Personal Life
York suffered from health problems throughout his life. He had gall bladder surgery in the 1920s and suffered from pneumonia in 1942. Described in 1919 as a "red-haired giant with the ruddy complexion of the outdoors" and "standing more than 6 feet...and tipping the beam at more than 200 pounds," by 1945 he weighed 250 pounds and in 1948 he had a stroke. More strokes and another case of pneumonia followed, and he was confined to bed from 1954, further handicapped by failing eyesight. He was hospitalized several times during his last two years. York died at the Veterans Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 2, 1964, of a cerebral hemorrhage. After a funeral service in his Jamestown church, with Gen. Matthew Ridgway representing President Lyndon Johnson, York was buried at the Wolf River Cemetery in Pall Mall. His funeral sermon was delivered by Richard G. Humble, General Superintendent of the Churches of Christ in Christian Union. Humble also preached Mrs. York's funeral in 1984.
York and his wife Grace had eight children, six sons and two daughters, most named after American historical figures: Alvin Cullum, Jr. (1921–83), George Edward Buxton (1923- ), Woodrow Wilson (1925–1998), Sam Houston (1928–1929), Andrew Jackson (1930- ), Betsy Ross (1933- ), Mary Alice (1935-1994), Thomas Jefferson (1938–72).
York's son Thomas Jefferson York was killed in the line of duty on May 7, 1972, while serving as a constable in Tennessee.
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