Port
Rowan News: On Saturday evening, 2 Jul 1927, shortly after eight
o'clock, Mrs. C. M. Hands died of heart failure at her residence on
Wolven Street.
She had been
ailing for a long time, but the end seemed to be some distance away
and while the neighbors felt secure in this hope the last attack came
when she was alone.
She seems to have
been outside when premonitions of trouble came, and she went in and
lay down on a lounge, where a neighbor found her breathing heavily
with her cane in her hand. Dr. Meek was
summoned, but could give no hope, and half an hour later she was gone.
She was buried on
Monday afternoon at Bay View Cemetery in the family plot where her
husband and daughter and father and mother are resting. The funeral
service was conducted by the Rev. J. M. Smith, pastor of the Baptist
Church, of which she was a member for many years.
Mrs. Hands was
devoted to music all her life. In her early girlhood she played the
little melodeon, which was the first musical instrument obtained by
the church, and behind her and around [her] in the church gallery, was
a band of singers who were as much in harmony with their times as any
choir the church has ever had.
Mrs. Hands was
the daughter of Mr. Richard Richardson, and he took great pride in her
because of her talent and bright spirits.
She married at 16 years of age, and went to St. Thomas where her daughter was
born, and afterwards moved to Detroit, Cincinnati, and Kansas City,
Missouri, where she was organist of important churches.
After her
father's death 20 years ago, she returned to Port Rowan, and
became organist of the Baptist Church, and filled that position very
satisfactorily until her health began to fail. Last January she found
it necessary to relinquish this position, but she retained some of her
piano pupils to the end.
Her daughter,
Mrs. [Nancy] Hands-Kronberg, died here, which was a blow to her mother,
who had hoped much from her musical talent. Mr. Hands also died here
and she was left alone.
She had many
disappointments in life, but had the courage to turn a bright face to
the world and cover her troubles with a smiling mask. She had many
good friends who she retained to the last.
The surviving
members of her family are:
Mrs. Alice Montgomery of Los Angeles,
California,
and Mrs. Jones, widow of Rev. Dr. Jones, once the pastor
of the Port Rowan Baptist Church, and afterward a professor in a
Chicago college. All the other members of the late Mr. Richard
Richardson's family are gone.
