This data compiled & submitted by:
W.D. Bostick
Rev. 05/2000
=======================================

Children of Marvin A. And Bessie Cathey Bostick:
(a) William Whaley Bostick (10-Oct-1911 to 1991);
(b) Marvin Cathey Bostick ( 28-Sep-1914 to 15-Oct-1986).

Three generations of BOSTICK;
(left to right): M. C.; Bill; Gene, Sr; Marvin A. Notes:
From 1900 census for Maury Co., TN:
Marvin Bostick, age 22, was then employeed as a post office clerk. Transcript of an audio tape prepared by M.C. Bostick (1914-1986) in 1978 (excerpt):

"My father was the oldest of 5 children, consisting of {1} my father {Marvin Amis Bostick};

{2} My Aunt Bess, who married J.E. Sneed, and lived a great deal of her life in the Los Angeles area. She had been, during World War I {WWI}, secretary to Barney Barouche (?), the war manpower administrator back in WWI. This was before she came to California and became a "sun-worshiper".

{3} The 3rd child was Jim (J.T.) Bostick who spent most of his life in Birmingham {Ala.}, and who died a few years back, and who was married to my Aunt Juanita. He was a building and loan executive with ?? Mortgage in Birmingham for a great many years.

{4} The 4th child in the Bostick family was Kate, who married Jim Magruder. She has two children, and she lived for a long time in Texas and later moved to California. She died quite a few years back, but her 2 children are still living in CA - - Jim (James E.) Magruder and his sister Betty, who lives, I believe, in the Santa Barbara area - I don't recall exactly what her last name is. [Did forget to mention that Aunt Bess Sneed did have 1 child, born quite late in life, named Sarah, and Sarah for many years was a missionary living abroad, and I've lost track of her and do not know exactly where she is at this time.]

{5} The youngest child in my father's family was Gene - William Eugene Bostick, Jr. - and Gene did see service in WWI, 'though he was not too well suited physically for it, and he lived all of his adult life in Birmingham, and worked for (and retired from) the ? Alabama, just west of ?. Gene married late in life to a woman that had 1 child, and just had the one foster child, and I never did get to know his wife at all, and only met the foster son a couple of times when Gene came to Columbia for a funeral or something of that type. He was a very nice fellow. The child was frail type, quite intellectual, and they were very close to each other. .. Omitting the adopted son of Uncle Gene, it will be seen that I have 5 cousins on my father's side: Sarah Sneed, Diane (Bessie's only child); Diane and Hugh {also Neil and John} Bostick, Uncle Jim's children; and the two children of Betty and ? Magruder. My brother and these .. 1st cousins and the children which they have, are the only surviving near relatives that I do have on the Bostick side of the family."

M.C. Bostick seldom spoke of his father, who died when M.C. was about 12. What is known, based upon his obituary and surviving correspondence, is that M.A.Bostick worked variously as a postal clerk, chicken farmer and sign painter. He was a gifted illustrator and cartoonist, often sending illustrated letters or postcards to family (especially to his sister Bess), under the guise of being from his young boys. He was also an avid baseball fan. He suffered a number of painful physical ailments, including kidney problems, and had to undergo a number of operations before his death.

Obituary for M.A. Bostick (Maury Democrat, 25-Nov-1926):

The death of Marvin A. (Doc) Bostick Sunday morning at his home on North Garden Street, removed a well known and lovable figure from Columbia, deceased having been successfully engaged in the sign and card painting business here for many years. Although handicapped by ill health for several years, he remained a cheerful worker and his death created sorrow in a wide circle of friends.

For the past few years he had been associated with W.E. Blocker and his ability as an artistic sign painter was widely known. He was a man of genial cheerful nature and possessed an unusually alert mind.

Mr. Bostick is survived by his wife, two sons, William and Marvin cathey Bostick; his parents, Prof. And Mrs. W.E. Bostick; two sisters, Mrs. J.E. Sneade of Los Angeles, Calif., and Mrs. J.T. Magruder of Brandentown, Fla. Also two brothers, Eugene and J.T. Bostick of Birmingham.

Funeral services were conducted from the residence Monday morning by the Rev. W.T. Wells, pastor of the Central Christian church, and Rev. J.R. Parsons, pastor of the First Methodist church; interment at Rose Hill cemetery. Oakes & Nichols, funeal directors, in charge.


10. Marvin Cathey Bostick (1914-1986),
son of Marvin Amis and Bess Cathey Bostick.

Born: 28-Sep-1914, in Columbia, TN.
Married: 4-Jul-1936 to Babette Bostick (b. 3-Feb-1918), daughter of Sam Julius and Rosa Derry Friedlob. M.C. and Babette were divorced in Nov-1958.
Died: 15-Oct-1986, from complications of pancreatic cancer.
Children of Marvin and Babette Bostick:
(a) George Marvin Bostick (died at birth in 1938).
(b) Marvette Marie (Mimi) Bostick (b. 6-Apr-1940)
(c) William Derry Bostick (b. 18-Sep-1947).

Notes:

  Some autobiographical information is given in the audiotape "Roots, Volume I," prepared by M.C.B. in 1978.

Briefly, M.C. was a prodigal student, especially in science and math, and was President of the 1932 Senior class at Columbia (TN) Central High School. He was gifted with a photographic memory, being able to remember almost verbatim information that he had read decades earlier.

However, being from a poor family and graduating at the peak of the Great Depression precluded his attending college. He worked various jobs in his youth, including prospecting for phosphate ore in Florida and elsewhere.

At the time of WWII, he was in his late 20’s, married, with one small child, and working in the strategic chemical industry (at Swan/Monsanto). Therefore, he was not drafted, but he did serve as a volunteer radio operator for the merchant seamen. He had a life-long interest in science and technology, and became an amateur radio "ham" in 1952 (W4WHM). He also occcasionally taught evening classes in radio theory and code at Hume Fogg Technical High School in Nashville. Some of his other advocational "enthusiasms" included photography, astronomy, gun collecting, herpetology, raising tropical fish, and history.

He worked as an engineer at Oglesby Machine Co. (Relocating from Columbia to Nashville, TN), and later at Avco (an aeronautical firm). His last working years were employed as a machine tool salesman.

M.C. had run away from home at about age 14; he later indicated that he had been a "battered child," probably due to his new step-father (F.L. Nicholson, 1871-1949). Although he loved to talk with people (including by way of radio), M.C. had something of a withdrawn, "hermit-like" personality. He was stoic and unemotional, rigidly honest and forthright, and sometimes subject to depression. He had a strong sense of duty, and supported his family.

After M.C. and Babette were divorced (Nov-1958) , his son Bill visited with M.C. nearly every weekend while Bill was about 10-17 years of age (ca 1958-1964). Father and son were close in those years; favorite weekend or summer vacation activities included going to ball games, fishing, camping at the Cathey family cabin (near Hampshire, TN), touring Civil war battlegrounds, visiting museums (especially the old Nashville Children’s Museum, near Hume-Fogg Tech), etc.

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