William HIGHTOWER

                   Effie Edith Hightower O'Brien,  Savina Lou Kirkdoffer's daughter, told me that her mother's name was Lousalvenia Kirkdoffer.  A sister-in-law, Betty Hightower  did extensive genealogy work and temple work in the 1960's and changed the name to Savina Lou.  Name was also known as Luvinia or Luvinia.

From memory of Edith Hightower, daughter, as told to her by family members:

       Luvina's Mother died when Luvina was born.  Her Father married again and had other children.
       Luvina was raised by her maternal Grandmother, Angelina Kirkdoffer, on a farm near Cushman, Independence, Arkansas.  While on this farm, she spoke German and worked much like an adult, carrying water a long distance from a spring. John Kirkdoffer said he remembers seeing blood in her little barefoot tracks in the snow where she had walked.  She stayed with her Grandmother until her Grandmother hurt her back and could no longer care for her.  She was 8 years old at the time.
       A couple that Angelina referred to as Aunt Pass and Uncle Will Allen saw Luvenia and asked if they could take her to raise.  Because she was unable to care for Luvenia, she agreed.  Luvenia stayed with the Allens until she was 16 years of age.
       After leaving the Allens, she lived the next two years with Uncle Charley and Aunt Nan Kirkdoffer.  She left their home when she married Henry Chenault.
       Henry Chenault and Luvenia had one child, a son that they named John Henry Reed Chenault.  This was her first husband, who died from over exposure working in Vestal's Greenhouse, leaving her a young widow with a child.
       At the age of 23 she married William Hightower, a widower who had eight children with his first wife.  The youngest was 15 years of age when Luvenia and William married.  William took John Henry Reed Chenault to raise as a son, although his name was never changed.
       "I never knew this, but Mary, my sister, told me that our Mother, Luvenia, has only one breast because of an injury.  She said that as a child, she had been hit on the one breast by one of the Potts boys and an absess developed which caused her to lose her breast." said Edith.

       Luvenia's cemetery headstone at Pleasant Valley, Independence, Arkansas shows:
Luvenia Hightower  B: 3 Oct 1879     D: 7 Aug 1917




Effie Edith Hightower O'Brien,  Savina Lou Kirkdoffer's daughter, told me that her mother's name was Lousalvenia Kirkdoffer.  A sister-in-law, Betty Hightower  did extensive genealogy work and temple in the 1960's and changed the name to Savina Lou.  Name was also known as Luvinia or Luvinia.