Ramblings of The Caffeinated Genealogist: The Rollercoaster of Lena Miller's Life

Back on August 29th, I was in the thick of working on the two Gibson cemeteries out in Corydon - meticulously going through each person buried and researching them. I had finally gotten down the list to the last name 'Stanley.'

There are a couple Stanley kids buried out in Gibson Cemetery #1 (or the main Gibson Cemetery as I sometimes call it).

The first is Tommie Stanley, 1903-1915, who was the son of Lyman Stanley and his first wife, Lena Miller. The second is "Infant" Stanley, the first child of he and his second wife, Nealie Brown.

Anyway... Lena Miller, and I absolutely care not that I'm judging her because just WOW... what a tramp. I have found newspaper article after newspaper article. I'll try to explain this mess the best I can so that y'all can follow along with me.

So, Lena Miller marries Lyman Stanley on January 16th, 1900, in Union County, KY. She is originally of Adair County, KY. She and Lyman have at least 5 children with one another between 1900-1910.

Sometime in 1917 or very near then.. Lena starts to mess around with Frank Dunaway, also from Union County, but they're in Evansville, IN now. According to Lyman's testimony, he wanted to leave Lena but she came home to him sick and he didn't want to leave her while she was sick (you can see his wording in the newspaper articles which I'll be sharing at the end of this post.)

Lena and Lyman NEVER legally divorce... but sometime between 1918-1920, she marries Frank Dunaway. Lyman states that he and Lena officially separated in May of 1920.

Well on July 9th, 1920, it's in the paper that she's arrested with a John Forrest for messing around with him, while married to Frank Dunaway, and it's not even realized yet that she's married to Lyman Stanley still! That comes out a week or two later. What a tangled web. We're not done yet!

So a judge eventually grants an annulment to the marriage of Frank Dunaway and Lena, and Lyman Stanley HELPS.. but that leaves Lyman and Lena legally married (still) again. So I'm sure Lyman finally was granted his divorce from Lena, probably in a Morganfield court instead of Evansville as the Morganfield court is mentioned in one of the articles.

By June 20th, 1921.. Frank Dunaway marries a lady named Blanche. By September 6th, 1921... she files for divorce from him. After the trial, he tells the judge he'll never marry again.

Well, by 1935, I'm finding arrest articles of him assaulting what I assume to be a third wife, Cora.

This whole debacle between Lena, Lyman, Frank, and then his next wives... it was a hell of a rollercoaster ride.

Lena disappears after the 1920 census. I've found no death certificate for her. I don't know if she stayed in the Evansville area or if she moved to Henderson or back to Union County. I'm really curious as to what happened to her. She might have died or she might have changed her name and started over again somewhere else. Who could have blamed her? She had definitely acquired quite a tarnished reputation in the Evansville metro area.

Lyman, after the whole Lena debacle, seems to have a happy and long marriage with his second wife Sarah Cornelia "Nealie" Brown, whom he married in either late 1920 or early 1921. Lyman dies in 1952 of Broncho pneumonia. He is buried in Fairmont Cemetery.

Frank passes away in Evansville in 1963 of coronary occlusion. He is buried in Locust Hill Cemetery.