An Otis and Margaret Update

In case you missed it after posting about Otis Ray and Margaret (wife of Otis Ray) my dad did a quick Google search and left this in the comments section-

I did a little digging, if you google Oak Hill Cemetery Estherville you will come up with a registery for the cemetery with all it's guests listed by alphabet.

They have Mrs. Woodyard listed, she is shown to have passed on in 1981. She is listed as the wife of Otis Ray.

Now why isn't her name Ray? And is she buried somewhere else in the cemetary, or did they just not bother to chisel in her date of death?

That got me to do a little digging of my own and while I didn't find much I did come across a 4 year old post on a genealogy website asking for information about Otis Ray and Margaret. She didn't really get any but I dropped her an e-mail directing her to my blog thinking she might enjoy the pictures of the head stones and the stories about them. I got an e-mail back a little while later saying that she was indeed happy to get the e-mail and she included a little more information about Otis Ray and Margaret. She also included her “story of their life”-

I LOVE to turn me computer on and find a totally unexpected, but great
genealogical-related email- thanks so much.

Ok I've look at the picture of the head stones and several comments -
Otis wasn't born in 1864-he was born in 1884, so he was only 4 years
older than Margaret. But I have, since my post, learned that Otis Ray
married Margaret Skaggs -and later married Richard J. Woodyard?
Margaret Woodyard died in 1981, and her stone looks fairly new, so .....

I think Margaret Skaggs married Otis Ray in 1918 - they didn't have much
but they loved each other and tried to scratch out a life together. In
their seventh year of marriage, Otis contracted influenza and died.
Margaret tried to move on and married in the Woodyard family, a marriage
that provided her with a secure life, a quiet life, but one without
passion. And as she moved through her life, she grew old, alone again
after Richard died. So when she died at age 92, her last instructions
were, 'don't bury me with the Woodyards, bury me beside Otis, and make
sure the stone makes it clear that I was OTIS's wife....

How's that?? Diana

That's great!

Diana is also right about Otis' date of birth. I took a closer look at the picture and he was indeed born in 1884 and not 1864 like I said. Some moss and lichens appear to have camouflaged that part of the stone making that “8” look like a “6” on initial inspection.

Thanks to everyone who responded with comments and their own take on the life of Otis Ray and Margaret. On one hand it would be fun to find out the real story but it's probably nowhere near as entertaining as making something up.