WEDDING WEDNESDAY - Thompson-Flemming Wedding 1912



Imo Flemming Thompson
(1886-1919)

Imo Flemming is my great-great-aunt. I never knew her but just to see this picture that she posed for in the early 1900's makes me think she must have been quite a woman. She was born Elizabeth Imogene Flemming on September 28, 1886 in Rome, Georgia. Her parents were my 3x-great-grandparents Charles Clinton Flemming (1854-1932) and Elizabeth Agnes McCaffrey (1858-1922), and a younger sister to my great-great-grandfather Harry Clinton Flemming (1878-1955). 
She was much loved among her family - she served as maid-of-honor in the wedding of both her sister Susie (1879-1908) and Charles (1884-1935), and possibly more. She was also best friends with her sister-in-law Pearl Horst (1884-1961), wife of Harry and my great-grandmother.

In early December 1912 the engagement of Charlie and Lizzie's sixth child was announced in the local Birmingham newspaper:

Darrell Robert Thompson, her husband-to-be, was born in Anniston, Alabama, on January 25, 1890, the oldest son of Robert Durrell Thompson (1863-1944) and Mary Eldon Rose (1868-1934). At the time of their engagement Darrell was a Clerk with Southern Railway.

In the Social Section of The Birmingham Age, the Rehearsal Dinner the evening before the wedding was described in some detail:

Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Fleming Buffet Supper Hosts

"The members of the party who are to attend Miss Imo Flemming and Mr. Thompson this morning at their wedding enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Fleming last evening after the rehearsal, at a buffet supper. Ferns, poinsettia and other decorations appropriate to the Christmas and New Year season were employed to brighten the surroundings and a tempting supper was served from the dining room." (December 31, 1912)

[click to enlarge]

Thompson-Flemming Wedding This Morning

   "Tuesday morning at 8:30 o'clock at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Flemming, on St. Charles street, the marriage of their daughter, Miss Imo Elizabeth Flemming to Mr. D. I. Thompson of Anniston was solemnized impressively, but with quiet simplicity. Father J. E. Coyle of St. Paul's church administered the solemn nuptial vow.
   Christmas greens with an interlude of red in holly berries and poinsettas made the home a very attractive setting for the wedding. The improvised alter of palms, ferns and smilax which was built in the living room had poinsetta flowers woven into the green bank. Numerous candles on the altar furnished the only illumination for the room.
   The music for the wedding was played by Miss Abbie Murphy, and just before the ceremony she rendered a beautiful nuptial song. The bridal party entered to the notes of the Lohengrin wedding march.
   Mrs. James Bennet Thomas, a bride of the late summer, served her sister as matron of honor. She wore a handsome coat suit of tan cloth with hat, shoes and gloves of the same shade. Her flowers were Richmand roses.
   Miss Flemming descended the stairway with her father, Mr. C. C. Flemming, Sr. She was gowned in her traveling suit of dark blue serge and a small velvet hat of a similar color which was trimmed with one graceful plume, curling over the side brim. She held a shower bouquet of lillies of the valley and brides roses.
     Mr. Thompson, attended by his best man, Mr. James Bennet Thomas, joined his bride at the altar. The beautiful marriage ceremony of the Catholic church was performed by the Rev. Father Coyle.
     Mr. and Mrs. Thompson left on an early train for Washington, New York and other points in the North. At the end of two weeks they will go to Anniston, where they are to make their home."  (December 31, 1912)



Possibly the Wedding Picture of
Imo and Darrell Thompson
(Note the small hat with a plume
that she has set on his head)

After their wedding, the couple was transferred at least twice from their home in Anniston, first to Charlotte, North Carolina - where he registered for the WWI Draft in 1917. At this time he was the Chief Clerk with Southern Railroad. Sometime after this  Darrell and Imo moved to Baltimore, Maryland. It was here, on January 26, 1919, that Imo died. They had just celebrated their 7th wedding anniversary.

Why she died at the young age of 32 isn't known. Family stories say she died in childbirth. But this was also the end of the worldwide Flu Pandemic that started in the fall of 1918. This flu strain killed mostly young adults, with healthy immune systems. Only two months earlier, Imo's youngest brother Tom (1896-1918) had died from complications from this same flu. What is know is that her body was taken back by train to Birmingham, where she was buried at Elmwood Cemetery.

Her husband remarried in 1921. He and his wife Margauritte had a daughter Marion in 1924 in Georgia. By 1930 they had moved once again to Indianapolis, Indiana. Nothing further is known of Darrell and his new family.