CYRUS PRESTON
Cyrus Preston Succumbs After
Illness of Ten Days.
Cyrus Preston, 59, died last Friday, April 14, at the Paintsville
Hospital, following an illness of ten days from a heart attack.
Mr. Preston was one of the best known and respected citizens of
this section. He was a member of one of Johnson County’s largest
and most prominent families.
He was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Lafayette Preston, pioneer
citizens of this section.
He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Belle Preston and three children,
Delmas Preston, of Thealka; Ernest ray of Thealka, and Jimmie
Cyrus, at home. He is also survived by six brothers and three
sisters.
He was a member of the United Baptist Church, with membership at
Concord.
Funeral services were to have been held at the United Baptist
Church on Second Street, but because of inadequate room, the
services were conducted at the First Methodist Episcopal Church.
The services were in charge of Rev. Alonzo Wright, and other
ministers of the United Baptist faith.
Burial was in the Preston family cemetery at Thelma.
Mr. Preston had been an employee of the North-East Coal Company
for the past twenty six years.
The following obituary was read at the funeral:
Cyrus Preston was born in Johnson County January 3, 1880.
He was the son of Lafayette and Malana (VanHoose) Preston.
His ancestry dates back to the early settlers of this county, and
came of that stern characteristic of which its high citizenry has
long been noted. He had spent practically his entire life in the
county where he was born.
He had been connected with the coal industry of this section for
many years, and this association took him to Floyd County where he
spent five or six years.
For the last 26 years he had been employed by the North-East Coal
Company in which he was known as one of the company’s most valuable
employees.
Cyrus Preston was numbered among our very best citizens and was
noted for his stern character and uprightness.
He was a man who practiced no deception and hated hypocrisy.
He was noted among his fellow men for his sternness and
truthfulness.
He met and was married to Mary Belle Cunningham February 7, 1909.
To this union were born three children, Delmas, Ernest Ray and
Jimmie Cyrus Preston. As a husband and home builder no citizen
within the whole county exceeded him. His home was one in which
love and union shined, and the true spirit of citizenship was
taught and practiced. It was a home in which God dwelt and the
laws and statutes were expounded from day to day. In proof of the
teachings his sons are taking their places among our very best
citizens and it matters not how far these roam from home they long
for the old hearthstone where they might hear again this gospel
expounded.
He was converted and joined the United Baptist Church at Concord in
1919.
As a member of that body he was faithful and true to his teachings.
He was a man who longed for the advancement of the church and
worked and prayed to that end. In all its membership there was
none counted more truer than Cyrus.
On April 6 he was stricken with heart trouble and while the most
skilled medical aid was summoned, and his family and friends did
all they could, and in the morning of April 14, the God whom he had
trusted called Cyrus to that clime where mankind never sickens,
trouble and pain do not exist, where there will be no more
separation and dying.
He died at the age of 59 years, 4 months and 11 days.
He leaves to mourn their loss his wife, three sons and two
granddaughters and one grandson; six brothers and three sisters, Ed
Preston, Lebanon, Ohio; Hom, Gene, and Guy Preston of Wenatchee,
Washington; Herschel Preston, Jenkins, Ky., and Forest B. Preston,
of Paintsville; Mrs. J. D. McCowan, Nez Perce, Idaho; Mrs. Dan
Ward, Fredericksburg, Va., and a half sister, Mrs. L. F. Stapleton,
of Offutt, Ky.
Paintsville Herald
Thursday
4-20-1939
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