Compiler: Donald Earl McKinney Jr
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(Confirmed by my recent Ancestry.com DNA results)
DONALD McKINNEY Sr was a double 5th cousin of JUNE CARTER CASH of the famous CARTER musical family. He was related to JUNE through both of her parents, Ezra "Eck" Carter/"Mother Maybelle" Kilgore Addington. June married singer JOHNNY CASH in 1968.
Donald Sr's GGG Grandfather, WILLIAM KILGORE, was the brother of JUNE CARTER CASH's maternal GGG Grandfather, HIRAM KILGORE. Also, Donald's GGG Grandmother, FRANCIS BALL CARTER (MRS BENJAMIN PENDLETON), was a sister of June Carter Cash's paternal ancestor NORRIS CARTER.
These Pendleton, Kilgore, Carter families were from Scott County, Virginia. They all settled in that extreme southwest corner of Virginia after the Revolutionary War. June Carter Cash's branches of the Carter/Kilgore family remained in Scott County where she was born in 1929.
Donald's branches left Scott County, VA & headed for northeast Texas shortly before the Civil War. His GG Grandparents, Rev JOHN & JEMIMA (KILGORE) PENDLETON traveled in 1858 by covered wagon to Farmersville, Collin County, Texas. Rev John Pendleton was the nephew of June Carter's ancestor Norris Carter. John Pendleton's wife, Jemima Kilgore, was the niece of June Carter's ancestor Hiram Kilgore.
Rev John & Jemima (Kilgore) Pendleton's daughter, SARAH ELIZABETH PENDLETON, married ANDREW J. GAYLOR in Texas after the Civil War & moved on to Indian Territory (Okla) & eventually Wyoming. Andrew & Sarah Gaylor's daughter, LENORA "NORA" GAYLOR, married EDWARD McKINNEY in Wyoming & were the parents of EARL McKINNEY (Donald's father).