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

Edith Margaret Hopson

(1906-1975)

Kester Cyrus Epling

(1897-1970)

 Photos—thanks to V. Epling!

Edith and Kester Epling and son, 1935

 Photo:  Edith Hopson Epling with parents, brother Tom, her 3 children and niece Jane Hopson 1942

Edith and Kester Epling and family, 1947

Edith and Kester Epling tombstone

            Edith Margaret Hopson, oldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson Hopson, Sr. and Sarah Margaret Walter Hopson, was born August 10, 1906, in Camden-on-Gauley, West Virginia.[1]

          She married Kester Cyrus Epling (born September 12, 1897, in Hewitt, WV, the son of Emery E. Epling and Laura J. Jeffrey Epling) on March 8, 1930, in Huntington, West Virginia.[2]

          Edith and Kester were both graduates of Morris Harvey College. Edith received her B.A. on June 1, 1930.  Kester had a graduate degree in journalism, and was a writer.  He was described by his daughter Sibyl in a family genealogy she prepared as "a writer, educated, idealistic, well-read, kind, musical, and moral."  He worked as a barber.  Sibyl described her mother as "educated, musical, sensitive, maternal, passionate, and adaptable."  Both Edith and Kester were members of the Methodist Church.[3]

          Edith and Kester had three children.

          All three of Edith and Kester's children inherited their parents' love of music and the arts.  Their son, an electrical engineer, is also a talented musician.  Their older daughter is a dancer and dancing teacher, and Sibyl Carolyn (1937-2003) was an artist.

          Sibyl wrote her autobiography and in it she had only good things to say about her parents and family life:

          “Most of my childhood years were placid and pleasant.  I had good parents who saw to it that we were loved and cared for, and who arranged for us to have piano and dancing lessons and plenty of good books to read.  They were both musical, my father was a writer, and the arts were cherished in our home.  But there was no stodginess or pedantry involved, my father being too much of a humorist for that.

          “My maternal grandfather was a minister and we spent a lot of time going to church, although my parents were inclined to be freethinkers. 

          “When I was 12 we moved to Charleston [WV]…. My sister and I had been taking dancing lessons for many years and continued to do so in Charleston.  I’m grateful my parents provided me with this means of expression and physical activity for it helped me to grow up strong, shapely and graceful.  It was often hard work, yet I enjoyed making the effort to overreach my physical limitations and to be in harmony with music.  My sister grew up to become a dance teacher.”

Kester died 10 May 1970 in St. Albans, West Virginia, and is buried in the Ruckman Cemetery in Millpoint, West Virginia.[4]   Sibyl was living in Staten Island, New York, at the time, and she wrote, “On Mother’s Day of 1970 my brother called to tell me that my father had died.  I felt my father’s spirit contact me, speaking softly and beautifully in my inner ear and giving me hope. …. I flew to West Virginia …  The funeral and its accompanying grief were almost unbearable….  The next few months were very bad ones.  It was hard for me to adjust to my father’s absence from the world.”[5]

          Edith died September 26, 1975, in St. Albans, West Virginia, and is buried in the Ruckman Cemetery in Millpoint, West Virginia.[6]   Edith suffered from cancer, and her daughter Sibyl wrote that she was living in Phoenix, Arizona, at the time.  Her sister called her in September urging her to come to see her mother, and she was glad she was able to do that.  She wrote, "…she seemed beautiful to me.  I was glad I had finally managed to get there.  I could stay only one day because of trying to hold my job and flight schedules.  When I said good night to her that evening, I was saying goodbye to my mother for the last time, and I knew it.  It was hard to release our mutual last gaze and walk away, never to see her again….  A week later my sister phoned to say that my mother had died in her sleep.”

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