*Editor's Note: This lineage was featured on Season 3, Episode 7, of finding your roots!
She married Frank M. Hailstock on December 24, 1898, but he died only eight weeks later. On the 1900 federal census of Ohio, Georgia was listed as a young widow, living in her parents' household.
Georgia married John Edward Lewis shortly thereafter. John had been a Buffalo Soldier with the 10th Cavalry. Their firstborn son was Frank Hailstock Lewis. Both John and Georgia must have thought highly of Georgia’s deceased first husband to have named their son after him. While in Ohio, Georgia and John also had a daughter Ruth, born in 1905.
The Lewis family moved to Phoenix because of Georgia’s health. Her husband John became a well-known barber; he also ran a boxing gym.
Unfortunately, Georgia died on August 26, 1909, at the age of 37. She was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, although her grave does not have a marker and its exact location is no longer known.
In 1912, John Edward Lewis married Mattie Drake in Norton, Yuma County, Arizona, and he and Mattie had several children together. One was boxer Nathaniel Christy Lewis, biological grandfather of rap artist LL Cool J, as revealed in season 3, episode 7 of the popular TV series, “Finding Your Roots”.
John Edward Lewis died on July 17, 1947, and was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California.
-By Donna Carr
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