Cemetery records online give us her birth and death dates. She doesn't show up in the 1900 or 1910 censuses.
The obituary, below, doesn't mention her maiden name, or any husbands. In the 1920 Census, she shows up as Myrtle Swank, (or something like that. Could be Swan, Swanf, Swanb, Smamb, or so), living with her mother,
Abi Saha. She was listed as divorced. In the 1930 Census, she reported that her age at first marriage was 23, so the first marriage probably happened around 1911.
She shows up again in the 1930 Census, as Myrtle Tomlinson. We know that her second husband, James Harrison Thomlinson, had left some time earlier, probably fairly recently. She was till listing herself as ``married'' in this census. She was already spelling her name without the ``h''.
October 4, 1951
The Morning Sun News Herald.
FORMER RESIDENT DIES SUNDAY
Mrs. Myrtle Tomlinson, former Morning Sun resident, died suddenly at her home in Wapello some time Sunday. Mrs. Tomlinson, who suffered from a heart ailment, attended Sunday school but became il and was taken by friends to her home. Later when neighbors went to her home they could not gain entrance and Sheriff Robert Lewis was called. Mrs. Tomlinson was found dead and the county coroner ruled that no inquest was necessary. Mrs. Tomlinson is survived by two sons, Bruce and James Tomlinson.
