GyBill
01-17-2009, 09:20 PM
Retired educator SAFFORD, Ariz. — Graveside services for Talaih Snelgrove O'Neill will be held at Magnolia Cemetery in Meridian, Miss., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009, at 2 p.m. with the Rev. Kenneth Owens of College Park United Methodist Church officiating. Caldwell Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. She was the daughter of Lemuel John and Jessie Mae Snelgrove of Meridian, Miss. The second of five siblings (three girls and two boys), she lived with her family during the hard years of the 1920’s while her father followed a call of the Lord to become a Methodist preacher. Due to economic pressure she was unable to complete her education until 1936 when she graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University. She taught home economics in Alabama until 1943 when she became the second woman from the state to enlist into the U.S. Marine Corps. While in the Corps she met and married Robert R. O’Neill Sr. in April 1945. After the end of the war they settled in San Diego, where Robert had lived for a time before the war. She returned to teaching after earning a California State teaching certificate. A son, Robert Jr., was born to the couple in 1950 and was to be the only child. In 1952 Taliah started teaching Kindergarten in the nearby town of Chula Vista, California, where she continued to teach for over 20 years helping hundreds of children start their education. After the death of her husband and father in the same year, she retired from teaching and moved in with her elderly mother, in Meridian. After the death of her mother she stayed in Meridian for a time, and then moved to Waco, Texas until around the late 1980’s. She returned to Meridian to live near her cousin Retha Ashley, until she moved to Safford, Arizona in 1998 to be near her son. Survivors include her son, a loving daughter-in-law Theresa; her brother, A.G. Snelgrove of Lake Jackson, Texas and his family; a sister Arcola "Pepsi" Landoll of Waco, Texas and her family; her cousin, Joe Nicholson of Meridian and his family. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her sister Hazel of Meridian, her brother Morrison of Livingston, Texas and her cousin Retha Ashley of Meridian. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the College Park UMC.