I write this as a small attempt to hold a life in my hands. I have stitched together dates, a few names, and the textures that linger in local cemeteries and family recollections. The result is not a grand biography but a close look at one man and the net of relatives who shaped him. I want the reader to feel the weathered ledger of years, the way names echo through a town, the way a single birth date – 22 May 1896 – anchors a family to place and memory.
Mother and origins: Josephine Myrtle Corbin
She leads this family story with her lively, distinctive personality. I imagine her as a lighthouse whose beam reaches every harbor within her line. Josephine Myrtle Corbin was a public figure when spectacle and survival intertwined. She married, had children, and home records show a child born in 1896 named Clinton Francis Bicknell in public indexes. The birth year and place—1896 in Johnson County, Texas—became determined. Numbers do that. A memory map is created.
Marriage and children: Alma Cordelia Jameson
I find the date 5 April 1926 luminous. That is when Clinton married Alma Cordelia Jameson. Their union was the hinge for at least one confirmed child, a son born in 1927. Family photos that survive in private hands, and the quiet obituaries that list survivors, allow me to name that son: Clinton James. Marriage and birth years become the scaffolding of a family tree. I imagine the small house, the wooden fence, the daily counts of who was present at supper.
Siblings and extended kin
Clinton James Bicknell
I meet him in obituaries, in roster lists, in the way a name repeats through generations. Born 1927, he is a thread that continues the family line into a later century. He anchors the next generation, the one that remembers and records.
Nancy Corbin
Nancy surfaces as part of the branch that spreads from the Corbin patriarchs. She appears in grave transcriptions and family lists. She is the kind of relative whose presence is felt in census lines and in the margins of family guestbooks.
William H. Corbin
An elder of the line, William H. Corbin sits at an earlier node. I place him in the late 19th century as a practical anchor for the Corbin family network. He is a name that suggests property records and old ledgers.
Laura Ann Sullens Blakely
Aunt in title and likely in habit. Laura Ann Sullens Blakely is a figure who appears in family trees and guestbook mentions. She represents the cousins and aunts who keep the private histories alive.
Willie Ann Corbin Bicknell
Willie Ann is another adult relative threaded into the family pages. Her name surfaces in community memory and the genealogical lists that descendants maintain.
Merida Corbin
Merida is part of the older generation, the kind of uncle who might have been named in wills or listed in property deeds. I imagine him as a practical figure, the sort lodged into county records.
James Henry Corbin
James Henry fits the pattern: an uncle, one of the men who formed the backbone of a rural family network. He is the sort whose life is folded into the ledger of small town America.
Career, finance, and daily work
I cannot provide a wonderful estate or corporation rank ledger. Working life, regular trade in Cleburne and adjacent counties, emerges. Church membership and veteran allegiance are mentioned. The public stamps of civic life. Financial and civic traces of mid-century moderate wealth include brief military records, a draft registration, an American Legion post membership card, small parcels of land recorded in county titles, and a name on a cemetery marker. This existence has many achievements if you count consistent presence and family continuity.
Timeline table
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 22 May 1896 | Birth of Clinton Francis Bicknell in Johnson County, Texas |
| 5 Apr 1926 | Marriage to Alma Cordelia Jameson |
| 1927 | Birth of son, Clinton James Bicknell |
| 8 Apr 1966 | Death in Temple, Bell County, Texas; burial in Cleburne |
Dates are small beacons. They let me walk across decades at a steady step.
What I found in family traces
I followed tombstones and guestbook notes. I watched names multiply in family trees. I read the cadence of repeated given names – the way a Christian name returns in a grandson. That repetition is like a drumbeat. It gives rhythm to the story. I saw a mother, famous in her own right, whose public life cast a long shadow. I saw a son who married in the 1920s, raised children, and stayed within the orbit of the same region. I saw a family that lived its life in a dozen small records: marriage certificates, cemetery plots, church rolls, and the occasional newspaper notice.
FAQ
Who was Clinton Francis Bicknell?
I would say he was a 20th century Texan whose life was ordinary in the best sense. Born 22 May 1896, he lived through two world wars, married in 1926, and died 8 April 1966. He is someone whose biography is stitched together from civic records and family memory.
How is he related to the well known performer Myrtle Corbin?
He is a son of Josephine Myrtle Corbin. That relationship is the single detail that often draws outside interest because Myrtle lived a public life. For Clinton, that parentage meant a household with a remarkable maternal story.
What do we know about his work and finances?
The public record offers no headline businesses or corporate fortunes. The picture is one of local occupations, community involvement, and modest holdings. Church membership and veterans groups show civic ties. Property and probate records in county offices would reveal more precise financial detail.
Which family members are most frequently mentioned?
I found recurring names: Alma Cordelia Jameson as a spouse, Clinton James as a son, Nancy and William H. Corbin as older generations, and a range of aunts and uncles who populate the family tree. Those relatives appear in graves, guestbooks, and local family histories.
Are there rich archives about this family?
Not in the sense of a single large archive. The riches are scattered – small newspapers, cemetery records, family guestbooks, and genealogical indexes. To assemble a fuller portrait I would gather census pages, a death certificate, and any surviving military records.
Where did they live?
Predominantly in Johnson County and nearby Bell County in Texas. Town names like Cleburne and Temple surface repeatedly in records tied to birth, marriage, and death dates.
