“Elise Walton”
(In real life, Louise Lawton)
06/21/1892 – 11/11/1961
Louise Lawton (“Little Elise Walton” of the Little Colonel series) General Lawton’s youngest daughter. She was born on June 21,1892 in Washington, DC.
She married Oliver Bagby, and had two sons, Oliver and Henry Lawton, and a daughter, Mary Lawton, and has several surviving grandchildren (one of which found this web site and gave us some nice updates and photos…thank you Kathy!) Louise lived with her mother in Annapolis for many years. She died in an auto accident in Delaware November 11, 1961. A writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote (1928) that she had met “Elise” around 1918 “and found her to be as charming and of the same type as ‘The Little Colonel,’ save for the brunette coloring.”
From The Sunday Herald Post
Louisville, Kentucky
December 23, 1928
Photo by Standiford
More photos of “Little Elise” can be found
among the family group photos
“Elise’s” Wedding, July 2,1914
(enlargement and more info)
Louise Lawton Bagby with her own family, ca 1925.
The children are Oliver and Henry Lawton Bagby, and a daughter, Mary Lawton Bagby,
A portrait of her father, General HW Lawton, is on the hearth
Some years later, Louise with children Mary and Henry
Elise’s obituary, published in the November 12, 1961 “Courier-Journal,” is transcribed below:
Mrs. Bagby, State Native, Dies in Crash
Frankfort, Ky., Nov. 12– Mrs. O. W. Bagby, Annapolis, died there Monday in an automobile accident, according to word received here by relatives.
Mrs. Bagby was the former Louise Lawton, who lived in Pewee Valley as a girl. She was the friend of the Little Colonel in the books by Annie Fellows Johnston.
Her husband, Lt. Com. O. W. Bagby, died in 1924. Survivors include two sons, Navy Capt. O. W. Bagby, Jr., New London, Conn., and Cmdr. Henry Lawton Bagby, Annapolis.
The funeral will be Wednesday morning at the Presbyterian church in Annapolis. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.
Louise Lawton Bagby is buried in Section 4 site 2814 along with her husband, Oliver Walton Bagby, USN (+03/12/1925). Her son, O. W. Jr, (12/26/1916 – 01/15/2006) a Navy Captain who served in World War 2, Korea and Vietnam, is also nearby in Arlington Section 4 Site 2768-B. Henry Lawton Bagby, her younger son (11/7/1924 – 5/17/1999), a submariner in WWII, and retired from the Navy in 1970, is buried in Alleghany Memorial Park in Low Moor, Charlottesville VA.