Cecil Douglas Sykes

Cecil Douglas Sykes (21 June, 1884 - 21 August, 1938)

Cecil was the son of John Wesley Sykes and Susan Elizabeth Tatum.

Biography of Cecil Sykes courtesy of Susan Sharpe:
I remember Cecil as an old man. He was only 54 when he died. He was quite a dandy fellow with his curls on his forehead, cigar and watch chain. I remember that he was cripple and I think you can tell it if you look closely at the picture. According to what I remember hearing, he became very sick when he was little and the illness left him crippled. Mother said his handicap got worse as he grew older. As far as I know, he lived most of his life at the homeplace with Aunt Minnie Woodburn. He never married. He seemed lonely to me and he never had much to say. I always felt from what I heard, that life was always hard for him because of his handicap. When he died he was living with Evelyn Gooden and her family in Elizabethtown. She was Aunt Minnie's daughter. Uncle Cecil took his own life. Family members felt that living had just become too difficult for him and he gave up. He died in 1938. Lionel Melvin mentions in his book that Cecil was "crippled as a young boy and suffered with it all of his life."

Cecil Douglas Sykes

Cecil is buried in the Luke Sykes cemetery off Hwy 53 in the Ruskin community.