September 2007 Interview with Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum By Isabelle Chewning [Items enclosed in brackets [ ] are not on the audio, but are editorial notes inserted for clarification] Chewning: My name is Chewning and today is September 5, 2007. I’m in the home of Mrs. Marjorie Chittum in Fishersville, Virginia and we’re going to do an interview for the Brownsburg Museum. Mrs. Chittum grew up in Brownsburg and so I’m going to ask her if she can share some of her stories with us, but first I’ll ask her for a little bit of background. Can you tell me what your whole name is? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum. Chewning: And did you grow up in Brownsburg, Mrs. Chittum? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I did, I did grow up there and lived there until I was 18. Chewning: And when were you born? Do you mind telling me when you were born? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, I don’t mind telling you. I was born March 15, 1929. Chewning: Great. And so you stayed in Brownsburg until you were 18. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I was 18. Chewning: Were you born in Brownsburg? Were you born at home? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I was born in the house where my brother, John Layton Whitesell, lives right now [2664 Brownsburg Turnpike]. I was born in that house. Chewning: So you were born at home. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: That’s right. Chewning: And how about your brothers and sisters. How many brothers and sisters did you have? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I have one brother John Layton and I had no sisters. I always wanted a sister, but I never got a sister. Chewning: And how about your parents. Were they from Brownsburg as well? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: My mother was from Brownsburg. She was Margaret Dudley and her parents lived there, Mr. and Mrs. Lucien Dudley. My grandmother’s name was Martha and they lived just three houses above us right there on the main street of Brownsburg [2640 Brownsburg Turnpike]. My father’s home was over in, it’s called Decatur, or Aqua some people call it. That’s were he was from. Chewning: So your mother’s family grew up in the log-- is that the log house? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: That’s the log house. That’s where my mother’s parents lived. Chewning: And they were Dudleys. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Dudleys. Chewning: How did your father get to Brownsburg? Did he move to Brownsburg after he married your mother? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes he did. He [Miley L. Whitesell] was an undertaker, and his grandfather Miley, was a well known undertaker in Decatur. My father’s father died when my father was about six months old, I think it was. And so his mother, who was Annie Miley (who I'm named for) came back home to live and brought my father, and he grew up there. And then he met my mother. I’m not sure where he met her, but my father was 17 years older than my mother. And he met her when he was in Staunton working for an undertaking company, and then when they got married they stayed in Staunton a while. And then he was building this house [2664 Brownsburg Turnpike] and the undertaking business was joined to the house. Chewning: In Brownsburg? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: In Brownsburg. And so he married her, and that’s how they got to Brownsburg and then he opened up a funeral home in Brownsburg and ran it until he died at a very young age, 52. Chewning: Oh my goodness he was young. How old were you when he died? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I was eleven. Chewning: Oh my goodness. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I had just turned eleven in March and he died in April, very suddenly. Of course, back in those days if you got anything very serious there was nothing to do and he had bleeding ulcers and they couldn’t stop the bleeding. Chewning: Oh my goodness and you were only eleven. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: And my brother [John Layton Whitesell] was a junior in high school. It was in 1940. Chewning: And then did your brother take over the business? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Well, no, my mother kept the business. My mother had her Funeral Director’s License and she kept the business for a while and an undertaker in Lexington would come out and to the embalming. She did that for a while and my brother thought he was going into it. He did try really hard and he [was an apprentice] over in Charlottesville but he just said, “I’m not cut out to be an undertaker.” He liked part of it. He like the funeral directing part but he just – he didn’t like the embalming and he just said, “I can’t do it.” Mother was disappointed because my great grandfather had handed the business end of it down to my father. And I know my father would probably want him [John Layton] to [take it over] but he wouldn’t want him to [do it if he did not like it.] But my father ran a store there also in the undertaking business. My brother [later] ran the store and he was Postmaster there for many years, until he retired. Chewning: So do you remember the store and the undertaking business? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh yes, oh yes I do. My father closed the store some time before he died, but yes I remember [both very well]. In fact, children, a lot of children, a lot of my little friends at school, [would plan] to come and spend the night. And I used to get so upset because I really wouldn’t know until the last minute if they were going to come, because the day would come and they would say, “Your Daddy doesn’t have a body in there does he?” And they were afraid. And so I always just – it really didn’t mean that, the only thing it meant to me at that time in my life was that it was the way we made a living. I was just used to it. And of course before Daddy put the funeral home into the part that was adjoined to the house where he had the store. He’d put them over in the living room and mother would lock the front door because you know nobody locked doors back in those days, even at night a lot of times, and mother would lock the door so we wouldn’t come bringing in people through there. And as soon as we’d get home from school I would pop through that door, calling "Mother." And so this day she forgot to lock the door and when I popped the door open and called "Mother," there it [a body] was. But, course I wasn’t afraid because I was used to it. It really wasn’t until my father died that I realized what death really was. Because I was just at that very impressionable age. When you lose somebody it’s [hard]. And we were very close, my father and I. We fished together. My brother was close to him too but there were about six years difference in our ages and Daddy wanted a little girl. So that’s the way it was. [And John Layton wasn’t into fishing. I loved to fish. Maybe that is because I am a Pisces!] [Paragraph regarding fishing moved here from page 20.] Chewning: Did he [John Layton] fish with you when your Dad took you fishing? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No. He never did like to, because you'd have to sit and wait. You know, we went up there to the-- where we fished was, you go up there to Rockbridge Baths, like you're going to turn left and go to Lexington and turn right and go to Rockbridge Baths? You go down to Rockbridge Baths and then you go across that bridge and come back and we used to fish down on that riverbank down there. But he didn't like it -- Mother would pack our lunch and we'd go, but John Layton didn't want to-- he wanted to catch one as soon as you got there. When we camped, Lou [Wiseman Stuart] and I fished all the time. We loved the- you know, still fished in our older days a whole lot. Chewning: That must have been an interesting childhood. Were there a lot of funerals in Brownsburg? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes. And of course there was a funeral home in Craigsville, and there was one in Middlebrook. But you know that was a different area. So Daddy got the one that was up in that area, mostly. Chewning: Was there one in Lexington? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh yes, Harrisons was there. And there was one there called Varner and Pole. They ran a furniture store and a funeral home. And then there was one, can’t think of that [one], the man who ran it was I think maybe a [distant] cousin of Daddy’s. His name was Sam Miley and my grandmother was a Miley. So there were actually three in the undertaking business at that time, [I believe]. Chewning: But your dad probably got most of the Brownsburg, Fairfield, Raphine business? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Right, Montibello and over in that area, yes. Chewning: And did he do blacks as well as the white people? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh yes. Chewning: Everybody. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Everybody, [I think] yes. Lots of black people lived there in Brownsburg and around Brownsburg and they were over at Fairfield, they were no different. [I believe everybody in Brownsburg respected each other as a neighbor and also a friend, black and white alike.] Chewning: What’s the first thing you remember about being in Brownsburg? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: You know I was thinking about that and I just can’t really pinpoint one thing. It [seemed] I was always there. There was just no big event; nothing like it was when I found out about Santa Claus, you know. That was so traumatic! Chewning: [Laugh] How did you find that out? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: At school. Chewning: Somebody told? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Mm-hm. Somebody told. Chewning: You’d been protected up until then? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Until then, yes. And back then you didn’t learn things like you do now, you just didn't. Chewning: How about school. Did you start first grade in Brownsburg? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes I did, and I loved school! Chewning: Which building were you in? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I was in the red brick one that was the first one that was torn down years ago. It was sort of beside the stucco building. Actually, it was beside of that. And my [first grade] room was at the very back of the hall and Mrs. Whipple – Mollie Sue Hull, she was then – was [my] teacher. She was just out of college and then you didn’t have to go four years. You could get teaching certificates and she had just gotten a teaching certificate. And then she went back in later years and got her degree. And so I teased her after I grew up. I said, “If I had known you were that young I wouldn’t have listened to you!” [Laugh] Chewning: She was my second grade teacher. She was just about my favorite teacher. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh she was mine. I have her picture right on my refrigerator right now. She actually is the reason I became a first grade teacher. I just loved her to death, and then I took piano lessons from her and she played at our wedding. Chewning: She played at my wedding. Where did you take piano lessons? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: We had a piano at home. But she was living then where, Mr. Barnes lives [8 Hays Creek Road] in the house that was beside of the [store building. The last store that was there was the Farmers’ Co-op.] Chewning: Next to the bank? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes. She was living there at that time and that’s where I went to her house to take piano lessons. Chewning: So she had a piano there? She’d brought a piano with her? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: She had a piano there. I think I must have been in third grade then, I guess. Yes, I was in third grade. Chewning: How many years did you take piano? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Well now, let me see, I don’t know exactly how many years that I took with her. And then it seems she quit giving lessons there for a while – maybe when Freddie [Fred R. Whipple, Jr.] was little – there was another lady, Katherine Earhart who went to New Providence Church. She said that if we would let her use our piano, she would give me my lessons free. So that’s what we did until I got tired of taking lessons. And then I think – now that is one thing that’s sort of unclear. I think I went back – I know I did – and took some more from Mrs. Whipple, some more piano lessons. Chewning: Do you still play? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I don’t. My husband, a couple years after we were married, gave me a Wurlitzer piano for Christmas and I had no idea he was going to do it. When we lived in Staunton. And then when we moved up to Selma Boulevard, we moved the piano up there and then when we moved down here we really didn’t have anywhere for it. By that time we started collecting all this junk, known as antiques. And so my grandchildren wanted it, so I said “Okay you can have it, take it.” And they took it. Chewning: Well that’s good you found a good home for it. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Exactly. We found a good home for it! Chewning: Do you remember who your neighbors were in Brownsburg? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh yes, I do. On the one side where my brother has his parking lot now – when he had the store he made that a parking lot – there was a black couple who lived there. Chewning: So there was a house there? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: There was a house there. Chewning: I don’t remember that. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, you don’t, it was way before. [There were] Uncle Letcher and Aunt Laura Pleasants. And Uncle Letcher worked out at the Strain place [3191 Brownsburg Turnpike], do you know where that is? Chewning: I do. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Okay. The only thing I remember is – I don’t know why , but he’d take the cows out there twice a day and in the wintertime they would walk out there [from Brownsburg to the Strain place] with them. He’d [Uncle Letcher] wrap his shoes up in burlap sacks and tie the sacks so his feet wouldn’t get cold. Wrap up his shoes and walk out there with those cows. And they [the Pleasants] had a swing on that porch. A little swing. And in the summertime they put a vine that would grow up so you couldn’t see anything. It would keep the sun out. Out beyond your place [on Sterrett Road] – I guess Aunt Laura was Uncle Letcher’s second wife. And his daughter, I think that was his daughter, was Maggie Pleasants [who lived on Sterrett Road] and [William] Dude Haliburton. Chewning: Dude worked with my granddad. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Okay they came every evening after supper to visit. Chewning: Did they walk? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No they had a little, not a Model T, it was a Model A. I can remember we’d be out or sitting on the porch. Mother or Daddy or whoever happened to be out there, would say, “There comes Maggie and Dude.” And I used to love to go there and sit on the porch and talk to them because they could tell most fantastic tales and stories, and I loved them. Chewning: Do you remember some of their stories? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I don’t, I don’t. They always had some about their olden days. And Aunt Laura would be on the fence and she would see me (now this was after my Daddy closed the store) and she would say "Would you go down to the Huffman’s Store for me?" And I course went, and she’d have a little bag of eggs for me to take to help to pay. And she’d say, “Now you can have two of the eggs for taking it for me.” Chewning: How nice. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: So then my mother found that she was doing that, and my mother said, “Don’t you take those eggs from Aunt Laura! You just tell her that you’d be glad to do it anyway.” So that was the end of the free eggs. [But that was okay, too.] Chewning: I have good memories of Maggie and Dude. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh, yes. I loved Maggie. We’d sit on that porch and just talk about all kinds of things going on in Brownsburg. What I was doing at school and everything. And I used to go to -- and my brother did, too -- and well everybody who lived there would go to the school. The black school which has been torn down. You know where that was? Chewning: Right. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Okay. And they had their school closings [graduations] up at the church, well all of us went. We went and enjoyed it. Miss Carrie Peters always had a nice program. I'm seeing her now, with a nice white dress on, introducing all those people. Ruth and Frances Craney, I grew up playing with them. Ruth and Frances Craney Chewning: She was Frances Porterfield? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: And their mother was Aggie, and their father was Glasgow. And their grandfather lived there with them and his name was Uncle Sam. But I played up there a lot, a lot. Chewning: Which house did they live in? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: They lived where the Porterfield boy lives now [2650 Brownsburg Turnpike]. Where Frances lived. They’ve done-- of course it didn’t look like that, it was log like my grandmother’s house was. Chewning: Oh, it was? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I mean it was that old weatherboard. Chewning: Are you talking about the house next to your grandmother’s house or the house up next to the church [29 Academy Alley]? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, next to my grandmother’s house. Chewning: On Main Street. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: As you go down that alley, right on the corner where the Porterfields live. Chewning: Right. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Frances’ grandson lives there now. Chewning: Charles. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Charles Junior. Chewning: And who lived on the other side of your house. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: The first people who lived there was – Mrs. Hassie Dice lived her. She was a widow and then she married a man his name was Bolen. And she had – her children were all grown. She lived there but then Lou, Lou Stuart [Lou Wiseman], her family lived there. When I first knew Lou, they lived the down beside of where Lib Ward lived, in that house [2757 Brownsburg Turnpike]. Then they moved from there up as you go around that turn, that house has been torn down also, the side of Will Gilmore’s house. You know where Will Gilmore’s house is, that house in Brownsburg up there that right as you make the turn to out of Brownsburg [2613 Brownsburg Turnpike]? The blacksmith’s shop [2610 Brownsburg Turnpike] was on one side and Will Gilmore’s house was across the street. Nobody lives in it. Chewning: Is it the one that has sort of a balcony on it? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes, that’s right. And Lou and her family lived in the house beside of that and that house has been torn down and there’s something else there. And then Lou’s family moved down beside of me [2682 Brownsburg Turnpike]. And that’s when we really got close then. I could lie in my bedroom and talk to them in their bedroom. [Laugh] When we weren’t together, I mean. I spent many, many nights there and they likewise. And I ate over there, and we did everything together. And then they moved where up where Doris Lunsford lives [2651 Brownsburg Turnpike]. Chewning: You and Lou are the same age? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, no. A lot of people thought that was so odd because Frances [Wiseman] and I were the same age, we called her Jude. They started that, Carl [Wiseman], her brother and my brother John Layton. She was so little and I don’t know how they picked it up but they started calling her Pejulius. Then it got down to Jewel. Then many years before she died it got down to Jude. And everybody called her Jude. And she and I were the same age. Two months difference. Lou is the age of my husband, she’s a couple years older. I don’t think she’d mind me telling you. If she does, it’ll be okay! [Laugh] Chewning: Oh no, she told me! Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: She doesn’t care, I was just kidding. But she and I were closer together for most of the time because Jude was a different personality. She was little, she was so tiny, she liked to play ball but she was afraid and every time the ball would come toward her she’d make his little squeal and jump back. And she liked to read. And Lou and I were just-- Jude always said we were just too roughneck for her. Just two roughnecks. Chewning: [Laugh] You were more adventuresome. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: More adventuresome. I mean of course I loved Jude to death. And I still miss her. I tried to be faithful going to see her when she was sick. But Lou and I and Earl [Mrs. Chittum’s husband] and Boyd [Lou Stuart’s husband], we all-- we were just really close. Wherever you saw Lou and Jude and me we usually were together. Either two of us or three of us. In the evening – kids wouldn’t do that now, we were great big kids – and Mr. [Tolerace J.] Wiseman drove a school bus and parked it right out there in front of the house while their family lived there. And on Sunday afternoon – we did the same thing every Sunday afternoon – we played paper dolls in the bus, and we were great big girls. Chewning: Lou talked about paper dolls. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes, we used pattern books. My mother would come to town and we’d always say “Go into Penney’s!” And Leggett’s had patterns then and we’d say, “Ask them if they have any old pattern books.” So she would and then we would cut the head off of a girl or child or whatever and leave a little, like a little prong, a little stick paper on that that you wet, lick it and wet it. We’d cut the dresses out and then you could stick that head on all kinds of dresses and we used the catalog to keep them in. And you’d have the mother and a father and a little boy and a little girl. And you had them different places, you put little flaps on there to tell you what and we had names for all of them. And when the little neck would get so that it wouldn’t stick anymore we had to get a new one. [Laugh] A new head! But I remember Lou’s doll, her main doll, was named Mary Jo. That girl, that teenaged girl, big girl. I think Lou named her girl Mary Jo. Chewning: What was yours? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Mine’s name was Ruth. It was sort of like Ken and Barbie are now, you know, except ours were homemade. We didn’t have Barbie. They [the Wisemans] lived there then they moved up in front of us [to 2651 Brownsburg Turnpike]. And then Lou and Boyd and Earl and I were very close. We traveled together and we camped together. All during our kids growing up, we had trailers. There were three or four couples, Carl [Wiseman] and his family, and Lou and Boyd and us and Fred Sensabaugh and his family and we’d parked the trailer and we’d go to different campgrounds. We went to Douthat a lot and we parked the trailer because back then you didn’t really have spaces where you had to be in. And we sort of parked the trailers and made a little circle so we had the middle there, like our own little courtyard. Chewning: So did your husband [Earl Chittum] go to Brownsburg School? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, he went to Spottswood. Chewning: And how did you meet him? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Well, it was during the war. And our basketball coach had gone. He was a W&L fellow, I think that’s what it was. Do you know Mrs. Greaver? Chewning: No, I don’t. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: She was Angie Margaret Wade. Angie Margaret Greaver. She was our basketball coach and her husband was in the Service. And so she was just sort of there, I think filling in, because the other one had to go. And her husband was coming home from service and they had to have a basketball coach. And Earl was working at DuPont. But when he was in high school, he was an excellent basketball player. So somehow somebody recommended him that he might be able to work at DuPont and coach our team, the girls’ team. So they contacted him. And he said yes, he would come and talk to them. So he came over to be interviewed. Well, back then we had to-- the bells weren’t like they are now, automatic. You had to have somebody to go in and ring them and usually it would be a senior. So I had been assigned to that job to go and take care of watching the time and go and ring the bells. So when I went in to ring the bells, I knew who he was because we were in competition in basketball. And he was sitting in there and I just went in to ring the bells. And then one of my friends, who you may know, Betty Firebaugh, she was Betty Palmer, Don Firebaugh’s wife? Okay. Betty lived just sort of diagonally across from Earl. So that evening – I didn’t know any of this until she came and told me about this a day later at school – he told her [he wanted a date with the girl who rang the bells] because he knew we [Marjorie Ann and Betty] were good friends. So he said, “Will you get me a date with her? Because I know she won’t go if I ask her.” So Betty came to school and asked me if I would go, and I was living with John Layton. Mother had gone away to work in Lynchburg and so I lived my senior year and maybe half of my junior year with John Layton and Virginia [John Layton’s wife, Virginia Wade Whitesell]. And so she said "Would you go? Earl wants to know if you would go to a movie or somewhere.” I don’t know where it was, and I said "Absolutely not. I will not. He thinks he is such a good basketball player.” I knew he was. So she went back and told him [that I said, “No.”] And when she came back the next day and asked me again, I said okay. [I guess] the rest is history. [laugh] [We will have been married 60 years this December.] Chewning: So tell me a little more about what you remember about school. Who was your second grade teacher? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Isabel Reubush. Chewning: I haven't heard that name. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Okay. I don't think she was there but a couple years and she lived with Helen Watson. They lived right there on the corner, where Jo Heath lives [2693 Brownsburg Turnpike]. [Helen Watson later married Greer Carson. She taught Home Ec.] Chewning: Can you spell her last name? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Reubush? Chewning: Mm-hm. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I'm not sure whether it's R-E-U-B-U-S-H because some people do, or if it's R-U-E-B-U-S-H. She was from, I think- I think Isabel was from maybe Buena Vista, I believe, somewhere like that. Chewning: So she boarded down there … Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, she and Helen lived there downstairs, I think it's what they did. She was real short, wore her hair up. She wasn't a young person, she wasn't a young person. And she-- second grade, that's when they were-- the red building was still there. But we-- our second grade was upstairs. There was an auditorium up there and Miss [Ocie] Trimmer’s office was up there. And they just partitioned off a part of that and made it our second grade. That's when Betty came into the picture, Betty Firebaugh, Betty Palmer. That's when she started coming to Brownsburg school. She didn't come to first grade. Chewning: But she lived in Spottswood? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: She lived in Raphine. Chewning: Oh. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Mm-hm. And Raphine had a little school there for a while, I think. But Betty came in the second grade at Brownsburg. There was another little girl, and she's still a really dear friend of mine, too. She lived in the house just before you get to the Heslep place, that house right there on the left, just before you turn up in that lane [2110 Brownsburg Turnpike]. The Huffmans lived there. Her name was – in fact, I talked to her on the phone last night and I tease her, because every calls her Clara, but all during school we called her Clara Alice. So whenever I call her, I say, “Clara Alice?”. And she knows who it is. But she was a good friend of mine and we were talking about it last night on the phone. I used to come in the house and I'd say, "Mother, I'm going to walk to Clara Alice’s." Mother wasn't afraid, you know, there was nothing to be afraid of. I expect it's a couple miles up there, at least a mile. Chewning: At least a mile. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: And I used to spend a lot of nights up there. And she'd spend nights with me. And we had a good time. But then in third grade, Mrs. Elizabeth Williams taught me. She lived around with Mr. Walter Dice in that house [22 Hays Creek Road]. Mr. Dice was married to her sister and when Mrs. Dice died, Mrs. Williams moved around there and you know, that was would have been a “no-no”. Chewning: Oh. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: So they had a high school girl, I'd love to know where that girl is. She was from Fairfield. Her name was Sally, but I can't think of what her last name was. But Sally lived there with them. [I think her name was Sally Gibson. She was from the Fairfield area. I really liked her. She was older than I was.] Chewning: As a chaperone [laugh]? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: That's right. Chewning: And where, which house was Mr. Dice's house? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: That's where this White boy lives. And no, his name's not White. Driver. Bob Driver, in the Bob Driver house [22 Hays Creek Road]. And in the fourth grade is when I lost my Dad, in the fourth grade. Chewning: And was he sick, or did he just die suddenly? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: He had not been well for a long time. He had to diet, watch what he ate and all this stuff, but the ulcers just … Chewning: Was he able to work? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh, yeah, he worked, mm-hm, he worked. And the night he died, he got sick, and Miss Trimmer – your Daddy [Mc Sterrett] will remember it. Miss Trimmer put on beautiful operettas and Glee Club things and all that. And John Layton [Whitesell] always had a solo part and sang in the show. And, he was to sing to a girl that was from Rockbridge Baths. Her name was Mary Martin, and he was to sing "Beautiful Dreamer" to her. It was a Steven Foster operetta. And he said, “I just don’t believe I can do it. I just don’t believe I can do it” And Daddy said, "You go and do what you have to do, I'll be okay." So, he did. He made it all the way through. He got sick on the 4th, died on the 7th in his and was buried on the 9th. Chewning: What month was it? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: April. Chewning: April. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: April. Chewning: Did he die at home, or did he go to a hospital? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, they took him to Lexington to the hospital and they sent me to Grandma's. Chewning: Up the street in Brownsburg? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Mm-hm. And they took me in there, but he, I think he knew because Mother said when they came down the steps, he said, "I'll never come down these steps again anymore." I'll never forget that. Chewning: Oh, I'm sure you won't, to be 11 years old and … Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: It's been a long time. 1940. Chewning: And did your mother remarry? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes, she did. She married Hugh McNutt. And see, Hugh – you know Ann -- then actually I think Mother was married to Hugh longer than she was to Daddy. Because when they got married, Daddy- I think they got married in 1921, I believe. John Layton was born in '23, and Daddy died in 1940, so they were only married, like, 20 years. And I think she was married to Hugh longer than that. Chewning: And did she move out to his house? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, no, no. When they got married, he was working with a company that did construction. They lived in Clifton Forge for a while, just a short while. Then they came back -- he got back to Staunton and they bought a house in Staunton. Chewning: How old were you when she got married? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh, I was married. Yeah, I was married. Yeah, Doug [Mrs. Chittum’s son] wasn't born when she got married. Chewning: So she ran the funeral home for a while and then you said she went to Lynchburg? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes, she went to Lynchburg. Actually, I was supposed to go to Madison College and I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. Mother wanted me to go to Madison. So, I said, okay, because I wanted to be a teacher, but by that time, Earl was in the picture. He was two years older than I am, and so the more I thought about it, I don't know. I guess I was just unsettled and that just seemed like a good thing to do, you know. I think it was because I had lost Daddy so young. And then I lived with John Layton and Virginia [Whitesell] and they were good as gold to me. Couldn't anybody have been any better to me. Even though I knew that I had to get his permission for everything, I didn't mind that at all. But I guess, I always wanted to be around older people. And I always liked to be cooking and doing those kind of things. So I decided, I said, "I don't want to go to Madison." I said, "Why can't" –and Lou [Wiseman Stuart] had gone to Lynchburg. She got married two months before I did and she had gone to Lynchburg to Virginia Commercial College. I said, "Why can't I go over there where Lou went?" And Mother said, "Well, I thought you wanted to be a teacher." I said, "Well, I do. But I don't want to go that long." I was afraid to tell Mother about Earl wanting me to get married. So, I did go to Lynchburg and I did get in Virginia Commercial. Lou was cut out to be a secretary. I was cut out to be a teacher. I hated it. [Laugh] I couldn't do the shorthand, I couldn't. I never could do it. Never did learn to do the bookkeeping. [Mother] got a job at the hospital over there in the dietary part of it. And every night, I cried, couldn't do it, couldn't do it. And finally one day, I just said, "I just can't take it anymore. I just cannot take it." And I just went in there, didn't even tell Mother I was in there. And told those people I was quitting. I thought it was easier to tell Mother if I'd already quit. So she said, "Well, you have to do something. You've got to prepare yourself to do something." Well I had met this girl, I lived at the Y, YWCA, and I had met this girl who said she was in beauty school over there. There was a beauty school over there, so she said, "Why don't you go to beauty school? That only takes three months." I thought, "Boy, that sounds great." So, I told Mother, I said, "I think I want to be a beauty operator." She said, "I don't care what you do. I only want whatever you want, but you're gonna do something!" So I went down and signed up and she went with me, paid the tuition and I went to beauty school. I hated that, too. [Laugh] I didn't even work a day. I finished, but I didn't work a day. And so, I said, "Mother, Earl wants to get married." By that time, I was working in Adair Hutton in Lexington. It was summer, I believe. Mr. Thorp said he'd give me a job to go to work up there. And I said, “Maybe I will go to college some time." And she said, "No you won't either." I said, "Yes I will. I will go." And she just kept on saying I would not. She said, "Your life – you’ll just ruin it if you’re not getting any education." So we got married in December and moved to Raphine, and lived there a little while and then we moved to Staunton. And then one day -- Tammy was already two or three years old. Chewning: That's your daughter? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Mm-hm. She's 49 now and I said, “You know what? I believe I’ll go down to Mary Baldwin to see if I can get in college.” So Earl came in and I told him and he said, "Well, whatever you want to do." I said, "I promised Mother I'd finish and I'm gonna do it." So I went down there and talked to Mrs Grafton. And she suggested I start out with just a couple courses. I said, "No, I want to take them all." She said, "You have been out of school for 16 years, you cannot do that. It's too hard. You came from a very small school a long time ago." And I said, "Okay, whatever you say." So she said, "I think you better just start out pretty slow." And I did, I finished. And I taught 25 years – [first grade 23 of those years. My husband was a great help with the children while I studied, and he helped with the housework. And Mother helped with keeping Tammy.] Chewning: That's a great story. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: But when I walked [down the aisle with my diploma], there sat Mother [and my step-father, Hugh McNutt], right on the end of that aisle. And I said, “See, I told you I'd get it!" Chewning: She must have been proud. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: She said, later, she said, "I knew when I told you you wouldn't do it, I knew you would, because you’ve always been so determined.” Of course, I'm glad I did it. I wanted to teach first grade, and that's what I taught. Chewning: Well she must have been determined, too, to be able to hold the business together for a while and raise two kids. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: She was. Chewning: That had to be hard for her. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Well she was raised-- my grandparents [Lucian and Martha Dudley] were very poor, very good people. Good people, well thought of in Brownsburg. But they were poor. And so Mother said many times, she'd help Grandma wash on the board till her fingers bled, because Grandma took in washing. Chewning: And did they go to New Providence? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, they didn't. Grandma and Granddaddy Dudley never went to church. Chewning: Did you go to New Providence [Presbyterian Church] growing up? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I went. I was baptized to New Providence and got married in New Providence. Went to Bible School in New Providence. In fact, just not long ago, I found my Sunday School little things they give you when you're promoted and Earl took them down and had them laminated. One from the Beginners Department to the Primary Department. Chewning: Mm-hm. Oh, that's nice that you had it … Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: And you knew Sarabelle Fitzwater? She was in my little class. And I loved Sarabelle and she had a little mesh pocketbook. And she carried a little beaded one. I can see it now, a little fringe on it. And I loved that pocketbook. I wanted one so bad and Mother never would get me one. But Sarabelle would let me hold hers while I was at Sunday School and when Sunday School was over, I'd hand it back to her. Mother did, later, get me one. But I wanted one right then while Sarabelle had hers. [Laugh] I thought about that when I went to her funeral, that little pocketbook. Chewning: That pocketbook. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: And my little great-granddaughter said, "It's a purse, they're not called pocketbooks." She said, "Big Gammy, they're not called pocketbooks, they're purses." [laugh] Chewning: And you mentioned Miss Trimmer. Everybody has pretty strong memories of Miss Trimmer? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yeah, Miss Trimmer. If she liked you, she liked you and if she didn't, she didn't. My brother, [I think was one of her “pets.”] Chewning: Did she like you? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Well, I guess she did. I never had any problems with her. She was always nice to me. My brother said when I was-- soon after Daddy died, I think, I got the mumps. And he said he'd run into her walking into Latin class and she said -- even when she was really being nice, she was stern and she said, "John Layton, I just sent your sister home." And he thought, "Oh, what has she done?" [Laugh] "With the mumps." [Laugh] He said, "I was scared to death!" Chewning: Were childhood diseases the same back then as they are now? I know you're vaccinated for mumps now, but I remember-- Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I had them all, except-- I had mumps and measles and chicken pox. And my vaccination, Miss Kirkland was her name. She was the health nurse for Rockbridge County. Over there across from John Layton, where the Andersons live [2671 Brownsburg Turnpike], down where he has his law office, that was a clinic. And Miss Kirkland came out once every so often and checked people and did the vaccinations. And so I was vaccinated three times. Chewning: How come? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Because they never would take. Never, I never was able-- I was vaccinated three times and Miss Kirkland said, "It's no use to vaccinate her anymore because it's not gonna take." Chewning: And that was smallpox vaccination, where you get the little scabs? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm. And John Layton and I-- I love him to death, but when we were little, Mother said she thought she was going to have to kill us both, because we fought all the time. Chewning: Oh, did you really? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Mm-hm. But see, he was almost six years older than I was- five years older- five or six. Well, he's 84 now and I'm 78, and he had been the only one, you see, for a long time. And then here came this little girl that was getting part of it. And so we fought all the time. And now, I was up there Sunday night and talking about it. But we love each other dearly. But we fought our way through, you know, up through teenage, not really teenage, but almost to teenage. And so I used to tease him when the vaccination wouldn’t take. I told him it was because he treated me so bad. That's why my vaccination didn’t take. He’d say, "No, it's 'cause you're so bad, that's why it didn't take!" [Paragraph on fishing moved forward to page 4.] But then when I went to Mary Baldwin, I had to have the vaccination and I mean, it took then. Dr. Joe Williams gave it to me, and it had a thing out there like a baseball and it just ached and hurt and they said it was because it had not taken, you know. I had to put a cup on it. Chewning: Oh gosh. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I mean, a plastic cup. But uhm.. no, it was-- it's just a lot of good things in Brownsburg, a lot of good things. We used to play over there on the bank when Daddy had the store. People would come in on Saturday night. The kids would come, and we'd play red light, and all, tag, and hide and seek. Roll down that bank over there in front of the store. We'd just have a lot of fun. Then there was, talking about the black people, there was a lady there and she lived out on your road too [Sterrett Road]. Aunt Mariah Fisher [ph?]. She was a midwife. Aunt Mariah. She wore a white dress all the time and a little white hat that had a ruffle around it. And she delivered babies. One thing that I got teased about was there was a doctor there, his name was Dr. Bailey. And Daddy and Dr. Bailey used to fish a lot. And the lady-- the people who lived across from John Layton – Mrs. [Mamie] Morris was a preacher, have you heard about her? Chewning: Right. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Okay, she was preaching. She took this family in, and they didn't have any children when they moved there. Then they had three, real close together. So, I didn't know anything about, you know, babies. You didn't talk about that then. But I just knew that I wanted a sister, and I knew they kept getting babies and I didn't have one. So one morning I was lying in bed with Mother and Daddy, and the people across the street had had another baby the night before. And I said, "I don't see why they can have them and we can't get one. Why do they always get one?" So Daddy said, "Well, why don't you just go down and ask Dr. Bailey to bring you one?" Like Mother said, "He should have known better than to say that." I didn't say anything, but boy I couldn't wait to get my clothes on. So as soon as I got dressed and had breakfast I went right on down to the doctor's house and knocked on the door. And Mrs. Bailey came to the door. And I said, "Could I speak to Doctor Bailey?" And she said "Well, I tell you," she said, "he hasn't gotten up yet. He was up most of the night because he had a baby to deliver." And I said, "Well, that's what I want to talk to him about." And she said, "What did you want to talk to him about?" And I said, "Well, I just wanted to ask him-- My daddy says that if I came down here and asked him that maybe he'd bring us the next one. So would you just ask him? The next one, will he bring it to us?" [Laugh] I went home, I was so excited. I couldn't wait to get home to tell them that I'd gone down there and asked for one. Mother looked and Dad, "Don't you ever do anything like that. You know she's going to do it." I never did get the baby. Chewning: Would the doctor and the midwife work together? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No. Chewning: So it was either one or the other? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Right. Aunt Mariah just kind of assisted when people were at home. No, I don't think any doctor ever worked with her. Then there was – up there between the garage, Carwell's Garage and that alley past there was a little, kind of a little log – no it wasn't a log home, just a little one room thing. There was a black lady who lived there and her name was Aunt Susan Porter. She cooked outside. Chewning: Yes, Lou [Stuart] told me about her. Tell me what you remember about Aunt Susan. She cooked outside? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: She cooked outside. Even in the cold winter she'd be wrapped up out there cooking outside. Some of the kids were kind of afraid of her. I don't think we were afraid of her. Of course Mrs. Wiseman would always tell us that Lou and I weren't afraid of anything! Jude was but we weren't. That's why Jude didn't want to be with us, see? She didn't want to get in trouble – she missed a lot of fun though! But we used to peep in the door, and it was all just piled up in there, it was just one room I think, or maybe, I just remember one room. But the kids at school, I do remember the boys, some of the bad boys, because she was still living when I started school, and they used to go down there to her place at recess. Miss Trimmer had a timekeeper, I’m talking about the little grade school boys, you know? Like fifth grade boys. And they'd go down there, and she didn't like that, Aunt Susan didn't like that. She'd get really mad when they'd go down there. I guess she thought they were teasing her or aggravating her or something. I never did go up there by myself. I think Lou and I went. I don't think she ever bothered anybody. She just lived there alone. And I do remember her standing out there at that fire, with that fire going with the kettle hanging down in the fire. Chewning: Lou said she remembered that somebody came from Petersburg, I think, and just took her [Aunt Susan] away. And she never knew what happened. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I think that's right. Yes. I'm not sure, I don't know, but in Petersburg there was a black mental institution. And I always wondered if maybe that's where she went. Nobody ever knew. I should have asked Dan Franklin. Dan Franklin worked for my stepfather, Hugh McNutt. And before Dan died I used to take things over there and I'd fix little dinners for him. Like little TV dinners when we'd have things left, you know? Dan worked up in Staunton and built our house in Staunton. I bet Dan would have known all about that. Chewning: Some of Dan's sisters are still living. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes, I talked to them. I went to Dan's funeral. Now that's been, of course, two years, maybe more, but Eleanor [Hawkins] is still living. Chewning: What's her last name? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I don't know. I don't have any idea. Chewning: I think they live in Northern Virginia or Washington. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: They do. Washington. And Eleanor, I think it's Eleanor, don’t know whether it's Eleanor or Virginia's [Bell Franklin] boy is the one that was so good to Dan. Chewning: I would love to talk to one or both of them, Eleanor and Virginia, too. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Oh, I can see them now, walking up there on Sunday afternoon to church. All dressed up. Chewning: Where did the Franklins live? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: The Franklins lived-- I think for a while, I'm not sure whether they lived there all the time, but I think for a while they lived there where John Swisher lives, in that house [3569 Brownsburg Turnpike]. I think that's where they lived for a while. Chewning: They would walk from there to church? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes. And the side of where the Greene’s house is beside of us, you know the house with, I guess it's for sale again now [2682 Brownsburg Turnpike]. Mr. Tom Bosworth. That was -- Press Carter lived there. That was Dora , Dan's wife Dora, that was her sister Isabel. You know Isabel? Lives over there on the hill? Chewning: Sites? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Okay. Isabel was married to Press's son first, Hunter. And he died young and Isabel remarried. But Press and his wife Hallie had raised their two grandchildren, Manuel [ph?] and Hallie Mae [ph?]. Hallie Mae, I think she was about my age, she died a couple of years ago and I think Manuel died, too. They lived here in Staunton. I think they played our there on the bank, too. Hallie Mae and Manuel. Chewning: Do you know Frank Shoultz? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes. Frank David? Chewning: I guess. Where did he live? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Frank David lived around, we called, around the hill. Between the stores we call, you go around there, and go up by, who lives in that gray house now? Does John Swisher own that house? Where Miss Carrie Peters used to live [1486 Dry Hollow Road]? The first road to the left. Chewning: Yes. Dry Hollow Road. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Okay. The Shoultz’s, Bert [Roberta Brown Shoultz], her husband and all those children, they lived on that road. Bert worked for the Bosworths. She cooked and worked for Mr. Jim Bosworth. Chewning: Did you know the Stewarts who lived around there too? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes. Ruch [ph?] and, I'm not sure she, I don't know her at all. Chewning: There's Leroy who lives in Brownsburg now, and then Sammy Dock, and I think Pauline [Stewart Stevenson] lives in Brownsburg. Did you know them? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: I didn't know Pauline. No. I know who Sammy is, but I didn't know them. I knew Ruch [ph?]. Ruch had one son named, seems like he was named David. And he was a really huge, huge boy. And I remember he died and they sent his body back, and it seemed to me like he had some communicable disease because when his body got here the casket was sealed with glass. I remember Daddy bringing me down to see that. It came in on a train. Had to go to the train to meet it. Chewning: Where did the train come? Fairfield? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: No, he went to Staunton and got it. But the train did come through Fairfield. Chewning: Did he have a hearse? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Daddy? Yes. He usually got a new hearse every couple of years. Chewning: You were probably too young to have any memory of the fact that it was the Depression. Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: Yes. Chewning: Did you hear your parents talk about that? Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum: The only thing, because I was born in '29, and of course that was the-- The only thing I do remember is, I do remember Daddy talking about, and then later after Daddy died and after Mother died, John Layton -- I don't recall her name. People used to pay Daddy with potatoes and things, you know. And that's how we got the piano. There was a, I think she was a black lady, and she lived somewhere down below Newport. And Daddy buried somebody in her family, I'm not sure who it was. But she told him when he came that she didn't have any money. But she said I do have this piano that I-- because that was about the time I wanted to take piano lessons. And it was a player piano. Player piano. And so he got that piano, and I do remember that. And I guess, really looking back then I was too little to know what it was all about. But I guess we were very fortunate, because I don't ever remember wanting for anything or doing without anything. I know I didn't do without food because I was fat as a butterball. [End of Tape] Marjorie Ann Whitesell Chittum Index A Apple Butter Making · 33 Asbury United Methodist Church Lawn Party · 41 Automobile · 78 B Bailey, Dr. Airplane · 55 Brownsburg Doctor · 21, 55 Beard, Richard · 66 Beard, Ruth Wade · 35, 65 Beard, Winifred · 65 Benson, Judy · 72, 73 Berry, Charlie · 74, 75 Berry, Hattie · 74 Berry, John · 74 Berry, Octavia · See Snider, Octavia Berry Berry, Pet Lucas · 74 Black, Anna Miller Commissioner of Revenue · 29 Blackwell, Mary Katherine · 73 Bodkin, Mr. School Principal · 27 Bolen, Bobby · 30 Bosworth, Jim · 24, 37 Bosworth, Stella · 71 Bosworth, Tom · 62 Latin Teacher · 37 Bosworth, Tommy Hampden-Sydney College · 71 Bosworth's Store · 37 Brownsburg Barber Shop · 80 Black school · 9, 47 Farm Store · 77 Health Clinic · 20 Horse Shows · 66 Ice Cream Store · 47 Post Office · 37 Saturday Nights · 21 Sears & Roebuck House · 49 Spring Water · 34 Stores · 37 Undertaker · 2 Brownsburg School Baseball · 45 Basketball · 27 Glee Club · 15, 78 Home Economics · 29 Operettas · 15 Buchanan, Estelle · 73 Buchanan, George R. · 76 Butchering · 33 C Canning · 35 Carson, Helen Watson Home Economics Teacher · 13, 29 Carter, Albert · 62 Carter, Hallie · 23, 62, 63 Carter, Hallie Mae · 23, 63 Carter, Hunter · 23, 62, 63 Carter, Louis · 64 Carter, Manuel · 23 Carter, Press · 23, 62 Carter, Roger · 62 Carter, Sam · 62 Carwell Family · 36, 43 Carwell, Catherine · 73, See Robertson, Catherine Carwell Carwell, Herb · 49 Carwell, Mildred · 36 Carwell, Roscoe · 43 Chittum, Doug Son · 62 Chittum, Earl DuPont · 12 Spottswood School · 12 Chittum, Marjorie Ann Whitesell "Pooky" · 60 Adair Hutton Department Store · 17 Basketball Team · 27 Beauty School · 17 Birth · 1 Choir and Glee Club · 27 Clothes · 26 First Grade Teacher · 18 Galoshes · 57 Marriage · 17 Mary Baldwin College · 18 Piano Lessons · 6, 25 School · 6 Virginia Commercial College · 17 Chittum, Tammy Daughter · 17 Christmas · 31, 43 Coffey, Henry · 69 Coffey, Mary Stuart · 69 Craney, Aggie · 9 Craney, Frances · See Porterfield, Frances Craney Craney, Glasgow · 9 Craney, Ruth · 9 D Davis, Mary Glenn · 43 Depression Era · 25 Dice, Hassie · 10, 31 Dice, Walter · 14 Dudley, Bill · 51 Dudley, Genevieve "Bee" · 51 Elopement · 51 Dudley, Lucian · 18 Fordwick · 52 Grandfather · 2 Dudley, Margaret · See Whitesell, Margaret Dudley Mother · 2 Dudley, Martha · 18 Grandmother · 2 Laundry · 52 Dunaway, Beulah · 60 Dunaway, Elizabeth "Doodie" · 60, 73 E Earhart, Katherine Piano Teacher · 7 East, George Killed in World War II · 30 Electricity · 42 Engleman, Hintsel · 76 F Farm Store · 37 Firebaugh, Betty Palmer · 13, 14 Firebaugh, Donald · 68, 76 Fisher, Mariah Midwife · 21, 49 Fishing · 4 Fitzwater, Sarabelle Lotts · 19 Franklin, Dan · 22, 33, 63 Franklin, Dora · 23, 54, 63, 64 Franklin, Eleanor · See Hawkins, Eleanor Franklin Franklin, Janie Bell · 67 Franklin, John · 67 Franklin, Mary Jane · 67 Franklin, Moffatt · 67 Franklin, Virginia Bell · 23, 66 Franklin, Zack · 33 Friends Lighthouse Mission Church · 38 Cemetery · 40 Hospital "William Penn" · 71 Moved to Staunton · 40 G Gibson, Sally · 15 Gilmore, Mary Brownsburg School Custodian · 47 Gilmore, Virginia Midwife · 48 Gilmore, Will Brownsburg School Custodian · 47 Greaver, Angie Margaret Wade · 12 Green, Dr. Brownsburg Doctor · 55 Green, Letha Swisher · 78 Grimm, Bobby · 76 Grimm, Hugh · 76 H Haliburton, Maggie Pleasants · 8 Haliburton, William "Dude" · 8 Halloween · 42 Harris, Margaret "Tootsie" Wade · 60, 73 Hawkins, Eleanor Franklin · 22, 66, 70 Heffelfinger, Jen Wade · 55 Hemp, Mary Stuart Sweet · 76 Heslep, Jack · 79 Hickman, Troy Killed in World War II · 30 Huffman, Clara Alice · 14, 73 Huffman, Elmer · 58 Huffman, Roy · 58 Huffman's Store · 37 Hull, Mollie Sue · See Whipple, Mollie Sue Hull J James, Jessie · 76 K Kirkland, Miss Health Nurse · 20 L Lexington Shopping · 32 Lothery, Ann McNutt · 82 Lotts, Ann · 26, 67 Death · 71 Lotts, Emma · 71 Lotts, Jess · 71 New Providence Sexton · 68 Lotts, Jim · 26, 67, 71 Beekeeper · 67 Death · 71 Lotts, John Henry · 26 Lotts, Little Nellie Death · 71 Lotts, Maggie · 43 Lotts, Mary · 25, 44 Lotts, Mary Lamb · 68 Lotts, Mary Stuart · 26, 68, 71 Lotts, Roy · 43 Lucas, Carrie Sunday School Teacher · 56 M Marchant, Eleanor Wade Sunday School Teacher · 56 Martin, Frances · See McClure, Frances Martin Martin, Frances Belle · 70 McClung, Sallie Reid Sunday School Teacher · 56 McClure, Frances Martin · 70 McNutt, Hugh · 16, 22, 31, 63 McNutt, Mr. Sunday School Teacher · 56 Medicine Childhood Diseases · 20 Miley, Annie Great-Grandmother · 2 Miley, Michael · 46 Mines, Emma · 74 Morris, Clarence · 38, 79 Morris, Georgia · 38, 79 Morris, Mamie · 21, 38, 79 Death · 38 N New Providence Presbyterian Church · 19 Bible School · 27, 56 Chrysanthemum Show · 44 Nuckols, Mary Ann · 73 Nye, Bernice Wade · 35 P Palmer, Betty · See Firebaugh, Betty Palmer Patterson, Ag Lackey · 78 Patterson, Ed · 78 Patterson, Ellen Swanson · 78 Patterson, Rosenell Math Teacher · 37 Patterson, Sam · 78 Peters, Carrie · 9, 24 Pleasants, Dickie · 43 Pleasants, Laura · 8 Pleasants, Letcher · 8 Pleasants, Maggie · See Haliburton, Maggie Pleasants Pleasants, Pitt · 43 Pleasants, Vivian · 43 Pleasants, Wynonna · 43 Plumbing, indoor · 42 Poole, Charlie · 72 Poole, Lucy · 72, 73 Porter, Susan · 22 Porterfield, Frances Craney · 9 R Reubush, Isabel Teacher · 13 Robertson, Catherine Carwell · 36, 74 Runkle, Bobby · 76 S Sandridge, Charles M. · 72 Sandridge, Mary Frances · 72, 73 Sears & Roebuck House · 49 Sensabaugh, Fred · 12 Shoultz, Frank David · 23 Side Show · 41 Sites, Isabel Stevenson · 63, 64 Sleigh riding · 43 Slusser, Bruce · 76 Slusser, George Killed in World War II · 30 Smith, Irene · 74, 75 Snider, Estelle · 75 Snider, Everett · 75 Snider, Marian · 75 Snider, Octavia Berry · 75 Staunton Shopping · 33 Sterrett, Anna Lackey · 78 Sterrett, Mc · 78 Stevenson, Pauline Stewart · 24 Stewart, Leroy · 24 Stewart, Pauline · See Stevenson, Pauline Stewart Stewart, Samuel Dock · 24 Strain Farm · 8 Stuart, Boyd · 78 Stuart, Louise Wiseman · 10 Virginia Commercial College · 17 Supinger, Osie Wade · 76 Supinger's Store · 37, 80 Sweet, Jimmy · 76 Sweet, Raymond · 76 Sweet, Winifred · 76 Swimming · 36 Swisher, Beauford · 75 Swisher, Bessie · 75 Swisher, Carl · 79 Swisher, Dan · 79 Swisher, Doc · 78 Swisher, Harry · 78 Swisher, Letha · See Green, Letha Swisher Swope, Carl · 40 Swope, Marie Swisher · 79 T Telephone service · 45 Thornton, John Lee · 76 Trimmer, Ocie · 14, 15, 19, 27, 30, 77 U Undertaking Business · 63 Caskets · 45 V Variety Show · 41 W Wade Family · 50 Wade, Bud · 80 Wade, Jen · See Heffelfinger, Jen Wade Wade, Kite School Bus Driver · 35 Wade, Margaret · See Harris, Margaret "Tootsie" Wade Wade, Mattie · 76 Wade, Osie · See Supinger, Osie Wade Walthal, Dr. New Providence Minister · 35 Watson, Helen · See Carson, Helen Watson Weaver, Elwood · 77 Whipple, Fred R. Jr. · 7, 53 Whipple, Fred R. Sr. Richmond Internal Revenue Service · 53 Whipple, Louise Tabb · 54 Whipple, Mollie Sue Hull · 6, 27, 37, 50, 53, 77 Piano Lessons · 6 White, Dr. Locke New Providence Minister · 35 Whitesell, John Layton · 2 Marriage · 35 Postmaster · 3 Singing · 15 Whitesell, Margaret Dudley · 2 Funeral Director's License · 3 Lynchburg · 13, 17 Marriage in Staunton · 52 Second marriage · 16 Whitesell, Miley L. Death · 3, 15 Father · 2 Marriage · 2 Undertaker · 2, 63 Whitesell, Virginia Wade · 13, 35, 65 Williams, Dr. Joseph · 20, 63 Brownsburg Doctor · 54 Williams, Elizabeth Teacher · 14 Williams, Mrs. Joseph · 54, 74 Wilson, Mary Lou · 70 Wiseman Family · 31, 37 Wiseman, Carl · 11, 76, 78 Wounded in World War II · 31 Wiseman, Frances · 11, 70 Wiseman, Louise · See Stuart, Louise Wiseman Wiseman, Tolerace J. · 27 Farm Store · 58 Huffman's Filling Station · 58 School Bus Driver · 11 Withrow, Margaret Ellen · 72, 73 World War II · 30 Death Notifications · 46 Radio Coverage · 31 Victory Celebration · 32 Victory Corps · 30