Maternal Grandmother: Emma Frances Flippin/m.
Pilot Mountain
d. Asheville/pneumonia
1913 - 1916
I was born Dec. 11th at the home of my grandparents where my parents,
Isaac and Hallie were living. My parents were both 20 years old at the time.
My grandparents, Jesse Anderson Ashburn and Martha Needham Ashburn, lived at
888 Liberty Street in Winston-Salem, NC. Their telephone number was 1351. My
grandfather worked for Wachovia Bank, was a member of the NC House of
Representatives, and was a Primitive Baptist preacher. My father was a
bookkeeper for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. He had beautiful penmanship and
was educated at Oak Ridge Military Academy in Kernersville, NC. Mother and
Father were 19 years old when they married. Mother lived with Aunt Etta (my
maternal grandfather’s sister) and Uncle Seaton Moser and did secretarial
work. The Mosers had no children and their house was next door to
Grandfather Jesse’s house.
My mother’s mother died of pneumonia when my mother was about 16 years
old. Her sister, Frances, was about two years old at the time. Thelma was
14, and Aina about 11. Mother did not like living in the house with her
father’s new wife, so she left her home in Asheville when she was around 18
and moved to Winston-Salem. My daddy worked for RJR where Douglas Peterson
worked. My parents introduced Uncle Pete and Aunt Thelma to one another when
Thelma came to visit Mother. AuntThelma worked at the Mission Hospital in
Asheville as a nurse in the operating room. After she and Uncle Pete were
engaged, a glass tube exploded in the lab and destroyed Aunt Thelma’s eye .
She had a glass eye the rest of her life which she soaked in a special
solution every night.
The fair grounds were on Liberty St. Parades (circus) etc. went by the
white frame house which had a covered porch and two living rooms. I got a
child’s roll top desk for Christmas while living here. It is now in the
basement at my East Boulevard home here in Charlotte. Grandpa Jesse Ashburn
died when I was not quite three years old.
1917-1920

My brother, Frederick Marion Ashburn, was born January 8, 1917. I
was 3 years and 1 month old. My Grandpa Asburn had died just a month ago and
we were still living on Liberty Street with Grandma Ashburn. Our family soon
moved to a house at 708 Sprague Street which my father had bought. It was on
the street car line. The house was a dark red (burgundy) - pebble dash - and
had a porch. You walked right into the living room. The house had a dining
room, two bedrooms, kitchen, and one bathroom. Our family attended Waughtown
Presbyterian Church. (2710 Waughtown). My brother, Isaac William Ashburn,
Jr., was born on September 9, 1918. I was 4 years and 9 months old. Fred was
18 months old. Daddy rode the streetcar to work. We did not have a car at
this time. Uncle Arthur did have a car and would ride us to visit Grandma
Ashburn in Pine Hall on Sundays. His car had a canvass top. He and Aunt
Nonnie sat in the front seat with their children, and our family of five sat
in the back seat. Roads weren’t paved. One time we got too near the edge at
Pine Hall and the car tuned over. Rescuers cut the canvass to get us out.
None of us were hurt as the dirt was soft.

One day on Sprague Street, I was walking on the sofa carrying Fred - for
fun. We fell. Fred caught himself as he fell towards the oil stove which
heated the house and burned his hands. Mother called my daddy at work to buy
Ungentine to put on Fred’s hands. Bill was a baby at the time. We always had
a hog on Sprague Street. Leftover food went into a slop bucket to feed the
hog. We shared the pig with the Swains next door. The hog was prepared at
their house each year. The intestines were blown up like a balloon and
stuffed with sausage my mother and Mrs. Swain made.
In 1920 I started school at the Salem Academy. I rode the street car to
school each day. It stopped right in front of our house. My daddy soon
bought a Hupmobile car. He and my mother were members of Masonic groups. My
daddy’s lodge planned a trip to Wrightsful beach and I went with them. My
brothers did not go. We stayed at a type of inn where meals were served. I
got a terrible sunburn and felt so bad that I had to lie down on the back
seat of the car all the way back to Winston-Salem. I was wearing the pink
sweater I loved so much while I was lying on the seat - the one I have on in
my first grade picture. Aunt Lillian, Uncle Lum’s third wife, crocheted this
sweater and mailed it to me from Alaska where Uncle Lum was panning for
gold. Uncle Lum was tall and handsome like his brother Edward, my
grandfather, and was always seeking his fortune. Uncle Lum was married a
number of times, but had just one child - a daughter - by his first wife,
who died. The Boyles were extremely attractive - tall, handsome, skillful at
social interactions, admirers of elegance and fine clothing, and quite savvy
and smart. People were especially attracted to the Boyles men due their
charm and good looks. In the end, despite all their abilities, looks and
money, the quality of their lives was destroyed by their inability to keep
their drinking under control. My mother, Aunt Thelma , Aunt Biley and Aunt
Etta had no sympathy for whiskey drinkers.
1921 - 1925
My mother’s sister, Thelma Boyles Peterson, and her husband,
Douglas Fayette Peterson, who were living on Liberty Street at the home of
my mother’s Aunt Etta Boyles Moser, and her husband, Seaton Moser, who ran a
grocery store at 1298-1300 Liberty Street, were expecting a baby. They
wanted to move to Cameron Ave. to a new house and talked my parents into
buying a new house at the corner of Fifth Street and Cameron Ave. My father
and Uncle Pete were friends and both worked as bookkeepers for RJR. We lived
three houses away from the Petersons I rode the bus uptown to a private
school at 523 Cherry Street. Miss Flora taught the school, and I had piano
lessons from Miss Lena. They were the Lott sisters, and they were dedicated
Presbyterians. My mother made me practice the piano one hour daily and three
hours every Saturday. She and my daddy would often roll back the living room
rugs for their parties, and I played the piano for everyone to dance.
Our family moved from the Waughtown Presbyterian Church to the North
Winston Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 15th St., as it was closer to our home.
A new school, Skyland, E. 5th extended, was built near us and I started
going to school there. In the third grade I remember Miss Newberry and Miss
Emerson. The school had an outdoor pool and in the summer my mother took the
three of us there to swim.
My mother was a beautiful seamstress, made my clothes, knitted and
crocheted my sweaters, etc. She was also an immaculate housekeeper. She
liked for me to help dust the furniture, but I never got any pleasure out of
that task. I still don’t like to dust. One of my favorite activities was
skating. My mother had me wear long white stockings. I was very active and
the stockings were a constant problem for her and for me. We played games
like Snake and the Gully, Cowboys and Indians, in the woods across the
street from Aunt Thelma’s on Cameron Ave., etc. Even though I was the only
girl among boys, I was always the leader of the playtime activities. Lilly
Gilly was a girl who lived in the neighborhood, but she didn’t like the
types of games we played and didn’t participate. Reading was another
activity I enjoyed and continue to enjoy to this day.
My mother was very smart, fashionable, lovely, talented, highly organized
and disciplined. She was a perfectionist and image was important to her.
Structure, responsibility, and duty seemed to be high on her list of
priorities too. My father liked an active social life and my mother
supported him in this enjoyment. Daddy was very talkative, laughed and joked
a lot, and made friends easily. The only time I remember seeing my mother
laugh was when she was interacting with Aunt Thelma, her sister and best
friend. Mother was a church leader and organized many of the activities at
church. She taught Sunday School. Daddy was the church treasurer.
My parents were about the same height, but Daddy was plumper than Mother.
They both sang in the church choir and I was responsible for my brothers
during the service. We all three sat on a pew down front, and it was my job
to see that my brothers behaved. Bill was more dare devilish and active than
Fred.I often babysat my brothers so my parents could go out to parties. Many
of their friends in their Saturday night party group attended First
Presbyterian Church.
One of their wealthy friends was Edmund Taylor, the Vick’s Vapor Rub
inventor. They had been out late to a party the night before my mother was
killed. Mother was upset with me that I was not asleep when she got home on
that particular night. I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping since I felt
responsible for my brothers and the house, but then I felt guilty because my
mother did not approve of my still being up when they returned .
Religion was important to Mother. She read us a Bible story every night
before prayers. We all three went to bed at the same time each night in the
same bedroom together. Christmas was the happiest time of the year at our
house. I playedthe piano and we sang Christmas songs. I got many nice gifts
from Santa Claus - dolls, doll furniture, etc. I remember a special red car
that Fred got. My mother would cook many special holiday foods and would
bake several delicious cakes. I don’t remember birthdays being celebrated.
Daddy would always buy the latest sheet music for me to play. We had a
Victrola and a collection of popular records. My mother said she thought I
might be a concert pianist someday.
We all got a bath once a week when the weather was cold - and Mother
bathed all three of us together. In the summer we played outside and she
bathed us more often. We could go barefooted after May 1. The white
stockings went back on the first day of school. We did not have a garden.
Our food was bought at the store. Milk was delivered to the house. Ice came
in a horse drawn wagon. We children liked to hop on the back of the wagon
and get chips of ice to eat.
I felt that Mother thought I was very capable and smart. I loved her very
much and never wanted to disappoint her or let her down. Her approval meant
a great deal to me. Mother was much more serious minded than lighter
spirited Aunt Thelma . It seemed to me that everyone thought my mother was
the great source of knowing how to do everything the right way. Mother was
an expert in cooking, sewing, home decoration , cleanliness, socializing,
fashion, organization, religion and church work. Although Aunt Thelma was a
wonderful housekeeper and a grand cook, she could never do things as well as
my mother did. Jovial Daddy was not strict like Mother - she took care of
all the discipline and punishment of the three children.
My father had a Hupmobile car and every Sunday our family went to Pine
Hall to see my Daddy’s family. My Grandfather Ashburn owned a tobacco farm on the Dan River. He never lived there but had white tenants doing the
farming. After he died, Grandma and my Uncle Hassel moved from Liberty Street to
the farm. Uncle Hassel soon met and married Alcie (Elsie) Carter, and she
moved in with him and Grandma. Aunt Emma, my Daddy’s only sister, was living nearby in a house my Grandfather had given her and her husband, Jim Ayers. Aunt Emma and Uncle Jim had a big family of children (Evelyn, Ruth, John, Andrew, Ashburn,
Joe, Mary, Isaac, three females who died in infancy, and Rachel who fell in
the spring and drowned.) Uncle Jim raised tobacco and also was a traveling salesman.
I always enjoyed my cousins - especially Evelyn and Ruth who were about
my age. Evelyn often had to take responsibility for cooking, cleaning, child care
etc. as Aunt Emma suffered from depression and would periodically go to the State mental hospital in Morganton. Family members reported that she had a
lobotomy on one of her visits there. Uncle Jim made a lot of money in later days.
He first started this successful business selling rags. He and Aunt Emma bought a
lovely,
large home in Winston-Salem purchased with some of the money he earned. My father had a Hupmobile car and every Sunday our family went to Pine Hall to see my Daddy’s family. My Grandfather Ashburn owned a tobacco
farm on the Dan River. He never lived there but had white tenants doing the
farming. After he died, Grandma and my Uncle Hassel moved from Liberty Street to
the farm. Uncle Hassel soon met and married Alcie (Elsie) Carter, and she
moved in with him and Grandma.Aunt Emma, my Daddy’s only sister, was living nearby in a house my Grandfather had given her and her husband, Jim Ayers. Aunt Emma and Uncle Jim had a big family of children (Evelyn, Ruth, John, Andrew, Ashburn,
Joe, Mary, Isaac, three females who died in infancy, and Rachel who fell in
the spring and drowned.) Uncle Jim raised tobacco and also was a traveling salesman.
I always enjoyed my cousins - especially Evelyn and Ruth who were about
my age. Evelyn often had to take responsibility for cooking, cleaning, child care
etc. asAunt Emma suffered from depression and would periodically go to the State mental hospital in Morganton. Family members reported that she had a
lobotomy on one of her visits there. Uncle Jim made a lot of money in later days.
He first started this successful business selling rags. He and Aunt Emma bought a
lovely, large home in Winston-Salem purchased with some of the money he earned.On Sundays, Uncle Arthur and his wife, Aunt Nonnie, brought Arthur Lee, Gilbert, Anderson, and Carolyn to Pine Hall. Their son, Allen, had
died (around age 2 or 3 - a "blue" baby - heart disease). Aunt Nonnie and
Uncle Arthur had a house at Cherry Grove Beach which I enjoyed going to for
many years. Uncle Arthur had a keen interest in the latest technology and
would always buy the newest , most up-to-date appliances, equipment, etc.. He would
have been fascinated with today’s computers . The fine beach house at Cherry Grove
which Aunt Nonnie and Uncle Arthur so generously shared with family and friends
was completely destroyed by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Gilbert is now 87 and he
and his lovely wife, Sarah, and I visit together from time to time. Uncle
Ellis and his wife, Aunt Ollie, brought Ellis, Jr., Ruth, David, and Richard to Pine Hall for visits. Uncle Ellis’s birth name was Gabriel
Ellis Ashburn. His father, Jesse, had a vision of the Angel, Gabriel, and
pledged that he would name the expected baby after the Angel. Grandma Ashburn never
had visions and conversion experiences like Grandpa Ashburn, but the
Primitive Baptists finally let her be a member of their group anyway. Uncle Ellis
always wanted to be known as G. Ellis Ashburn. Very few people knew about the Gabriel part. Uncle Arthur and Uncle Ellis were educated at Oak Ridge
Military Academy and worked for Reynolds Tobacco Company. They were always very smart, generous, kind and responsible. Both of them did well financially,
and both had fine wives.
In the summer, my mother and Aunt Thelma would take all the children, me, my two brothers, and "Junior" Peterson to Pine Hall where we lived in
one of the tenant houses for the summer. My daddy and Uncle Pete would come
every weekend. We picked blackberries for jelly and home-made wine and went swimming in the Dan River. The wine was for fruit cakes. When I was about ten years old, my mother took us three children on the train to visit her family in Asheville. A cinder got in my eye as windows
were opened on trains in warm weather for ventilation. The pain was soon
alleviated by a flax seed. Once the seed was put into my eye, it turned into a gelatin
like substance that absorbed the cinder. Grandfather Ed Boyles had married a
wealthy redheaded woman in Asheville, Julia Wagstaff, his third wife. He divorced
his second wife, Kate, by whom he had a daughter, Cornelia - named after
Cornelia Vanderbuilt (Biltmore Estate). He had made a lot of money in the
construction and real estate business and was part of Asheville’s "high" society. He was
tall, handsome and charming, and liked the things that money could do and buy.
We stayed in one of his properties - a large apartment building. It was a
fun week. After Julia died, Grandpa Ed married Miss Hege (Mrs. Burkhead’s sister).
He divorced her and married a woman from S. C. He died at a very old age.
Even in his casket, he was very handsome with his silver white hair. I attended
his funeral, near Columbia, S. C., with my three children, Aunt Thelma, my brother
Bill and Douglas, Jr. Grandpa Ed was not a man of financial means when he died.
On Sunday, August 30, 1925, we were driving North on Patterson Avenue to church at North Winston Presbyterian, and at the intersection
of Patterson Avenue and Northwest Boulevard, a Negro bus (called a jitney)
ran into the side of our Hupmobile. My mother was thrown to the curb. Her
right hand was on the door handle of the car and the impact caused the door to
fly open. I still have the Bible she was holding in her hands. She died, never
regaining consciousness, in City Hospital with a fractured skull about three hours
after the accident. My father was driving the car and we three children were
sitting in the back seat. I was sitting between Fred and Bill. My mother was wearing a beautiful medium blue beaded long dress at the time of the accident which
she had borrowed from a wealthy friend. Mother had beautiful clothes herself, but
had admired this particular dress so much that her friend let her borrow it
to wear on this fateful Sunday. My father got several broken ribs in the accident
and my brothers got scratched up. I had no physical injuries. The driver of the
bus spent two years in the penitentiary. My parents had bought a new house at 305 Lockland Avenue and were scheduled to move into the house from 1715 E.
5th
Street the last week of August. My mother had taken down the curtains and washed them to hang in the new house. Her body lay in state in the dining
room at the house on E. 5th Street after she was killed. The funeral was held at
the house as was customary at the time. As one would expect, I was devastated by my mother’s death. Aunt Thelma had promised my mother that if anything ever happened to her she would take care of her children. I was eleven years
old, Fred was eight, and Billy was almost six. Aunt Thelma cared for us at her
house until Daddy got moved to Lockland Avenue. Aunt Thelma, Uncle Pete and "Junior" moved from their house to the Lockland Ave. house so Daddy would have
help with Fred, Bill and me. The house on Lockland Ave. had two stories. A lot
of trees were in the back yard which went down a hill. We children played
outside most of the time. It was here that we built the famous ferris wheel.
1926 - 1929 - Our family started going to Calvary Moravian Church, corner
of Holly Ave. & Poplar, where the Petersons were members. The Rev. Edmund Schwarze was the minister. Our new school was Calvin H. Wiley at the
corner of NW Blvd. & Hawthorne Rd. When I went from 5th grade at Skyland, I was put
in the 7th grade at Wiley and met Mary Ollie Biles, who later introduced me
to Frank Caldwell at the Maplewood Ave. home of Helen and Jim Morrill. At
the end of the 7th grade, I won a gold medal for having the highest average
in the 7th grade. My granddaughter Ashley now has this medal.
After completing 7th grade at Wiley, I attended Richard J. Reynolds High School on N. Hawthorne Rd. I walked to school every morning from Lockland Avenue and walked home every afternoon. The walk one way was a little over one mile. My father had met Frances Loker at Pine Hall, and they were married. He brought Frances in to live with us at the Lockland Ave. House. Aunt
Thelma and Uncle Pete built a brick bungalow at 708 Miller Street which they
moved into.
1929
My father quit his job at RJR in the early summer of 1929, just a
few months before the stock market crash on October 29th in the same year. He
sold his Reynolds stock and his two houses, had over $50,000 in cash from the transactions, and moved to Pine Hall, into a house which he built and
owned with Uncle Arthur. Daddy, Frances, his wife of two years, and his two sons,
Billie and Fred, moved there while I was in Roaring Gap at the Girl Scout Camp.
By the time I arrived home at Pine Hall near the end of summer, Frances had
moved out. I was told that she caught a train in Pine Hall, and went back to
her people in Virginia. She never did return to my father and after she’d been gone one
year he divorced her. I later was told that the "straw that broke the camel’s
back" was a cow. Daddy bought a cow which he didn’t know how to milk and told Frances that was her job since she had been raised in the country and knew how to
do it.
She was soon gone, and the cow was disposed of shortly thereafter. How
did Daddy meet Frances? The principal at the Pine Hall School had rented the
house, which Daddy and Uncle Arthur built together, before we moved in. The
principal had several children, and a wife who taught school where he was the
principal. Frances came with them from Virginia to be their housekeeper. Daddy,
Fred, Billie and I, went to Pine Hall every Sunday to visit my Daddy’s mother,
my grandmother, many times before Daddy met Frances. The large family would
sit on my grandmother’s porch, visit with one another and with neighbors and
friends.
Daddy met Frances on one of these Sundays, married her and moved her to Lockland Avenue. He said he needed someone to look after his children.
Frances spent a lot of time lying on the sofa with her feet propped up on the
end. We children irritated her and she punished us often. She was often angry at
my father, too. Frances was a very large boned woman and different in every way from
my mother. I spent the rest of the summer of 1929 at Pine Hall but soon
departed on a night train, which Tom Preston, the owner of the grocery flagged down for
me. I did not want to stay at Pine Hall and be a housekeeper and cook. Also, my
daddy was gone most of the time - out socializing and drinking with friends -
trying to have a good time. He didn’t work at a paying job but lived off the large
amount of cash he had gotten right before the Depression hit. The responsibility of
three children without their mother, who had looked after everything, must have
been a heavy burden for my fun loving daddy. He had loved my mother very much
and losing her must have been terrible for him. Discipline, order, stability, responsibility and refinement for our family suffered greatly after my
mother’s death. I moved in with Aunt Thelma, Uncle Pete, and "Junior" at 708
Miller Street. I wanted to graduate from Reynolds High. I never lived with Daddy
or my brothers again. I lived with Aunt Thelma and Uncle Pete and Douglas,
Jr. until I graduated from high school. Aunt Thelma and Uncle Pete loved me
and provided me with a safe and secure environment. They were kind and
generous.
My father married Lizzie after his divorce from Frances. He and Lizzie
had five children. Daddy raised tobacco to support his family. His daughter,
Martha Webb, is the only one I’ve had contact with. Daddy and I had few
interactions after he married Lizzie. I don’t know anything about his life with his
second family. I did visit him in the hospital when he was dying and he told me
he had done the best he could.
My two brothers, Fred and Bill, stayed on a while at Pine Hall after I
left and attended the Pine Hall School. Aunt Ailcie and Uncle Hassell were
interested in their welfare. My father was not stingy, mean or unkind. He just let his
children do whatever they wanted to as long as they didn’t expect too much from
him. He wanted a recreational and free life style. He was never again the father
or the man he had been before my mother’s death. The boys could charge food at the
store . I think they ate a lot of Campbell’s soup. Fred later moved to
Winston-Salem and worked for Western Union. He had a room in a house with the Grubbs. Fred delivered Western Union messages on his bicycle. One day he got hit by a
car on the bike and broke his leg. Aunt Ollie and Uncle Ellis let him recuperate
at their house. After Fred recovered from the accident he joined the CCC (Civilian Conservation Core) and was sent to Southport where he met his wife, Elsie
Styron.
Fred sold insurance for a living. He liked to cook and later owned a
restaurant at Long Beach. He and Elsie had one child, Julia, who is married to Cary
Spencer. They live in Southport and have three children - Cary, Jr. , a lawyer,
David, and Sharon. Cary has two sons, and Sharon has one daughter, Erin. Elsie died
in her early thirties of kidney failure and high blood pressure. Fred married
two more times and died of a brain aneurysm in his forties. Julia was looked after
by her maternal grandmother in Southport, Mrs. Easley. Mrs. Easley ran a
boarding house. She died when Julia was 15 and Cary and Julia married.
When Bill was 16 years old, Uncle Ellis got him a job at Wachovia Bank.
Bill was always a great conversationalist. He told us he scored 168 on his U.
S. Air Force IQ test. He attended Lees McRae College two years. He met Katherine Evans, his wife, a beautiful, smart, and sweet woman, who also worked at
the bank. Bill, a Major in the U. S. Army Air Corps in World War II, was
awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Combat Mission and Meritorious Service. He entered the service in March, 1942, after having already worked seven
years in the trust department at Wachovia Bank, and was one of the first five students
to graduate in the first C.A.A. course. He received his wings March 25,
1943, in Blythville, Arkansas. The plane he flew into combat was christened "K. O.
Katy" after his wife Katherine, who was well liked by the crew who wanted to
honor her.
Katherine insisted that it was not that the boys in her husband’s crew
liked her so much, but that they liked her tall husband. At the time of the honor,
Katherine said she was "thrilled to pieces," and could hardly sleep for thinking about
the honor bestowed on her. Bill graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill (1949) and was a
senior vice-president at Wachovia Bank. He retired from Wachovia Bank after 35
in 1974, at age 56, and he and Katherine moved to Pawley’s Island. My second husband, Jim McInvaill, and I spent several days visiting them. We played
golf and rode on Bill’s yacht. Katherine tragically suffered from Alzheimer’s
Disease in her later years, and died several years after Bill. Bill and Katherine
had three children - Elizabeth A. (Betsy), Robert W. (Bobby) and James H. (Jimmy.)
Betsy has one son, Matthew Ashburn-Ramsdell, and Jimmy has a son and a daughter. Bill died, at age 66, Monday, February 27, 1984, in Myrtle
Beach, S. C., of kidney failure. He had suffered a heart attack several years before
his death. His obituary says he was born September 10, 1918, but his birth
certificate shows September 9, 1918, as his birth date. A memorial service was held on
Saturday, March 3, at All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Pawley’s Island, S. C. His
body was cremated and the ashes were buried in the Salem Cemetery. My son, David,
took me to the service on the airplane. Bill had served as secretary of The
Winston-Salem Foundation and had been a member of First Presbyterian Church. At
the time of his death, he was vice chairman of the Board of Directors of
Goody’s Manufacturing Corp. He was a member of Forsyth Country Club and
Litchfield Country Club.
1930 - 32
I attended Womans College in Greensboro, N. C. (UNCG). It was very important to me to obtain an education so I could be independent.
1932-1934 - I attended Salem College as a day student and lived with Aunt Thelma and Uncle Pete and Doulgas Junior on Miller Street.
1934 - 1936 - I graduated from Salem College. During the summer I had a
job at Crossnore, N. C. at the school founded by Dr. Mary Martin Sloop. I had
applied for a teaching job in Winston-Salem and High Point. When I heard that I
was offered a job in both cities, I decided to accept a job in Winston-Salem
teaching first grade at Forest Park School, N. Peachtree near Charles, in
Waughtown. I earned $70 monthly for eight months - $560 per year. I moved in with the
family of Mary Ollie Biles on South Main Street. One of the teachers at Forest
Park could pick me up there every morning. I paid $25 a month for room and
board. I taught at Forest Park 4 1/2 years.
1936 - 1937
My Aunt Etta asked me to move in with her and room with Uncle Seton’s niece, Inez Moser, a stenographer for Pilot Real Estate Company,
Inc. and a notary. Aunt Etta lived in a big house on Summit Street. This was near
my friend who gave me a ride to school every day. I paid Aunt Etta $25
monthly for room and board. I moved to Aunt Thelma’s in the summer.
1937 - 1938
Aunt Thelma wanted me to have room and board at 708 Miller Street. I paid her $25 monthly. She bought her new rugs with the money I
paid her. In the spring of 1938, my friend Mary Ollie set up a plan with Helen
Morrill for me to meet Frank Caldwell. Frank had been one of Mary Ollie’s old boy friends before John Kendall and Mary Ollie were married. Helen invited me
to a spaghetti supper at her house. located at 2407 Maplewood Ave. Jim
Morrill, manager of the Firestone Store, Mary Ollie, and I played bridge with
Frank Caldwell, office and credit manager for the Firestone Store where Jim was manager (corner of N. Cherry and 5th) while Helen cleaned up the kitchen
and looked after Baby Dan. Frank and I were married August 4, 1938, at
Calvary Moravian Church, and moved to the Winston Apartments (third floor) at 654
W. 4th St. It was an efficiency apartment which was furnished. It had a
living room with a Murphy bed which pulled down out of the closet, a tiny dining
room, a tinier kitchen and a small bathroom. In the spring of 1939, due to the fact that
a baby was expected, we moved to 707 S. Hawthorne Road, Apartment #12 (second
floor).
These were the parties I was given before the wedding: Mr. and Mrs. John Kendall/Starmount Country Club/reception and dance for
200
-Mrs. W. J. Dizor/Church/teachers
- Mrs. J. S. Moser & Inez Moser/1700 N. Hawthorne/linen shower
-Miss Lula Mae Motsinger/Wallburg, N. C./bridge party - 4 tables
-Miss Mildred Biles/1031 S. Main St./bridge party - 4 tables
-Mrs. Charles Allen, Louis Gaither, Lema Zakeley/Vintage Ave./Kitchen
shower
-Mr. & Mrs. James Morrill/Maplewood Ave./buffet supper
-Mrs. James McKenzie/Guilford/bridge luncheon
-Mrs. D. F. Peterson/708 Miller St./cake-cutting for 50
-Martha Fletcher & Helen Ellington/Lynwood Ave./bridge party - 5 tables
-Mr. & Mrs. Reid Nunn/dessert-coffee
-Martha Pleasant & M.N. Harris/444 S. Hawthorne/tea for 100.
We received wedding gifts from 168 people. Some of the gifts were:
Miss Faire Franklin/blue wool blanket
Mr. & Mrs. Fred Ashburn/waffle iron
Frank’s sister, Mary/sheets
Mr. & Mrs. Fred Walters/crystal fruit bowl
Mother Caldwell (Frank’s mother)/two feather pillows
Marie Wyatt/vase
Mary Ollie & John /laundry hamper
Miss Louise Peterson/bedspread
Douglas Junior/silver knife from Vogler’s
Mr. & Mrs. James Morrill/silver cake server from Vogler’s
Helen Morrill/waste basket
Miss Hill/bread box
Mr. & Mrs. Walton McNairy/lamp from Morrison Nuse
Mr. & Mrs. G. A. Brietz/6 pieces of crystal from the Ideal
Mr. & Mrs. T. J. McCarty/crystal candy dish from Ivey’s in Charlotte
Miss Lula Mae Motsinger/cup & saucer in china pattern from Shepherd’s
Mrs. Biles and Mildred/needle-point stool
David, Richard & Ruth Ashburn/silver knife & fork from Vogler’s
Mr. & Mrs. G. Ellis Ashburn/6 silver teaspoons from Vogler’s
Mrs. Nisbet & Ann/4 crystal water glasses
Annie Louise Sherrill/6 crystal goblets from the Ideal
Forest Park P.T.A./silver pickle fork from Vogler’s
Note: This paper was compiled by Mary Lynn Caldwell Morrill, Margaret’s
oldest child (b. May 17, 1939), in honor of Margaret’s 85th birthday, December 11, 1998.