Jerry and Linda Butler

Notes from conversation with Mrs. Alton Edwards, April 23, 2000

Mrs. Alton Edwards is 93 years old and living in a nursing home. She remembers the Butler's of Cypress Church well. She and her husband lived in the Butler home place. They tore down the original house and built a new one.

Mrs. Edwards attended Lambuth College and was a school teacher for 40+ years.

She was witness to John Butler shooting Jim Ballentine. Jim was working with Mrs. Edwards father cutting timber. John Butler thought his wife Hazel Permenter was seeing Jim Ballentine since they used to be sweet hearts. Mrs. Edwards saw John Butler shoot Jim Ballentine while Jim was plowing. He also shot Hazel Permenter and himself.

The preacher William Butler was very sick at the time and died within 24 hours before or after the shooting. She does not know where John or William are buried but guess that it is at Scotts Hill.

After John's and Hazel's death, John Paul was raised by his widow Aunt Mary and his uncle Bob who lived together. She thinks that Bob and Mary moved to Quincy, TN between Alamo and Trenton.

John Paul was in the army and started collecting coins. He later donated his extensive coin collection to the College of the Ozarks. The college educated his daughter for free because of this. He was also the curator of the collection.

Mrs. Edwards had a Butler friend who was a sister to John Butler. She died when only 5 - 6 years old. She was born in 1906 like Mrs. Edwards. She was taken by horse drawn hearse to Scotts Hill for burial.

Festus Butler operated a store in Bells and taught at Emison School. Mrs. Edwards started school at 4 years old under Festus as a teacher. He had a son named Charles who taught school at Friendship.

George Butler and Hesco Cook had three daughters who were school teachers.

Alton Edwards, 94, BELLS

Services for Alton Carmel Edwards, 94, will be at 2 p.m. today at Cypress United Methodist Church. Burial will be in the Cypress Cemetery.

Mrs. Edwards, a retired school teacher, died Friday at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital of heart failure.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul Edwards and a son, Don Paul Edwards. She is survived by two daughters, Jane Wilson of Nashville and Jo Spraggins of Bells.

For more information, call Bells Funeral Home at (731) 663-2766.

As reported in The Jackson Sun: 3/11/2001