Talk:Sara Walter Combs

Latest comment: 8 years ago by Acdixon in topic Her names

Her names

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It is odd that her maiden name, and the surname of her first husband, are not given in the article. But maybe no-one has been able to find what they were.

It is even odder that the article is titled "Sara W. Combs", but throughout the first half of the article, before her marriage with Mr. Combs, she is referred to as "Walter". If she was generally known as "Walter" rather than "Sara", this should be reflected in the article's title. Maproom (talk) 08:34, 23 March 2016 (UTC)Reply

@Maproom: Regarding the first marriage, I was only able to find a passing mention of it in the bit about her memoir. Having done extensive work on the Bert T. Combs article previously, I wasn't even aware that she was married before him. If I had something to go on, I would search for more information. Hence, I wrote the early part of the article under the assumption that her maiden name was "Walter", but that may not be accurate. Still, I don't think we can call her "Combs" in the first part, as that wasn't her name during that period of her life.
Regarding the article title, I started working on it from a list of missing Kentucky Supreme Court justices, and this was the suggested title. I do believe moving to "Sara Walter Combs" is a defensible proposition, though. I do hear it said that way, although it isn't absolute in the way that Martha Layne Collins is almost never just called "Martha Collins" around here. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 14:10, 30 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
By "around here", I assume you mean Kentucky, not Wikipedia.
I have no opinion on what she is usually called, or what she should be called. But I think the forename in the article title and the forename by which the article refers to here ought to be the same, unless there's a good reason to do otherwise. Maproom (talk) 15:10, 30 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
@Maproom: OK, I've moved the article. I also did some more digging and found some references to a marriage between Sara Walter and Monte D. Gross in Jefferson County in 1975. All of that would seems pretty consistent with the subject of this article, but all of it comes from third-party public records sites that may or may not be reliable; any further information is paywalled. I haven't been able to find references in Newsbank that corroborate this, but my access to Newsbank only goes back to the early 80s and doesn't include The Courier-Journal, the paper of record in Louisville (Jefferson County). I did find some independent references to Monte D. Gross as a district judge in Kentucky, so that seems to line up as well. At least we can be a little more assured that Walter is her maiden name, not a name from her first marriage. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 16:16, 30 March 2016 (UTC)Reply