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Note: N3728 Cyrus is listed in the 1910 Walker County Census as living with his parents. His age is listed as 5 years and born in Alabama.
Cyrus is listed with his parents in the 1920 Precinct 5, Eldridge, Walker County, Alabama Census. Age is given as 14 years and born in Alabama.
The following information was in Virginia Lawson's research papers. Rex was her husband.
Rex was one of eleven children whose names and birth dates are in the Family Bible that belonged to Granny Lawson (Betsy). He attended school in Carbon Hill, graduating in 1923 from High School. While growing up he helped on the farm and also worked in the coal mine during vacations. After graduating he did not want to either farm or work in the mines, so he went to Birmingham, lived at the YMCA, took an accounting course and at the age of 19 went to work in the accounting department for Cudahy Meat Packing Company.
It was there he acquired the nickname of "Rex", because they had a brand, "Rex Vienna Sausage", and he ate lots of them, as money was short and you worked until the books were finished. In fact he never had a "9 to 5" job in his life, always worked long hours.
In either 1925 or 1926 he was transferred to Orlando to help set up the bookkeeping department in the new plant Cudahy was opening there. Two or three years later he was transferred to St. Petersburg. Around 1930 the company wanted him to go to Vicksburg, Mississippi. He did not want to do so, so he quit and came to Tampa and went to work for the then Louis Chitty Wholesale Grocery Company. This was during the "Big Depression" and the company went bankrupt. He went back to Alabama for a while, returning to Tampa in 1933. In December 1933 he went to work for Smith, Richardson and Conroy, a subsidiary of Armour & Company.
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