Iva Mae Ellison was born on 31. Jul. 1890 at Bloomington, Clinton County, Ohio. She married
Franklin Otho Passon, son of
William B. Passon and
Anna May Price, on 15. Feb. 1911 at Greenville, Darke County, Ohio. Iva Mae Ellison married an unknown person c 1937. She married an unknown person on 11. Jul. 1939 at Arcanum, Darke County, Ohio. She died on 6. Nov. 1948 at Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, at age 58. In 1910 Iva May Ellison was a housekeeper, living on section 16, Greenville 5. Iva Mae Ellison Passon Small Diedrich is buried in the Mote Cemetery, Pitsburg, Ohio beside her last husband Julius Diedrich. Her marriage to William Small only lasted a short time and she resumed the married name of Passon prior to marrying Julius Diedrich. Her obituary states she was a native of Wilmington, Ohio. She actually was born and lived in Bloomington, Ohio prior to coming to Darke County with her mother in 1913. They lived in Xenia, Ohio for a short time about 1912-13. She always used the name Mae and was steward of the Greenville Moose Lodge when she died. One day in 1948 Grandpa Julie (Julius Diedrich) called Corky and said grandma was acting strange, she didn't know him or who she was. She had to be taken to a Dayton Hospital (Stacy Clinic for mentally ill) where she died some months later. Cause of her death was listed as cerebral hemorrhage. There was always speculation over how she died and what she died from. She had an untreated venereal disease which probably contributed to her death. Remembrances of Gerald 'Red' Passon just as he wrote it: My mother was 5'2' tall with brown hair, blue eyes, slightly petite build, never weighed over 125 lbs and kept her beauty past age 50. She had a lovable, but fiesty attitude. She could fly off the handle one minuet and be so lovable the next. She was one of the finest cooks in the world, I may sound a bit prejudice but there are many who will back me up. She cooked and baked pies in Millers boarding house, as well as several restaurants. I have seem her bake as many as 25 or 30 pies, besides cooking for those big weekend dinner at Millers. She loved every minuet of it. You would seldom see her without a cup of black coffee in her hand or near by. She lost her father in her early childhood when she was quite young. I have been told that she was really spoiled by her twin brother Ray and an older set of twins Oscar (Ossie) and Flossie, big brother Willie Ellison due to their fathers death. Her mother remarried a man with four more older ones, she was always little sis. Maybe that had something to do with her temperament. If she like someone, she loved them, if she didn't she would let them know it. Although I loved her very much, I could never understand her. Mother and father I can forgive you both for giving me the privilege of being a father, grandfather, and great grandfather and being second oldest Passon of 4 generations. Excerpts from another writing about his mother: In her late forties she had an operation. The doctors opened her up and sewed her right back up, they told us she only had a year or two to live. She outlived all the doctors that told us. She passed away at age 58, but not from cancer. I remember asking her one time if she really hated my father as much as she was telling us, she said yes.. Then I ask her if she only loves her half of us children and hated the other half. Her reply was she loved all of us. I said 'my fathers half too?' She got so angry with me I didn't see her for two years. I went to Xenia, Ohio and stayed with Aunt Flossy and Uncle Fred Anderson. For some unknown reason I was Aunt Flossie's pick. She never had any children of her own, but she loved everyone else's. My sister always lived with mom. My brother and I stuck together during our growing up years away from her, all but two or three years so he could finish High School. For this, I can forgive her also.