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Scottish PiperScottish Piper

If you have Real Audio, Windows Media Player or other media player for MIDI and WAVE files you can select the Scottish Traditional song you wish to hear while visiting this page from the table below. Click the song name and it will load and play automatically.

Amazing Grace Annie Laurie The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond
Cailin' Mo Ruinsa Corn Rigs Are Bonnie The Fallen Hero
Flow Gently Sweet Afton The Flower of Scotland The Glendaruel Highlanders
I Know Where I'm Going Isle of Skye Killiekrankie
Road to the Isles Scotland the Brave Scots Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled
The Scottish Soldier Sweet Rose of Alandale Will Ye No Come Back Again

Sorrow in the Family

2011 was a very sad year for our family. On January 29, my 63rd birthday, my daughter (and only child) Christina Mary McCord passed away from complications related to breast cancer in Austin, Texas, where she had lived for most of her adult life. She was just 5 days from turning 42 years old. Christina was born on February 3, 1969, in Arlington, Texas. Her battle with triple negative breast cancer was an epic battle for nearly three years, and she was cancer-free for over a year prior to her death, but the damage done to her body in treatment and after-care, coupled with other medical problems with her liver, kidneys and heart, were too much for her to overcome, and so I am filled with grief like I have never known. Christina never married and had no children.

On November 18, 2011 my brother Robert "Bob" Eugene McCord succumbed to congestive heart failure, end stage liver disease, kidney failure and spleen failure at his home in Dallas, Texas. Bob was 62. Part of his ashes were interred at the Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery in a U.S. Air Force ceremony, and the remainder of his ashes will be scattered on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, from where our family originated. Bob is survived by his first wife Debbie, who now lives in Pflugerville, Texas, his second wife Kathy, who lives in Dallas, Texas, daughters Heather McCord and Holly McCord of Austin, Texas, son Arthur Ross McCord III of Dallas, Texas, brothers Marc W. McCord of Dallas, Texas and William "Bill" Ervin McCord of Spicewood, Texas, sisters Mary Catherine Weaver of Pottsboro, Texas and Karen Ruth Clark of Richardson, Texas, along with many nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles and in-laws.

Monday, March 8, 1999, was a sad day for our family as Dora Pierce McCord Jordan, my grandmother and my father's mother, passed away from respiratory failure at the age of 96, in Terrell, Texas. Born February 14, 1903 (St. Valentine's Day) in Cove, Arkansas, she was a direct descendant of the family of U.S. Grant, former Yankee General and U.S. President as well as the descendant of Native American blood. Her grandmothers were full blood Eastern Band Cherokee and half blood Lipan Apache.

My grandmother outlived four of her eight sons and three grandchildren and two great grandchildren, and is survived by four sons, one daughter and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Everyone who knew her knows the earth lost one beautiful lady who was a joy to be around. We will miss you, Granny, and our hopes are that your soul is at rest with those who have gone before you. We bid you a tearful goodbye, but you will never be forgotten.

Ordeal

Arthur Ross McCord

Ross, as he was known to all his friends, was a hard working man who made continual personal sacrifices for his family. As a young man, his brothers and sister remember him for having worked at selling newspapers and hunting for rabbits and squirrels to feed his family during the depression. He was the oldest of eight children in his family, and there was no father around to support them. He was born in Slayton, Texas on August 3, 1920, and lived all over Texas as he grew up.

At the outbreak of World War II, he was in the 112th Cavalry, riding horeseback patrols along the Texas-Mexico border until his unit was mobilized and sent to Europe to fight Hitler and Mussolini, then on to the Pacific Theater to fight Japan. He was a highly decorated soldier who earned a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and three Purple Hearts, none of which he ever wore. As a boy, he told me that those medals and 5 cents would buy a cup of coffee anywhere coffee was sold for 5 cents a cup. He did it out of love of family and love of and duty to country.

After the war, dad married Sudie Catherine Frye of Greenville, Texas, then moved to Dallas where they began raising a family. The first born son, Arthur Ross McCord, Jr., died less than 24 hours after birth from complications of badly-formed lungs and a premature birth. I was the second son, born January 29, 1948, followed by brothers Bob (August 17, 1949) and Bill (September 13, 1950) then sisters Mary (July 27, 1952) and Karen (January 19, 1954). At the time we were poor, but we never knew it because our dad worked hard to put food on our table, clothing on our backs and a roof over our heads, giving us a loving home that was safe and secure from the world outside.

Dad loved his family and his friends, and was often playing practical jokes on us all. If he did not joke around with someone then everybody knew it was because he did not like them. It was always a good sign when he joked around, because we knew he cared. Even though life was hard he made sure we did not know just how hard it was. Much of his time was spent working construction jobs where he would leave home on Sunday afternoon and return every Friday evening to spend the weekends with our family, unlike the life he had personally known as a child.

He was a Southern Baptist who held membership in the Masonic Lodge, the Scottish Rite and the Order of the Eastern Star. Dad was responsible for bringing three of his brothers into the Masonic Order, and with mother was actively involved in O.E.S. As he approached retirement he spent a lot of time doing the one thing he liked most to do whenever he could - fishing. He and mother bought a trailer house and some property on Cedar Creek Lake and he would go out in his boat and fish on weekends.

On Saturday, August 22, 1981, I got the call that dad had died. He was just 61, and suffered a massive heart attack while mowing the backyard at his home in Dallas. Mother had been gone for less than an hour, and when she returned she found him lying dead where he had been mowing. It was a shock to us because dad never went to doctors, was never sick, and there was no expectation of his early demise. Arterial Sclerosis took him from us on that fateful day, and mother followed him 14 1/2 years later.

They are buried in Grove Hill Cemetary in Dallas, adjacent to Junior and Sarah Lynn, the stillborn baby of Karen and her husband, Richard Clark. Dad never got to see Scotland, but he was proud of his Scottish, Cherokee and Apache heritage. His characteristics were much more the Native American traits, but he bore a stubborn streak that was pure Scottish. He was accorded a full Masonic funeral in recognition of his many years of service and dedication to the Masonic Order and the Scottish Rite. Someday soon I will see him again!

In our family love was something that was felt, but except for mother, was seldom expressed outwardly. Since my teenage years, and perhaps before, I do not remember telling him that I loved him, nor do I remember him telling me that he loved me. But, I never doubted it for an instant. You see, dad joked with me, and in his so doing I knew that he loved me, because he never joked with anyone he did not love and respect! I love you, dad! Thank you for my heritage. It is everything to me!

Sudie Catherine Frye McCord

My mother was the embodiment of what I always envisioned an angel would be. Always ready with a kind word, I never heard her speak a bad word about anybody regardless of how deserving they may have been. Her character and her strength were stalwart testimony of how one should live his or her life.

Catherine, as she was known to friends and family, was born on March 5, 1921, in Greenville, Texas. Our first family ties to Austin were born when she met my dad there shortly after he returned from serving in World War II. Upon marrying, they moved to Dallas, where my mother lived until her death on January 10, 1996, at the age of 74. She was a stay-at-home mom until we had all graduated from high school, though she did try her hand in real estate for a short period before I graduated in 1966. After all of us were grown she and dad became much more socially active. Dad was a 32nd Degree Mason (Scottish Rite) and both of them were members of Eastern Star, in which they found frequent friendship and social activities to keep them busy later in life.

Mother was a Southern Baptist and taught Sunday School for most of her adult life. Her church membership was very important to her, and she exemplified the teachings in which she believed. She had a 40+ year history of pectoral angina that never seemed to bother her until the last few years of her life when she suffered a series of mild to moderate strokes preceeding a series of heart attacks leading to the last one that took her life. I was with her when she died, and it is a memory that will linger as long as I breathe. There is not a day that passes in which I do not think of my parents and thank them for the efforts they made on behalf of our family.


Genealogy Links

Tealbar

Valhalla McCord Family Tree of Life
McCord Family Association Social Security Death Index
Texas GenWeb Tennessee State Library and Archives
Scottish Family History Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry
US Gen Web Archives Alabama Search
Dave's Root Cellar
The SurnameWeb National Archives & Records Admin.

Tealbar



William Porter McCord (May 17, 1816 to November 7, 1881) and Hester Ann Noah (December 30, 1825 to March 5, 1891),
great great grandparents on my father's side of the family.

Cherokee and Other Native American Links
The Old Settlers Cherokee Images
Texas Cherokees Cherokee Cousins
History of the Cherokee Cherokee Alphabet
Cherokee National Historical Society Guion-Miller Roll Report
The Leonard Peltier Defense Fund

McCord Family Web Sites

Fred L. McCord's Page Regina G. McCord's Page
Symm H. McCord's Page Cheryl McCord Nelson Family Home Page
Walter Dowling Wood's Homepage Carol Ann Hurley's Home Page
Kristine Ludwig's Page Ann Avaritt Dugger's Page
Tim McCord's Page Don McCord's Web Site


Links to Graphic Arts Resources

Some of the images used on this page, as well as my other pages, came from the sources whose links are in the table below. I would like to gratefully acknowledge my appreciation of their fine artistic talents, and express my gratitude for their having made these images available without charge. Please visit these sites for great images of all kinds when you are building your own personal web pages, and contact the web masters at these sights for information regarding commercial usage licensing of their work.

Andy's Art Attack Clip Art Connection
Randy's Icon Bazaar Icon Depot

Scottish MIDI files courtesy of Barry Taylor

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Marc "Dances with Owls" McCord




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This web site designed,created and maintained by
Marc Wesley McCord dba CobraGraphics
© January 29, 1998. All Rights Reserved.

Last updated December 10, 2011