MELVIN MARION PRIEST (1910-1950)- UPDATED

Melvin Marion Priest was son of Charles Reuben Priest and Sena Adeline Boyd Priest. He was born  12 July 1910 (based on the SSDI ).  He died in a plane crash near the  Clinton-Sherman  Airport in Washita Co., Oklahoma.  Apparently living in Vian, Oklahoma at the time of his death, his place of burial is still to be determined.

His siblings were  Maudie V. Priest Marbut, Lawrence William Priest, Allie M. Priest, Clarence C. Priest, Bessie M. Priest Raymond Wesley Priest, Norman E. Priest and Edna E. Priest. 

He married Velma Dora Cochren in Lyons, Rice , Kansas on 18 October 1930.  He was working the broomcorn harvest when they met.  They will live in the Plevna, Reno Co., Kansas area until about 1933, during which time they will have Melvin Daniel Priest, nicknamed variously "Sonny" and "Charles", and a daughter Leona Fay Priest (1933-1933).

In 1934 they are Barry Co., Missouri near his family where Doris  (spelled Dorris on death certificate and grave entry but her mother always spelled it Doris) Arlene Priest was born (1934- 1935) but dies at 8 months from pnuemonia.

Over the next few years his family expanded to include Ruth Claudine (who would change her name later to Carol), Helen, and Larry L. (who would later change his name to Louis L.). On the 1940 census they are still in Barry Co., Mo in the Flat Creek area where his biological family resided.  He was listed as working on a road crew doing construction.

In the early days of the 1940's he is in Wichita running a boarding house with his family. As the war ended so did his marriage to Velma, although an exact date of divorce is unknown.  

Wife Velma and daughter Helen  inspect one of the planes Melvin Sr. flew, ca. 1945

At the time of his death he was working, apparently, for the J. H. Carman construction company putting in a highway in the Elk City, Oklahoma region.

New information suggests he had married a woman in Kansas within a  year or so of the probable date of the divorce from Velma.  This information suggests he fathered two sons and after his death they all relocated to California.