15 April 1896 – 20 July 1991
An update to the post on her mother, Beulah Corley McCormack, which was originally published 7 Feb 2021.
This is an unusual update to one of my prior postings, and it is not one for which I have a grave photo of the main character as she is buried near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, but it is one I’ve long wanted to write in order to correct a series of erroneous assumptions I made when writing about her mother.
I have gone back and added a crosslink in that old article to this new one, marking where my research failed me at the time so completely, I believed this person, Isabel, had died young.
That was far from the case — she is instead the eldest daughter who outlived her entire family save one nephew and whose life was overflowing with accomplishments rather than being cut off too soon.
My big mistake was deciding that Isabel died in 1928. I must have at that time found a correct-seeming death record but can’t re-locate that now. This mistake, however, set me down the path of completely confusing the fates of all Beulah’s children.
The surviving McCormacks appear to have held close to each other. All but Isabel are interred together at Graceland in unmarked spaces in Section C — just as their mother was buried in a term grave in Section C at Concordia, though in her case, her father marked her passing leading me to this story in the first place.
But what I discovered at some point last year when taking another run at Beulah’s history and trying to find more information about her death was that Isabel did NOT die in 1928!
Stepping back several years, after we last see her acting as executrix for her “stepmother” Mary in 1917 (see original article), she became a registered nurse and served in WWI. Her burial record lists a granite stone issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs honoring her service.
I have had no luck finding her on the 1920 census, but in 1923, she married James E. Lally in Philadelphia, and for the rest of her life is known by that name even though no evidence of James persisting in her life after that marriage exists.
On the 1930 census, she is listed as married but living as a staff nurse at the Polyclinic Hospital in Manhattan. Her sister Elizabeth‘s obituary in 1950 (yes I found Elizabeth and George as well), lists her just as Isabel Lally with no nods to “Mrs.” or mention of (James) as her spouse.
These ways of presenting a no-longer-married or no longer acting married woman were pretty consistent. James died in 1937, the available death certificate marked “inquest pending” and his status listed as married but with no information about his wife SO my guess is that their marriage played out after their separation — whenever that took place though apparently prior to 1930 — much as Isabel’s parents’ had: They were Irish Catholic and no one got divorced. Isabel and James just lived separate lives. Sadly the mystery of James’s death remains as I found no updated death certificate nor any news articles.
Isabel never remarried nor had any surviving children. It appears that only her sister Elizabeth had a surviving child, but she died in 1950 and was buried with their father in the unmarked Section C. Her husband Gilbert — a Chicago cab driver — lived to 1984 and then was also interred in the same section at Graceland. He never remarried but lived out his life post-retirement in Minnesota near their son and his family.
Their brother George who served in WWI and lived out his life in Chicago, never marrying as far as I can find, died the following in 1985 and was buried in that same section at Graceland, also unmarked.
I find this so curious and quite moving. All the family except Isabel were buried in such an unusually understated way. I love that they’re all together, and it’s sad Beulah is so far away and alone.
The faint outlines of a family which seems to have held together through great difficulty and loss and never failed to mention their lost mother in their obituaries remains so moving. I was so glad to discover my belief that Isabel died to be a mistake.
24 July 1991, p5
She appears to have lived a long, full life of service, her obituary lists an impressive career and a lost son as well as listing her husband as Edward (this is also seen in the public records as his name was James Edward Sally and he is listed both ways variously. The obituary does have at least one mistaken date as it says she moved to Wilkes-Barre after retiring in 1977, but she was participating in and serving as an officer for a Civil Service Employee group in Wilkes-Barre in 1969 and with her age, it’s likely the obituary meant 1967.)
My best guess is she and James married, their son was born at some point in the 1920s but did not survive to 1930. They parted ways, possibly due to that loss, but never divorced and neither remarried. Isabel dedicated herself to her career. I hope her last many years of retirement were good ones, that she saw her brother and nephew sometimes, that she had many friends.
Beulah, I’m sorry I screwed up, but I did finally find them all for you. I found them and matched you all together, reunited in a cemetery database.
Rest in peace, McCormack family.