7^th Hopson generation: children of Thomas J. Hopson, Sr.

 Carl Daniel Hopson

(1916-1988)

 (1) Frances Mae Cooper

(1919-1989)

 (2)  Willie Jean Carlson

(1921-1996)

 (see childhood photos of Carl with his brother under

Thomas J. Hopson Jr.)

             Carl Daniel Hopson was born November 11, 1916, in Parkersburg, Wood Co., West Virginia, the sixth of seven children of Thomas Jefferson Hopson, Sr. and Sarah Margaret Walter Hopson[1].

           My father used to regale his children with stories of his childhood, and those stories always included his younger brother Carl.   Only about a year and a half apart in age, they did everything together that boys do—climbing trees, building tree houses, swimming in rivers, fishing, enjoying the freedom of an adventurous outdoor life.  In the memory book we put together after Daddy’s death, his sister Gail wrote the following:

           “I really looked up to [Tom] and Carl when I was little.  I tried to do everything they did in Fayetteville—some of it, of course, was quite impossible.  I remember they had a tree house and used to pull me up on a rope sometimes.  It seemed to me it was a million miles up in the air and scared me to death.  Then they had a clubhouse under the ground one time with a tunnel you had to crawl through to get to it.  They had candles stuck in the walls along the way which they tried to keep lighted.  That was quite scary too.  I called Tom ‘Commy’ and Carl ‘Cardy.’”

           Like Tom, Carl was strongly encouraged by his father to become a Methodist minister, but he knew it wasn’t the life for him.  He went to college, but did not continue with graduate school as Tom did.

           Carl attended Morris Harvey College, Charleston, West Virginia.  He was a veteran of World War II, during which time he was stationed in California.  During his service he lost an eye, and from then on always wore a glass eye.  (As far as I know, the loss of his eye was not service connected.)

 Following his discharge from the Army, he went into electronics.  He worked at the Kentucky Power Company from November 5, 1945, until he retired on March 31, 1980.[2]

           Carl married his first wife, Frances Mae Cooper, on January 14, 1939, in Paintsville, Johnson Co., Kentucky.[3]  Frances was born 11 June 1919 in Willow Grove, Jackson Co., West Virginia, the daughter of Carl D. Cooper and Cora P. Rathlisburger[4].  They had one daughter.

           After Carl and Frances were divorced, Frances married Rudd Campbell Neel (1921-2004) in 1946.

           On April 26, 1942, in Newport, KY, Carl married his second wife, Willie Jean Carlson who was born 26 May 1921 in Louisa, Kentucky, the daughter of John and Myrtle Shannon Carlson[5].  They had one daughter.

Photo:  Carl & Jean Hopson & daughter 1971

          Carl, Jean, and their daughter lived in Ashland, Kentucky, during my childhood and were part of our annual visits to our grandparents.  My dad and Carl were always so glad to see each other and would stay up talking late at night.  We all liked Carl because he was so complimentary of us, telling all the girls how pretty we were, telling me how smart I was!  Occasionally, between visits, Carl and Daddy wrote each other letters and stayed in touch.

           When I was gathering information for the first edition of my family history book, Carl was one of my most generous contributors, sending me several handwritten pages of stories about his parents.  He also sent me copies of pages from his father’s family Bible, the history of West Virginia that included his father’s biography, and most of the old pictures I have included here.

           In 1982 Carl had surgery for an aneurysm in the aorta near his kidneys.  It was very serious, but they found it before it ruptured, and when his brother Tom visited him in June of that year, he seemed to be recovering well.  They had a wonderful visit, and my mother took a picture of the two of them.  It would be the last time they would see each other.  The following year Tom would have emergency surgery for an aneurysm in the same area, and a few weeks later he died.

  
Photo:  Thomas and Carl Hopson 1982

           We were all very surprised and disappointed that our Uncle Carl didn’t come to Daddy’s funeral.  I called him a few days later, and talked to his wife Jean, who told me he was just too upset to come, or even to talk to me.  I waited a few weeks and called again, and when she finally, reluctantly, let me talk to him, I realized there was something very wrong with Carl.  He simply wasn’t himself, and he didn’t respond to me as he would have in the past.  A few months later, in her Christmas card, Jean finally admitted that Carl had Alzheimer’s disease and wasn’t able to understand or remember what had happened.  Carl died five years later in the Veterans Hospital in Lexington.

           Carl died July 15, 1988, in the Veterans Hospital at Lexington, Kentucky.

           Frances Cooper Neel died June 1989 in Huntington, WV.

           Willie Jean Carlson Hopson died April 13, 1996, in Louisa, Kentucky.[6]

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