Back in December 2020, Helen Jackson died at age 101 in Marshfield, Missouri (also on Route 66). She is believed to be the very last Civil War widow. She was born in 1919 in Niangua, Missouri, also on Route 66 and she spent her entire life on Route 66.
I have written about her on Jan. 18 and April 20 in this blog. You can click on her name in the labels below this. I have also written in much more detail on her life in my Saw the Elephant: Civil War blog in April and May. Click on that blog in the My Blogs section to the right of this.
She married Civil War veteran James Bolin when he was in his nineties and she was just a teenager.
We have been to Marshfield, but can not remember ever being in Niangua, so I had to look the town up and see what it had as far as Route 66stuff.
Route66 did not pass through Niangua on its main street but was located 1.2 miles west of it.
In Skip Curtis' book "The Missouri Route 66 Tour Book" it shows Niangua with a population of 459 at the intersection of Highway M.
The town was named after the river, which received its name from the Indian word "ne anoga" which means "water that runs over a man." Locals say it means "I won't go away" or "I won't go further," meaning this is where one will settle.
--RoadDog
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