Born December 11, 1913, Winston-Salem, N. C. - Forsyth County

 Father: Isaac William Ashburn/b.9-18-1893 (Surry County)

d. 3-11-57/age 64/cancer - buried at Pine Hall Presbyterian Church

Isaac had three wives and eight children (5 boys, 3 girls). Margaret - first child by

first wife, no children by 2nd wife, Frances, five children by third wife, Lizzie.

Isaac’s sibblings:

1) Ellis Gabriel/b. Sept. 11, 1891/d. Dec. 24, 1957 - heart

Wife: Ollie Hastings

Children: Ellis Jr., Ruth, David, Richard

2) Arthur/b.4-8-1885/d. 4-22-1962 - heart

Wife: Nonnie Boyles

Children: Arthur Lee, Gilbert, Anderson, Carolyn,

Allen (died in childhood with heart)

3) Mary Emma/b. 1887 d. 1-3-1953 - heart

Husband: James Thomas Ayers/b.1885 d.1967

Children: Evelyn, Ruth, John J. , Andrew, Ashburn,

Joe, Mary, J. Issac, Rachel (d. 18 mos.-drowned)

3 infants born dead-Gracie,

4) W. Hassell/b. Sept. 1895/Republican deputy sheriff

Wife: Ailcie Carter

Children: None

Mother:  Hallie Mae Boyles/b. 5-19-1893 (Surry County)

m. 2-26-1913 (Forsyth County) Winston-Salem

married by The Rev. Jesse A. Ashburn

d. 8-30-1925 (Forsyth County)/car accident/32 yrs.

Buried at the Old Salem Cemetery, not the Graveyard, as she was not Moravian.

Paternal Grandfather:  Jesse Anderson Ashburn/b. 12-21-1861

d. 10-9-1916 /stroke/54 yrs.

Paternal Grandmother:  Martha Addaline Needham/b. 6-19-1863

d. 12-13-1928/ 65 yrs.

(m. at Bliss, NC (Surry Co.) 5-25-1882 by the Rev.

James Wilson of Mt. Airy, NC. Her 2 brothers were

Methodist ministers (Rev. Zachariah J. Needham & Rev. J. Bibb Needham)

Paternal Great Grandfather: Isaac Whitaker Ashburn, Sr./b. 4-14-1838

d. 5-29-1863/25 yrs./Civil War

Paternal Great Grandmother:  Faithy S. Taylor/b. 7-25-1840

d. 3-6-1898/58 yrs.

(m. 11-22-1860 - only one child - Jesse Anderson)

Maternal Grandfather:  Edward J. Boyles (b. Surry Co.)/ a Methodist

Parents: Mary Elizabeth Hill Boyles (b. 1-19-1848) & Solomon Boyles

Sibblings: Etta ( married Seaton Moser), Biley (birth name Viola -

married Bobby Heckard who died, and then a Davis man - lived on S. Hawthorne -

she worked at the box office at the theater and lived with Etta a while after Bobby

died with her son ), Bessie (married a Myers), Ida, Lum (birth name was

Columbus), Bob(lived in Wilson), and Minnie (married Sam Buie).

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.