This question may seem like it should have a fairly easy answer, but it does not. Dear God does it not.
TL;DR: Almost certainly not. Also, never cite Wikipedia.
Let me explain how I got to that conclusion.
So this has bothered me for at least a year now: on Knowles' google info page, it says he was married to a women named Beth Anne Dyment Hughes from an unknown year to 2001 (presumably to his death, but perhaps she died earlier that year).
Huh. She was never mentioned in his New York Times obituary, but perhaps they didn't mention her because she didn't 'survive' him?
So I look up Beth Anne Dyment Hughes.
At the time of writing, there are only 9 matches on Google for the exact words "Beth Anne Dyment Hughes", one of which is just an ID lookup site.
The other 8 are from such reliable sources as Famous Birthdays, multiple Prezi presentations presumably made by high schoolers, someone's LiveJournal post, an eye-hurting Weebly site, and one reply on a site called MovieChat 14 years ago responding to someone saying Knowles never married.
So uh. I wasn't convinced.
Especially since this recent short biography of him, which goes into quite some detail about his life and cites multiple journal articles about him/ASP, does not mention a marriage. It's not an obituary, so you would think it would mention a wife even if she died before him.
But all these..."sources" cite the same specific name, and most of them also include that he married her at 19. So they must all be pulling from somewhere. But...where?
Where did this information come from??
This is the reason high school teachers told you not to cite Wikipedia.
The LiveJournal post, which dates to 2013, cites only one source: Wikipedia. So I decide to look through every edit ever made to Knowles' page to find where this marriage is mentioned, and hopefully finally find the actual source.
The earliest (dated) mention I can find of Beth Anne Dyment Hughes comes from this Wikipedia edit made on May 13th, 2009, by an IP user without an account (though one who made quite a few edits to not just Wikipedia in general, but Knowles' page specifically) - who I'll refer to as "The Editor" for clarity.
The text simply reads "He married Beth Anne Dyment Hughes at 19." No source is cited.
On October 29th, the t is removed from "Dyment", so now her name reads Beth Anne Dymen Hughes. This change seems to be intentional rather than a typo, as the rest of the sentence remains the same.
On November 2nd, his Early Life is expanded on using "offline Yale records". This could potentially point towards Knowles' marriage being mentioned in records I cannot access, but the editor says that the records regard "educational details" and nothing more is added to his marriage, so I don't think this is the case.
On December 8th, 2010, The Editor changes her name back to "Dyment".
On December 15th, as a result of vandalism, the page is reverted to the edit before Dyment was restored, so now her name is Dymen again.
On February 17th, 2011, The Editor changes her name back again to Dyment.
On April 2nd, Beth Anne Dyment Hughes is intentionally (i.e. not as a result of vandalism like previous removals) removed from the page for the first time.
On April 26th, The Editor makes an edit to the page stating that John Knowles' parents were "Brian Callaghan (BCAL the boss)" and Selena Gomez.
On May 5th, The Editor again edits the page, this time stating that John Knowles' dad is "Mark O'Brien, an AE muscle head". This is the last time The Editor interacts with Knowles' page. They did not add back Hughes.
On June 17th, user Lofty abyss adds Hughes back to the page. The wording is the same, and their edit is labeled "rvv" - I assume "revert vandalism" - so I think they believed that Hughes' removal was part of the vandalism?
On November 20th, 2012, someone changes the sentence to say "He did not marry Beth Anne Dyment Hughes at the age of 19". The edit is reversed by another user less than an hour later, but the edit comment labels it "good faith" (i.e. not vandalism).
On October 20th, 2013, her name is simplified to just "Beth Hughes".
On May 6th, 2015, Beth Hughes is removed from the page again. The page was undergoing copy-editing by multiple users at this time, so this may have been a result of the fact that in the previous 6 years, no source had ever been provided to corroborate her existence.
Beth Anne Dyment Hughes is never re-added. The Editor has not edited Wikipedia since 2013.
There is no "actual" source. There never has been.
So why did I tell you all that?
That not-brief history was provided to make two points:
For the six years that Beth Anne Dyment Hughes was stated to have been married to John Knowles, no source was ever provided.
The Editor has clearly vandalized John Knowles' page, particularly the section on his early life, at least two times.
The only person who seems to have had any knowledge about Beth Anne Dyment Hughes clearly had no qualms about adding nonsense to his article for shits and giggles.
There is absolutely no evidence that Beth Anne Dyment Hughes is any different.
If John Knowles ever married - and I cannot find any evidence that he did, and trust me I have looked - it was not to Beth Anne Dyment Hughes.
I cannot find any evidence that a woman by that name ever existed. Other than Knowles' google info box, there has been no mention of her anywhere online since she was removed from the Wikipedia page in May 2015.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Top Posts Tagged with #lest the editor strike again... | Tumlook
