An Address--Past and Present--Ruth Thompson Cooper

My Dad's paternal 1st cousin Margaret Ruth Thompson Cooper passed away in 1941 from tuberculosis.  I have a digital copy of her death certificate which lists her address as 129 6th Avenue S, Nashville, Tennessee.  On seeing the address and noting that the certificate said she had been sick for 6 months I had thought the address was probably a hospital or one of the sick houses for those with TB.  So I went looking thru the 1940 Nashville City Directory for that address. I found her listed but her surname has the word "more" added to the end of it.  I checked the abbreviation key page and didn't find "more" listed.  If it is a boarding house and there are more people why are their names not listed? Odd.

I was curious to see what is in that location today so I checked the address on Google Maps.   Today that would be near the Ryman Auditorium, Bridgestone Arena and not far from Nissan Stadium.  She is listed there in the 1940 and 1941 directory.  In the 1938 directory,  she is listed at 107½ 4th Avenue North, Nashville, Tennessee.  The 4th Avenue address is only a few blocks away and is closer to the Ryman Auditorium.  Given this information, it seems that this was a neighborhood she had live in for at least 4 yrs.

Google Map for 129 6th Avenue South, Nashville Tennessee

Margaret was listed as Mrs. in her last two directory entries.  She had married in 1933 in Williamson Co TN to Burgess V Cooper.  I haven't found her divorce yet but Burgess remarries in 1939 and she is listed as divorced on her Death Certificate.The informant on her Death Certificate was her cousin J. W. Cook, son of her maternal Uncle Clarence Cook.  There were many from my family who died of TB within the 1920 to 1945 timeframe.  

I've not been able to find her in the 1940 census but with the information obtained from her Death Certificate I know she was still alive and the city directories tell me where she is living.  I really need to do a bit more digging and get her story out.  I feel like I have just scratched the surface. 

Notes: 

Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Death Records, 1908-1958 [https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2376]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. TN Death Cert of Mrs. Margaret Ruth Cooper (Davidson Co. TN 1941)

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Browsed to the TN--Nashville ---1940 listing Nashville, Tennessee, City Directory, 1940

Image 115 of 748 (listed alphabetically by surname)
Image 673 of 748 (by street address)


Google Maps Address 129 6th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee(accessed 2/22/2018)