Place of Birth: Corpus Christi, TX
Date of Death: September 9, 1910
Interment source:
Bay View Cemetery Association, Corpus Christi, Texas. Record of Interments
NO HEADSTONE
The Boone family was one of the early African-American families of the Corpus Christi community. Massie is one of the older daughters of Martin and Laura Boone (who are also buried in Old Bayview Cemetery). The 1900 census report that Massie was born in Texas during August of 1875, most likely in the Indianola area since that is where they are found in the 1880 census. In the 1880 census of Calhoun County (ED 36, page 309), the family is listed as living in Indianola which had already been ravaged by one hurricane and would shortly be destroyed by a second. In the obituary of Massie’s brother Perry Boone, the centenarian is quoted as saying that his parents came from Indianola after the storms with the Lichtenstein family (for whom they presumably worked). In the 1880 census Massie’s name is given as “Massasliâ€. In all census records she is listed as a native of Texas with her father from Arkansas and her mother from Virginia. Her father is a laborer who had many mouths to feed since in the 1910 census, Laura reports that she gave birth to 12 children of which only 7 survive. The 1900 census records (Nueces County, ED 130 page 123A) indicate that Massie helped her family make ends meet by taking in laundry along with her sisters Mary, Fannie, and Minerva. Massie’s brother, Perry Boone, is believed to be the last person buried in Old Bayview Cemetery. Shortly before his death in 1989 at the age of 104, he had asked that he be allowed to be buried in the old city cemetery where his parents were buried. He said his parents drove the Lichtenstein family surrey here from Indianola when that town was destroyed. Thus it appears that the Boone family has a special distinction as providing the community with the last burial in Old Bayview Cemetery.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell