Florence Morning News, Florence, SC,06-25-1960, p2

Brothers, Woman Held In Car Theft, Forgery

Two brothers, one on a three day pass from a Rome Ga. Tuberculosis hospital, have been charged with forgery and auto theft by Florence police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Charge in warrants issued Friday were Leonard F. Mixon, 59, of Savannah, Ga., Accused by the FBI with interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle, and Miles Theodore Mixon, 53, of Rome, Ga., charged by Florence police with forgery.

Mrs. Leonard Mixon was also arrested with the brothers Wednesday but no charges have been made against her.

The trio was arrested after it attempted to give checks at two Florence firms and succeeded in cashing a check at a third according to Det. Gene Lessmeister of the Florence Police Dept.

The trio cased a check for $74.69 at Bell’s Shoe Store after making small purchases, police said. Earlier they had attempted to cash checks at J & J Drug Store and the Florence Shoe Store.

Darlington Police reported the trio cased a check for $72.43 at McCoy’s Service Station in Darlington earlier in the week.

Det. Lessmeister said the brothers told police Leonard Mixon sent a telegram to Rome TB hospital requesting a pass for his brother because his niece was ill. The Savannah couple met the TB patient in Macon, Ga. then the trio came to the Florence area, police said.

Miles T. Mixon, according to police is on parole from a Louisville, Ky. prison where he was sentenced to life for armed robbery in 1938. He was paroled in 1949.

The FBI charges Leonard Mixon with transportation of a 1955 Ford stolen May 28 from Federal Services Finance Corp., Savannah, Ga. He is being held in Darlington County jail in lieu of $1,000 bond.

Miles T. Mixon is being held in the Florence County jail on the forgery charge.

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The Charleston Daily Mail (Charleston, WV), March 19, 1965, Page 6

Ex-Prisoner Dies

Court Order Brings 8 Days of Freedom

Days of freedom in the bright southern sunlight were brief for Miles Theodore Mixon.

Eight days ago Circuit Judge Frank Taylor ordered him released from Kanawha County Jail and ruled the man had been detained since the April term of Intermediate Court in 1961.

Yesterday D. Jackson Savage, the Charleston Attorney who obtained Mixon's release, received a telephone call informing him the man died in a hospital in his native Georgia. Following his release from jail he had been driven to the home of a sister by members of a Kanawha County family whose son he had befriended while in jail here.

Savage said Mixon, about 55, became ill in route home. He died of pulmonary pneumonia. He described the man a highly articulate and possessed of a charm and personality.

Savage said Mixon had an arrested case of tuberculosis and that when taken into custody here in 1962 on a charge of forgery said he committed the offense to get hospitalization.

Intermediate Judge William J. Thompson ordered Mixon sent to Hopemont Sanitarium in June 1962. the man later was returned to the Kanawha County Jail.

Taylor and Judge Thompson lacked authority for the order and ruled that since three terms of Intermediate Court had passed since Mixon's indictment without his having been arraigned for trial he could no longer be tried on the charge.

I received the following email in July of 2023:

 

Dear Larry,

 

     What started as an adventure to map my family tree, after I saw a TikTok on looking into your family's history, I have found so much more than I ever would have expected.  I never had the chance to meet my maternal grandmother, as she passed away before I was born.  My family rarely talked about her, and it was only within the past decade I learned her name is Carolyn.  All I knew about my mom's side of the family was that we have relatives who we are still very close to in Michigan, but could never answer how we were related. 

 

    For my immediate family, I knew my dad's family immigrated to Chicago and my maternal grandparents met in the Air Force and settled down in the Chicago area, where my grandfather Leroy Adams is from.  I was easily able to track down my dad's side coming from Holland and Ireland. As for my mother's side, I only knew Norwegian and knew nothing more of her mother's family, besides being from Michigan, or so I thought.

 

     I went on to familysearch.org and slowly pieced my family together from what was already there. Eventually, I found my relation to the Michigan cousins, via my great-great grandmother being sisters with my cousin's great-great grandmother. I already knew the last name C/Kauffman was somewhere in the family, and when I saw Ethel Marie Damaron married to George Cauffman I thought "Okay, this is it, that's my family!". But to my surprise when I looked up "Ethel Marie Damaron", there she was, married to "Miles Theodore Misxon", and had a child listed, "Carolyn G. Mixson", married to "Adams". This was my family 100%. The census lined up, and your website lined up as well. As it turns out Ethel married George Cauffman after her divorce from Miles T., and Carolyn's last name was changed to Cauffman.

 

     I backtracked the Mixson family to Beaufort and Hampton Counties in South Carolina. Forgive my millennial language, but I literally screamed when I saw this. As I explained above, I'm from the Chicago, IL area and always thought my mom's family was from Detroit, MI. I grew up every summer in Beaufort County on Hilton Head Island because a family friend in Chicago had a condo there, for no familial reason. I always had a strong pull to SC for what I thought was no reason. I even wrote in the 1st grade "When I grow up, I want to live in South Carolina". 

 

     Another reason I screamed is because I currently live in Charleston, SC, and previously lived in Beaufort, SC. I married a marine who was stationed there and moved out there for him. While I was there, I worked on the ambulance, stationed in Beaufort, Charleston, Hampton, and Colleton Counties. Long story short, he did not follow "Semper Fi" when it came to our marriage. Before I knew that, I applied to schools in the area and got into graduate school at Charleston Southern to become a Physician Assistant. I now work for Roper-St. Francis HealthCare and have a lovely fiancé. 

 

   So, to fill in the blank for Carolyn G. Mixson: It is actually Carolyn Jean Mixson, born June 7th, 1930, died September 1st, 1992. Married to Leroy Adams of Elgin, IL, born April 14th 1930, died February 9th, 2006.  If there is any other information that you would like to add to this Mixson lineage, please let me know!

 

   Thank you so much for taking the time to do this project and adding stories to it as well.  I truly feel a deeper connection to where I live and work. I hope you enjoyed reading about my connection to the Mixson name, as much as I did researching it.

Julia VanKampen

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