[CompSci87]

i recognize this isn't sports, but it also isn't political, and it is somewhat incredible.

In 1936, then 17 year old Helen Viola Williams married 93 year old James Bolin, a Union soldier and veteran of the Civil War. Of course the marriage was a fiction. The girl had befriended the v old man, and he wanted her to have his survivor' pension benefits. 

Mrs. Williams-Bolin lived to be 101 and died this last December. The last surviving Civil War widow.

For comparison, my great-grandmother was a Civil War veteran's widow too. She married my ggf in 1866 and died in 1936, the same year Helen Viola Williams married her Civil War veteran.

I sent for my ggf's military records from the National Archives a few years ago. Among the papers were a couple of affidavits from folks who knew them, attesting that my ggm was really married to my ggf and that neither of them were married to anyone else either before or after.

[CompSci87]

i recognize this isn't sports, but it also isn't political, and it is somewhat incredible.

In 1936, then 17 year old Helen Viola Williams married 93 year old James Bolin, a Union soldier and veteran of the Civil War. Of course the marriage was a fiction. The girl had befriended the v old man, and he wanted her to have his survivor' pension benefits. 

Mrs. Williams-Bolin lived to be 101 and died this last December. The last surviving Civil War widow.

For comparison, my great-grandmother was a Civil War veteran's widow too. She married my ggf in 1866 and died in 1936, the same year Helen Viola Williams married her Civil War veteran.

I sent for my ggf's military records from the National Archives a few years ago. Among the papers were a couple of affidavits from folks who knew them, attesting that my ggm was really married to my ggf and that neither of them were married to anyone else either before or after.