing health for many years, Mrs. Dawson had been ill of a coronary condition for more than three years.

The body will be taken from the Short Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon to the late residence at Solitude this afternoon.  It will remain there until noon Saturday when it will be moved to First Christian Church where Rev. E. P. Nay, First Christian Church minister, will conduct the funeral service at 2 p.m. Saturday.  Burial will be in Bellefontaine cemetery.

Surviving are four sons, Mark M., an associate of his late father in the mercantile business that was a Solitude landmark and since his father's death operator of the Dawson store, Gene, former Indianapolis newspaperman and Washington correspondent and at present executive secretary of U. S. Senator Homer E. Capehart in Washington, Roy R; New Castle, Pa; and Bryant W. Evansville; a daughter, Mrs. Kenneth B. Alldredge, Grayville, Ill., and nine grandchildren.

The son, Gene, flew from Washington Thursday and reached his mother's bedside shortly before she died.

Mrs. Dawson was a native of the vicinity of Princeton, Ky., and came to Mt. Vernon as a young woman with her brother, Charles Dawson , for many years the owner-operator of Dawson's Drug Store here.

Following her marriage to Eugene E. Dawson, a pharmacist employed by Charles Dawson, she and her husband resided on a farm near Dawson Springs, Ky., for a short time.  They returned to Posey county in 1908 when the late Eugene E. Dawson purchased from Home Mill and Grain Co., the Solitude’s property that was the location of the present Dawson store and blacksmith shop and at the time of purchase also included an elevator and carriage shop.

From 1908 until his death 10 years ago Eugene E. Dawson operated the store at Solitude developing it into one of Posey county's leading rural mercantile institutions of which it is one of the few survivors.  The son, Mark, was associated with his father in the business and succeeded to the management upon the father's death.

Mrs. Dawson was a devout member of First Christian Church in Mt. Vernon, an active member and past president of the Posey county Women's Christian Temperance Union and a charter member of the East Lynn Homemakers Club.

Failing health had caused her to be less active in recent years but she continued to maintain interest in the religious and moral institutions in which she had given so much of her time and effort through her busy life.

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Originally submitted by Betty Sellers