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Mary Louise (Turner) Dean
(1907-1946)

Mary Louise Turner was born in 1907 in Ohiopyle, Fayette County, PA, the daughter of Frank and Bertha Turner. Tragically, her husband was killed in a coal mining industry accident in the heyday of the industry in Western Pennsylvania. She, too, died far too young.

Mary Louise married a step-cousin, Charles William Dean Sr. (1900-1933), the son of Warren McEwen and Bessie (McNutt) Dean Sr. Their photograph portraits, seen here, adorn their respective grave markers at the Cove Run Cemetery near Uniontown.

The Deans had five sons -- Charles William Dean Jr., David Lewis Dean, Rev. Frank Warren Dean Sr., Vincent Valentine Dean and Edward Everett Dean.

In 1933, the family resided in the coal mine patch town of Keisterville, near Uniontown, where Charles' father also made his home. Mary Louise is thought to have been expecting their fifth son that summer.

Heartache struck three times between July and September 1933. The first wave of death was on July 3, 1933, when Charles was killed in an accident at the Keisterville mine. The accident made front-page news in the Connellsville Daily Courier, but no obituary was published in the nearby Uniontown newspapers, suggesting that bad news may have been suppressed during that time. The Courier article reported that Charles was:

... unemployed for almost a year [and] was instantly killed Monday shortly after entering the Keister mine to begin work as a miner. He was caught beneath a fall of slate, suffering a fractured skull and a broken neck... The funeral was conducted in the family residence this afternoon in charge of Rev. R.E. Spiker, district elder of the Free Methodist Church.

A grandson recalls that in addition to the fall of slate, a stubborn mule was involved in the tragic sequence of events that led to the fatal accident.

Charles' remains were laid to rest at the Cove Run Cemetery near Uniontown. His grave marker was inscribed, "Farewell ... until we meet again. Beloved, how we miss you." Ironically, his uncle Isaac N. Dean (husband of Mary Belle Minerd) also was killed in a coal mining accident some 20 years earlier, and also rests in the Cove Run graveyard.

Just a little over two months after Charles' death, their son David Lewis Dean died at the tender age of 10 months, on Sept. 10, 1933. After a funeral at the Keisterville Church, young David was interred in the family plot at Cove Run. The Uniontown Morning Herald attributed the death to "a complication of diseases." The boy's grave marker was inscribed, "A lovely flower has faded."

Less than a week later, on Sept. 14, 1933, another of the Deans' sons -- Charles Jr. -- passed away at home, at the age of five. He was buried beside his father and young brother at Cove Run. His photograph portrait was embedded in his grave stone, which is still very easily seen today. The marker features the following inscription: "Darling, we miss you."

Graves of sons David and Charles Jr. at Cove Run

How Mary Louise, who was 26 and expecting another baby, dealt with her unspeakable grief is not known. It is believed her son Edward was born in the months following the triple tragedy. She and her young, fatherless sons Frank, Vincent and Edward lived with together in Keisterville, where their company-owned house and heating coal were provided at no charge. (Other distant cousins making their home in Keisterville during these years included Thomas Michael Minerd, Stella (Minerd) Hager, Caroline (Minerd) Lambert, William Minerd and Mary Ellen (Minerd) Rodeheaver.

Later, when the house in Keisterville was sold circa 1941, perhaps due to a change in ownership of the mine, the Turners relocated again, to Ohiopyle, Fayette County.

Mary Louise eventually married again to Eugene Shipley ( ? - ? ) of Ohiopyle. She was a member of the Ohiopyle Methodist Church.

Sadly, Mary Louise only lived for another 13 years after her first husband's death. At the age of 39, on Oct. 22, 1946, Mary Louise passed away at the Uniontown Hospital. The funeral was held at the home of her parents on the Farmington- Ohiopyle Road, followed by additional services in the Ohiopyle Methodist Church, led by Rev. Jacob Kooser. Unlike her first husband, she received a detailed obituary in the Morning Herald.

Mary Louise was buried beside her husband and young sons. Like her husband's, the grave marker for Mary Louise's was inscribed, "Farewell ... until we meet again."

The orphaned boys were taken into the home of their grandparents, Bertha and Frank Turner, in Ohiopyle. Tragedy struck once more that same year, 1946, when their grandfather Turner was killed in an automobile accident. Over the years, the sons attended Turner reunions. We are grateful to grandson Charles William Dean for sharing information for this webpage.

The fate of Mary Louise's second husband is not yet known, but will be reported here when learned.

Son Rev. Frank W. Dean, Sr. (1929-2009) married Jessie J. Louise Wiedman, daughter of Rev. James and Stella (Snedden) Wiedman. They had six children -- Mary Louise Johnson, Frank W. Dean Jr., James Edward Dean, Thomas Leslie Dean, Charles William Dean and David Allen Dean. Finding the strength to rise above his early life losses, Frank was valedictorian of the Ohiopyle High School Class of 1947. He was a veteran of the Korean War, serving in the U.S. Army, including a stint in the occupation of Japan. Upon his discharge from the military, said the Uniontown Herald-Standard, he "did accounting work for Fox Glass Company from 1964 to 2004. From 1967 to retirement in 1994, Frank worked for the Commercial National Bank in Latrobe." Active in Christian ministry, he was "involved with the Fay-West Youth for Christ organization from its origin in 1957 until 1982 and was involved when Youth for Christ united with the ministry of Penn Highlands Teens for Christ. Frank served as President of District 12 of the Fayette County Sunday School Association for many years as well as being on the Fayette County Board. Frank was also a longtime member of the Rotary Club and a recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow Award." In addition, he spent a half-century, from 1956 to 2006, as pastor and youth leader of the Pleasant Valley Community Church in Bullskin Township, north of Connellsville. Frank and Jessie divorced in 1981, yet he continued pastoring and she, at the age of 75, returned to serving God and became a missionary to teach teachers in Togo, Africa. Frank died at age 80 on Oct. 4, 2009. At the time, he was survived by 20 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. He was laid to rest at Normalville Cemetery. (Our reunion-goers may recall that we toured this cemetery in 2006.)

Son Edward Everett Dean married Joyce. They resided in Englewood, CO.

Son Vincent Valentine Dean relocated to Alexandria, VA.