When I first heard this name, I thought it was Marion Booker Wright. Then I figured out that it was because Old Booker married so many times that he earned this name. He was married seven, maybe eight times. I say eight because I have come across seven wives and have been told he married one woman twice. Booker Wright was the son of Andrew Jackson and Harriet Adams Wright. He was a brother to Mary Wright.
Booker was born July 16, 1863 according to his obituary. I have problems with this date. He wasn't listed in the 1870 census with the rest of the family -- which could have been an omission, but...... In the 1880 census he is listed with Harriet as being 8 years old. That would make him born about 1871 or 72 depending on his date of birth and the date the census was taken. The 1890 census was lost.
I found a marriage for Booker and Hannah Quillen on Mary 23, 1892 in Letcher County.
On May 24, 1897 he married Cordelia Wright. She was the daughter of William and Elizabeth "Blackhawk" Wright. In 1900 he is listed as 28 years old with a birthdate that he supplied of July 1871. He was married three years. It said they had one child but none was listed. The marriage length matches and the aging for Booker matches from 1889.
In 1910 Bucker Wright was listed as 34 and married for ten years to his wife, Carulla (Cordelia), who had had six children and only three living: Tison, George and Andrew J.
In 1920 Booker is 52. He is probably about 48. He is with Cordelia and they are with George, Jack, Johnne, Edgar and Lizzie.
In 1930 he is 59 and says he first married at age 15. He is with wife, Ellen (Annie Ellen Stewart), the daughter of John Wesley Stewart and Mary Elizabeth "Tump" Johnson.
I don't have Cordelia's date of death. I do have an obituary from the newspaper for Ellen. I think from what I know about Booker there must have been other marriages between Cordelia and Ellen. I have two other wives listed as Exers Sowards and Elsie Calmo. So he either married one or both before Cordelia or after her and before Ellen.
Ellen died on November 19, 1951.
What the article says is:
Mrs. Booker Wright
Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Ellen Stewart Wright, 56, who died at her home Monday an hour after suffering a stroke were incomplete today pending news from her son, Isaac Wright, serving with the armed forces in Korea.
Mrs. Wright, a resident of Long Fork, was born Jan. 2, 1895 in Pike County, Ky., a daughter of the late Mr and Mrs. John Stewart. She was married to Booker Wright, who survives, and was a member of the Church of Christ.
Surviving in additon to her husband and son in Korea, are two other sons, Oscar Wright of Virgie and Bee Wright, at home; two daughters, Mrs. Margaret Wilburn of Ypsilanti, Michl, and Mrs. Ida Mae Tackett of Virgie; two brothers, Mon Stewart of Neon, Ky and Gus Stewart of Lewroy, W. Va,; two sisters, Mirs Minerva Wright and Mrs Amanda Damron both of Wheelwright;p and four grandchildren.
Booker married Martha Bell in January of 1952. It was not a happy union.
Booker went on to find another wife as the next article says:
In case you can't read this one, it says:
Aged Divorcee Again Entering Into Wedlock
PIKEVILLE--A 91-year-old Spanish American War veteran who was granted a divorce in December apparently hasn't lost faith in marriage.
The veteran, Booker Wright, of Virgie, and Rebecca Johnson, 47, of Etta, applied for a marriage license Friday.
Wright last year was granted a divorce from a former wife, almost 65, on the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment. He charged that he neglected him to dig roots.
The newspaper reported that Booker was 102 when he married. I only have half of that article. I will share it later when I get the other half. This was his obituary:
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