Funeral services were conducted Monday afternoon at the Baptist church, for Mrs. Ella Lott, who passed away at the Ninnescah Hospital in Pratt Saturday morning after a prolonged illness.Ella Bird Van Horn, daughter of Mary Ellen (Van Horn) and
Austin Ralph Van Horn , was born August 26, 1860, in the beautiful Valley of Lost Creek in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, Harrison County, West Virginia. Eventually there were five children in the happy Van Horn household; Dora Columbia (Mrs. Tom Hatfield), two years older than Ella Bird; Artha Lee (Mrs. John Surber); Flora Gay, (Mrs. Val Crane): and Lewis Wardner Van Horn.In 1875 the Van Horn family migrated to Jackson Center, Ohio. There Ella Bird was united in marriage to George W. Lott on February 10, 1878. Four children were born to this union; Blanche, Tiry, Van and Bernice. In the fall of 1890 the Lotts came to Sun City, where they resided until their deaths. Ella Bird's devoted husband, passed away July 17, 1932. Mrs. Lott departed this life at the Ninnescah Hospital in Pratt, April 13, 1946, when she was aged 85 years, 7 months and 18 days. Her brother, Lewis Van Horn, and sister, Mrs. Val Crane, have preceded her in death.
Totally unselfish, Mrs. Lott's whole life was spent in service to others. She was ever ready to lend a helping hand in sickness and with her comforting hands, her wonderful food, the flowers she loved to raise and her thoughtful needlework, she was a power for good in the community where she lived for more than half a century. Grandma Lott was an artist in the kitchen with a gift for cooking which she inherited from her own grandma, "Peggy" Van Horn. One of Grandma Lott's chief delights was serving a delicious meal to her children, grandchildren, nephews, and nieces. An especially happy story in the family history is the occasion of the eightieth birthday of Grandma Lott when she prepared the birthday dinner completely with her own hands and served it to approximately fifty relatives. In her 85th year when she realized her own strength was failing her, she wanted to go on to join the loved ones for whom she said she had "been lonesome for sometime."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Lott were devout Christians and faithful to the Baptist Church in Sun City where both were members and they helped to build. Mrs. Lott had been baptized into the Baptist church in Lost Creek, West Virginia, when she was eleven years old.
During the course of Mrs. Lott's lifetime the United States was involved in four wars. Daily she followed the newspapers to keep track of the course of events in the world, and she was particularly proud of the two grandsons, Lieutenant Gerald D. Lott and Raymond Hoagland, who served their country in the last World War.
Surviving Mrs. Lott are her four children, Mrs. R. L. Kennedy, Liberal; Tiry C. Lott, Wheeler, Texas; C. Van Lott, Wilmore; and Mrs. Clifford Hoagland, Lake City; two sisters, Mrs. Dora Hatfield, San Antonio, Texas, and Mrs. Artha Surber, Sun City; nine grandchildren, ten great grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends. Burial was in the Sunnyside Cemetery.
Memories of "Aunt Bird" by Nate Massey Aunt Bird was one of the favorites of our family. One of my most memorable associations with her was when I was 3 or 4 years old and was ushered into the Baptist church every Sunday morning for a 2 to 3 hour session of J.P. Woods oratation on hell, damnation and hard wooden pews wearing long handled wool underwear and wool knickers outers. It was hard enough for me to remain still or quiet for more than 10 minutes in comfortable clothes let alone in itchy scratch wooleys and would squirm and wiggle and Mom would do her best to subdue me but after about an hour of the session she would grab me by the arm and out the east door we would go I think to a lot of Amens from the dignified congregation and especially J.P.
Well, we would head for Aunt Bird's who lived just south of the high school at that time and she would drag my little reluctant butt into Ella B.'s and give it a going over with either a switch or a piece of stove kindling which ever was handiest and I would go through the pain and suffering act for a few minutes. The whole reward though was Aunt Bird would take me up on her lap and sooth me and tell Mom I shouldn't me made to endure that torture that I was too young to understand and then give me a big piece of fresh baked pie to ease my suffering.
That program worked pretty good for awhile and I now wonder if maybe Mom may have sort of took a little advantage of my misbehavior to visit Aunt Bird also.
Aunt Bird and Mom were very close friends and we visited her often.
-- Nate Massey, 16 August 2005.
At left: George W. Lott and Ella Bird (Van Horn) Lott.
Photo courtesy of Ronnie Hoagland.
At left: George W. Lott and Ella Bird (Van Horn) Lott.
Tintype photo courtesy of Diane (Hoagland) Wheelock, great-great granddaughter of George & Ella.
At left: Ella Bird (Van Horn) Lott & Artha Lee (Van Horn) Surber (sisters) on Ella's 80th birthday in 1940.
Photo courtesy of Ronnie Hoagland, great-grandson of Ella Lott.
