Today’s obituary is of my great grand aunt, May Waits, and was featured in the 8/14/1948 edition of the Lancaster Eagle Gazette:

Attack Fatal: Chief Operator of Bell Telephone Dies Unexpectedly

Miss May Waits, 45, chief operator at the Lancaster office of the Ohio Bell Telephone Co., died unexpectedly Friday, 10 p. m. of a heart attack in her home, 712 N. Mt. Pleasant-av.

Miss Waits, widely known in Central Ohio telephone circles, had been with the Ohio Bell here for 28 years. She was a member of the N. C. Kingsbury Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of American and the Auxillary to Fairfield Post No. 11, American Legion.

Surviving Miss Waits are her mother, Mrs. Mellie Waits of the home, and two sisters: Mrs. Ralph Williams, Columbus, and Mrs. Ernest Miller, Muskegon, Mich.

Her father, Harmon Waits, died last September and an only brother, T-3 Cpl. Charles Waits, serving with a tank corps in World War II, was killed in action in Germany on April 6, 1945.

Funeral services will be held Monday, 2 p. m. at the Ray Wise funeral home with the Rev. Geo. W. Herd, First Methodist Church officiating. Burial is to be made in Maple Grove [Hill] cemetery, Stoutsville. Friends will be received at the funeral home after 7 p. m. today.

Brian Davis – Christine Davis (Williams) – Ralph Scott Williams Jr. – Nellie Ruth Williams (sister of May Waits)