Maria DeMoss Troutman, Schopp, Germany, March 27, 1997, Union Co.
troutman@snoopy.bunt.com

Scarlett Maria DeMoss, of Schopp, Germany, born October 18, 1966 in 
Morganfield, Union County, KY, to James Allan DeMoss and Anna Lee 
(Owens) DeMoss of Sturgis, KY, the granddaughter of Clarence Joyce 
DeMoss Jr. & Sarah Ellen (Eldridge) DeMoss, and Hubbie Lee Owens and 
Lillie Evelyn (Hazel) Owens.  The subject's father decided when she was 
born that she was not a Scarlett but a Maria, and from that day forward 
was only known as Maria, although she did tend to have the personality 
of the character of  Scarlett O'Hara from the book "Gone With the Wind" 
from which her mother got her first name, in that she was very stubborn 
or determined when she set her mind on things.  She has one younger 
brother, Mark Allan DeMoss born 1972.

Maria grew up in the same house located in Dekoven, KY in Union County 
for 18 ½ years.  While the house was small, it was home, where she could 
go outside to sit in the swing under the trees and read, or where she 
could ride her bike through the back roads to the neighboring small town 
of Caseyville to go wading on the bank of the Ohio River, or where she 
could just take a walk through the woods, listening to the birds sing, 
watching rabbits scamper away, and seeing nature until she worked her 
way out of the woods and climbed over the fence into her Grandparents 
yard that was located at the dead end of a gravel road called Lizard 
Ridge.  Maria always preferred to be outside doing something rather than 
being inside stuck with housework or "women duties".  She did tend to be 
somewhat of a "tomboy" her younger years, by running around, climbing 
trees, going hunting with her Dad, going Fishing and putting the worm on 
herself, or helping her Dad work on an engine, or out riding motorcycles.  
She played one year of baseball with the boys when she was in 4th grade, 
and then from 5th grade until 10th grade she played on the girls Softball 
Teams, the "Blue Jays" in Sturgis, KY until she became too old for the 
team.  From age 12 until she married and moved away, she took over the 
yard work, loving every minute of it, also doing all the yard work at her 
Grandparents house too. 

Maria spent her first 6 years of school at Sturgis Elementary.  Activities 
after school included baseball, then softball, Brownies and then Girl 
Scouts.  Her 7th and 8th year of school was at Sturgis Junior High, where 
her activities were still Softball.  9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade was 
at Union County High School in Morganfield, KY. There she participated 
in FHA, and DECA.  During her 11th and 12th grades, she took a Nursing 
course at school, determined to be a Operating Room Technician, but 
plans don't always work out, sometimes life throws you a curve ball and 
you veer off course.

Maria baby-sat for the neighbors, each of who had three small children 
to watch.  She finished High School six months early and went to work at 
Sheller Globe, a factory for making various car parts in Morganfield 
which is now closed.  She loved the job there and was never bored with 
it.  In May 1984 she graduated with her other classmates.  In June she 
stopped at a convenience store on her way home from work and met Tim 
Troutman, they had their first date on June 29, 1984.

June 28, 1985 Scarlett Maria DeMoss said "I do" to George Timothy 
Troutman of Sturgis, KY.  Tim soon joined the Air Force, and after basic 
training, 1986, went to Mississippi, where Maria joined him, leaving her 
job.  June 1986 they moved to Fort Worth, Texas.  Maria immediately got 
a job just a block away from their apartment working at Motel 6 as a 
maid, and quickly was moved up to Assistant Head Housekeeper, but she 
became sick nearly every day while at work and was forced to quit.  Her 
sickness was "healed" on March 31, 1987 after the birth of their first 
daughter, Laken Nicole Troutman.  When her daughter was 4 months old, 
Maria went back to work at the Bakery at the Carswell Air Force Base 
Commissary.  She worked in the Bakery for 18 months, and then quit and 
went to bagging groceries for the next four years. 

February 1993 they moved from Fort Worth, Texas to Abilene, Texas due 
to Carswell Air Force Base being closed down. They moved to a small town 
just south of Abilene called Buffalo Gap.  From the end of their 
driveway they could look down the street and see the school playground 
of where their daughter was attending school at Jim Ned Elementary. They 
bought a trailer, had a fenced in yard with shade trees, apple trees and 
a peach tree, a swing to sit and read in, as well as a swingset for 
their daughter, and flowers everywhere.  It seems that Maria did inherit 
her love of flowers from her grandmother and mother.  August 1993 Maria 
went to work at Wal-Mart, starting out as a cashier, and quickly was 
moved to the Service Desk.  Maria loved the Service Desk, because each 
person bringing an item back was a guess as to what outlandish reason 
they could come up with for using it before returning it, but she 
usually did so cheerfully.  October 1994 Maria became sick again, could 
not stand for very long at all, which was required at the Service Desk 
and she once again had to quit a job.  This job was the hardest for her 
to quit as she loved it much.  March 27, 1994, four days before her 
daughter turned 8 years old, she gave birth to her second child, Cory 
Alexander Troutman, at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. 

The baby's first year was hard on Maria.  He was a colicky baby, never 
happy, then when he was only 5 ½ months old a phone call came for her 
to come home to Kentucky.  Her father had been found dead on his bicycle 
at the age of 49 ½.  She had just talked to him the night before and he 
sounded perfectly healthy.  The loss of her father was very hard on her: 
she became depressed, crying often, always gloomy "feeling".  Besides 
mourning her father, she was also "bracing" for the death of her 
favorite grandmother, Lillie Evelyn (Hazel) Owens, who was diagnosed 
three days after her father's funeral with acute leukemia.  The baby 
was sick, or her daughter was sick, or Maria herself was sick, so she 
never got a chance to go back and see her grandmother again.  Her 
grandmother had undergone chemotherapy and had no immune system anymore 
and could not be around sick folks or else it could speed up her death. 
The next unwanted phone call came in January 1996 that her grandmother 
was gone.  Once again Maria went back to Kentucky to watch a much loved 
relative being buried.  The depression worsened.  Then to top off matters 
in June 1996 Maria's husband received orders of a move, they were moving 
to Germany, away from all that she loved and treasured.  

November 4, 1996 they landed in Frankfurt, Germany and began their 4 
years overseas.  Before coming to Germany, Maria and her two children 
stayed with her mother in Dekoven for six weeks and Maria's spirits were 
lifted and though things will never be the same, she is a happy person 
again.  Though Germany is not her ideal place to live, she is determined 
to make it the 4 years there.  She hopes, just as her husband hopes, that 
upon returning the states, they will be stationed closer to Kentucky than 
they had been in the past.  Maria misses what little family she has left 
and her children are missing the wonders of having Grandparents nearby.

DeMoss Troutman Hazel Owens Eldridge
=
Germany MS TX

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/union/demoss.sm.txt