They met at jubilant festivities on May 8, 1945 when World war II ended in Europe. Ed was a newly-trained pilot in the British Royal Air Force and Elizabeth an ambulance driver. One can only imagine the delirious joy when the war, which had caused such damage to the English countryside and its people, finally came to an end after all those traumatic years of peril.
Ed and many servicemen from other branches had gathered at a pub in Liverpool and excitement ran high as they exchanged hats to celebrate the victory. Elizabeth entered the pub with her sister-ambulance drivers to join in the jubilation. After some time at that pub, they all went down the road to a place where there was dancing. Elizabeth was counting out her money for admission, when Ed came over to ask her to dance and within a two week period they were engaged to be married. That marriage certainly worked out well, as that couple is happily ensconced in Transylvania County in 2009.
Ed Tilston expressed his indomitable spirit with his answer to a comment that the war in Europe fortunately ended before he got into the fight, and that was lucky for him: "At the time, I didn't think so,because I was anxious to get into it. So, I immediately joined the Naval Air Force for service in the Pacific. I was probably the only one who was redundant in two services during the same war. In both cases, the fighting was over by the time I was through with the training, " Ed ruefully declared.
Ed and Elisabeth married in December, 1945, Elizabeth staying behind in England as she was pregnant with heir daughter, Jennifer, when Ed accepted a position in Brazil in 1946 as an inspector of incoming cargo on international freighters. When the baby was old enough to travel, Elizabeth left England on the last coal-burning ship for Fortaleza, North Brazil. Forteleza was the capital of the state of Ceara and a coastal city at the edge of the northern desert, a place of eternal sunshine.
"I had the owner's cabin aboard ship and when the time came to go ashore at Forteleza, the captain wanted to say goodbye to me. When I returned to get my baby daughter, I found that she had already been tossed down into cradling arms on a tugboat, since there was no dock to receive the ship;s passengers. When they told you to jump down to the tug, you just did it!" Elizabeth recalled.
Forteleza was an interesting place to live for two years with many new and exciting aspects for the young Tilston Family. As an added bonus, Western Telegraph had a beautiful place on the beach that was simply gorgeous with miles and miles of welcoming sand; and they used to invite Elizabeth and the baby to spend weekends there.
After two years and a spell of home leave in England, the family went to Sao Luis de Maranhao, where they saw their first shrunken head with red hair. They recalled that a red-haired young man had asked them to look after his mail when he was going into the jungle as a missionary and they were repulsed at the sight. Also, although their house was not really primitive, as it was nicely furnished and they had servants, there were big iron rings under the house where slaves used to be tied.
Their next post was Manaus, 1000 miles up the Amazon River, where Caruso sang in the beautiful opera house built at the turn of the century from proceeds of the rubber boom. The rubber trees grow haphazardly in the jungle, are tapped like Maple trees for syrup for a white substance that turns into a ball shaped like a football. Some rubber tree seeds were smuggled to Singapore, where the trees were planted in rows for easier harvesting.
After Manaus, they were stationed at Iquitos, Peru, which was 2200 miles up the Amazon. There were strong Army, Air Force and Navy contingents there and the Tilstons became close friends with Admiral Juan Francisco Torres Matos, the commander of the naval base and later co-president of Peru. There was very little English spoken in Iquitos, so the Tilstons learned to speak fluent Spanish, something that served them well.
Ed held various positions there: including Agent of Lloyd's of London, Correspondent of the Board of Underwriters of New York, Agent of the Booth Steamship Line, Agent of Panair do Brazil (Brazilian Airline); Fawcett Aviation Company (Peruvian Airline) and British Consul invested by the British Embassy in Lima, Peru.
The Amazon River carries freighters and even gunboats, the entire 2200 miles up that river. In fact, the Amazon carries more water than the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Nile, and the Rhine rivers combined and has 20% of the word's fresh water. The pressure of the current coming out of the Amazon into the ocean is so great that there is still fresh water 150 miles out in the Atlantic at the mouth of the river.
The Amazon has seven tributaries that are over 1,000 miles long each and is navigable all the way. About once a year, when the snow melts in the Andes Mountains in Peru, there is a rising of about 60 ft. of water that comes rushing down the river and helps carve out he deep channels. So, large ships are able to navigate the river all year around. However, they are careful not to stray outside of the channel and get stuck when the water level is low.
Everything to build houses in Iquitos was brought up by ship, including the doorknobs. The Tilston house was huge with a veranda running all around it, surrounded by heavy wire to keep out animals or anything else that might get in. Elizabeth said that the house had an indoor swimming pool and a billiard room; and Ed chimed in: "and The Ghost!"
"Oh, yes I saw the ghost, but only one time. We had just arrived at the house and were in a huge bedroom. It was a funny thing. I woke up at 2:00 a.m., wide awake, and put the light on and saw nothing. The next night, I did the same thing, as I awoke at 2;00. The third night I woke again and there was a man in a sitting position in a beautiful white linen suit. He wasn't looking at me, so I looked at him," Elizabeth revealed.
When asked if she was frightened at the sight of the man, Elizabeth answered: "No not al all. He was so peaceful. the next day I went up the street and told what I had seen. A man went in his office and said: "Yes, I think I've got a picture of that man." I looked at the picture and it was the man I had seen in my room. It turned out that the man had lived in the house previously and had died in it. It must have been at 2:00 a.m. when he died, so he came back to visit. The next night we moved out of that room and I never saw him again," Elizabeth said.
Adrian Edwin Tilston was born, July 25, 1955 in Iquitos and now lives in Sarasota, Florida where he is a computer programmer. From Iquitos the Tilstons went to the Peruvian capital of Lima, where they lived for three years from 1957 to 1959. They then moved to Port of Spain, Trinidad for one year, then back to England for a year. Then they made another move to the port of New Orleans from 1962 to 1963; and thence to New York City. Ed and Elizabeth became American citizens in 1969.
Jennifer and Adrian went to school in England, Jennifer to Roedean and Adrian to Rugby. They also attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where Jennifer was Queen of World Trade Week and given the key to the city. From New Orleans, Jennifer went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and then onto the Broadway Stage. Meanwhile, after Tulane, Adrian attended Pace College in New York.
Ed formed his own company in New York, Tilston Roberts Corporation, where he was a General Agent for Overseas Ship Lines. He represented many steamship companies, mostly government-owned lines such as Peruvian, Brazilian, Portuguese, Zairian, Indonesian, Pakistani, P. & O. of London, etc. When their ships called at U.S. ports they came consigned to his company and they then arranged for their cargoes (in and out), ordered tugs, pilots, berths, collection of freight, etc.
Elizabeth and Ed traveled around the world extensively, since it was necessary to visit the different government ship-owners. However, when the container trade replaced the general cargo trade of the government lines and business fell off, he closed the company.
"We lived in New York for a dozen years after retirement and then we were lucky enough to learn about Connestee Falls from one of our friends. We simply love Brevard and the friendliness of the people. We were so impressed on one of our first shopping trips when a Brevard shopkeeper took the time to direct us to another store that sold an item which he did not carry," Ed exclaimed.
The Tilstons live on top of a mountain where they have a breathtaking view of the countryside. They are surrounded by wildlife and Elizabeth recalls that they had a funny experience with red mulch. They had put three bags of the mulch outside and noticed one bag was missing after they returned from shopping. She couldn't understand why any one would take just one bag. She called the Security Department and they told her it was probably a bear that carried it off. The next day after they returned from another shopping trip, the found that another bag of mulch was missing. Then a hand-made broom that she was especially fond of disappeared from her front porch. She laughed and agreed that the bear probably needed the broom to spread out the mulch
Then, one day, she was sitting in her house and saw a big bear looking at her through the window. "He was eyeballing me and I was looking at him very calmly as I didn't want to move. I had called Ed to come take a picture of the bear, but the bear then got fed up with the whole thing and moved away, So Ed could only get a picture of his departing tail," Elizabeth recalled.
Since their retirement in Transylvania, Elisabeth has taken up pastel and watercolor painting, has knitted hundreds of prayers shawls for people in institutions, plus enjoyed many rounds of her favorite game of golf. Meanwhile Ed writes historical novels and has five of them published: Cape Bojator; The Gateway to Hell; Martin Alonso Pinzon, the mariner who preempted Columbus; The Route to Prester John; The Rape of Tawantinsuyo; and the Methuselah Legacy.
Ed is a very talented writer and has a tremendous facility with the use of the written word. His descriptions of scenes make the reader feel that he is present at the action and make the stories he writes come vividly to life.
Jennifer, the Tilston's beloved daughter, recently passed away and they would like to express their appreciation to the doctors, nurses, and staff of Transylvania Regional Hospital who showed Jennifer so much loving care and compassion during her terminal illness. The Tilstons were exceedingly impressed with the personnel at the hospital and how much the concerned care meant to their daughter and to them. Lorraine Miller Brevard
"A doorknob became a symbol to me," Brevard College's Associate Professor Barbara Boerner exclaimed as she expressed her philosophy of teaching. That came about when one of her students advised her sister to enroll in one of Boerner's business classes, assuring her it would not be boring since Boerner could even make a doorknob seem interesting!
That philosophy must have worked, as Megan Street, Brevard College Class of 2009, corroborated that assessment. "I loved her classes, as she is a great teacher. Her classes are discussion-based where you can express yourself as an individual. She definitely helped me out and I recommend her to all my friends, since you take something important away from each one of her classes," Megan said.
Barbara Boerner was born in New Jersey but moved to the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina when she was in the third grade. Even at that tender age, Boerner had already set her sights upon becoming a teacher and has spent most of her working life in that field. either as a teacher or as an administrator.
She started teaching at a girls private school in the North Hampton area of Massachusetts, and then at the Madeira School, an independent private school for girls in McLean, VA. near Washington, DC. She also served as Dean of Admissions at Gaucher College, outside of Baltimore. MD.
Boerner completed her undergraduate work at UNC-Greensboro, majoring in History and Science. After she received a national science grant to study the physical sciences, she continued her education and received her masters degree at Loyola University. She is now completing her work on her doctorate in international business.
Boerner's parents came to the United States from Europe to escape oppression there.; Even though they could speak ten languages between them, they insisted that English be spoken at home. Her parents put a high value on learning and that an education was of utmost importance, since it was something that could never be taken away from you. Barbara took this advice to heart, and spent most of her life either in learning, teaching, or in school administration leadership.
Her father did insist that she spend one year working for a large corporation in order to familiarize herself with that phase of business. So, she did spend that year as an employee of Western Electric, which was her father's company, and got her feet wet in the corporate world.
After her work as Dean of Admissions, Boerner felt that was enough school administration and started to look for a place to retire. Since her sister had property in the Transylvania area and her brother was located in Asheville, she turned to this mountain area as a place to settle down.
Boerner spent ten happy years living in a log cabin on Round Mountain, southwest of Brevard. She then decided to build a home at Glen Cannon, closer to Brevard College, and enjoyed the beauty of the forests and carefree days playing many rounds of golf.
Barbara Boerner laughs and says that it was actually her dog that got her involved with Brevard College. "My dog was a big lab mix and she needed manners. At that time, Brevard College was offering a dog obedience class through its Continuing Education Program. So, we signed up and my dog loved going to school but she didn't do very well. So, she had to take several terms and during that time I got involved with the college
"That was during the period when Brevard College was transitioning from a two-year to a four-year school, and the college asked if I would like to do a study on the gender balance of students. I wrote up my report and the college then asked me if I would be interested in coming to work to help implement the suggestions for action, since they were going through sustentative accreditation problems at the time and I had a lot of experience in that field. Of course, I said: 'Yes.'
"Then Brevard College asked me to teach a course; and then another; and finally I joined the faculty. I love to teach and they have a wonderful college and faculty here. So, I joined and it has been great." Boerner said enthusiastically.
What Boerner truly enjoys about her work is the scale of the experience at Brevard College. They keep their classes small, the faculty gets to know the students, and the students know their teachers; so they have a good rapport.
Boerner says there has been quite a difference in Brevard College and its students since it became a four year program. They have many more majors now and have a strong core of liberal arts. They also have expanded into fields like lCriminal Justice and Psychology. Of course, college programs are dynamic and always reflect the challenges of both curriculum and pedagogy.
Boerner's program is The Ethical Business Organizational and Leadership Program. The course is three-fold: The ethical core of a business; conducting and sustainability of a business and its environment, and globalization.
"Students must realize they are working in a global economy now and be prepared to function and succeed in that environment," according to Boerner She also has a course which she calls: "Jungles for Sale:" which deals with international eco-systems, business ethics, effective communication, public speaking, and writing.
Of special interest to Boerner is the ethics feature of business development; something that is being added to almost all new business textbooks. She feels that this phase of business is especially topical now after the recent excesses of some corporations and the golden parachutes awarded to the CEO's of companies with failing business records.
Boerner maintains that some CEO's completely missed the ball, because they were absolutely isolated from the general masses and their lives. She feels that corporation leaders have to be sensitive to the environment around them and that many did not fully realize that conditions had changed while they were busy running their corporations into the ground.
Brevard College has a wide range of students, both foreign and American, from all types of cultures, Many of the students are the first collegians in the family.
"As a teacher, I feel that I have to start each year with students having a clean slate. I never look up the records of their prior class performances. These students are considered legal adults at age 18. Iif a parent were to call me and ask me how little Susie is doing, I would need Susie's permission to discuss her work with her parents. We faculty members feel that we are working with the students as mentors, not as their judges," Boerner explained.
"As part of the tuition, Brevard College has an Academic Enrichment Program which is really an incredible asset and is an illustration of the sensitivity. Under this program, students can get tutoring or special help if they need it, free of charge.
"That's what I love about this place. We strive to teach the whole person through relaxed conversation. Personally, I feel that I also am constantly learning. Recently one of my students finally triumphantly handed in an assignment with the comment: 'Teachers like you, just keep after us,'" Boerner recalled with pride.
A sense of humor is tantamount to teaching, in Boerner's opinion, as it puts everything into perspective and lets the teacher loosen up on the need to control.
She did enjoy working in administration, but feels that it was a different type of venue. With administration you move away from implementation to planning; and Boerner feels very fortunate that she got back into the implementation.
"The faculty that is attracted to this place really likes to teach; and all of us carry on some degree of research and writing, but teaching is our primary love. Since we have a very active faculty, these instructors bring the value of their experiences back to the classroom.
"Going into teaching was a quality of life decision and I am thoroughly enjoying my life as an educator," Boerner summed up her life's work.
"Walks with dogs", is how Heide Coppotelli categorized herself, but she is much more than that. Her love of animals, especially canines, is just part of this remarkable woman. She is a highly educated Duke University Ph.D., an accomplished writer and philosopher; and she is a caring human being who has a deep love of justice, humanity, and the Transylvania mountains.
Born Heide Arndt in 1944 in the Harz mountains of northern Germany, she and her younger sister immigrated to Chicago, Illinois with their parents in 1956.
"My father was a journeyman electrician and he was my mother's rock; while my mother was a bookkeeper and his siren. She was the adventuress who instigated the plan to cross the ocean with nothing but her husband and two young daughters," Heide Arndt Coppotelli reminisced.
The Arndt family put a high priority on education. Heide attended the Chicago public schools, where she learned to speak English. She also began college in Chicago, studying biology. However, her formal education was not completed until after she was a married woman with a young son. She received her B.A. from New College in Sarasota, FL and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University in psychology, with a specialty in clinical psychology. She later taught college courses in that field.
Coppotelli was determined to attend Duke because their graduate programs in clinical psychology were dedicated to an eclectic approach that incorporated anthropology, biology, and other disciplines into psychology. "I thought that was important, and though they were known to have a tough program at Duke, I figured better tough up front than stumped later," Coppotelli asserted.
After Coppotelli completed her residency at the VA in Tampa, Fl, she went into private practice in Jacksonville, FL where she became known for working with the traumatic stress that accompanies tragic circumstances. There she also founded one of the first critical incident debriefing teams in the country.
Only a few weeks after the debriefing team became operational, Jacksonville endured a workplace massacre that cost 10 lives and many more injuries, and her team of specially trained firefighters, police officers, and a few mental health professionals spent hundreds of hours in the service of first responders and survivors of the disaster as they dealt with the impact of that traumatic event. It was in trauma response work that Coppotelli first began to incorporate her dogs into her work as a clinical psychologist.
"You might say that the more I worked with people in desperate situations, the more I longed for the companionship of dogs, not only for myself but also for the people who were suffering. I made up my mind to search for a good dog, and as life would have it, I promptly found myself with two of them; a young German Shepherd puppy (Hope) from a guide dog breeding program and a young adult White Shepherd (Maya) who was found drowning in a creek and who needed a home.
"From the beginning, these two dogs accompanied me in my practice as a psychologist and formed a part of my life, from listening to overwrought victims of tragedy to hiking for hours in wilderness areas. To be honest, it is they who shaped my life from then on much more than I did myself.
"Accompanying me to a debriefing of police officers and firefighters in the aftermath of a tragedy, they would walk the circle of men and women who shed tears few people ever witness. Maya would stop to rest her chin on a knee, Hope would lean against a leg, and burly officers laid their heads against the dogs' ruffs. In the company of my dogs these men and women were able to lay down their burdens and express their grief.
"These kinds of experiences became a turning point in my career, as I discovered how much the dogs had to offer, and how much we humans have left to learn. Maya and Hope were remarkable therapists, Coppotelli revealed.
These experiences led Coppotelli to close her private practice and move to the mountains in hopes of establishing a training program for dogs who would work with people with disabilities or other pressing needs in a position of partnership and in the context of family.
"My objective was to train them to work with people with physical disabilities, but also with those who had mental disabilities, who were then, and still are, marginalized and underserved," she stated.
Coppotelli moved to the Transylvania Mountains in 1997. Growing up in the Harz Mountains, this area always had a real draw for her; and for years, she and her family had come to Pisgah National Forest to backpack. So when she decided to make a big change, simplifying her life and following her passion of working with dogs, this area was her natural choice.
"For some time after we moved here, I continued to work with my dogs as assistants in my work as a psychologist, especially in area nursing homes where the dogs brought joy and strength to people suffering the losses of health, home, family, and independence. Maya and Hope helped me to have critical conversations with patients about dying, about old regrets, and about painful frustrations of being dependent on others.
"The dogs offered encouragement and support for enduring pain and for finding purpose in trudging forward. Picture a big German Shepherd snuggled in a hospital bed alongside someone lonely and frail, providing a transfusion of hope. Along the way, I lost my beloved Maya to cancer; but true to her name, Hope remained the light in my life that helped me to carry on," Coppotelli said.
"It was Hope who was at my side the morning that we received the news that my son Tino had died in a heart-breaking tragedy. By nightfall, Hope and I had a much larger extended family, with my son's dogs suddenly in need of help.
"Those were the hardest of times, finding myself unable to continue to be the psychologist who helped people through their trauma and losses, as I myself wandered, numb and lost. It was the dogs who became my guides. Like so many dogs who touch our lives, they brought balance, wholeness, and healing.
"I had initially limited my work as a dog trainer and certified behavior consultant to serving as a resource and mentor to my son, whose journey of recovery from addiction took him to working with dogs. He was a natural at relating to dogs with a rare understanding of their minds and hearts, and I was inspired by his style of communicating with them. His love for dogs is the very heart of my work.
"After my son's death, the dogs helped me to complete the work he had begun before he died. Then, they accompanied me on a continuing, incredible journey of teaching people about their faithful companions," according to Coppotelli.
Coppotelli feels that dogs have to be reared - - not merely trained -- to know the roles, rules, responsibilities and limits of life in their family/pack. She says that dogs are their own beings, not little creatures in fur coats. They are domesticated members of their human families who need protection, guidance, inclusion, and consideration for their own needs and personalities. Dogs face many difficulties in meeting the challenges of the human world into which we have brought them.
In fact, Coppotelli stressed, most dog problems arise from shortcomings in human involvementa lack of adequate guidance and absence of understanding of the mind and behavior of dogs. The most misguided idea, she feels is that what a dog needs most is a boss.
What dogs need most is to be allowed and helped to play a meaningful role in the lives of their people. We need to be willing to be there for them; to guide them, not just to train them. If we will let them, they have much to teach us, Coppotelli explained.
Her own dog family has grown and changed over the years. Hope died a year ago, but not until she had helped to train Teddy, the rescued German Shepherd who now wears the service harness on which Coppotelli leans for support.
"Looking back over my life with dogs, I am altogether enormously fortunate and grateful to have known so many wonderful dogs, including those who have followed along with - and often guided - my own steps," Coppotelli concluded.
Nestled within a couple miles of each other, near the border where North Carolina meets South Carolina, live many descendants of the early settlers of the Transylvania mountains. Some family members migrated to other states in quest for employment, or through marriage to a non-Carolinian, while others followed the lure of adventure to distant lands.. However, the clarion call of the mountains has summoned many of them back to their birthplace,
Ruby Robinson Skerrett, who will soon turn a hearty ninety-one years of age, lives in a one-hundred year old cozy and attractive home, across the street from her son, the Rev. Oliver Skerrett, Jr., a Baptist minister.
Within sight is the former general country store and Exxon gas station which Ruby's father, Bunyan Robinson, opened for business in the early 1920's. The original small wooden Cedar Mountain post office was next to the store and run by the Skerrett family. The original post office building is no more, but memories linger in the minds and hearts of those folks that facility served for so long.
"My daddy gave that old post office building away, and I wish he hadn't. but the building that housed the country store remains," according to Oliver, Jr.
Ruby Skerrett is remarkably hale and hearty, has a keen mind, and still drives her car around the mountains. Small in stature, but large in spirit, this remarkable woman embodies the traditions of the closely-knit mountain families
It all started with the large Jones family, with its many sons, daughters, and their descendants. They are a part of the huge Allison-Deaver family. whose recent Brevard reunion inspired a documentary film produced by PBS. The Skerretts and their kin cling to the mountains that are so close to their hearts.
Ruby Skerrett's father, Bunyan Robinson, was a well-known member of the small Cedar Mountain community. In fact, when neighbors went by his place, they would greet him with "Hi, Bunyan"; and that is what they called the general store that he built and ran for so many years, according to his daughter Ruby.
Bunyan was an inventive, creative man who installed the area's first electric light. Aided by the power of a surplus generator, the store had one light bulb that shone in the otherwise dark community He ingeniously would plan just enough fuel to keep the light on for a short time after he closed the business each night. Then when the fuel was depleted, the light would go out by itself.
Bunyan's only child, Ruby, was born in April, at the time when the 1918 flu epidemic swept the world, even afflicting the hearty Transylvania mountain families. Her mother successfully conquered that scourge which killed so many people across the globe.
The nearby state park, the DuPont Forest, was formerly known as Buck Forest and was home to Skerrett's ancestors. Ruby's grandfather lived and farmed near the magnificent High Falls in that forest. "It had rather poor land for farming, but it produced enough food and animals, to keep the family fed, according to Oliver, Jr.
Among the tales told about the early Jones boys, Oliver recalls that of Harlan Jones who hid in a cave for about a year to evade the draft during World War I. He eventually surrendered and enlisted in the service where he was stationed in Sevierville, Georgia.
"The cave has a large room and you can go through a tunnel to another room, It was called "Harlan Jones Cave" for a long time, and later referred to as Moonshine Cave during the prohibition era," according to Oliver.
Ruby Skerrett graduated from Brevard High School and Brevard College and went on to Greenville, South Carolina to work at the First National Bank during World War II. While attending a USO dance in Greenville, she met the man she would marry: Oliver Skerrett, of Yonkers, New York. He was stationed at the nearby Greenville Air Force Base; and, although he had enlisted in the air force, he was suddenly transferred to the army during the perilous days of the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He was part of General George Patton's army that swept through France and Belgium, but luckily was never injured during that conflict.
Upon her husband's discharge from the service at the end of the war, Ruby and her young son Oliver, Jr. moved to New York state. Meanwhile, Bunyan Robinson missed his only daughter, Ruby; and when he offered the young couple the general store in Cedar Mountain they happily moved to the mountains of Transylvania and ran that store and adjoining post office for over thirty years.
"It was fun running the country store, but it could get pretty lonely during the winter months when there were few customers, But, as the postmaster of the old wooden post office next door there was a lot more activity and I generally got to know a lot about everybody's business," Ruby ruefully remarked.
The original post office was eventually replaced by another one across from the present Grammy's Restaurant, where Skerrett also acted as postmaster The post office was moved once again and is the present modern brick building which is a couple miles to the north of the former post offices.
Ruby has four children: Oliver, Jr., Rick, Rita, and Ameran. Her son Oliver has four children: Dawn, Angela, Jonathan, and Stefanie, Her son Rick has a son Craig. Her daughter Rita has two children: Robbie and Erin; and her daughter Ameran has two children: Meredith and Lauren.
Oliver Skerrett, Jr. is a Baptist minister and has his doctorate from the Southeastern Seminary. When asked how he chose to be a minister, he replied: "You don't choose to be a minister, it chooses you." And, that's right, when a person receives the calling.
Rev. Skerrett has pastored in Florida, on the East Coast of North Carolina, in Hendersonville, NC, and in the state of Virginia. "I found that people are about the same, wherever you go; but it was amusing to me that the Virginians were so intrigued by my mountain accent," he said.
His Virginia church was built in 1774 before the United States became a nation. It had the unusual name of Pamonkey Church as it was named after the Indian tribe that had lived in that area. The old building was built out of sturdy bricks, had big planks to bar the doors from the inside. and an upper room where the slaves could worship. "We changed that room into a balcony and now everyone worships together," said Pastor Skerrett.
Oliver Skerrett also did tool and die work as a side line and has written a book about pastoring which is now in the process of negotiation with publishers
There is much humor and good-natured bantering, punctuated with laughter, during conversations with Ruby and Oliver Skerrett, as they are content with their lives and feel that the Transylvania mountains present the best in living and spiritual fulfillment.
Three sisters, still living in their own homes, doing remarkably well, and all in their nineties! That's worth looking into!
The life of Dixie Jones Lane, the middle sister, is a great example of aging gracefully. Well into her nineties, Dixie gardens, keeps house, still plays a sharp, weekly game of bridge, and - as she puts it - "I still have a few of my marbles left."
Ninety-six year old Lane said that somebody remarked that the sisters may have lived that long because they were active youngsters and ate organic food while growing up. "But, who knows? I don't think we need all these chemicals and things, and I don't think they are progress, I think they are a hindrance. But we can't do much about it, can we? My sister Vera Stinson, is remarkable at 98 and my younger sister Annie Wickcliffe is 92 and can remember things better than any one," Lane confided.
Lane is the daughter of Solomon Jones who had eleven children, five sons and three daughter surviving childhood. The Jones family lived along the border of North and South Carolina where they owned 165 acres of land and played a prominent role in the history of this area. If you trace way back in time, the mountain natives are almost all related to each other in some way, and the Jones family is no exception.
"Having a large family is a blessing. In fact, there is no greater blessing than to sit down at the table with 10 to 11 people. We worked and played hard and when we sat down to meals, we ate whatever we had. My dad would say: 'If you don't like something, you don't have to eat it. But your mother has worked long and hard to prepare this meal, so don't make any remarks,' We always had plenty of food to eat. It wasn't gourmet, by any means; but I thought it was," Lane reminisced.
Lane feels that part of the problem with families today is that they don't sit at the table for meals and discuss things. "The mothers don't cook much, and I can understand why. The dads are out of the house and are not part of the communal meals, either. The children don't exhaust their energy and whip up their appetites by working and playing outside. "They stay in the house and play with their computers, instead; and I think that's the reason they are not hungry and pick at their food," Lane commented.
"We had a great family and a remarkable mother and father. Although times were tough and there was an unending number of chores, my mother never complained. She was so happy. My dad was so good to her. He would help her out whenever he could. We didn't have money. To tell you the truth, I didn't know you had to have money! Even now, money doesn't mean that much to me We just had each other. We still are all family and stick together," Lane remarked.
Discussing behavior, Lane said that during the first half of the 1900's children did as they were told, out of respect. "If my dad had told me to go out and stand in the middle of the street, I would have gone and wouldn't have asked why. My dad disciplined the boys and my mother disciplined the girls. When they said: 'Do it", we did it. We were much happier than the children of today. I feel that children really want discipline and that is the way it was meant to be. You learned that your parents had more sense than you did!" Lane said.
When the conversation turned to the many present day catastrophes: floods, earthquakes, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and droughts: Lane wondered if the Bible was fulfilling its predictions and we are in our latter days.. But, thinking about it, she added: "Of course, nobody knows but the Good Lord. And the drought which we are now experiencing also happened in 1925 in the Southeast, but things later came back to normal. So, who knows?
"For years, around 1925, it was dry, dry, dry. I was 12 or 13 years old at the time. I can remember folks wouldn't let us sing the song: "It ain't going to rain no more, no more," she recollected with humor. "In fact, I heard my husband's father say that the Chattahoochee River dried up so much they had a small turnip patch on the side of the little creek, barely one foot wide, that was left.
"In fact, I remember that drought so well here in these mountains at that time. We used to get our water from a spring near our house and it dried up. We had a spring house with a trough where the water went all the way through it. That's where we put our butter and milk because it was such cold water. In fact, you couldn't bathe in it. We'd catch the water and let it warm up before we got a bath.
"But when the drought came and our spring dried up, we had to find another spring about 1/3 of a mile away from our house. I remember it so well because I had to carry all that water to the house in a bucket. By the time I got to the house, it was about all splashed out and I would have to go back and get another bucket! But lots of people were out of water and had to carry it different places. So the drought we are having now is not so strange. I've always heard, what goes around, comes around. There hasn't been as much rain as we used to have. I think that taking so much of the forest off the high mountains tops has done a lot of harm to the springs. I know I am conservative with my water now," Lane remarked.
When Lane was young, they used to live at a hotel at 'Caesar's Head,where her father was the postmaster. Many educated travelers stayed at the hotel and they taught the children a lot about life! At that time she went to the one-room schoolhouse at Cedar Mountain. It was a long way for a little girl to walk to schooll and her brothers said they wouldn't carry her there. So, she didn't start school until she was eight years old. "I later taught at that same school. In fact, I used to say that I was the teacher, the principal, and the janitor: the whole thing!" Lane laughed as she described the situation.
After Lane took the job, she told her brother she didn't think she could do it because there were seven grades to teach. So, he sat down with her and showed her how to do it. He said: "Now, you'll take the third grade students and have the second and first graders sit with them and have the the younger ones learn from them And then you will arrange the rest of the school the same way:. "So,they all learned each other. They were great kids and were not trying to get out of learning. I loved those children dearly and they loved me," Lane recalled with pride.
When she was a young lady living in Decatur, Georgia, she met her husband, Curtis Lane, on a blind date in Atlanta. They were immediately attracted to each other and Curtis said: "I want to take you back to your home on the 4th of July." And I answered: "I already have plans. I have a date for that time." But he replied: "Well, I would suggest that you cancel that other date, because it would be strange to have two men there at the same time, and I am coming, anyway."
Dixie dated Curtis for six months before they married and she felt that they knew each other pretty well because they had a date every night. Since he played softball for Chrysler Motor Company, they had a lot of friends on the team. They would go to downtown Atlanta to the Varsity Club to see Nipsy Russell, the entertainer, who was often their waiter. Curtis then went to work for the post office , using the trolley or a bus for transportation. Later he was promoted to supervisor of the incoming mail at the Atlanta Post Office.
Lane's children, Nancy and Barbara, were born in Atlanta where they went to high school until Nancy's last year. The family then moved to Decatur and Nancy attended Druid Hills High School. Lane would chaperone the kids on trips to Daytona Beach, Florida and Savannah, Georgia. "I would say: 'Now, you make your own rules; but you've got to go in pairs wherever you go and you have to be back in bed by 1:00. One girl said she wasn't coming in at that time. So, I told her:''You know, there's a bus leaving at 9:00 in the morning; and, if you don't get back by 1:00, you'll find yourself on it.' She was back by 1:00!" Lane related
When her husband Curtis retired, her brother Joe Earl and his wife, Blanche, let them come to live in their garage apartment near her old homestead.. Joe Earl and Curtis have both passed, but Dixie and Blanche are best of friends and dearly love each other.
Nowadays, Lane is known by many as the "Dahlia Lady', as she has grown such magnificent specimens for years. In fact, there are long even rows of stakes planted in front of her home where these flowers. grow. Lane explained that the bulbs usually do not freeze in her garden and do not have to be dug up and replanted each year. However, they do multiply and it is necessary to separate the clumps every two to three years. Replanting the new clumps increases the plants and her garden keeps getting larger.
Lane is interested in current affairs, has a positive outlook on life, and embodies the strength and spirit of the local mountain women. She is a fountain of information about the old days in this area and is an inspiration to younger people. Each 4th of July her grandsons and their families, who live in Pompano Beach, Atlanta and Cincinnati, come to visit and are welcomed home, as there is a deep and abiding love and kinship between them. They are all drawn back to the mountains which they love so much.
Born a Smucker, she became Barbara Anne Liggett when she married her college sweetheart, Bob Liggett. "I'm fourth cousin once removed from the Smucker Jelly president; no beneficiary, but I do make our own jams and jellies," Barbara said.
She was born March, 1938 on a farm in Northwest Ohio, the same place her dad was born. Her mother died when she was a year and a half old, "So my father and I went to live with his parents in a rural town a mile away," she related.
January 1, 1942, Alma came from Minnesota to work at a small airfield nearby Needing a place to stay, she rented a room from Barbara's grandmother for $8.00 a week, including meals. "That year, for my birthday, she gave me my first book and read stories to me. I don't know if that was to amuse me or to snag my father," Barb recalled. Red Smucker and Alma married August, 1945 and continued to live there until five years and four babies later. Barbara's family then moved to the farm.
Barbara attended Capital University in a two-year teacher program. By the end of this course, Bob was a senior and ready for graduate school where he earned a M.S. in Bacteriology at the University of Cincinnati.i. They married that fall. Barb taught 2nd and 3rd grades in Cincinnati public schools for four years. "This was a learning experience for me as much as for the students, who were either African American or Appalachian," Liggett said.
At that time, the Liggetts lived in a suburb of Hebron, Kentucky; however, their dream was to live on a farm some day. Their son, Robin, was born in 1962 and the family moved to a 117 acre hill farm that same year.. The county seat, Warsaw, was five miles away and on the Ohio River "Although our house had many drawbacks, we ignored them; instead enjoying the beauty of the area and the isolation. Only four cars passed by during the day, and we knew who they were," Barbara recalled.
"We had a large garden and I canned and froze all our vegetables. There was a tobacco base on our farm and we grew it on shares. Mr.Reed farmed with mules and it was a thrill to hear the harness jingle early in the morning when he walked his mules up to cultivate the tobacco. When it was time to cut and hang the tobacco in our barn, we all helped," Liggett explained
Three years after moving to the farm, Heather Anne was born. When Heather started school, Barbara became a substitute teacher. This gave her an opportunity to learn about the people and the politics of the county. "I'd always been involved in Extension Programs since I was a kid in 4-H. Now, I joined the extension Homemaker Club and learned all kinds of skills, from reupholstering to decorating and needlecrafts," she said. (Barbara is now helping with a needlepoint project for St Philip's Church.) Throughout her years she's been a 4-H leader and held club, county and state offices in Homemakers.
"One of my passions is books and there was no library in our county. So, once a week I drove the children thirty-five miles to the nearest library, It was our day out for shopping and errands and books. I wrote a letter to the district director of libraries and about fifteen years later I was on the library board and a new library was built in our area," Barbara said.
When a job opened up through extension for an EFNEP (Expanded Food and Nutrition Program) , Barbara applied and got the job. She received nutrition lessons through the University of Kentucky and taught low-income women how to cook from scratch, and can and freeze vegetables from their gardens. In the summer, she held day camps for program family kids and recruited her own children to help out. With her connections in the school, it was easy to bring nutrition programs into the classroom, where nearly 50% were on reduced lunch programs. For this she won a state award.
There was no kind of agency such as Sharing House in the county, but the needs were the same as they are here in Transylvania. She proposed a project to start a food pantry with the minister of the Christian Church in town. He met with other ministers who asked their congregations for food donations which were then stored in his church basement; while Barb got volunteers to 'man the store' on Saturdays. This proved to be a big help for many people. At Christmas, she requested homemaker clubs and the Women's Club to give hats and mittens and toys for the program family children. More volunteers were recruited to help deliver the items. Barb worked in EFNEP for five years and then sold ads for the county paper for a few years.
Barb and Bob planned to build a house on the hill in their woods some day. "Finally, in 1978, we got a basement dug. We hired a local carpenter who framed the house with Bob and Robin's help. We finished it, with most of the work being done in the summers when Bob was out of school. Working part time, this took six years. By this time we had finished putting in the electricity and had all the floors and walls finished. That Christmas I stated that the tree would be up in the new house. Christmas is a happy time in our house, so the kids decided we'd be in the house, too," Barb related.
Three days before Christmas, when Rob was home from college, he talked his sister Heather into helping him move the furniture while Barb and Bob were gone to work. What a shock Barb had when she came home to see the pickup truck going up the rutted dirt lane, loaded with furniture. Heather was leaning into a marble topped dresser with all her 100 pounds.
"That night Bob and I slept on the floor next to the Jotul woodstove, our source of heat in our original house. Up the hill with no heat, Heather and Robin spent the first night in our new house. The next day, with the help of neighbors, we moved in, too. Our heat that first winter was from a Kerosun heater that the neighbors lent us," Barb remembered.
One day, soon after Bob retired from teaching, he asked Barb if she'd like to go back to school and get her degree. They had put both of their children through Transylvania University and now Barbara enrolled at Northeren Kentucky University and she graduated with a B.S. in Mental Health and Human Service. "This gave validity to all the things I had done without it," Barb said.
They spent nearly twenty years enjoying their house on the hill. However, gradually their quiet was invaded by increased noise from more traffic to the Cincinnati airport, the roar from a NASCAR track that they could hear although it was five miles away, as well as lights from a casino on the Indiana shore of the Ohio River punctuating the evening lights with its beams. Also, more people who didn't respect the land or other's property were moving in.
"We learned about Connestee Falls through a newspaper ad that listed places to retire. Barb's aunt and uncle lived in Naples North Carolina where she visited frequently over the years, first as a teenager and then with our family; but we had never been to Brevard. We made a trip to look at Connestee and loved Brevard. So, we went back home and put the farm up for sale and subscribed to the Transylvania Times to keep up with the area news. Each week we were thrilled to see all the things happening in Brevard and to read about all the volunteering that was going on," according to Barbara.
Finally, the farm sold in September of 2000 and the Liggetts moved to Connestee. A week later they read in the paper that Vera Stinson was going to demonstrate how to smoke apples at the Cedar Mountain Bird Migratory Festival. Bob was surprised because he had taught school with Stinson in Cincinnati forty years before. So, they went to the festival and Bob was even more surprised that Vera recognized him after all those years. When Barb met Vera Stinson and heard her stories, she offered to type them up for Stinson's book, "Stumbling Blocks Were Stepping Stones in Appalachia". Their friendship flourished and is alive to this day.
After her many years of service to her communities, Barbara Liggett declares that she is a :retired" volunteer and that she will now content herself by enjoying her mountain home with her husband.
Driving on US-276 from Brevard toward Greenville, S.C is quite challenging to the novice mountain driver because the road is replete with sharp curves and an almost constant uphill climb. However, about eight miles south of Brevard, there is a large area of flat land. There are several real estate agencies there, plus an overlook for the double waterfalls called Connestee Falls. This area has an interesting background and one person who can relate the stories is Michael Hendricks of Brevard. The Hendricks family has lived in the Transylvania area for several generations. His grandfather had a small business there where patrons could ride ponies. "The poor ponies would make about four or five turns around the area and then wouldn't want to go any further," Hendricks recalled with a laugh. Michael was born at the Transylvania Community Hospital when it was housed in the present Brian Center building His family owned a large yellow wooden house on the property which now is the Brevard Post Office. Hendricks had three sisters: one is a real estate broker, one teaches Lamaze, and the other is deceased. He also has a daughter, Mary who works at Doc's restaurant, and four other children. Hendricks graduated from Brevard High School where he played football "Instead of going on to college, I signed up for the Marine Corps and didn't further my education, which disappointed my father a lot," Hendricks recalled. Hendricks fought in Vietnam and is now a disabled war veteran. "I was standing quite close to a mortar dump and we just got through putting about 12 mortars into that pit when they shot a mortar right into the pit. The explosion was so bad that I lost about 60% of my hearing and am still on medication at the V.A. for injuries I got," said Hendricks. When Hendricks was discharged from the Marines in 1968, he came back to Brevard. "If you had your uniform on, you just stood out and people were throwing coke bottles, cursing, and spitting on you; all over, every where. I went for a long time worrying about how the returning Vietnam vets were treated, but I'm not going to worry about it, any more We did some terrible things over there. War is an atrocity and I'm not for it, but I'm for the warriors. Thank God, we've got them," Hendricks said He couldn't find a job in Brevard upon his return from the military. So he took a job at Sea Pines in Florida as a salesman, selling lots in a new development Realtec was building. This company was owned by a Florida man called Stanley Whitcomb, who still has a house in Connestee Falls. Hendricks was part of a forty-man sales team when the company started developing Connestee Falls in 1971. However, he had been born in the area and had a lot of local knowledge. That's where the story of the large flat area on US-276 comes into the picture, as it was the staging area for the sales force and Hendricks is very familiar with what happened there. Hendricks walked around the area, pointing out various venues. "Before we moved in here, this was a big parking and "sparking" area. It was full of empty beer cans when we first took it over; which we cleaned up, of course. There was a beer garden on top of the nearby hill to the north in 1935-40. It is gone now, but the outhouse still stands there. Also, in the 70's there was a snack place up there run by a guy called Landreth Bagwell and later by a Galloway. Also, there was an old grist mill located at the falls, called Summey's Mill. "The county being dry at the time, there were whiskey stills in that area and we found about seven of them; that is, pieces and parts of them. We also found stones from log cabin fireplaces that had been built. Unfortunately, people starting taking the stones. Since we had about 4,000 acres, it was kind of tough to secure all of it," Hendricks related. That entire old parking lot was used by the sales department at the inception of Connestee Falls. They flew in prospective buyers from Florida and other areas every weekend. "There were times when we had 60 couples looking at the property for lots, and 55 of them would buy. We used to keep the parking lot well policed Every thing was carefully manicured and the food was the best. "We were constantly washing down the lot. One funny incident I remember was when one of our young guys got a five-gallon can of concentrated soap and started spreading it around the parking lot. I can still remember the glug-glug-glug sound as he walked along, emptying the can. He then tried to wash it down with a pressure hose. The more he washed it, the deeper the suds got until the suds were up over people's cars," Hendricks recalled with humor. They had quite a marketing effort as the program developed. At first, they used a trailer that looked like an interrogation room where they interviewed prospective buyers. The room just had a coke machine and they would bring coffee in for them. They later built a sales office up on the hill and several roundette buildings; one was used as a restaurant and others as housing for overnight guests. One of the main drawing cards was the presence of Eddie Arnold, the movie actor who starred in the TV comedy series: "Green Acres" with Eva Gabor. Many of the scenes in Arnold's movies were shot around Asheville and Brevard. The series also featured Arnold, the pig that could do so many tricks. "I asked Eddie Arnold how they were able to teach that pig all those tricks and he replied that they had about 12 to 15 pigs and each one could do a couple tricks," Hendricks revealed. Realtec hired a bunch of good-looking young girls from Brevard, dressed them up in fringed short skirts and boots, and had them drive the prospective buyers to the salesmen in golf carts so they could make their sales presentations. Then the salesmen would take the prospective buyers out to look at the falls. They started a ritual where the buyers would throw money down the falls before they started out on the tours. They would stand there and throw half dollars, quarters and dimes as far down the falls as they could throw them "After we were all through selling, I went down the sides of the falls with a metal detector and found $185.00," said Hendricks. The salesmen just followed the bulldozers on the new roads that were put in. They had plans for all four lakes and started with Ticoa, but were working on all of them. "There was a lot of earth moving going on. There was a huge wheat field where Lake Ticoa is now, near the old Batson Creek. The crew had standing orders to bulldoze the log cabins down and most were originally destroyed. The site for the old Batson home has recently been discovered. In fact, there will be a historical site grand opening there on the morning of August 9th, 2008 for the residents of Connestee. "While excavating for the lakes, we found an old carriage stuck in the mud, way down over its wheels. We tried and tried to pull it out, unsuccessfully; so we just covered it up with dirt, Many of the salesmen would just ride through the wilder areas on horseback, following the bulldozers as they opened up new areas. We had a map and we would show them where a lot was located. They originally set up thirty-two units, numbering the first lot in each unit with the number 1. I remember thinking, 'people buying those lots ain't never going to find their lot again, if they don't do something to mark them more carefully.' However, If people bought a lot they couldn't readily identify, we'd give them a time frame to come back when it was accessible. We didn't have that many people that were going to start building houses right away, as they were just looking to buy property at that time, We figured that was going to happen when we started selling the lots," Hendricks recalled. "It was never the idea to make it the retirement community it is now. It was originally planned with 1/2 acre lots as a summer place where young people could come and vacation in their cabins." Hendricks smiled as he remembered those days. The main dirt road coming in was originally called Johnson Road. It was later named Connestee Trail. The original tour was only about 10 miles long; although there are, at least, 50 miles of paved roads in the community at present. "One time, we broke out the Cherokee Dictionary and every one set down and started laughing and naming the streets. I said: 'Those people are going to hate us with those complicated names. Some of the names are not too bad, but some are almost impossible,'" Hendricks recalled with amusement. There were a lot of wild animals living there: bears, mountain lions, bobcats and such; although there were only a few deer at the time. (DuPont imported herds of deer and they migrated to the new area and multiplied where they were protected from hunting.) "There were plenty of rattle snakes and copperheads, but we ran most of them out," said Hendricks. One time, Hendricks was showing a lot to a prospective handicapped buyer who was in a wheel chair. The man wanted something flat; which is difficult to find in these mountains. However, when he was shown such a lot, they came upon a rattle snake which Hendricks killed with a little stick. The man was horrified and said that if he had known there were snakes, he wouldn't have looked at the lot. With good humor, Hendricks told him that each lot was only allowed one snake and he had already taken care of it. The golf practice range used to be where the tennis courts and the walking track are now. There also was a toboggan run down the side of the hill at that spot. Hendricks explained that it used to get much colder and that the many rainy days produced quite a lot of snow and ice. "We built a 300,000 gallon water tank near the first clubhouse. You could see the water splashing as it flowed over and filled up the whole building after a line freeze in 1976. Also, when the water tower was put in near Lake Ticoa, there were very few houses near there at the time. The pressure was so great, that those homeowners had to put suppressors on their lines," Hendricks reminisced as he toured the present area. However, the economy fell apart in 1973-74 and housing took a hit. They stopped building because people couldn't sell their houses any where. The economy was in a downturn with the Vietnam War, just about like it is now in 2008. After the marketing program closed down, Realtec sold some of those roundettes. However, one still remains and is still there in commercial use at present. Hendricks built his family one of the first log cabins in the development on Moy Toy Road. It had a wooden roof and wooden gutters; with a large fieldstone fireplace which he built himself. His five children were born in that house. His daughter, Mary, was the first child to be born in the community. The family drove them down to the main gate where they were picked up by the Brevard school busses to go to school. Hendricks says he was very lucky to be able to live there. Hendricks is now retired and spends most of his time fishing. He suffers the effects of the disability he received during his Vietnam service and has started a little project in retirement. He has an invention he has patented and is selling. It attaches to a fishing pole, vibrates when manipulated, and attracts fish. It is called "Grandpa Carl's Fish Caller." He can be located in the Transylvania phone directory on Island Ford Road, if anyone is interested in the fish lure. While touring the present day community, Hendricks remarked:"I think that, all in all, the people that worked here did a good job. What I see here now in 2008 pleases me, so much. We got it all done and were really doing our best. Now that so many people are living here, they all seem to be happy with it and that makes me feel good," concluded Hendricks. Lorraine Miller
They would never have met, if they hadn't both been in the service and stationed at Camp Gordon, Georgia (now Fort Gordon), at the same time. She was from Missouri and he was from Long Island N.Y., a good distance from each other. But, when they met, a romance started that resulted in a happy marriage of over 50 years!
Mary Urso was born Mary Geneva White in Southern California in 1936 during the Great Depression. "Jobs were not to be had, at that time, and Mama and Daddy wandered all over trying to find work. I can remember back to when I was three years old and we went to live with my great-grandmother in a town called Marshall, Missouri. That woman had raised my Mama, too," said Urso.
It is strange what children remember from their childhood, those events that made an impression and remained in their memories. "We lived in a tiny little house and my Daddy drove a "Cat". He knocked over trees and one killed a mother squirrel, leaving six little babies. So Daddy put the baby squirrels in a little box and brought them home. Mama raised them, feeding them milk from one of my dolly baby bottles. As they grew up, those little rascals got into everything in the house. Finally, my Daddy took them outside and let them free. I was about four or five years old and I cried when the little squirrels left," recalled Urso.
At age 72, bright and alert, Mary Urso now lives at the Brian Center in Brevard. Sitting in the social area on her floor, she needed no introduction as her welcoming smile immediately identified her as the person waiting to be interviewed.
Her spirit shines through with Christian acceptance of her physical limitations. as Mary is handicapped and uses a walker. But she has a very optimistic outlook on life and is a joy to visit with. Sitting, side by side with her, surrounded by several people who were being served their lunches , she seemed in no hurry to be served her food. She eagerly started a friendly conversation, her brown eyes sparkling as she spoke.
Urso smiled as she related that she had cataract surgery on her one eye the past Friday, and she can see much better now because every thing is so much brighter. She apologized for interrupting our conversation while the aide administered her eye drops. Mary will have the other eye done soon and is looking forward to it, as she wants to be able to read and do her embroidery. Her spirit is strong and she is determined for her health to improve.
Urso is eager to talk about her life experiences and starts right in with her story. "I was born Mary Geneva White in Southern California in 1936 during the depression time. I can remember back to when I was three years old and my Daddy and Mama wandered all around seeking whatever jobs they could find; but jobs were hard to find So, although my dad was from California, we went to my mother's family in Marshall, Mo. to live. We stayed with my great-grandmother who had raised Mama," Mary recalled.
Urso had an aunt who had been in the U.S Army driving an ambulance during World War II. Mary was very impressed with that adventure; and, although she kept it a secret, her ambition always was to join the service, also. As soon as she was eighteen years old and of age, she did just that. She joined the service, just near the end of the Korean war.
"I went through all that eight weeks training, you know. I was crawling on the ground, getting into fox holes with bullets flying overhead, to end up as a Medical Technician, which is really a glorified nurse's aide. I was at Fort Houston in Texas and then at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Then I went to Camp Gordon in Georgia," Urso reminisced.
Then came the coincidental meeting which was to change Mary's life, as her future husband was also based at camp Gordon,where he typed the records of who was present and who was AWOL, she related.
"The ward that I worked on faced the front door of the ward where he worked. It was the last of May, or early June, and I was at the back door taking a little break. It was oh, so hot. There was hardly any breeze. Down the road came this really green '49 Ford and stopped. So I really looked at the man who came out because I had never seen such a man like him before. He was about 5 ft. 3" or, maybe 5 ft. 4". I was used to men who were five foot ten or more - big men, you know; and I thought he was so cute
"I got to where I would always be at the back door when it was time for him to come up there. I didn't know him but I kept watching him. Then, one day a group came down from Washington, D.C. to check our barracks. They didn't want any one in the barracks when they went through I was working the night shift from 11:00 to 7:00 a.m. at the time. So, that day my best friend asked me if I would go on a blind date with her, her fiancé and his best friend. So, we went; and I didn't know it was going to be "HIM!". But, there he was, the one I had been watching," Mary smiled as she told of meeting her future husband.
Matters progressed a a rapid rate. "I said: 'How do you do? My name is Mary Geneva.' I didn't know what else to say. We went swimming on a picnic. I had to borrow a swim suit. I was a big girl at 5', 8" and measured 40-28-40. I was solid, but not fat at the time. I didn't know how to swim. but I could float so that's what I did. We then went out on a Friday and he said: 'Would you take a chance and marry me?' I took that chance and said: 'yes'. It was a good match. We both had a good sense of humor, were old fashioned Christians as we were both brought up in the faith, and we were married for 51 years, We had our ups and downs, like all married folks, but we made it," Urso reminisced.
Urso explained that she had signed up for a four year hitch, but when she became pregnant after their marriage, she was no longer able to stay in the service. They eventually had five children in all. The children were mostly named after family members, some of them relating to Urso's Italian heritage. In order, the children were: Giovanni for her husband's father, but they called John. Then, a daughter was born called Tina. Frank didn't want any of the children named after him, but Mary named the next son Thomas Frank, anyway. Then came daughter Judith Marie, followed by the last child, Wayne Peter. Mary explained that she and her husband were both great John Wayne fans and thus came the name Wayne.
After Mary and Frank left the service. they started moving all over the country. One of their homes was on Long Island, New York; where they opened a bakery shop. Frank was an Italian baker who was famous for the delicious bread he baked. He made cannolis, donuts, pastry, bagels, rye bread, White Mountain Rolls, and Tiger Rolls. He really worked hard, starting his ovens early in the morning to have his wares ready for sale when the store opened. "I helped him all I could. He baked and I cleaned up the mess after him. I was carrying my daughter Judy at the time," Urso recalled.
Their traveling ways continued as they moved to Cumberland, Virginia. They bought a long strip of land, five acres in size. "We cut our way through the trees, right up to the top of the hill. There, we pitched a tent while we were building our cinder block house. The kids loved living in the tent, as they thought we were camping. We lived like that for eight months while the house was being built.
"Frank got a job as a machinist. But when that job ended, he went to work for the Biggs furniture people, who built reproduction furniture The company had contracts with Monticello for building reproductions. However, the furniture was high price because it was all made out of mahogany. My husband was building Benjamin Franklin Roll Top Desks. We got one for ourselves and it had all kinds of secret places to put things. We never told the kids about the secret hiding places because that is where we kept our papers. Afterwards, we sold the cinder block house and started moving again from one place to another," Urso explained.
"We finally moved to South Carolina to the Greenville area. He became a tutor there for people who couldn't read or write. A young man came to him, asking him to help him because he had a job at the hospital and needed to be able to read. So, Frank taught him, right from the first grade and on up to the high school level. This worked out so well that he taught several men to read and write and they all became good friends. The State of South Carolina honored the high school students who he taught for their success; but they also honored Frank with a plaque as a master tutor for illiterate people," Urso explained with pride.
"Unfortunately, Frank died the year before last from heart trouble. At the end, he was in a wheel chair because he was passing out all the time. I was gaining weight and I was not in good health, myself. I was suffering from heart trouble and had to have open heart surgery. But, I developed a bad infection, because I was allergic to the surgical metal they used during the operation. I couldn't stand the surgical metal they used. They had to open me up again and take out all those copper wires and other metal, while removing part of both of my breasts," Urso explained.
I was in the hospital in Greenville at the time. However, they brought me to North Carolina to the Brian Center. The doctor told me I had to lose weight before they could operate, because I weighed 365 lbs. So I lost 100 lbs, and I said to the doctor: 'Now, can you operate?' and he said 'yes,' So, I went to Asheville to the doctor and he operated on me. But that wasn't the end of the problems, because then I got uterine cancer. Got that taken care of and got over that. But, there's no end to it. Now, I'm having trouble with the cartilage in both knees and they want to replace them. I'm not anxious to have more surgery. If I can get by with cortisone shots for the pain, instead of operations, I'm going to do that," Urso said with quiet determination.
Mary Urso loves music, according to Lorraine Mitchell, the Activities Director at the Brian Center. A group from the Brevard Music Center came over to entertain the patients at the Brain Center and Urso was so thrilled that she walked them to the door when they left, and said: "Thank you for bringing music back into my life." "So we took Mary Urso to the Porter Center to hear the music and arranged for her to go backstage to meet the musicians. It was one of Urso's moments of great joy," said Mitchell.
Urso is happy that her children are nearby, except for two of them. They come to see her and she seemed contented with her life. When asked about how she felt, she said: "I try to make the best of it, but now at 72 years of age, I just want to get along as best I can. I try to get as much out of each day as I can." Her strong faith and positive attitude have gone a long way in helping her to accept her illnesses and handicaps and keep up her good spirits.
You had to have been there that fateful morning of December 7, 1941 listening to the clipped words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the radio, to understand the reaction of the American people to the announcement that the Japanese had attacked our naval fleet at Pearl Harbor and practically destroyed all of it. We were well aware of the storm clouds of war that were gathering on the horizon and were apprehensive of what consequences might follow; but, we were not emotionally prepared for this stunning news. We sat there, listening in almost incomprehensible disbelief!
How could this be happening? Surely this was another Orson Welles "War of the Planets" hoax! But, no - it was true. While we were going about our business on a quiet day of the Lord, disaster struck and struck hard.
How could we have been so unprepared? Where were our early disaster warnings? Our country had been sending "Bundles to Britain in a feeble attempt to assuage their burden. Meanwhile, the industries of our great nation were hard at work producing military assistance. But, on that lazy Sunday morning we were caught asleep at the switch and we paid an enormous price.
Seniors who lived through those horrible times like to say that it was a "different" time in our history. And, it was! Betty Caccavale of Brevard talks about that period in our history and says: "The country was instantaneously united in a common purpose. There was a spirit that prevailed that will probably never be duplicated. We all pulled together, without complaint; and there was a nationwide burst of patriotism the likes of which we will probably never witness again."
The populace was immediately united in the fight, bore any restrictions or shortages without complaint, and was fiercely loyal to the government. Almost unanimously, people rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to help in any way they could. If they were privy to any government secrets, they kept their lips sealed and did not divulge any details that were relevant to the war effort, not even to their close friends and relatives. Signs were posted all over reminding us that "Loose Lips Sink Ships!"
During such an unexpected crisis, there is usually a numbing reaction that brings inaction. But, not in Betty case. The very next morning, bright and early at 8:00 A.M., Betty Hyatt was standing at the door of the Navy's recruitment center in Spartanburg, S.C. to enlist in the newly created WAVES organization.
The WAVES organization was so new that the staff at the Navy recruitment center in Spartanburg, S.C. had not even heard of it and were nonplussed at her request to enlist in that service, as legislation had just been passed for women to serve in the WAVES. (Women Accepted Volunteer Emergency Service). However, young Betty was fully aware of it and reacted quickly. When she finally convinced the recruiters that there indeed was a branch where women could enlist in the Navy, the recruiters called in a newspaper reporter to record the event as Elizabeth Hyatt, of Spartanburg, S.C., became the first woman in her state to answer the call to join the WAVES; although she was underage, having been born on January 6, 1923, and needed her father's signature for permission to join.
Betty Hyatt was the oldest of six children and lived through the Great Depression that hit not only the South but the entire United States. Youngsters worked in the cotton fields when the ripe bolls first turned white and children were dismissed from school to help with the harvest. Her family lived through those rough economic times, but Betty maintains that they never felt deprived. They enjoyed the outdoor life, attended nearby public schools and were faithful members of the Methodist Church. Life was full of prayers and bible study and was completely disciplined, but was accepted by the children as normal and enjoyable.
During the early years of the draft of young men, The Selective Service Act established in 1939, the South was suddenly inundated by thousands of young service men. Betty attended the special dances that were held for the soldiers at nearby Camp Croft; and it was there that she met a young infantryman, Philip Caccavale of Brooklyn, New York. Apparently, attractive Betty was a most desirable date but it was difficult to get her to agree to accept. One of Caccavale's friends had bet him $5.00 that he couldn't date Betty, but young Philip persisted and was able to get her to agree to go out with him. That is how the two first met, she from South Carolina and he from New York; although it was quite some time before a full-fledged romance developed.
After Betty joined the WAVES, special quarters and arrangements for this new feminine branch of the Navy were hastily assigned and her branch of the new recruits was sent to a training program at State Teacher's College in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
This followed a lot of firsts for Betty; her first train ride, first venture out of the state of South Carolina, and first time away from her family. The newly created WAVES were issued two sets of clothes; uniforms (designed by a famous European fashion designer, no less), a pocket book, shoes, and a hat, according to Betty, and they sent their civilian clothes back home.
They were resented by their male counterparts who did not appreciate their presence one bit, often were insulting, poking fun and ridicule at the women, and made life almost impossible, said Betty Hyatt Caccavale. The men certainly made it obvious that the women were not welcome. The new feminine branch had been touted as serving in the states in office positions to free the male sailors for active duty, and many of the "old salts" were quite antagonistic toward the WAVES.
"We went though the same basic training as the men had been subjected to and served under the same rules, except that we could not serve outside the United States. Being from South Carolina, I found the Iowa climate very cold while drilling and marching outside during the early morning hours. Our noses would drip and since we were not allowed to wipe them moisture would freeze on our upper lips. Early afternoons, we studied about the Navy and its traditions, learned about ships and guns, and were introduced to other completely new fields. In the afternoons, we studied and honed our typing, shorthand, and other secretarial skills," recalled Betty.
One of her experiences, which almost had her dismissed from the service, was the swimming test. Swimming was something that she had never learned to do and she had a deep fear of water. The male instructors were nonplussed when she was unwilling to swim across the pool and were considering having her dismissed from the service for noncompliance with an order. However, after she explained her problem and much consultation went on with her instructors, it was decided that she would be allowed to remain in the naval service even though she could not swim!
She and a small group of volunteers were transferred to Washington, D.C. for special secret service as cryptologists, to decipher Japanese secret codes. It was required that this group of cryptologists be fifth generation Americans to qualify for these positions, They had to swear oaths of secrecy before an altar, were constantly trailed by security, and were admonished not to divulge the nature of their assignments to any person. If questioned, they were to respond that they were working as secretaries to high positioned naval officers.
They worked around the clock, in three eight-hour shifts, and Hyatt found the swing shift difficult as sleep was often interrupted in the barracks with all the coming and going. At first, the work seemed very boring, as they would spend hours studying coded symbols in order to find repeated five letter words. However, after several months of promotions to more important positions, the work became more interesting.
A Japanese ship had been abandoned after it was set afire by the allies. The Japanese crew had orders for to burn all important papers before they abandoned ship. They set the papers ablaze and reported that they had all been successfully destroyed. However, when our forces boarded the remains of the ship they found an extremely important code book only partially burned and were able to retrieve it.
It was so vital to the war effort that an officer, dressed in civilian clothes in order not to be noticed, carried it across the country by train to Washington, D.C. Young Betty was ordered to appear in an office to meet this man. Upon arrival, she found that he was obviously an oriental and thought that the United States had been invaded. She started to put an important document she was carrying in her mouth, in order to eat its contents as she had been instructed. The officer convinced her that he was American and gave her the valuable book. It had only been superficially burned on one edge and was decipherable.
Hyatt and other staff members worked on that book for two days and two nights solidly without sleep, and eventually broke the coded messages. They then had access to all Japanese field messages and shipping orders. But, most important of all, they had the information on every enemy ship in the Pacific, who and what were on it, and its destination, which led to eventually shooting down the plane of Admiral Yammamoto. "The United States made it look like an accident that they had destroyed that plane, as they did not want to divulge that they had broken the Japanese code regarding its position Ten years later, Betty Caccavale received a citation from the President of the United States for her efforts on this project. Hyatt recalls that General MacArthur declared that breaking that code had helped shorten the war by two years.
Meanwhile, while she was stationed in D.C., Betty kept in contact with Phil Caccavale's Brooklyn family and made many trips to their home. Trips to the New York City were exciting and she became acquainted with the family's Catholic Italian style of living and eating. This was all new and interesting to a young Methodist girl from South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Philip Caccavale was serving in the U.S. Infantry in Africa, Italy and France. He was wounded twice, the first one being only a superficial grazing leg wound while in Italy. However, the second one was a very serious wound in France, shattering both of his elbows and peppering his feet with shrapnel. It was serious enough to send him back to the states for rehabilitation and Betty and Phil resumed their friendship which soon blossomed into a full romance.
At that time, the Navy was granting early discharges to service wives who were taking care of wounded service husbands, So, in February of 1945 Betty received an honorable discharge and the two were married in Brooklyn before a justice of the peace. By now, Betty was well integrated into Phil's Italian family and their way of living.
"From Cotton to Cotton" is the way Betty puts it, as she then got a good job on Wall Street, working in the Cotton Mercantile Exchange. Later, Betty and Phil started their own heating oil business in Brooklyn, which they ran successfully for 50 years.
Their obsession with travel started with trips to Florida, Cuba and Mexico, which they thoroughly enjoyed. After that, the travel bug really hit them, and the Caccavales enjoyed many trips to destinations around the world. When they decided it was time to retire from the Gerald Fuel Company which they both ran, they bought a place in Connestee Falls, N.C., bounded on three sides by a lake, which they enjoyed for twenty years. Phil finally had a spot where he could enjoy his beloved fishing and he was one of the six founders of the Connestee Fishing Club which now has over six hundred members!
However, the new owners of the heating fuel oil company in Brooklyn needed help running the business in the winter, so the Caccavales returned to New York each winter to help run the company for many years.
When it was finally time to retire completely, the Caccavales returned to North Carolina. Eventually, they decided to sell their Connestee home and move to Deer Run, just outside of Brevard to a lovely home on King's Creek.
Betty had been very active at the Brevard Methodist Church in N. Y. She worked hard for two years to keep it afloat while the church was getting a new minister, for which she received a special commendation.
The Caccavales are very proud of their two children. Robert and his wife Emma live in Highlands, New Jersey where he is associated with Time Warner. Their daughter, Clara Josephs, and her husband Jerry, live in Santa Ana, California. Clara has been honored four times as Teacher of the Year. The Caccavales have had a long, happy marriage, and even though they had diverse backgrounds they have found the secret to a contented lasting relationship.
WELL, the interminable campaign has finally come to an end. The mud-slinging, distortion of the truth (really out-and -out lying), the sordid polities involved in elections - they are over! Finally!
I won't have to go into my bedroom and close the door so I don't hear that Palin woman. Her pronouncements made my blood boil, hers strident voice was like fingernails on a blackboard to me, and I got so sick of Joe, the Plumber, I thought I would scream - or throw up!
This afternoon I had to go into Brevard to see the doctor, Apparently I am not in critical condition! Then,I stopped by the Democratic Headquarters where I got a very warm welcome. In fact, they have a big picture of me hanging on the wall - it pays to be a medium sized fish in a very tiny pond. Marshall McCallie is the county chairman for the Democratic party. He is a very impressive figure of a man, very capable - in fact, he has been ambassadors to African countries in the past. AND handsome, too - albeit he is one year younger than my son. But, I' not blind yet - and loved getting the big bear hug I got!
There was great excitement at the headquarters, as they prepared food for the crowd that would be gathering in the evening to watch the results of the election. McCallie agreed with me that it would be too hard on me to stay at their party and then drive up the mountain late at night.
So, I came home, fixed dinner for Russell and me, and settled down to watch CNN television for the evening. It started out rather slow-like; but the analysts were pretty confident of a Democratic Obama win. I watched the Whole thing!
When they announced that Obama was the choice for president, I felt vindicated for all the time and phone calls and emails I have sent out on Obama's behalf. McCain gave a very gracious speech accepting the defeat. It was the first time I have been proud of him. Palin didn't open her mouth, thank the good LORD.
What a crowd they had at Grant Park in Chicago on Lake Michigan. All the people were checked out, before they were let in. I heard that there were 150,000 people there. I believe it, I could see an enormous crowd of people. And American flags all over the place. There were young and old, black and white and yellow and red people, old ones and young ones, men andwomen. They were all happy and excited, but there was no problem behavior there that I could see.
Obama gave a great speech. Very inspiring. It was not: "I< ME< AND MINE. It was about YOU - US the citizens of this country. I felt so proud watching the whole thing. It showed how our people can come together and forget their differences. The faces of those in the crowd were priceless - happy,jubilant, and excited; and, most of all, proud.
Obama's wife, Michele and his two girls came on stage -as did Biden and his wife, then his family and his 90 year old mother. I know how she felt, in April I will be at that age, too.
I felt like I was a witness to one of the great moment's in the history of this nation; and I felt privileged to be able to watch it. I think we have turned the corner and hope that by working together we can dig ourselves out of this hole that the Bush administration has put us into.
As I watched, my thoughts turned to all my good friends who have cheered the cause along the way. I had a lot of supporters, I was not fighting alone.
My grandson, Gregory, called me from Maryland to express his joy; and I was so happy that he thought of his grandma at this particular moment.
It is now after 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, and this old lady had better get to bed. I'm all revved up - but happy, happy, happy. YES, WE CAN!
Although much has been written about the heroics of our U.S. Marines, Navy, Army, Coast Guard, and Air Force in World War II, very little has been known about the fighting men of the Merchant Marine. The Merchant Marine played important roles in combat, suffered many casualties, and, even took part in the Normandy Beach landing on D-Day during World War II. Mario "Lou" Guidette, (who is now 99-1/2 years old); lives with his daughter, Diane Tefft, in Connestee Falls and was one of those few Merchant Marine sailors who were part of that historic landing at Utah Beach. His fascinating story bears particular authenticity because he wrote a daily diary, although he was not permitted to do so. He wore it around his neck on a chain and faithfully recorded his daily adventures. To this day, in 2008, he still maintains that daily diary. Working in secret, defense workers were part of a government program in Detroit, Michigan at Hudson Motor Car Company for the U.S. Naval Ordnance Division, and were involved in the Engineering advance work on 20mm. Oerlikon Anti-Aircraft Guns, to be used aboard those Merchant Marine ships. Known as "Liberty Ships," these previously unarmed merchant marine ships were being sunk at an alarming rate on their perilous trips to Europe, carrying needed supplies to the French and British. They were routinely torpedoed by Axis submarines and sunk by airplane attacks. In order to maintain the appearance of neutrality, the U.S. Navy was not escorting Merchant Marine ships; however contracts were signed between the British Admiralty. the French, and the U.S. Government Purchasing Department to manufacture these 20mm's. on July 7th of 1941 at Hudson Motor Car Co. Each Liberty ship had two navy gunmen added to its roster to man these 20mm's after Pearl Harbor, with each gunman working a 12 hour shift. The story of Mario Guidette, always known as "Lou", is an interesting part of the history of the D-Day Invasion. Guidette started his sailing career as a cadet on the barkentine sailing ship USS Nantucket, which was a Massachusetts training ship at the time. The Nantucket was commissioned about 1850 as the admiral flagship of the Asiatic fleet under Commander Perry but was named the USS Ranger at the time. During WWI, the Ranger was armed and used as a patrol squadron of the first Naval District and later renamed the USS Nantucket. It remained a school ship until 1942 when it was recommissioned the Emery Rice. When Rice was in command of the transport Mongolia, it sank the first German submarine in WWI. The Rice was eventually scrapped in Philadelphia in 1950. Guidette's father had emigrated to the United States from Italy, some time in the middle 1800's as Guidetti. However, since there were no translators to aid an immigrant in registering, his name was somehow changed from Guidetti to Guidette. Lou's mother came to the United States some time around 1900. Lou Guidette was born in Springfield, MA. on February 19, 1909; however, he did not become interested in nautical matters until he attended the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and was a cadet on sailing ships. When he was 17 years old, he graduated from that academy in 1928 as a Second Engineer. Lou, who was the baby of five children, wanted to go to New York City to look for a job. So, he took off from Massachusetts with a $20.00 bill in his pocket; money given to him by his brother with the advice that should his money start getting down to $4.00 he should return home, as that would be just enough money to pay for return train fare. So. Guidette stayed at the Hoboken Merchant Marine YMCA, which was close to the Hoboken Pier #3, and looked unsuccessfully for work. Disheartened, because they didn't have a job for him and just about ready to take the train back home, his luck changed. As he was about to leave the Hoboken Marine employment office. they unexpectedly called his name and offered him a job because the Engineer on board a ship had a medical emergency, So, Guidette was hired at $135.00 per month aboard the Merchant Marine Ship "Pan American' to sail the South American seas for a five year hitch. After his five-year term, Guidette decided it was time to settle down, so he returned home and married Irene in 1937. They had a long, happy marriage and she died at age 95 in 2002. Ordinarily, as a 35 year old father of a baby girl, Diane, he would have been deferred from the Selective Service during World War II. However, his maritime service as an engineer made him a valuable property, so the draft board reclassified him 1A. He immediately applied to the Merchant Marine for a job and was assigned to the Freighter "The West Nohno". A little apprehensive about signing up on an old ship that had a name pronounced "no, no", he signed up, anyway. In Lou's own words, he refers to the Nohno as an old Hog Island Ship. and an old rust bucket built in 1919 at a Portland, Oregon shipyard. He soon found himself part of a 40 ship convoy on the Atlantic, ferrying war supplies to Europe. The Nohno got a late start on the trip and Guidette said that trying to catch the convoy was like having an old Model-T Ford try to catch up with a Mustang. However, the convoy was delayed during its trip across the Atlantic when it stopped to pick up survivors of other ships that had been torpedoed, and Guidette's old ship was finally able to take its place with the others. When they reached England, they found the shore littered with wrecks of sunken ships and other debris from the Nazi Air Blitz and the damage was so extensive that even a seasoned sailor like Guidette was taken back. Lou had no clue as to the mission the Nohno was on, as everything was secret hush-hush. When they got to Southampton, England, a crew came aboard and started stripping the ship. When Guidette asked where they would be able to retrieve the parts upon their return from wherever they were going, the foreman answered with a puzzled expression: "When you return?" This was not very encouraging news to Lou and his buddies. Meanwhile, fuel was pumped out of the ship to a barge, leaving only enough fuel, (according to Lou's estimate,) to take them to the coast of France; but no fuel to return. He had his suspicions, but still did not have definite information as to what their mission would be. On the 11th of April, 1944 shore crews cut four foot square holes through the bulkheads of the Nohno. The holes were cut so the ship would settle to the bottom with the engine and boiler rooms being the last to flood. Another crew installed three charges of dynamite on each of the interior sides of the ship. The fate of the Nohno was now absolutely clear. Much has been written about the Normandy Invasion, but Guidette's daily diary entries are priceless for their detail and authenticity. After receiving all kinds of survival gear and instructions, the ship departed to queue up with a convoy, but got lost in the heavy channel fog. They finally settled in place and arrived at anchorage in Oban, Scotland. Security was tight and everyone was restricted aboard from April 19th until May 31st. In Lou's own words, as taken from his daily diary: "Ships were arriving five to six per day. This built up to over 200 in the bay. when they were boarded by a Navy Commander who told them they were now under orders from the U.S. Navy. On May 31st, the convoy steamed up and departed Northern Scotland. Ships had difficulty maneuvering at different speeds, as all types of ships were in the convoy; but it finally came to anchorage at noon June 5th off the shore of Bournemouth, England. Since the holes had been cut into the lower part of the Nohno the wardroom would be free of flooding since it was the top-most room off the bridge, so it was loaded with food and medical supplies. Since the water tanks of the ship would be underwater and inaccessible, Lou personally rigged them up in typical "Merchy" fashion. He ingeniously had the crew waterproof the tanks and put in vents extending 12 feet above the deck. He had the hand billy from the chain locker mounted on deck and suction piping installed with shut off and connection valves. Later, when the Nohno was scuttled, the ten ton water tanks from the Nohno would become an oasis for water during the heat of the battle for those who needed fresh water. Lou Guidette later received a special commendation for his ingenuity in rigging up this source of fresh water for the invading troops. "On the 27th, a Navy commander came aboard to tell us we were now part of the U.S. Navy. We were also joined by four U.S. Army personnel who were to man the Army guns that were installed on the forepeak of the vessel," according to Lou's written account of the mission. In Lou's words: "D-Day began at 2 AM on June 6th, as American paratroopers began to land just behind the German coastal defenses in Northern Normandy. An hour later, allied planes began an intense aerial bombardment of the beach formations. At sunrise, the big guns of American and British naval vessels began to smash the German forts. Less than an hour later at 6:40 AM, the first wave of assault infantry and tanks were landed on the beach; right behind them came another wave, and another and another. "While at anchor, a British tender came within shouting distance and asked if we had any spare good American coffee. I told them to stand by while I went below and made up a box of coffee, sugar and goodies. I lashed a line around the box so it could be breeched aboard the tender. When I reached the deck, the captain told me the tender had hit a mine and sank within minutes. I looked over the side and all that was afloat were a couple of old drums and an empty life boat that was drifting out to sea. That tender, The HMS Minister, had a compliment of 80 men who all perished. It gave me the shivers to think that we could have hit that mine ourselves, with six charges of dynamite planted in our hull," recorded Guidette in his diary. Quoting from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy Alumni Association Magazine of September/October, 2004, in Lou's own words: "Operation Gooseberry entailed the scuttling of nine old cargo ships to form a breakwater. This would calm the seas and make cargo unloading faster and easier. Each ship was to be signaled to go to position and be warped into line. The SS Nohno was the last ship to be scuttled. On June 11th. we got orders to prepare to secure the ship and engine room and also received orders to depart with our engineering crews. After reporting all was complete, we went down the ladder to an Army tug that took us to a Lykes Bros. Liberty ship bound for England. Looking back from the Lykes ship, I observed the dynamiting of the Nohno as the Navy demolition crew performed the "Coup de Grace.' and the Nohno was scuttled. What had started out as a one month assignment, turned into the five month "Saga of the Demise of the Nohno." and Guidette returned to the United States aboard the Queen Mary. Lou breathed a sign of relief when he finally saw the Statue of Liberty upon his return to the United States and was soon reunited with his wife and baby daughter. Lou Guidette retired with a Merchant Marine ranking of Commander. Mario Lou Guidette received a commendation from President Harry S. Truman, extending the heartfelt thanks of the nation and commending him for undertaking a severe task with courage and fortitude. Thus ends the saga of a little known part of history during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day of World War II. Lorraine Miller Brevard
I am now 89 years old, also. How the years fly by. I still drive my car, night and day, in these mountains of North Carolina, write a column for the newspaper, go up and down stairs, read without glasses, do not need a hearing aid, and still have all my teeth. My father, Jules Lievrouw, died at age 79 with all his teeth in his head, too.
Dad always has a sense of humor. When he was in the hospital, the nurse brought him a glass of water and told him to put his teeth in it. He said: "Lady, that would be a tough job!" = because he still had all his teeth. A funny story about that: My dad never went to a dentist in all his life - and used to crack nuts and open beer bottle caps with his teeth. So, he did not practice good dental health.
I have one son, two grandchildren and four great grandchildren. The grandchildren live in the state of Maryland which is about 700 miles away from where I live in North Carolina.
so far, we have been very lucky. There has been a lot of wild weather in the United States, but we have not had any. I certainly am grateful for that. We may get some soon, as the weather station is predicting thunderstorms for almost every day next week. I hate that - because the thunder really booms around here in the mountains, although so far we have had only one wind storm in 7 years.
"I'm 100 years and five months old," said Stanley Ulewicz, extremely articulate and physically active as he pushed his walker on wheels down the hall at the Brian Center in Brevard. Practically running, and weaving his way through the human traffic in his path, he led the way to the room he shared with his wife, Virginia. Keeping up with him was a matter of walking at top speed! Ulewicz was in a hurry to show the many family photos on his walls that told the story of the most memorable moments in his life. It has been an extremely interesting life which exemplifies the American dream that you can succeed in life through a strong work ethic and careful planning, no matter what your start in life may have been. Born in March of 1908 to a Polish and Ukrainian immigrant family in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which is near the base of Cape Cod, he came from humble beginnings. Ulewicz proudly showed a picture of himself at age one in 1909, sitting on the porch in an antique chair. He explained how a passing photographer, driving a horse and cart, asked his mother for permission to take that memorable shot. The Ulewicz family worked in the weaving mills in New Bedford, which were the primary source for production work at the time in Massachusetts. His wedding picture, taken over 70 years ago, and another photo that showed a young Ulewicz, his wife Virginia and his daughter, plus his mother and dad and aunt were other prize possessions. According to Sue Robinson, Director of the Brian Center, members of the staff had brought these pictures from is home to decorate his room and make it more home-like for Ulewicz and his wife. Proudly displayed was a picture of his eight grade graduation class in New Bedford, Massachusetts; for that was the end of Stanley's public education at that time. However, he went on to higher education later in his life, as he had been blessed with a sharp mind which could easily comprehend more advanced learning. After his eight grade graduation, his family moved to the Detroit area of Michigan, along with many other hard-working Polish immigrants, where the industrial automotive complex was just starting to expand. "They didn't fuss much about your age at that time; and although I was only 14 years old, I was hired as a machinist when I told them I was 17. I was thrilled because I was making 13 cents an hour, It was during that time that I met my wife to be, Virginia. At first, I was friends with her younger sister, but when I met Virginia there was a spark that we both felt She was working as a housekeeper for a family; and we felt that we could get married on the amount of pay I was receiving by living frugally" said Ulewicz. So, they got married! But, then came the stock market crash of 1929 and the start of the Great Depression, which lasted for ten years. At that time, he was working on production as a machinist in a little plant and one entire line was laid off. Ulewicz happened to be part of that line; and, unfortunately, during that depressed period there were just no jobs to be had. So, he started working as a golf caddy at the Oakland Hills Country Club north of Detroit, one of the most prestigious golf courses in the region; often carrying both bags for a twosome. On Mondays, it is traditional for the caddies to play free golf at most of the courses around Detroit and Ulewicz loved the game, so he played. He became quite proficient at it, and gained great personal knowledge of the course. There was one customer he caddied for who appreciated his knowledge of the course and always requested that he caddy for him. A friendship developed and the man helped him get a job on the production line at the Dodge Truck Plant of Chrysler Corporation. During that period, Chrysler Corporation had a technical school called The Chrysler Institute and Ulewicz took advantage of their courses to improve his education and his automotive technical skills. Always having been proficient in math, he readily took to Drafting Engineering. Studying the parts of the trucks he was drawing, he became knowledgeable of how the various parts of the trucks were related to each other and how they were put together to become the finished automobile. His frequent requests to be taken off hourly work and put on salary, however, kept falling on deaf ears; but he persisted in his efforts to win that goal. It was probably lucky that he wasn't put on salary, because later being an hourly worker paid off handsomely for extra hours of labor. One of the problems at that time was that all the trucks came off the production line in the same form and it was necessary to later put the extra components on the truck that the customer had ordered to customize it to his needs. One time, Ulewicz noticed that twenty trucks were completed, which then had to be changed in order to meet the specifications of one buyer. He felt that the customized features should have been put on the trucks as they were originally being produced, and said so to higher authorities. The management gave him the job of altering the assembly so needed changes could be incorporated during original production, and Ulewicz moved up the ladder in the company. He kept getting small raises as he diligently worked as many hours as he could. Meanwhile, he and his wife were living on the income he was bringing home and saving as much money as possible. When the UAW (United Auto Workers)came along, with its drive for unionization of the automotive industry in Detroit, Ulewicz was part of the first "sit-down" strike (where the workers just camped night and day inside the plant instead of picketing outside of the plant.) The strikers won the day, and Ulewicz was soon being paid time-and-a-half for overtime and double-time for Sundays and Holiday work. With his strong work ethic and his desire to get ahead, he kept putting in as much overtime and double-time work as possible; saving and getting Chrysler stock whenever he could. "When I retired, I had quite a bit of Chrysler stock, which I immediately sold at $65.00 dollars a share. I think that was in 1965. That was lucky for me, as the stock dropped to $3.00 per share after I sold it!" said Ulewicz. "At that time, Virginia and I had a house in Detroit and another summer place in the country, between two lakes north of Detroit. It was just a little shack when we bought it, but it was on 30 acres of land which became quite valuable. One of the lakes was 60 ft. deep and had good fishing. We worked hard to enlarge and improve the house, enlarging it and putting redwood siding on it and it got to be worth more by quite a bit. "Then, we bought a small winter get-away in Texas, close to the Mexican border, where we would go in the winter. We also bought a travel trailer and we would take trips, going about 100 miles northward at a time, following better weather. When it got too hot in Texas or Arizona, we would just drive northward as we made our way back to Michigan." said Ulewicz. They traveled over much of the United States this way, went on bus tours and cruises and generally enjoyed life. When he was about eighty years old, they figured that having several places was too much upkeep and they decided to sell them and look for one retirement place to settle down. They felt that Florida was too hot in the summer time for them to consider long-term. So, they started reading a lot of information about retiring and the different areas that were most suitable. It was at that time they came upon material about the mountains of Southwestern North Carolina. They first visited Hendersonville, which at that time had a lot of empty property in the downtown area but no senior communities with golf courses and lots of activities. They then tried out Asheville, but found about the same situation there. They had a real estate broker show them some places in Brevard. The city had about 6,000 people at the time and they both enjoyed the area, the climate, and the friendliness of the people. They looked at Connestee Falls and Sherwood Forest, but felt they were too far from town. They looked at Deerfield and were impressed, but still not convinced. When they visited Waterford Place they immediately knew that they had, at last, found the exact location they had been searching to find. "One time, we went to Bermuda and I took my first airplane ride, leaving from the Charlotte airport. The flight back from Bermuda was only about one hour long, but we had to fly through a terrible storm. Twice, the pilot had to make steep downward falls in order to get away from the bad weather and I didn't enjoy the trip on the airplane, at all," remarked Ulewicz. Unfortunately, Virginia has been incapacitated with Alzheimer's and is in declining health. They share a room at the Brian Center and spend their time there together. Ulewicz is still interested in current affairs and political goings on and is very well informed. He is especially interested in golf, of course, and the professional golf tournaments. He was following the current golf tournament carefully because it was being played at the Oakland Hills course in Michigan, which he knows so well. He showed a keen interest in the golfing abilities of Tiger Woods and could describe in great detail many of the miraculous shots that Tiger had pulled off in various tournaments, recalling the circumstances of each shot, the distance to the hole, and the results. His memory is remarkable in someone over 100 years and he is in exceptional good health for his age. The Brian Center helped him celebrate his 100th birthday last March with a party and a big cake. He remains spry with an active mind and is very articulate. "People are always asking me what the secret is to my living to be 100 years old. I tell them it was from having lived an active life, working hard, and keeping interested in many different things. I was always on the go, always involved, and kept active over all those years," concluded Stanley Ulewicz at 100 years and five months. Lorraine Miller
Somewhere in Bavaria, Germany there are musicians that speak English with a Carolinian mountain drawl, a dialect they picked up from our own Joe Byers when he was guitar pickin' in Germany. Folks who have lived in these North Carolina Appalachian mountains for generations have a deep love of bluegrass music. The lively beat and happy sounds brightened the old days when times were tough, money for entertainment was scarce, and communities came together to celebrate with their own brand of music. Most families made their own entertainment by playing instruments that were readily available: fiddles, banjos, and guitars. Without formal musical training, they strummed on stringed instruments and taught each other how to play. And the beat goes on today, as local musicians provide entertainment for all who wish to hear their happy tunes. They play mostly for the sheer enjoyment of making music, with very little pay for their performances. Joe Byers, of Lake Toxaway, is a well-known talented guitar picker with a great singing voice and is one of these local musicians. He was born in 1937 during the Great Depression which hit all of the United States very hard, especially the folks who lived in this area. Local folks who lived through those rough times will tell you about hard work and scratching out a living. But they will also tell you that they had plenty to eat from the food they grew for themselves and they led happy lives. They made their own fun with dancing, singing, and foot-stomping to good old mountain music. Byers claims eight generations of his family in these parts. His great grandparents lived around East Fork in crude log cabins, going back to the 1800's. "They lived about like the Indians used to do, in log cabins with dirt floors that had holes in the middle of the floors for cooking. They built log cabin schools and ground their meal at grist mills. Early settlers names that I can remember in the E. Fork area were: Hubbard, Bagwell, Galloway, along with the Byers," according to Joe Byers. When Joe was five years old he started picking the banjo, with his mother teaching him. It was a family affair with aunts, and all, involved. Joe had two brothers, Roy and Orville, who are both deceased. Joe's father had come from South Carolina to work at the Silversteen Tannery. Joe was born and raised in Rosman and graduated from Rosman High School. His wife, of over fifty years, Mary Lou, grew up in Gloucester, which is between Lake Toxaway and Balsam Grove. Byers is a talented musician, singer and songwriter. He has played with the P.C.'s Blue Grass Band, the Lamplighters, The Country Men, The Blue Ridge Band, The Pine Valley Boys, the True Blue Grass with Roy Chapman, and the Pioneers. He became a pro in 1964 and played with the Stanley Brothers with such stars as Bill Monroe, and traveled most of the Southeast: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North and South Carolina. He even appeared on a TV show in Portsmouth, Virginia. He has been part of several recordings and two albums, which enjoyed some success. He also has been a prolific songwriter. Byers married Mary Lou in 1956, over 50 years ago. They have three children: Gregory, Rosetta and Marina. His son, Greg, has one daughter and four grandchildren. Daughter Rosetta has three children and his youngest daughter, Marina has two children. She and her husband were both air traffic controllers in the air force in Iraq for 12 months. Byers says he is grateful she is home. Byers went to work for Bendix at the Tracking Station near US-215. The station was part of the U.S. Department of Defense where they tracked space ships and the weather. It was in a rather secret location for quite some time. The location was good, as there was no static and very few airplanes going by. It was later taken over by Raytheon, and is being used for research and studying stars at present by a different owner. Byers spent 30 years with the station as a Facilities Engineer until his retirement. One of the great adventures of his life came when Bendix sent him to Bad Appling, Germany. All in all, he spent over seven years in Germany and loved it. While there, he formed a small country band with his wife, Mary Lou, and son Gregory. His son played bass and managed the business. Members of a local Bavarian Folk Band had a tuba and bass and asked him to join them and play the acoustic guitar. So, Joe thought: Sure, why not? "I found that the people around there were mostly farmers and very friendly to me. We played every Tuesday night and after listening to them for a short while, I was able to play along with them. I never could read music, but I was able to join them with no trouble. "We wore Lederhosen and Bavarian outfits. One time, they asked me to come along for a concert in Munich. When we got there, I found that we would be playing in a big concert hall where the Munich Symphony Orchestra played. Our group was playing songs from World War II and well-known music like 'The Beer Barrel Polka' and 'Over the Waves', so I was able to join right in. I remember walking across the stage behind the curtain; but there was a little gap in the curtain and the audience could see me. They recognized me from my red guitar and started hollering: 'Guitar Joe. Guitar Joe.' "The local people were very friendly and accepted us right away. They wanted to learn English, so they talked to me a lot. I couldn't teach them the King's English, but they learned my southern dialect and were happy with that!" Joe related in his soft southern accent. His company, Bendix, felt it was showing good relations with Germany and often let him get off work to mingle with the Germans. "I had a good thing going there. It was great for me, as I had a chance to go on with my music," said Byers. Bendix sold the tracking station to another company and Byers came back to Rosman; but he 1-upped, signing with Lochheed-Martin to go back to Germany. He wanted to return to Germany because it was a good job and he had many German friends. He and Mary Lou also traveled to different places. A History teacher took him to visit Munich and also took him to the place where Hitler signed the papers to organize the Third Reich. Byers and his wife did a lot of traveling by tour bus to places like Czechoslovakia and Poland. Byers talked about an old 90-year-old gray-haired German who was very friendly and grateful to the Americans. He had owned a big guest house which Hitler took over and made the old man work hard for nearby farmers. When the Americans came they gave him back his place. Since then, he has felt that the Americans could do no wrong. Byers played the guitar at his guest house for dinners, weddings and fests; and the place was packed every Friday. All of Byers' children are musical. He told of having a trailer near his N.C. home which they used for practice. Their piano player with the band had quit and he badly needed another one. Suddenly, he heard piano music coming from the trailer. It was his twelve year old daughter, Marina, playing by ear and doing a good job of it. That was on a Tuesday and he told her to keep on practicing because she should get ready, since she was going to be playing with the band on Saturday. Byers now plays at The Toxaway Community Center on Fridays, Cathey's Creek on Saturdays, and at the gazebo in Brevard for the Tuesday night street dances. His friends are lavish in their praise for Joe Byers. Jean McCall Hooper, who used to sing with his group, says the he is a self-made musician and a terrific songwriter. In fact, Hooper has some sheet music of a song that he has written: "Home, Where We'll Never Say Goodbye." Joe Byers is a man of integrity who has devoted his life to music and has helped so many young people get into the business," said Jean Hooper. Hooper's grandmother had a log cabin, in the same Gloucester community as Mary Lou Byers, which dates back to 1870 and it is still there. Another one of Joe's many friends is Randall Waldrop. Waldrop was most sincere in his praise for Byers. "Joe is a very giving person who has always contributed his time to helping others. He is one person I really admire. "Joe's wife had an Aneurism and has been seriously ill for four years. Byers has been most dedicated to her, taking daily care of her at home. There have been many expenses and there will be a lot more as the doctors will be pursuing some advanced tests on her at Chapel Hill". said Waldrop. It had long been accepted that Mary Lou had Alzheimer's. However, Joe took her to Greenville recently to have a team of doctors examine her. "Lately, I got some good news from the Greenville doctors who thoroughly examined Mary Lou. They said she does not have Alzheimer's, but is suffering the effects of the Aneurism she had four years ago. For the first time, it gave me some hope," Byers said. They are going to take Mary Lou to Chapel Hill, N.C. for more advanced medical studies. This will all be very expensive, but Byers is determined to do all he can for his beloved wife of over fifty years. So, there will be a benefit for Joe and Mary Byers on September 6th, 2008 at the Toxaway Community Center from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. A hot dog luncheon will be available at 11:00 a.m. and music will be provided by Devon McCall until 6:30. p,m. There will also be cake auctions and other baked goods for sale. Bingo will be played in the evening, offering prizes donated by friends and local merchants. Call Ann Webb at 966-4427 for further information, or if you wish to contribute or donate prizes for the bingo. Byers has played at benefits for others for many years and his many friends will be there to show their appreciation for Joe and Mary at the benefit they will be holding for them. By the way, if you should happen to travel in Bavaria and Germans speak to you in English with an Appalachian mountain accent, you will know that "Guitar Joe" was there ahead of you. Lorraine Miller
I have often been mesmerized by the awesome display of colors in the sky and blazing in the forests.
The first time I saw the canopy of brilliant autumn colors that was setting the forest aglow, I was thoroughly enchanted. Never had I seen such a magnificent sight. Oh, I had beheld the wonders of a single tree painted in rambunctious color, bright and glorious in its fall regalia; or, perhaps, a stand of a few trees sporting their festive hues. But, to be in a forest of trees, simply surrounded and engulfed in a sea of varying hues all at one time, was overwhelming.
As the sun's rays touched the scene, they illuminated the spectacle and highlighted certain sections with a dazzling intensity. The slightest breeze rippled the trees, while individual leaves and trees shimmered and danced with the gentle winds. At times, one particularly bright spike of sunlight would choose one tree to illuminate; and that tree would be featured for a glorious moment of individual recognition.
There is something about the mountains and the air patterns they create that causes breathtaking displays of varying colors. At time, these colors lay on top of the bosom of the distant mountains in an arresting profusion of various shades. Sometimes, when conditions are just right, these layers of color are astounding and provide a scene that those folks who are new to mountain living have never witnessed before: different hues of multi-colors that paint the horizon with awe-inspiring shades that come in soft layers of color and recede into a hazy mist as they touch the perimeter of the horizon.
Sometimes, when the setting sun is just right, brilliant shafts of flaming red light up the forest in the winter-time; and it almost seems like the woods are on fire with an intense dark red glow. The bare dark trunks of the trees stand strong and tall in contrast to the fiery red that bathes the entire scene.
To behold these phenomena is a privilege, as you realize that nature provides us with spectacular sights that no man can ever duplicate. To those of us who are unabashed tree huggers, we stand in awe as we experience the wonder of it all. We realize that the natural world around us has produced a timeless treasure that we humans should work mightily to protect for the enjoyment of generations to come, as well as to save the world's environment.
Those of us who were in the United States and remember the traumatic days of World War II during the horrendous firebombing of London, England, can recall how touched we were when we saw the burned out, totally destroyed buildings. At that time, there were frightening images on American newsreels and in newspapers that stirred our emotions and sympathy. Individual Americans were sending packages to the victims, "Bundles for Britain", to show support. However, the Americans never felt the horror of personally experiencing those threatening times.
Brenda Maund, of Transylvania, was in London then and can vividly recall those times. How enlightening to hear the personal account of someone who lived though those ordeals. Brenda Vennell-Simpkin was born in 1932. So she was eight years old and has strong memories. When asked if the people, especially the children, were terrified, Maund replied :"The British have a 'stiff upper lip' and could weather such catastrophes pretty well and children can adapt remarkably..
"My recollections of the Battle of Britain include a dog fight I witnessed between English Spitfires and German planes when I was quite young. My brother and I were walking home from a movie and we heard and saw the planes overhead. Since he was 11 years older than I, he was very protective. So he threw me to the ground and lay on top of me to act as a shield.
"I also remember, later during the war after my brother had gone into the army, that we had an air raid shelter built in our back garden. We would go there whenever we heard the sirens go off to warn us of approaching air raid danger. The 'Buzz Bombs', as we called them, with the red lights on them would come overhead with a droning/buzzing sound. However, when the sound stopped the bombs would drop down anywhere, indiscriminately.
"Later, the V2 rockets came and were like projected missiles. I can remember coming out of the bomb shelter and hearing my mother say that the house must have been hit. But, luckily for us, the bomb made a direct hit on a nearby house and just damaged our house, blowing out the windows, So my mother, father, and I survived that one," recalled Maund.
"I was born in East Dulwich in South East London, but was evacuated along with many other children to the countryside when the Battle for Britain began. I was eight years old at the time and was very unhappy with the move and wanted to return to London and my family. After much petitioning by my mother, I was permitted to return home, despite the air raid danger," Maund reminisced.
"In Britain, we had been lulled into a false sense of security by the assurances of Prime Minister Chamberlain, who felt that we would not be involved in war after his appeasement conferences in Europe with Hitler. Therefore, we were not really as prepared for war as we should have been.
"It was the involvement of the United States, through President Franklin Roosevelt, that saved Britain .When the G.I.'s came to our aid from the United States with all the armament and supplies, England was saved from being conquered by the Nazis.
"We never realized how close we had come to being defeated until our family went on a vacation to Jersey in the English Channel after the war. There we learned that Hitler had built underground tunnels on Jersey Island to use as hospitals for his wounded when he invaded England. The tunnels had been built by war prisoners who had been marched across Germany and France to complete the work, The British public never knew how close we had been to being over-run." Maund recalled.
Meanwhile, the general American public did not realize that starting in 1939, large industrial plants were making plans to build facilities which would produce war armament (and setting up the necessary administrative staffs to run them) throughout the United States. In Detroit, alone, which was later called "The Arsenal of Democracy", Chrysler was laying the nucleus for their Tank Arsenal, Ford and American Motors for building planes, Hudson Motor for producing 20mm. guns, and General Motors was working on the Manhattan Project for Atomic Bombs. These plans and the people who worked on them were all done in secret, away from public scrutiny and very few people knew in that metropolitan area that such work was being conducted prior to Pearl Harbor and the involvement of the United States in the World War II against the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan).
Maund's mother was a frustrated stage mother, and started her daughter's career at age three. Brenda had lessons in ballet, tap and other dancing, as well as piano, accordion, and other musical instruments.
During her young years, Maund appeared in pantomime performances for children, such as "Cinderella", "Prince Charming", "Babes in the Woods", and "Aladdin & His Lamp" where she played the title roles. and in many stage performances as a dancer. In fact, she had her first performance for pay when she was eleven years old under the stage-name of Brenda Vennell.
"I also appeared as an extra in many movies that were made in Britain, including: 'The House on Hanover Square' with Tyrone Power and Ann Blythe. A big thrill was getting to sit next to the extraordinarily handsome Tyrone Power!
"I also was in "Moulin Rouge" with Jose Ferrar & Zaa Zaa Gabor; as well as "Moby Dick" with Gregory Peck. and in"Anastasia" starring Ingrid Bergman," recalled Maund.
The various movie lots are not all in one place in England, as they are in Hollywood. Space for building such studios in London is much more limited. So, the studios were scattered all over town. However, they had underground public transportation all over London, and since she had no car of her own, Maund would travel by train to the various locations.
Maund explains that being an extra in films consisted of long hours of sitting quietly, waiting, So, most of the females spent long hours knitting while hopefully awaiting a call. The hours were long, from early morning to late at night, and appearing at the various studios meant riding all over the town in the subways.
"I performed in my stage solo acts as a 'Soubrette' (singer and dancer) in Variety Shows. However, I made my living mostly by teaching dancing to children. For many years, I owned my own studio in the London area and was able to save enough money to eventually emigrate to the United States," Maund explained.
Maund made the trip from England on the Queen Elizabeth I in 1957 and was sponsored by her mother's brother and his wife who lived in Chatham, New Jersey. "When I first expressed my interest in working as a dance teacher in New York City, my uncle wondered how I would get there without a car I told him I was accustomed to such travel arrangements, and if he could get me to the station, I would ride by train or subways," said Maund.
Maund later moved into Newark and lived at the only combined YM & YWCA in the United States at that time She discontinued her stage career and later opened up her own Dance Studio in Jamaica Queens, "Queens School of Theatrical Arts" which she ran from 1962 through 1982.
In 1957 a friend made a blind date in Queens for Brenda and it was Tom Maund. "What a date! We went into Manhattan and had dinner at the 'Press Box' and later to the 'Copacabana', followed by a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. It was very romantic, in fact we were married the next year, in 1958.
Tom and Brenda then were both employed in Civil Service jobs for the U.S. government until their retirement. They moved to Connestee Falls in May of 1958. Tom is enjoying his golfing and Brenda taught tap dancing for various Connestee theatrical performances until just recently.
She has always had an interest in painting, but never pursued that field before. Now, she is actively involved in creative painting and has a studio in her basement for her work. Her paintings have been exhibited at the Connestee clubhouse and she says: "I am running out off wall space to hang them in my house."
Tom managed to pull a big surprise party for Brenda at the Atagahi Pavilion to celebrate her 75th birthday. She says she doesn't know how he was able to work for months on the planning and arrangements without her suspecting what was going on.
Tom had a huge birthday cake made for her which read:" BUNDLE FROM BRITAIN and underneath was a copy of a picture from her passport when she emigrated to this country in 1957 on the Queen Elizabeth. The message below that spelled out his enduring love: "How much do I love thee - let me count the ways, beloved."
After that, they embarked on a 75th birthday celebration, flying to New York for a stay in Manhattan for five days. Then, off they went to London for five nights, and flew to Paris for five days, then back to London for two more days, and then took the train down to Southampton where they boarded the Queen Mary II for the trip back to New York. Aboard ship, the couple won a Lindy dance contest and a bottle of Champagne.
They found visiting in London and Paris was extremely expensive as the dollar does not go far in those cities..
They both still love to dance and are currently taking lessons in Argentine Tango, hoping to make a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina in the future.
Lorraine Miller
Celebrating his 90th birthday, friends and relatives threw a well-deserved party for Brevard native, (James) Earl Gravely (whom every one calls Earl) this past weekend. The Gravely name is well known among Brevardians, as he owned the Gravely Plumbing Company in this city for over 50 years. Earl was born April 16, 1918 and raised at his grandmother's house on Caldwell street. The house was on the property that now houses the Arts Center Building, where his grandmother, Delia Ann, had a garden, put up as much food each year as she could for her family, and kept two cows. Caldwell street was an unpaved dirt road at the time, as were many other streets in Brevard. His grandmother had originally owned some land which she sold to Silversteen where he built his tannery. "I used to farm a lot as a youngster. I was eight years old when I went to work farming for Wallace Galloway who had a cornfield and a garden toward the end of Caldwell street at that time. My grandmother, she kept me working all the time," Gravely reminisced Most every one in Brevard had a little garden near their home then, where they grew food for their own family and the animals they kept on their property. One time when Gravely was at Moore's Furniture Store, Donald Lee Moore nicknamed him "Bean Beetle" and told him he was such a skinny little boy and was so little that he was no bigger than a bean beetle. Some people call him that to this da., So the nickname stuck. Gravely recalls knowing the Cooper Brothers, Tom and Joe, who used to live near where Brevard College is now. Earl met and married his wife, Thelma Morris, in Buncombe County. They were married 56 years and had 4 children. Earl Gravely, Jr.,(who died when he was five months old), Fran,Terry and Eddie. Earl also worked for The Bromfield Laundry for a while, delivering laundry. Gravely was drafted into the navy IN 1944 during World War II, but never saw any fighting. "Truman ended that fighting when he dropped the atom bombs before I could get into any action. I was at Cape Cod in Massachusetts at the time at a Carrier Aircraft Service transferring material to air force ships. I was glad that I could come home when I was honorably discharged November 18, 1945. ." Gravely commented with a laugh in his voice. The people of Brevard will probably remember Gravely best due to his plumbing company."I did not know much about plumbing, but learned by doing. I first worked for a local plumber, Mark Osborne. In 1949 I went into business for myself, partnering with my uncle, Dock Gravely, for several years. Then I bought him out and was owner-operator for many years.I just put me up a shop on the Rosman Highway near Brevard. When business got real good, I had plenty of work. My two sons, Eddie and Terry worked for me. I worked five or six men and they worked for me for years while things kind of boomed up, Ecusta started up, and every body started working. I owned and ran the Gravely Plumbing Company for over 50 years and had three other shops in Brevard: two on Caldwell Street and one on King Street before I built my last one on the Rosman Highway in Brevard.. This last one stood in front of our house which was built on the hill behind the shop" Gravely talked about his long-standing plumbing business. "When I retired I sold the business to my eldest son, Terry, who still owns it," explained Gravely. "After I left the plumbing business, I went to buying old houses and remodeling them. It was a good deal and good experience after I retired. I really did enjoy that type of work, even though I had to learn on the job. I quit the day I found out that my wife was diagnosed with cancer," Gravely related. Gravely broke his hip in 2004, and had pneumonia and a stroke, all within a period of three years and is now confined to a wheel chair. He has several caring sitters who drive him around which he enjoys and also take him to lunch at the Fish Camp. His daughter, Fran Johnson, lives in a house next to his, spends a lot of time looking after her father, and coordinates the work of the sitters who are his caregivers. The Gravely name is well-known in the Southeastern United States and has a long genealogical history behind it. Records can be traced back to Robert Gravely, who married in 1589 in Hertfordshire, England and was knighted, probably by King Edward III. Joseph Gravely, the ancestor of the (Patrick) Henry Virginia County family, was born in England in 1744. He settled in Henry County before the Revolutionary War and lived to the ripe old age of 100 years. In the 1760's three Gravely brothers appeared In Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Their names were Joseph, John, and James. In the latter part pf the 1700's, John moved his family from Virginia to Greensville and Pickens, South Carolina. They came over the Virginia and North Carolina mountains in wagons and on foot, driving gaggles of geese ahead of them while bringing all of their belongings. In the early 1800's, they moved to across the North Carolina line. They were well known as growers of some of the finest tobacco in the area as well as owners of the Crow Telephone Company above Pickens. The family was also involved in furniture companies and were famous as builders of Grandfather clocks. So, (James) Earl Gravely inherited his carpentry skills from long-standing genes in his family tree. Earl will be featured in the Heritage of Transylvania, N.C., 2nd edition, which will be coming out soon When asked if he was looking forward to the 90th birthday party, Earl replied: I haven't thought much about it. I tried to talk them out of it, but I guess it will be all right." When asked if they were going to put 90 candles on the cake, Earl replied: "I don't know, it would probably melt the cake. But, I'll try to blow them out since they probably will light up all of Brevard. His daughter, Fran, said they solved the multi-candle problem by having two candles - a nine and an 0 - to decorate both of the two cakes. There were 3 Children, 20 Grandchildren, 9 Great Grandchildren and 3 Great-Great Grandsons around him along with his other family members and friends to help him celebrate having reached 90 years of age. Lorraine Miller
The wonders of the internet have been amazing to me. Not only can it bring people together who have lost contact; but to me it represents the inherent goodness of so many people nation-wide - and, even, worldwide.
I have been greatly touched by the responses to my writings - from so many strangers who have become friends. I really never thought that I had any writing talent; but their reactions have caused me to have confidence in my writing and to try to keep me going. I hope I have something to contribute.
How wonderful that you are going on that cruise. Feb. 7th should be a good time to go.. Did you say you were going northward to Newfoundland?
I went on a week's cruise to Alaska one August and it was delightful.
Although I will admit that the ship we were on was not one of the world's top ones, it still was luxurious and lots of fum. We went with a big group from the printing company. The top 10 salesmen nationwide for the previous year (I was the only woman winner) were awarded the trips, for them and their spouses. That, plus, the big brass and their spouses, who were on board made up quite a group.
There were so many activities - and, of course, the food was out of this world. The beverage on this French ship was Champagne, and the waiter would fill up your glass every time you took a couple sips so, you ha no idea how much Champagne you consumed! It made for very lively table conversation
The ship had nine decks and I was determined not to gain weight, so I always took the stairs and did not use the elevators. We did encounter quite a storm on the Bay of Alaska. I was going into our shower, when the swaying of he ship caused the shower door to close on my ankle. I limped around - but would not let it spoil my trip - so I was on the disco floor with the rest of therm, trotting away. (This was about 20 years ago - when I was still good at trotting. After all, I was only in my mid 60's at that time!)..
It was a French ship, and I thought I would be the star of the outfit with my knowledge of French. However, it turned out that none of the crew- including the Captain, were French.!!!!
We flew from Detroit to Chicago - and from Chicago to Anchorage. Having always bee a white knuckle flier, I had made two trips to the Univ. of Michigan to see a psychiatrist who hypnotized me to supposedly cure my fear of flying.
Well, I didn't disgrace myself on the plane; but it didn't cure the fear.. I was petrified. I never left my seat to go to the bathroom on that long trip. My husband kept urging me to look out the window and see the beautiful mountains below. I took one anxious little peak; but was not amused. The whole trip took us about 11 hours; and by the time we got to Anchorage it was 11:00 at night - but still daylight..
I was exhausted; probably the oldest person on the trip, because the other 9 top salesmen were young and full of it.
We left Anchorage for a trip by a local train to Seward, Alaska. This was fun, although a primitive train. We went through many tunnels- and, a we would go through the darkness, some of the young bucks on the trip would proclaim loudly, "not now, wait until we get on the ship!". Amongst much laughter.
Seward was a US World War II Navy embarking point on an inlet that led to he Bay of Alaska this area had recently suffered a huge earthquake, and we could see evidence of the damage to the area..
To my horror, I discovered that I had to climb up a big high ladder to reach the ship's deck from he ground. Being afraid of heights - and tired to death, did not help me at all. There were people ahead of me and people behind me, so I kept on climbing. Then, I made a big mistake, I looked down between the rungs of the ladder - WAY DOWN - to the water below. I simply froze and could not take another step.
Luckily, I was near the top of the ladder. The ship's personnel saw my plight, and stepped down a few steps, reached for my hand, and guided me up to the deck! (Otherwise, I presume I would still be there, frozen to the ladder,with a big line of people behind me).
When we got on the ship, a steward took us to the room that our free ticket had bought - . way down in he bowels of the ship, down big long narrow claustrophobic aisleways, to a little cabin room that was no bigger than our bathroom at home Did I say free tickets? Ha - curses, foiled again - I found out later that I had to pay 50% of the ticket's worth in Income Taxes!)
Room for a bid, barely any room left to get out of that bed and a poor excuse for a privvy. AND, no window! I took one look at that place and said: "Oh, no - no way. I am not going to be cooped up in this room for a week!"
So, we trotted up stairs to the Captain's quarters. When we got there I found most of the company's big brass - and some of the older big shooters, already there. Asking for a change in accommodations. We got them.
It cost us some additional money, but it certainly was worth it. W got great big cabins, with big picture windows to balconies. Fruit & champagne awaiting us. A sitting room, dressing room, nice bathroom (with a metal shower door that closed on people's ankles. Anyway, that saved the day - and the week - and the rest of the trip - as far as I was concerned.
I kept a diary on my Alaskan Inter-Coastal Trip and would be happy to send you my account of the rest of the trip. If you are interested, let me know - and I will write it up and send it to you.
my mother (Flore Steelandt Lievrouw) had an older sister: Romanie who married a Desmet here in Detroit, Michigan in the early 1920's. In fact, my father came to the United States to live in 1909 with that Desmet man - who was a friend of his in Belgium. There were several Desmets here in Michigan, because I remember them as being friends of my mother and dad.
When the large group of Belgians came to the United States in the early 1900's, many of them moved to Michigan. The climate in Michigan is not too diffeerent from what they knew in Belgium, Michigan was growing fast,and there were jobs to be had. Most of the Belgians built houses close to each otherin the Detroit area, as they could understand each other's language and customs. Most of them were freinds and went to cafes together and beer gardens.
I know that I spoke Belgian (Flemish) before I spoke English, even though I was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1919.
The Belgians were hard working people and good citizens. They very seldom got into trouble.
Now, they do not live in close areas near each other any more, as they are inter-married with people from different countries and are scattered all over as part of the melting pot of many different nationalities that make up the people of the United States.
We have tried very hard to establish if we were related, but cannot find a confirmed link. I love Jeanine Desmet and Paul Lievrouw. We seemed like family right away when they came to visit. Such good people. They knew my cousin Maria Hoffman Lievrouw, who had homes in both Brussels and Dentergem.
I feel we are related in the heart! Somehow, my father's parents had 19 children. My dad was the second youngest, his sister Alida being the youngest. Surely in this large family there must be some cousins somewhere! As far as I can figure out, my father (Jules) was the only one of his family who moved to America. Although Maria made many trips to visit us - and was goingt to move here before her untimely death.
In a small country like Belgium, it seems to me that some where back in time, there must have been one Lievrouw family that started it all! I am very proud of my Belgian heritage.But, I cannot discover if my father's parents had sisters or brothers or cousins - or what their backgrounds were.
I have been trying for years to trace the Lievrouw people here in the United States; but I have had no luck in finding close relatives; although I have met corresponded with many, good Lievrouws.
I do a lot of writing and am working on my Memoirs. I write a full page for the newspaper every other week about Senior citizens in this area. I would like to leave a record of what I think and feel about things for my great grandchildren. I wish I had known my grandparents.
