In Memoriam

Ella and Lawson Pridgen

William Lawson Pridgen was born on a farm in Washington County, Georgia, in 1873. He was the second of eleven children of Alsbury L. and Lizzie Mosley Pridgen.

Ella Anna Louvinia Braddock was born in Montgomery County, Georgia, in 1876. Her parents were Wiley G. and Tempe Aetna Cooper Braddock.

Ella and Lawson were married in 1895. They moved with their first three children to Florida, and in 1910 homesteaded 100 acres of federal land near Panama City. In the late 1930's they were displaced by the government with other residents of the area to make way for Tyndall Air Force Base. They moved to Millville, Lynn Haven, and then to Parker, Florida.

Ella and Lawson raised seven children and two of their grandchildren. During his time on earth, Lawson was a farmer, a photographer, and a justice of the peace, ran a seashell exchange, a store, and a post office, and built a body onto the back of a Model A pickup truck and ran a "rolling grocery."

Ella died in 1950 at the age of 74. Lawson died in 1962 at the age of 89. They were preceded in death by their daughter Bertha Mae, whose children Bertha Eunice and Rebecca Pearl they raised, and were survived by sons William Thomas and Elzie Lawson, daughters Nora Esther, Ruby, Alma Elizabeth, and Mattie Lucille, and numerous grandchildren in addition to Eunice and Pearl.

All of Ella and Lawson's seven children except Lucille are now deceased. This webpage is dedicated to their memory as well as that of Ella and Lawson Pridgen.

Lawson's parents Alsbury L.
and Lizzie Mosley Pridgen

Young Lawson Pridgen | Lawson (far right) and brothers

Ella and son Elzie Lawson

Ella and Lawson in their late years in Parker, Florida

Ella and Lawson's first child Nora
Esther, who married Lacy Raffield

Esther's daughter Ola and husband
Wilson McKinnon

Esther's daughter Ruth with husband Woodrow Bryant
and daughters Jerri Bauer and Nancy Newsome

Ella and Lawson's oldest son William Thomas
Pridgen and his wife Virgia Lewis Pridgen

Tom and Virgia's sons Dennis, Jerry, Benny, and George

George and Jerry Pridgen and their sister Louise Pitts

Jerry Pridgen and wife Viola Hall Pridgen

Tom and Virgia Pridgen's daughters Margaret Raffield and Louise Pitts (second
and third from left) with Lucille Pridgen Ecker and Eunice Heath Strickland

Ella and Lawson's daughters
Bertha Mae and Ruby Pridgen

Bertha Mae, who married Hollie Heath,
died young of typhoid fever in 1926

Bertha's daughters Eunice and Pearl Heath,
raised as their own by Ella and Lawson

Pearl (right) with Eunice's daughter Gloria Jeanne Williams

Pearl and Sidney Brahier's children
Dianne, Dwain, and Donna

Ella and Lawson's daughter Ruby,
who married Mark Garrett

Ruby with children Aubrey, Billy,
Jerald, Juanita, and Gertie

Ruby and son W.M.

Ella and Lawson's daughter Alma Elizabeth,
who married Claude Williams

Alma and son Horace Wayne Williams

Alma's other sons Emory, Basil, and Vernon Williams

Ella and Lawson's son Elzie L. Pridgen,
who married Melvina Hand

Elzie and Melvina's children Michael and Marie

Ella and Lawson's seventh and youngest child Mattie
Lucille, who married Roy Walter Ecker, Jr.

Terrell Walter Ecker and Ronald Lawson Ecker
with parents Lucille and Roy Ecker

Lawson Pridgen with daughters Lucille and Alma

Ella Pridgen with great-grandaughter Jeanne
Williams and grandson Ron Ecker

Webpage composed by Ron Ecker and Jeanne Williams

Contact:
postmaster at ronaldecker dot com