Fearless Females - Day 11

In honor of National Women's History Month, I will be following the blogging prompts from The Accidental Genealogist blog. The prompts are interesting and I am truly enjoying this.  Here is day 11.

March 11 — Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family?

I am a little late posting this,  I was busy yesterday.  My son, a senior in high school, was honored at a dinner last night for being inducted into the Academic Hall of Fame for his high school.  He got to select a high school teacher and an elementary teacher who had made an impact on his education to received the honor with him.  It was very nice, and it was great to see some good teachers get recognition.  My son has worked hard his entire school career to get this honor.  I am proud of him.

I did have an ancestor who died young.  My grandmother, Ethel Manis Hoover, died at 38 years of age.  She was the mother to six children, four of them were still at home.  As far as anyone knew, she was in great health.   She died from a cerebral hemorrhage. 

Ethel had four daughters at home, Pauline, 18, Shirley, 15, who was my mother,  Betty, 12, and Milly, 6.  All the girls were devastated at the loss of their mother.  Her daughter, Ruth, 21,  had only been married a short time and had a young toddler at home.  Her son, Bob,  22, had recently married.  

Ethel had gone with her children and husband  to visit his sister.   As she was walking up the steps to enter the house, she fell over into the shrubs.  They went home and during the evening she told her older daughters that she was dying.  She died early the next morning, leaving a family behind.  Her funeral was held at the home of her daughter, Ruth.  

Ethel was the first of her siblings to die young.  Her sister, Delores Manis,  30, died in 1938,  leaving a young daughter.  Her brother, Fred Manis, 41, died 5 years later, leaving a teenage son.  Their mother out-lived all of her children.