Oldest son of Andrew Kelly Falls and his wife, Irene Rhodes Falls, Clyde left Kings Mountain to join the US Navy in World War I. While waiting to ship to France from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, he met a young Irish American girl in Hoboken; Marguerite (Rita) Connors. She and her sister Helen double dated Clyde and his best friend Jimmy Weiss. Upon their return to the US following the war, the two friends married the sisters. Rita's father was so upset that she married a non-Catholic that he locked her in her room and demanded that no one in the family feed her. Her mother and sisters (she was one of 13) helped her escape down the fire escape and she and Clyde took the train to North Carolina. They lived in Kings Mountain for two years, returning to Hoboken late in Rita's first pregnancy because the doctor said she was homesick for her sisters. In 1921 their daughter Helen was born. In 1925, they had a stillborn son named John. In 1929, their son Robert Andrew, named for Clyde's favorite brother (lost in France) was born. Rita died of meningitis in on Christmas Eve,1936 at age 36. Within two months, her sister Helen Weiss followed her.There was no known cause for her death. The two Navy friends bought a large grave for their combined families. Clyde eventually married his wife's youngest sister, Beatrice. They had no children of their own. Retired from the US Navy (having worked as a civilian at the Brooklyn Navy Yard) Clyde died of a massive heart attack in 1954 while reading the newspaper in bed. He was buried with his first wife and numerous members of her family under the same stone in Madonna Cemetery, Fort Lee, NJ.
Link to 1900 Census showing relationship to Falls Family in Kings Mountain:
http://interactive.ancestry.com/7602/004117814_00158/50138192?backurl=http://person.ancestry.com/tree/101297619/person/350007731628/facts/citation/1000