Vodie Marshall Garrigus was born on September 19, 1915 in Henry County, Tennessee to James Bedford Garrigus and Laura Mae Butler.

He married Lola Mae Murphey on December 24, 1938 in Akron, Ohio.

He died on February 13, 2002 in Mayfield, Kentucky.

The following was copied from “Graves County, Kentucky – History & Families” written by the Graves County Genealogical Society, page 251.

GARRIGUS-MURPHEY

Vodie Marshall Garrigus and Lola Mae Murphey married on December 24, 1938 in Akron, Ohio. they had three daughters: Patricia Elaine (Garrigus) Hall, Laura Faye (Garrigus) Davis and Linda Sue (Garrigus) Tapp Holman.

Lola Mae Murphey (born September 22, 1913 in Graves County, Kentucky) is the daughter of Shelbuin and Charity (Wray) Murphey. She attended Mt Pleasant elementary School and Pilot Oak High School and was on the last girls’ team who won the championship at Murray State College in 1932. After her graduation from high school in 1933 she went to Akron, Ohio, and worked for Firestone Tire Company for three years.

Vodie Marshall Garrigus (born September 19, 1915 in Graves County, Kentucky) is the son of James “Jim” and Laura “Mae” Butler. He attended Wright and French Elementary Schools and graduated from Pilot Oak High School in 1934. After graduation he attended Coyne Electrical School in Chicago, Illinois and returned to Graves County, Kentucky for a short while (working for sixty-five center per day) before leaving to go to Detroit, Michigan, where he made fifty-seven cents per hour. After being laid off from his job he returned to Graves County, Kentucky, and began dating Lola Mae. They married and went back to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked for Midland Steel. He left Midland Steel about the time WWII broke out and he began working as a plant guard.

On March 15, 1945 Vodie was called to the army. Lola Mae and the two girls, Patricia and Laura Faye, moved back to Graves County, Kentucky. Due to the illness of his wife, he was discharged in December 1945. March 1946 he became a sharecropper for his brother-in-law, Raymond Murphey. After ten years of sharecropper work, Woodrow Tarver became ill and asked if he would work at the Wingo Feed Mill, so beginning September of 1954, he began this work which led to his buying (1956) the mill in a partnership with another brother-in-law Ernest Murphey. Vodie bought out Ernest in 1966 and continued as owner and operator until his health would not allow him to stay. July 5, 1978 through September 30, 1988 he worked on the Jackson Purchase Parkway. Today (1999) he and his wife live on the farm that they bought from Raymond Murphey in 1958. The couples’ church affiliation is Church of Christ. Vodie was an elder at Mt Pleasant.

~Graves County Genealogical Society, “Graves County, Kentucky – History & Families” (Paducah, KY: Turner Pub. Co., 2001) page 251.