Another Sad Death: Bernice Sturdivant Walkup

I'm still tracing descendants of David Rutledge and Mary Howell using the Texas death certificates online at PilotFamilySearch.org. These certificates can be quite helpful as they list parnets names and birthplaces. A search on the parents will often locate children born and married between the 1880 and 1900 census. We use everything we can to make up for the loss of the 1890 census.

Usually people have died of natural causes, but every once in a while something unusual appears. Something tragic. Like Bernice Sturdivant Walkup's cause of death..

Bernice is the daughter of Robert Ewing Sturdivant and Minnie Rice. She was born 3 August 1912 in Seymour, Texas and married Leiland Walkup, and they were living in Wichita Falls at the time she died.

According to her death certificate, she died 21 March 1953 from second and third degree burns after her house caught fire around noon. According to the physician there was a five hour interval between the cause of the injury and her death. She must have really suffered.