  William Earnest Hawkins 1897 - 1941 The Corsicana Daily Sun Friday, October 3, 1941 pg. 14 BODY OF DENISON MAN FOUND ON HIGHWAY; BELIEVED WAS SLAIN Durant, Oklahoma, October 3 - (AP) - The body of William E. Hawkins, 43, of Denison, Texas, was found on U.S. Highway 69, a quarter mile north of the Red River today and officers said he had been robbed and slain. Hawkins last was seen at 9 p.m. yesterday in a Denison cafe with 2 men whose identity had not been established. Offiders here believed he had been killed in Texas and his body dumped on this side of the river. His neck was broken. His
body was found north of the Red River bridge between Denison and Durant
on October 3, 1941, less than six weeks after his wife filed for
divorce. His neck had been broken.
The 1930 Census lists him and his family in Tillman County, OK. They moved to Denison sometime in the early 1930s, in time to be included in the 1934 City Directory. They aren't listed in 1938, but they are shown in 1940 at 808 W. Nelson Street. He's listed as a laborer; his wife and 17-year-old daughter were both maids at the Hotel Denison. In the 1940 Census he was working as a stonemason on a WPA road project. When he was killed the following year, The Denison Press said he was a WPA time checker  This Hawkins family photo from ancestry.com shows Della in the middle, next to "Mr. Shreves." They apparently married within a few years of Earnest's death. She is listed in city directories in the late '40s and early '50s as Della Shreves. But, other than this photo, there is nothing in the Hawkins family tree to show that Della remarried after Earnest died.  Cold Case Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |