Jeff Rankin: Undertaker's wife had interesting life
Jeff Rankin: Undertaker’s wife had interesting life Jeff Rankin The Rankin File One of the frustrations of researching 19th-century life in western Illinois is that married women were generally regarded as wives and not as individuals. Even their obituaries often failed to disclose their first names. They were Mrs. (husband’s last name) and they were only recognized in light of how they complemented their spouses. Occasionally, when women had long been widowed and reached an advanced age, their obituaries would actually chronicle their personal life experiences. Such was the case with Ann...