Dr Emmet (McDonald) Starr
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=starr&GSfn=emmet&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=5690819&

Burial::
Woodlawn Cemetery
Claremore
Rogers County

1870-1930

Emmet Starr, the eldest son of Walter Adair Starr, was born in the Going Snake District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Both his parents were mixed-blood Cherokees.

Born December 12, 1870, in Going Snake District, Cherokee Nation, or in what is now Adair County, Oklahoma. His parents were Walter Adair and Ruth A. (Thornton) Starr, the former born at Cane Hill, Arkansas, and the latter near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. They were both members by birthright of the Cherokee Nation. The name Starr is of Irish origin, and Doctor Starr's great-grandfather, Caleb Starr, was a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, was a Pennsylvania Quaker, and early in life went south and married into the Cherokee Indian Tribe. Doctor Starr's mother was a descendant through her father from the Virginia Thorntons of English lineage, and on her mother's side was also of Cherokee stock. The forebears of Doctor Starr came to what is now Eastern Oklahoma prior to the year 1831. He is the oldest in a family of five children, and the other four were: George Colbert Starr, who while in discharge of his duties as a deputy sheriff was killed by a bootlegger or whisky peddler on September 20, 1912; Mary B. Starr, wife of Dr. Wade H. Vann, formerly of Porum but now of Cement, Oklahoma; Miss Lettie B., who lives with her brother Doctor Starr; and Joseph M. the mother of these children died when the youngest of them was about six years of age. The father married for his second wife Ella Christie of Christie, Adair County, and she became the mother of two children named Jennie and Caleb L. Starr.   In 1871 Doctor Starr's parents removed to what is now Rogers County, Oklahoma, and he grew up in that locality on a farm. His father was a very prominent man in the Cherokee Nation, and for fourteen years held the position of district judge. Doctor Starr was graduated June 28, 1888, from the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, and in 1891 took his degree in medicine from the Barnes Medical College at St. Louis.

Starr began gathering materials for his history of the Cherokee about 1891. For five years he practiced the profession of medicine but in 1896 began to devote himself to the full time job of becoming the Cherokee's historian. Even after Oklahoma statehood, Starr continued the preparation of his Cherokee histories.  He published four books  "Early History of the Cherokees," another "Cherokees, West," and a "History of the Cherokee Nation." He commenced the collection of material for genealogical and historical work early.

Emmet Starr was found dead in his room at St. Louis, Mo., Friday morning [February 6]. Dr. Starr was operating a book store at St. Louis, Mo., at the time of his death.

Dr. Starr's sisters who reside at Cement, Okla. and a brother-in-law, Wade Vann, instructed that the body be sent to Claremore and cared for by the Kaff-Musgrove Funeral Home. Dr. Starr never married and is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Mary Vann, wife of Dr. Vann at Cement and Mrs. Lettie Raspberry, also of Cement and one brother, Caleb, who lives near Hanson, Oklahoma.

Chronicles of Oklahoma, "Necrology-Death of Dr. Emmet Starr", Vol 8, No.1, March 1930, pg 129, available from <http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v008/v008p129.html> accessed 15 December, 2008.