Flora Wilbanks William McCormack

Email received 9 Dec 1999 from Bret Barrier


Dear Barbara,

Thanks for the information. This helps me a lot by focusing my Wilbanks research. I am sure that this is the same Flora. [daughter of Jacob Burroughs Wilbanks and Nancy Ophelia Reeves] She married William Franklin McCormack in October 1889 in Dekalb County, Alabama. William Franklin went to medical school in Chattanooga, TN and graduated in 1893 (my dad has his diploma hanging in his office). He died three or four years later of yellow fever, and Flora moved to Texas. Flora had at least one child, my great grandmother Ethyl McCormack, who married James Thomas Foster in Texas and moved to Harlingen, Texas, Cameron County, where James Thomas Foster was a county commissioner, school principal and later superintendent of Harlingen ISD. I have some WWII ration stamp books with Flora's name and signature on them, with her age listed as 72. Flora's granddaughter, Hassie Browning Foster, was my grandmother. I believe the "H" in Flora H Willbanks stood for Hassie as well, since I have heard Flora referred to as grandmother Hassie.

I am just now piecing the picture of that side of the family together, and will let you know when I have more information (such as other children of Flora). Enclosed are pictures of Flora and her husband William Franklin.