Editor’s note: The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society.

You’ve heard of Hollywood celebrity Carson Jones Daly? Did you know that his mother, Patricia (Pattie) Jean Jones, was born March 28, 1944, in Troy? There’s some information online that states she was born in Fayetteville, N.C., but a search of ancestry.com proves she was born in the county seat of Montgomery County.

Carson Daly came to fame as a VJ on MTV before moving to NBC in 2002, where he hosted a late-night talk show and special events. He became a host for “The Voice” in 2011 and social media correspondent for the “Today” show in 2013, before becoming a co-host.

Carson was born June 22, 1973, in Santa Monica, Calif., to TV personality Pattie Jones Daly and actor Jim Daly. Pattie Jones’ parents moved from Montgomery County to Lilesville Township in Anson County in the late 1940s, possibly to live near Pattie’s mother’s relatives, and she attended Lilesville Elementary School until the fifth grade, when the family moved to Fayetteville. 

Possibly in the 1950s, Pattie moved to Los Angeles, where she married Jim Daly on March 15, 1969. He passed away in 1977 and on May 16, 1981, Pattie married Richard Caruso in Los Angeles. Pattie passed away on Sept. 17, 2017, at her home in Palm Desert, Calif. Richard Caruso passed away on Oct. 27, 2017, which was about five weeks after his wife had passed on. 

Pattie’s final request was she wanted to be buried near her mother and grandmother at Olivet United Methodist Church in Lilesville Township. Her great-grandmother, Roxanna High Allen, is also buried at Olivet. 

By the way, Roxanna High Allen and my great-grandmother, Daisy High Deese, were sisters, so that makes me a distant cousin of Carson Daly. My grandfather on my mother’s side, Bennett Deese, would have been a first cousin of Carson’s great grandmother, Shellie Rose Allen Goodman. 

As early as 1996 I heard that a framed photo of Carson Daly hung on the wall at H&R Block Tax Services on South Rutherford Street in Wadesboro.  Clara Livingston Gathings was owner and office manager of the Wadesboro H&R Block and she was a daughter of Clara Allen Livingston and granddaughter of Roxanna High Allen. I saw Clara Gathings and asked her about the photo,a nd she told me that we were distant cousins to Carson through his mother. If it had not been for Clara Gathings, then perhaps I would have never known of my “kinship” to Carson. Apparently the older generation living in Anson County kept in communication with Carson’s mother.

Carson’s grandparents were Albert Olen Jones (1921-1995) and Katherine Goodman Jones (1924-1977). From ancestry.com, Albert Olen Jones was born July 30, 1921, in Mount Vernon, Ill. He married Katherine Elizabeth Goodman on July 11, 1942. Katherine was born 1924 in Stanly County. Katherine’s father, Van H. Goodman, was born in Stanly County in 1901. Her mother, Shellie Rose Allen, was most likely born in the Olivet United Methodist Church Community.

It’s amazing to me how these families connected from Stanly County and Mount Vernon, Ill., to the backwoods of Lilesville Township in Anson County.

Katherine Goodman Jones died in 1977 in Riverside, Calif., and apparently she desired to be buried near her parents at Olivet United Methodist Church in Lilesville Township. Albert Jones would remarry and continue to live in Riverside, where he died in 1995 and was buried at Riverside National Cemetery.

Carson’s great grandparents were Van H. Goodman (1901-1970) and Shellie Rose Allen Goodman (1904-1964). Carson’s great-great-grandparents were Joseph W. Allen (buried in an unmarked grave) and Roxanna High Allen (1877-1919) who is buried at Oliver United Methodist Church in Lilesville Township. 

On Saturday, March 31, 2018, Carson Daly and his relatives went to visit his mother’s grave and then ate a late lunch at Oliver’s Restaurant on East Wade Street in downtown Wadesboro.