Edna Foster Remembers Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance's (1861-1952) Death at Good Samaritan-Waverly

Allen University is continuously researching individuals affiliated with the Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital. If you have any information on these individuals to contribute, please submit the additional information for the blog to Robin Foster, historian and genealogist, at robinfoster@genealogyjustask.com.

I am following through with my goal in collecting memories of Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital. I am so very grateful for this opportunity because I have been able to look a little closer at ay own research and my mother's account of the death Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance.

My mother, Edna Vance Foster, allowed me to record her giving a story of the notice his death to her and some of her most fondest memories of her grandfather.

No amount of research that you could

Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance

ever do could take the place of a parent's or grandparent's first hand knowledge. My mom made her experience with Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance come alive. I have traveled miles and have researched literally for years, but my mom's one account makes me feel as if I know him.

Death Certificate

I have had this death certificate for some time now. Only recently did I look to see that he died in Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital:

"South Carolina Deaths, 1915-1965," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPM7-CX8 : 18 July 2017), Lafayette F. Vance, 27 Sep 1952; citing , Vance, Lafayette F., 1952, Department of Archives and History, State Records Center, Columbia; FHL microfilm 2,400,795.

It has come to my attention that the attending physician was our family doctor. According to Dr. Bobby Donaldson of University of South Carolina, his name was Dr. R. W. Mance. My mother remembers him as the family physician. From the bottom half of the death certificate Rev. Mance attended him from September 20, 1952 to September 27, 1952, and that he died at 12:30 pm on September 27, 1952.

Edna Vance Foster

My mom, Edna Vance Foster, told me about how she came to know her grandfather, Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance, had died when she was in seventh grade while she was living with her Aunt Catherine Tucker Harrison in Miamisburg, Ohio in September 27, 1952.

She also told a bit about her life with grandpa when Emory Wallace Vance and Otis and family lived in Gadsden, SC. I am so very grateful to have been given this gift,

Edna Vance Foster

and I am as grateful to have it told to me in such a cherished way. This recording is more important to me than anything I could have found on my own. The things that became important in my mother's upbringing are things that she passed down to me.

She was looking on at a blog post while telling me the story. You can go to it here: Discovery Leads to a Sense of Duty.

I will come back and transcribe it for those who would rather have it that way:

Edna Vance Foster - Memories of the death of Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance