REX, Mary Esther (Manchester) 1866-1918

REX, MANCHESTER, CLAY, SHARP

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 12/25/2012 at 22:28:31

OBITUARY

The acquaintance of her friends with "Essie" Rex extends over a period of more than fifty years. It is but a feeble tribute we can pay to her memory today. All we can pay to her memory today. All we say can in no sense express the loss sustained by her friends and bereaved loved ones.

Mary Esther Manchester was born June 24, 1866, in Aureola, Iowa, the daughter of Dennis and Eliza Manchester. The latter preceded her to the Great Beyond by scarcely a week's span. She passed her girlhood, and attended public school, in the place of her birth, and was united in marriage to Charles T. Rex, on April 21, 1886. To the intimate friends who have been privileged to enjoy the splendid hospitality of this home, the finer qualities of Mrs. Rex's modest nature were revealed, as well as the numerous traits that combined to make her a dutiful wife and an indulgent mother. For many years past, she has been denied the social pleasured of life by reason of physical affliction which she bore with admirable fortitude and patience, the spirited and cheerful appearance often masking painful suffering.

Her mother heart has been made to rejoice by the birth of three children, namely: Carl A., Blanche Rex Clay and Alta Rex Sharp, all of whom, together with four young grandsons, remain to comfort and console the loved and loving father and grandfather. One brother, C. Dorr Manchester, also survives her.

Mrs. Rex had been a member of the Disciples of Christ for 30 years, and it was to her a source of deep regret that during the past few years she had been unable to attend public worship.

Her passing to the beautiful shore in the morning hours of January 18, 1918, was a peaceful ending to patient suffering, and the thought of those gathered round her is well expressed by the poet in the words:

"We watched her breathing through the night,
Her breathing soft and low;
And in the breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.

Our very hopes belied our fears,
Our fears our hopes belied;
We thought her dying when she slept
And sleeping when she died."

SOURCE: A Marble Rock newspaper, January 24, 1918.