JOHN FRANCIS VAN HORN, son of John Calvin Van Horn, son of John C. Van Horne. Son of Mary Frances Canfield, daughter of John Montgomery Canfield. Born in 1902, and died on January 13, 1919, in Houston, Harris County, Texas.
OBITUARY-- From a Houston, Texas newspaper, January, 1919:
VAN HORN -- John Van Horn, aged 16, died at his home, 1907 Clark Street, at 4 o'clock Sunday morning. He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Frances Van Horn; one sister, Mrs. J. M. Parsons; his grandmother, Mrs. J. M. Canfield of Magnolia Park. The funeral will be held at Westheimer's Evergreen Cemetery.
Rev. R. D. Wilson of Galveston, assisted by Rev. Robert Jolly, conducted the services. The pallbearers were: Active: J. R. Blenvenu, H. C. Bryant, Lee Hicks, Carl Blakely, J. B. Blakely, Walter Kiel; honorary, william Rast, Harry Iiams, Rex Leighton, Clarence Bolin, John Dunlap, Alex Burgmeyer, F. Bolin, Leon Templet.
(John Frances Van Horn is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, 300 Altic Street, Houston, Texas, Grave #A4:08. He died on January 13, 1919.)
From files of Mary Susan Mayo-Strain:
John Francis Van Horn was a casualty of the Spanish Influenza that swept the nation during 1918-1919.
His niece, Mary Frances Parsons-Mayo, who was a few days from being four years old at the time, recalls that the January evening, only hours before her Uncle John passed away, she was standing in the hall just outside the door of his bedroom, hiding because her little friend was asking permission for little Mary Frances to spend the night at her house.
Suddenly, in a very weak voice, Mary Frances heard her Uncle John saying, "Bye, Monkey." (His nickname for her.) Repeatedly he struggled to say those words over and over...."Bye, Monkey." But Mary Frances, anxious to spend the night at her little friends house became agitated with her Uncle, thinking he was saying "goodbye" to her because of her leaving for the night. She stamped her little foot at him and said, "HUSH! I don't know if I'm going to get to go yet!!!!" Again John repeated, "Bye, Monkey."
Mary Frances did get to spend the night with her friend, Eva May Hicks, and the next morning when she came home was told that her Uncle John has passed away early that morning. She always talked about how sad she felt as an adult to know that he was really telling her "goodbye", and that she was so impatient with him and misunderstood his meaning.
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