Jack Crompton: Coal Miner's Son

Uncle Jack: Coal Miner's Son

Death Notice and Obituaries from the family collection
of Hannah Champlin Broadfoot, now in my possession, 2018

These words do NOT do justice to the great man that was my Uncle Jack. He is the most interesting person to research and because he was born in the UK, it was fun. His parents came to America and moved back to their home area making the geographic area easy to find. My first cousin 1x removed, lives near there and was interested in what I discovered.

Jack was not only my paternal aunt Anne's husband and my godfather but he was my Dad's favorite person because he actually helped raise my father and was his friend after his parents passed away. We all loved him and enjoyed his English accent. He had some great slang sayings. 

To quote my cousin's wife, "He made the best highballs in the world." Truth.

Because of his days being in the coal mine, he liked things clean. He painted the walls in his house all of the time. You never knew what color it was going to be next. Everyone called him Jack and the information in his obituaries is correct except that he collapsed on the kitchen floor and died instantly. 

In the obituary on the right, probably from the Providence Journal, it says he retired in 1970 after being plant superintendent. I used that information to help me be sure of the date that grandmother closed and sold the business (from the property card 31 Dec 1971). I do think he worked at Victor for more than 20 years and he may have been the first person in my paternal family to work for my maternal family.

He did what was called "wet wash" and the area he worked in smelled strongly of the clean smell of bleach. He monitored the boiler and kept it working during the week and my father checked it on weekends. 

Notice the full date on the death notice. If I hadn't known when he died, the obituary didn't give that information. I will never forget you, Jack.

#52Ancestors

#7