Annie Josephine Garrard Minyard Bell
Parents: Father: Columbus Martin Gerrard (spelling as per 1910 Census) Farmer, Carrollton Miss. / born Oct 4 1877
Death: Aug 9 1958
Mother: Mallie Narcissa Brown Gerrard (spelling as per 1910 Census)
Housewife / born Dec 21 1881
Death: Sep 26 1960
Married: 1899 (been married 11 years as of 1910 Census)
Children: Norm Gerrard age 10 (1910 Census) (Warren?)
Annie Josephine Gerrard age 8 (1910 Census) born Dec 19 1901
Essie Lorena Gerrard age 4 (1910 Census)
Agnes Nona Gerrard age 1 (1910 Census)
Annie Josephine Garrard was born in Holmes County, Mississippi on
Dec 19 1901. Holmes County is located south of Carroll and Leflore Counties. Annie Jo attended the area school, learned to read and write, and attended through the first year of high school (9th grade).
The Garrard and Minyard families appear to be longtime residents of the Carrollton area. In 1920, at age 18, Annie Jo married Houston Landon Minyard, age 19. Possibly the two had attended school together and likely had known each other for years. Houston was a barber and had his own barber shop in the community.
Husband: Houston Landon Minyard born Sep 19 1900, Grenada, Miss.
Death: 1960
Children of Houston and Annie Jo Minyard were:
Charles Houston Minyard born 1922-2003
Eunice W. Minyard Anderson born 1924-1976
Guy Lomax Minyard born 1927-1997
Hardy Minyard born 1930
Possibly in the late 1930s, information indicates that Annie Jo worked as a pressing machine operator in a dry-cleaning shop in Carrollton. The 1940 Census indicates that Houston and Annie Jo Minyard lived in Carrollton.
Houston L. Minyard and Annie Jo may have divorced during the 1940s. By the mid-to-late 1940s, Annie Jo was single.
Annie Jo Garrard Minyard married Lee Rowland Bell about 1948 or 1949. Lee and Annie Jo were married perhaps only 3 years when Lee died of a sudden heart attack on Mar 1 1952.
One source for Houston Minyard indicates his birth date as Jul 26 1899 (a little earlier than the date above) and his death as Mar 27 1991, with the place of burial as being Grenada, Mississippi at age 91. Some info indicates that Houston L. Minyard passed away in 1960.
Passing of Annie Jo Bell
Services for Mrs. Annie Jo Garrard Bell, 88, of Greenwood, who died of heart failure June 16, 1990, at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, will be 2 p.m. Monday at Wilson & Knight Funeral Home.
Mrs. Bell was born in Holmes County. She had been a Greenwood resident for the past 30 years, and had formerly lived in Carrollton. She was a member of North Greenwood Baptist Church and was a homemaker.
She is survived by three sons, Charles Minyard of Pineville, La., Lomax Minyard of Duck Hill and Hardy Minyard of Fort Wayne, Ind ; one stepson, Dr. C.S. Bell of Inverness; three sisters, Mrs. Agnes Nunley, Mrs. Lorena Brown and Mrs. Sammie E. Clark, all of Carrollton; one brother, Berry Garrard of Lake Charles, La.; nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers will be Charles Minyard Jr., Chuck J. Tharp, Charles Ellis, Cliff Ellis, David Wright and Bobby Nunley.
Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Wilson & Knight. The Rev. Billy Minyard will officiate at services. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery in North Carrollton.
The Greenwood Commonwealth
Greenwood, Mississippi
17 Jun 1990, Sun • Page 2
Note: The children of Sanders Bell remember hearing Annie Jo mention her son, Hardy. He was her youngest child, born in 1930.
Gravestone says “Annie Jo Bell, Mother of the Minyard Children”