Local family draws support following several tragedies

After the Byrd family experienced three deaths in the last two years, mounting debt rendered them unable to buy gravestones for the departed, but a recently launched gofundme campaign seeks to remedy the situation.

Salisbury resident Dr. Cynthia Byrd, executive director of the Julia A. Purnell Museum in Snow Hill, said the string of tragic family events began when her younger sister, Christina Johnson, was diagnosed with cancer in 2011.

“She passed away in Dec 2014 from ovarian cancer,” she said. “My husband and I adopted her two young daughters.”

As it turned out, fate had a few more tragedies in store for the Byrd family, most of whom live in Folkston, Georgia.

“At my sister’s memorial, my mother told me she had not been feeling well,” she said.

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