About Me

My husband and I live in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, among the live oaks and magnolia trees,  with an elderly golden retriever and a lot of books. We have two married children, and two grandchildren, in whom we take enormous pleasure.

In addition to genealogy, I continue to be involved in our family business: The Carolina Opry, in Myrtle Beach.

                                                        Janis Walker Gilmore

About the Photos

Photo top left

Helton Rutherford Walker (1828-1901)

“Rutherford,” as he was known, was born in Dickson County, Tennessee, the son of Elijah Walker and his first wife, Matilda (---?---). In 1856, he married Esther Elizabeth Thornton in neighboring Hickman County. In 1861, he joined the Confederate army, serving in the 48th Tennessee Infantry (Voorhies). He was held prisoner at Camp Douglas from February 1862 to Sept 1862. Upon release in a prisoner’s exchange, Rutherford was elected captain of his company, and continued to serve for the duration of the war, earning words of praise from General Johnston in his final battle, the Battle of Bentonville (North Carolina). After the war, he moved his family from war-torn middle Tennessee to Howell County, Missouri, where he homesteaded 160 acres, raised his twelve children, and founded a small Methodist Episcopal South church, Walker’s Chapel. His descendants are still buried in its small graveyard, where he rests with his wife, Elizabeth. He is my great great grandfather.

Photo, top center (L to R)

Raymond Clark (1910-1982), Marian Clark (1911-1981), and Dessie Irene Clark (1908-2005), abt 1914,the three eldest children of John Lawson Clark and Minnie Matilda “May” Story. Their mother died when Irene (as she was called) was just 14, leaving her with a heavy responsibility for the younger children. Irene married Floyd Wilson DeBoard in Greene County, Missouri, 1929, just a couple of months before the Crash. Floyd was a rural school teacher, teaching in one-room schools throughout Howell County, Missouri. They had eight children, of whom seven survived to adulthood and all are still living (2010). In 1951, Floyd and Irene moved their family from Mountain View, Missouri, to Hood River, Oregon, driving their large brood across country in a ‘48 Dodge and a ’41 Ford pickup truck. Floyd died at age 59; Irene lived to the age of 97, surviving her husband by nearly forty years. Irene was my maternal grandmother.

Photo, top right

John Jasper Campbell (1838-1882), in the 1860’s.

John Jasper Campbell was born 28 Dec 1838, probably in Ripley County, Missouri. His parents were Boyd Campbell and Boyd’s first wife (name unknown), who had probably recently moved  from Haywood County, Tennessee. “J. J.” left home around 1851, at the age of 13, making his own way in the world from that time on. As the picture indicates, he was a fiddler. In 1862 he joined the Confederate army, serving in Company C of the Missouri 8th Infantry, although some of his brothers served the Union. Little is known of his Confederate service except that he “last appears on a list of men who were with the Cavalry without authority.” In 1867 he married Nancy Marie Smith in Randolph County, Arkansas, and they returned to southern Missouri. Their first son, James Boyd Campbell, was born in September 1871, and Nancy died just a month later. J. J. married a second time to Mary Jane Griffeth (date and place unknown), In 1879, J. J. became the first post master of Mountain View, Missouri. He also ran a general store and operated a grist mill. He died in 1882, after sleeping overnight at the mill, and catching a “chill.” He is buried with his first wife, Nancy, at Chapel Hill Cemetery, in Mountain View, Missouri. He is my great great grandfather.