From From Ireland, Ireland, With Love With Love

Cliff Richardson, a partial family history.Cliff Richardson, a partial family history.

Photos: Clifford E. Richardson Archives

Design & Production: Michael L. Richardson

© 2006 Paracomm Global Inc.

Hangin’ with Big Brother

Childhood

Young Rodney Elmore with Ethel, Aunt Sis& Alma

Brother Bill, Hangin’ with Sisters

Childhood: Dreamin’ of Drivin’

• Red wagon man 1936

Youthful friends

Early Studly at 17 in 1943

Hanging with Pop, Mel &

Jouett

The Family When … on Sterrett

Youngest Male in Family

• Last one on the tree

Freshman Student Council

Those Early Years

A guard on

Holmes HS Bulldogs

Ky. Championship Football Player

Catching Ink 1943

Cars Matter

• Sinatra Lookalike

Out Dating

Young Man

Once Handsome

• He Grew Out Of It

This Ol’ House,

Mom Frances

At Right on

Sterrett Avenue

Cliff served in WW II with the Merchant Marine. He

no sooner got home when the U.S. Army drafted him. Within 6 months, he was

promoted from buck private to Staff Sergeant, serving two years in what

became South Korea. Here, in Army at Camp

Stoneman, Calif. his weapon is a broom.

Staff Sgt. Army Days in Korea

Young Entrepreneur

After time with

Pinkerton Detective

Agency, here selling

siding in South

Carolina

Richardson Bros. Landscaping

Sons Arising

’70s: Still About Cars

Ladies & Little Man, Mike Meloy

Pop Then, Mom Later

Hangin’ with Bill & Sisters

The Elders

ThenComethPhyllis

Sons Arisen

And They Dated …

And They Dated …

And They Dated …

And They Dated …

Laughsat Last

Fun on Grandpa’s Farm

What One Man Can Achieve

Mike’s Bunch with notorious uncle

One Sang Bass, the Other Sang Tenor

Two Sober Executives

Flippsey’s Farm Frolics

Cliff

CarriesEverybody!

Early Retirement, Early Dementia

The Family Later … circa 1980

2 Brothers & 7 Sisters

Nephews & Nieces

2 Brothers & Their Sons 1979

Uncle

With

Mike’s

Bunch

Cliff Loved Grass

Farming Began and Grass Grew

130 YEARS OF RICHARDSONS

John Thomas Richardson married Ellen Lyons of Ireland in 1876; they had 7 children including, Eugene Michael

(“Mike”) who married Frances Spanton in 1905, and they had 11 children including

Clifford Eugene who married Jackie Carper in 1950 and they had two sons, Eugene and

Douglas, each of whom married, and the rest of the story is theirs to tell.

They started

it all

in 1876.

Ellen and JohnRichardson

Earlier photo, approx. 1883, Ellen Lyons Richardson with her 3 daughters, including newest, little Ellie, destined to become nun.

Ellen descends from a group called “The Black Irish” who were part-Spanish and part-Irish. Spain had conquered Ireland circa 1650. The subsequent dark skin and black eyes of the Richardsons in northern Kentucky were due NOT to American Indians but to their Spanish-Irish forebears.

Star of the American Richardsons is Ellen

Lyons, at right. She was born Aug. 9, 1855 in

Waterford County, Ireland. Martin Lyons adopted

her. Her mother is unknown. She emigrated

to the U.S. in the Baltimore area and to

Covington, Ky. where at 21 she married John

Thomas Richardson (at right). She bore him 7

children. Our stars are, at left, Eugene Michael

Richardson, grandfather of Gene and Doug

Richardson, and then Ellen “Ellie” Lyons,

shown here, her youngest daughter, who became known as “Aunt Sis –

because she dedicated her life to the service of

Christ as a nun. This picture was taken June

25, 1906!

Years later, Ellen Lyons

Richardson, seated with her husband John.

Standing left are Ellen’s daughters

Irene and Caroline, who

never wed. Standing also is her son Eugene Michael “Mike”

Richardson – it is his wedding day, and his bride at right is Frances Spanton – it is June 25, 1905. Little Ellie, who

became a nun, is seated. Dog’s

name unknown.

Same day, back row (right) is Cliff Richardson’s Dad, Michael and his bride Frances. This is her clan – the Spantons, in Taylor Mill, Ky. Cliff’s grandfather, Daniel Spanton, is seated at left. Goat unknown … Names:

See print record.

Spanish-Irish Richardson Treeof Ellen Lyons Richardson

Cliff: From Ireland to Kentucky

On This day, about 1923, Ellen

Lyons Richardson, at left, presents a

gift to her daughter Ellen – a.k.a. “Ellie” – as

the daughter departs for the

convent and her lifelong service

to Christ.So begins the career as Aunt

Sister Mary Herbert, often called “Aunt

Sis.”

2005: 100th Wedding Anniversary of Frances Spanton and E. Michael Richardson – June 26

They had 11 children – the first of whom, Hazel, died at infancy. There followed two sons: the first was William R. and the last was Clifford E. In between were 9 girls. After 43 years of marriage, he died in 1949 in Cincinnati at 65.

Father E. Mike Richardson featured “Six Singing Sisters” often in Covington, Ky. at Immanuel Baptist Church. They are aunts to Michael Lewis, Gene and Doug;

from left:

Alma, Eugenia, Lois, Irene, Hester, Ethel.

To Cliff’s grandchildren

these are GREAT-GREAT

AUNTS !… and so

forth! They sang for our Lord Jesus

and built strong,

God-serving homes.

Cliff’s only Brother, William Robert “Rich” Richardson, in 1937 at age 28. A reported “ladies man,” here with two he

never married. He chose Ruth when he was 30.

Patriarch Michael “Mike” Richardson :

Cliff’s father, son of Spanish-Irish Immigrant Ellen

Lyons Richardson,

shortly before he died in 1949 at

65.

Name 12, get baptized, win trip to heaven with Baptist discount!

Bill, 85, after being tossed from a hay wagon in Somerset, with his favorite, Michele.

Irene’s chalk art at Bronston … by fingernail !

Eugene Michael

Richardson, good and

godly father.

The Matriarch:Cliff’s Mother, Frances Richardson. Left: circa 1965, right: circa 1974.

She died at 90 on Jan.5, 1976.

By 1985,” Brothers Cliff & Bill, left, and Ethel, far right, whose Army

career (Captain, Women’s Army Corps WW II) kept her away for decades.

PIVOTAL POINT: The modern Richardson men at 68th Avenue South in St. Pete,circa 1974.

Cliff with niece

Michele(Bill’s grand-

daughter) on her 17th birthday, January

1983

Circa 1985, Eugenia,

Ruth, Irene, Ethel

squired by Bill, at

Woodson Bend, Ky.

Where Cliff had set up a colony of the Richardsons

.

Left, Cliff’s sister-in-law Ruth visiting with Irene, Alma, Ethel, circa ’85.

Cliff’s Brother Bill, eldest sister Ethel when they visited him. Cliff says he and Bill never argued.

Rare pic: Circa 1951, Indianapolis, 20-acre farm owned by Bill, shown here with his son Mike,7, with a tractor-grader that Bill and Cliff bought to form Richardson Bros. firm.

Cliff’s Brother Bill in 1956 upon being inducted to the Greenwood Masonic

Lodge. He valued Masons because they rescued his family when at age 7 his

parents were evicted from their home. Eugene Michael’s mother despised his

Baptist marriage and his joining Freemasonry. She had promised the She had promised the

land to him on a handshake, but when land to him on a handshake, but when he refused to make his children accept he refused to make his children accept Catholicism, his mother had the Sheriff Catholicism, his mother had the Sheriff

serve notice of eviction. Then a serve notice of eviction. Then a Catholic bishop came to try to convince Catholic bishop came to try to convince

Frances to send her children to Frances to send her children to Catholic schools and worshipCatholic schools and worship. Frances refused and threw a tub of hot water on

the priest. The next day the Sheriff, acting on Michael’s mother’s request, served notice of eviction. Ellen broke her handshake agreement to sell her

homestead to her son, Mike.

Cliff’s terrific Aunt ! ‘Aunt Sis’ was a faithful and

loving nun whose family supported her.

Circa 1976. She was known as Ellen “Ellie” Richardson, and was the daughter of the

Ellen Lyons Richardson who came from Ireland to America as an adoptee, fleeing the Irish “potato

famine.”

The Brothers Two: circa 1976 in Bill’s Greenwood home after

they finished building the fireplace on ‘Daddio’s Patio.’

Bill finally prevailed on wife Ruth to move to Florida in 1977. It

took Bill 8 years to convince her to move from their Indiana home.

___________May 2001:

Bill and Ruth went to

heaven two weeks apart in Corbin, Ky., site of

their honeymoon.

Ruth was from London,

Ky.

_________

Greetings to Cliff’s Family from great-nephew Mark, a Tulsa Baptist pastor, and nephew Mike, journalist and Baptist deacon, December ‘05,working in Mark’s office on the

Sunday School curriculum he created as he finished his Seminary doctoral studies.

Cliff,A Great Brother to nine! Father of two. Grandfather of four. Great-grandfather of three. A great Uncle to a dozen or so! And a truly Great Man, Uncle and Brother in Christ to me.

Keep the Love Going, Mike

Photos: Clifford E. Richardson Archives

Design & Production: Michael L. Richardson

© 2006 Paracomm Global Inc.