Doctor Kills His Wife in Bessemer in 1943--or Did He?

I'm still making my way through the World War II issues of the Gadsden Times saved by paternal grandmother Rosa Mae Wright. Here's another recently found item; I've piled up a number of others and have many more issues to examine. You are in for some real treats.

This item describes the violent death of a Mrs. Laura Ball Blue at her home in Bessemer on May 23, 1943. She was almost decapitated by a "heavy charge" from a shotgun, which was found in another room. As the first article notes, her husband J. Howard Blue was about to be charged with first degree murder. 

Shortly after 9:30 the previous night the coroner received a call from the husband, a physician, and when he arrived at the house found Mrs. Blue's body  and an incoherent Dr. Blue. His wife had apparently just come into the house from the garage; car keys were still in her hand. Both of their sons were away from home at the time.

Blue was a "widely known Bessemer physician" who specialized in eye, ear, nose and throat disorders. He was freed on bond after a July 7 preliminary hearing, but finally indicted for first degree murder by a grand jury on August 6 and returned to jail without bond. The December 25, 1943, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association picks up the story:

"Physician Sentenced on Murder Charge.—  Dr. James Howard Blue, Bessemer, was found guilty by a jury of murder in the second degree and sentenced to fifty years' imprisonment, newspapers reported November 17. Attorneys for the defense announced that motion for a new trial would be filed. At the physician's first trial last September a mistrial was declared. Dr. Blue was charged with the shooting of his wife, May 23."

I've yet to determine exactly what happened after this trial, but I've picked up the story of Dr. Blue in the early 1950s. He is listed in the 1951 Bessemer city directory under "Physicians and Surgeons" with an office at 1828 3rd Avenue, phone R207. According to Google Maps that address is in the same block as the Bright Star Restaurant. By publication of the 1953 Bessemer city directory, we find this entry: "Denzil R. Blue--ear, eye, nose & throat specialist, wife Lola M. Office at 1828 3rd Avenue, home in Lakewood Estates".

Denzil was apparently a nephew of James Howard Blue; the Blue family seems to have had several physicians. James Howard had died on March 10, 1953, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham. Poor Laura Blue was also buried in Elmwood. Her husband remarried in 1950 to Vera Tucker; he was her third husband. She, too, is resting in Elmwood. 

As the second article notes, Blue contended that first wife Laura killed herself. 

That "Manasco Hits Communists" is a line inserted there in error. 

A 1940 Socialist Union Party Flyer in Gadsden

As brother Richard and I cleaned out Mom and Dad's house in Huntsville during 2023 and 2024, we found lots of interesting family memorabilia and a few really unexpected items. This flyer falls into the latter category.

We found it in material Dad brought from Gadsden after his mother Rosa Mae Wright died in 1993. My grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., worked for the L&N Railroad there for many years, most of them as a yard foreman. One of his duties included checking boxcars to make sure they were completely empty. Perhaps he found it in one of those. If so, why he kept it is a mystery. Perhaps it came into their family papers some other way.

The Socialist Union Party was one of several small groups spun out of the Socialist Labor Party in the 1930s. These organizations were known as De Leonist after Daniel De Leon, an early leader in the SLP, which was the first socialist political party in America and founded in 1876. In the mid-1930s Abraham Ziegler was expelled from the SLP and joined another De Leonist group that soon faded. Then he and a few others started the SUP in 1939; it lasted until 1941. 

This anti-conscription flyer is dated August 1940. An address is given for the Socialist Union Party, 140 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn. As far as I could determine from Google Maps, the building still exists, located between Luna's Tire Shop and a Papa John's Pizza. According to the Wikipedia article on "Conscription in the United States", support for compulsory military service for young men was building in the country in the summer of 1940 as the war in Europe heated up.

Given the Scottsboro Boys trials and labor organization/unrest history in the state, the American Communist Party was very active in Alabama in the 1930s and beyond. For detailed information see Robin D. Kelley's Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression [2015] and Mary Stanton’s book Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930–1950 [2020]. I would imagine other political groups beyond Republicans and Democrats were also present in the state to one degree or another. This flyer would seem to be evidence about one little known socialist group at least.  

A Visit to Unclaimed Baggage

In August 2019 my brother Richard and I made a trip to Scottsboro and visited among other places Unclaimed Baggage. Their web site will tell you the store's history and how the business works. You can read my two-part report of that visit to Scottsboro here and here. This past December 26, Dianne, my son Amos and daughter-in-law Kim made the trip to the popular attraction. Amos had also visited long ago, but the ladies had never been. So on a gray, drizzly day we traveled north from Pelham. 

By the time we arrived everybody was hungry, so the first thing we did was find a place to eat. Payne's Soda Fountain and Sandwich Shop on the courthouse square was open, and we stopped in there. The popular place was busy, but we were seated quickly. We all enjoyed our meals; Kim and I had their BLTs and some fruit. Strangely, they don't do fries. Dianne and I had some delicious ice cream, too!

Unclaimed Baggage was next, and we stayed for maybe 90 minutes. Kim and Amos found a few t-shirts, and Amos bought a book. Dianne purchased a couple of small pieces of jewelry; she said most of what they had was overpriced. I bought three books. All-in-all the visit was a disappointment. Naturally the place was packed the day after Christmas, and I had no interest in the clothes, hats, jewelry, sunglasses, electronic geegaws, etc. 

However, since the time Richard and I visited an Unclaimed Baggage Museum has been opened within the store, and that was pretty interesting. Comments are below some of the photos.

We parked at the side entrance, which is not far from the museum gallery. 

The "oddities and treasures" range from shrunken heads to a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. On the cover of the pamphlet is Hoggle, a life-size Jim Henson puppet that appeared with David Bowie in the 1986 film Labyrinth.

Even medieval armor has found its way to Scottsboro.

The Gucci suitcase carried Egyptian artifacts dating back to 1500 BC that included a burial mask and ancient coins. Who leaves this kind of stuff unclaimed?

That violin dates to 1770.

I had to laugh when I came across this 2008 novel by Lawrence Block featuring Keller, his lonely hit man character. Someone shelving this book must have assumed it was about baseball.

The courthouse gazebo was decorated for Christmas and holiday music played all over the square. The building was the scene of various trials of the nine Scottsboro Boys in the early 1930s. I wrote about that and the Scottsboro Boys Museum in the previous posts linked in the first paragraph of this one.

Payne's Soda Fountain and Cafe celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019. The business has been located on the courthouse square since February 1891.

Here's a totally random photo I took on the way home as we drove from Scottsboro to I-59. I have a fond memory of  Attalla. When we were young sprouts, my brother and I used to separately visit our grandparents in Gadsden in the summer for a week at a time. On one of those visits my grandmother Rosa Mae Wright took me to a theater in Attalla to see Sink the Bismarck!, a 1960 British film. We saw the movie in the afternoon, before picking up my grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., at his job as yard foreman for the L&N railroad.

Gadsden Postcard: Forrest Cemetery Chapel

This postcard brings back some memories. My paternal grandparents, Amos J. and Rosa Mae Wright are buried in Forrest Cemetery, as well as Beulah Vee Wright, my dad's older sister I never met. In the late 1950s and early 1960s during the summers I would get to visit my grandparents in Gadsden for a couple of weeks. Amos was still working as yard foreman for L&N Railroad, so Rosa Mae would often take me to do things during the day before we picked him up at the railyard after work. One of those trips would be a visit to Forrest Cemetery to see Beulah Vee's grave. Since those days my grandparents have died and been buried beside their daughter. You can see gravestone photos below.

The first burial in Forrest Cemetery was Sallie Law Woodliff, a 1.5 year old child. She was the daughter of A.L. Woodliff who had selected the site and began clearing it with the help of his three sons. She died 13 Jul 1872. The chapel was built 1935-36 by the Works Progress Administration from sandstone quarried on Lookout Mountain. That chapel was named the Ruth R. Cross Memorial Chapel in 1960 after a woman who had devoted much time to the cemetery's care. Forrest Cemetery includes 40 acres and is located on South 15th Street in Gadsden.

The card with its "Tichnor Quality View" was published by the Franklin News Agency. Between July 1, 1919 and January 1, 1952, the postage rate for a U.S. postcard was a penny. Tichnor Brothers, Inc., of Boston operated from 1908 until 1987 and was a major publisher of postcards. I was unable to find anything on Franklin and am unsure what their role was. 

A brief history of the modern postcard at the Library of Congress site can be found here.

The rear of the chapel is visible in the distance in this photo.

We have other relatives buried in this cemetery. For instance, two of Rosa Mae's sisters, Stella Vinyard and Maude Wright, are interred there. 

Amos J. and Rosa Mae Wright, probably around the time of their wedding on 31 October 1915. 

Beulah V. Wright

Alfred Spielberg operated a photography studio in Gadsden. According to records at Ancestry.com, he died in 1967. 

Source: Find-A-Grave 

Six Thousand Attend Birmingham Rally in 1935

For more than a year now my brother Richard and I have been conducting a deep dive into the massive amount of family memorabilia at mom's house in Huntsville. Much of it comes from dad's parents, Rosa Mae and Amos J. Wright, Sr., who lived in the Gadsden. I've previously written about my grandfather's World War I army training at Auburn and the contents of their daughter Beulah Vee's cedar chest. 

In a recent round of exploration, we've found a lot of material related to Amos Sr.'s years working for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. According to an entry in one of Rosa Mae's journals, he began his employment with L&N on May 15, 1923, and retired September 1, 1962.He was a yard foreman for many of those thirty-nine years. 

One item we found was the October 1935 issue of the railroad's employee magazine. Inside was an article titled "Six Thousand Attend Birmingham Rally". So what was that all about?

On September 26, 1935, the L & N Railroad held its third in a series of rallies in cities along its rail system. The event took place at the Municipal Auditorium n Birmingham. Both Vice-President T.E. Brooks and President James B. Hill addressed the 6000 employees and family members in attendance. Brooks had served for many years as division superintendent in Birmingham.

The anonymous author noted that the purpose was primarily one of entertainment, but apparently Hill had some extensive remarks before the fun. He noted that the "railroads are almost completely regulated in everything they do" unlike competitive forms of transportation by road, air and water. Plus, almost 7.5% of gross earnings were paid in taxes. Remember that in 1935 the nation was in the depths of the Great Depression.

The article does include a portrait of the L & N Railroad both nationally and in Alabama at that time. President Hill noted in his remarks that L & N operated in 13 states with 26,000 employees, 5000 miles of track, 1000 locomotives, over 50,000 freight cars and more than 700 passenger cars. In Alabama 4700 people worked for L & N, which paid $776,000 in taxes to the state, $350,000 of which went to schools.

So what about that entertainment? "Talented members of the L & N family entertained the large audience with 17 acts that would have done credit to the best vaudeville circuit," wrote the author. Most of them were from Birmingham or Boyles, a community that no longer exists but was the site of L & N's Boyles Yard. Others came from Kentucky. The audience enjoyed a piano trio, tenor solos, a tap dance, and baritone solos. Two male employees "provided many laughs with their blackface act."

Black employees appeared in "Darktown Strutters" accompanied by a pianist. "The finale featured the  Southland Colored Ensemble and Quartette, fifty voices directed by Paul Cooper." the author wrote. "This chorus was composed of many colored employes [sic] at Boyles and members of their families. They rendered an enjoyable selection of spirituals and melodies."

I don't know if my grandparents from Gadsden attended this rally, but perhaps they did. 

My grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., is on the left posing with his crew in the Gadsden L&N railroad yard sometime in the 1930s. 

Birmingham's Municipal Auditorium ca. 1937. The facility was later renamed Boutwell Auditorium after Albert Boutwell who was mayor from 1963 until 1967. 

Source: BhamWiki

Auburn Postcard: Serum Plant 1918

My brother Richard and I were at mom's house in Huntsville recently and found this postcard in some  family memorabilia. The card, dated by postmark October 26, 1918, was sent by our paternal grandfather, Amos Jasper Wright, Sr., to our grandmother Rosa Mae. He wrote from Auburn, where he had arrived from their home in Gadsden ten days earlier to begin U.S. Army training. He tells her he's alright, that he got the package she sent but there was no mentholated salve. Perhaps he can find some locally, he says. The "Julia" mentioned is his older sister. Amos closes by telling Rosa Mae to write often. Their wedding anniversary is coming up; they married on October 31, 1915. 

My grandmother Rosa Mae, according to one of her journals, "rode the train and visited him a few weeks. Roomed at a Mrs. Whatley's and ate at a Mrs. O'Neal's across the street." The Whatley may have been Mrs. Alma Whatley, one of many Whatleys in Auburn and one who became a prominent businesswoman before her retirement in 1971. Amos was in service 54 days before hurting his back and being discharged on December 9, 1918. Of course, the war had ended by that time. I've written a blog post about his time in Auburn. 

Now, what about the actual card? And that serum plant? 

That facility opened on the campus of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1915. At the time hog cholera was devastating the livestock of farmers, causing millions of dollars worth of losses and interrupting supplies of the important food animal. For several years Charles Allen Cary, who became the first professor of veterinary medicine at Auburn in 1892, had lobbied the state legislature for funds to build a plant to make serum to fight the hog cholera at a price farmers could afford. Finally, $25,000 was appropriated. 

The serum plant building stood on campus into the 1960s. The Harrison School of Pharmacy building is now on the site.

I found the information on Alma Whatley in the "Whatley Road" entry of Sam Hendrix's 2021 book, Auburn: A History in Street Names, pp. 662-664. For more information about Cary, see Hendrix's 2018 book The Cary Legacy: Dr. Charles Allen Cary, Father of Veterinary Medicine at Auburn and in the South. 

My grandfather on the Auburn campus in 1918 with that iconic tower in the background. We still have that jacket he's wearing. He also brought back the pennant below. The note was written by my dad, Amos J. Wright, Jr. 

 

Dr. Cary, center with sleeve rolled up, conducts a hog cholera inoculation demonstration for a group of county agents, probably about the time he succeeded in getting a hog cholera serum plant built at Auburn in 1915.

Source: The Cary Legacy

Ads in the Auburn Plainsman on February 7, 1945

I was recently sifting through a box of old newspapers that came from my paternal grandparents' house in Gadsden. I've written about them, Amos J. and Rosa Mae Wright, in a previous post and hope to do others in the future. This particular box of treasures contained mostly the front page section of many issues of the Gadsden Times published during World War II. I assume my grandmother saved them; she seemed to be the archivist of that couple. Naturally there is a lot of interesting war news, but the issues also have fascinating material from the Gadsden area and around the state and elsewhere. I imagine there are numerous possible blog posts buried there.....

But I digress. I also came across this random issue of the Auburn Plainsman, the university's student newspaper. My Dad, Amos J. Jr., was enrolled at Alabama Polytechnic Institute at this time, before a couple of years in the Navy just after the war ended. I didn't find too much of interest except some fascinating advertisements, so here we are. 

The Plainsman had begun publication in 1922; you can find past issues here. The issue I found was six pages; the sheet with pages three and four is missing. I'm not sure why this random issue was saved, but perhaps Dad brought it home as a sample to show his mother while he was enrolled at Auburn.

I've made a number of comments below the ads, with help from these sources:

Ralph Draughon, Jr, et al. Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs [2012]

Sam Hendrix, Auburn: A History in Street Names [2021]

The first Tiger Theatre opened in 1925 and closed in the summer 1928 so the next bigger one could be built. The new building had over 700 seats and closed on April 26, 1984. I seem to remember seeing Who'll Stop the Rain? there, the 1978 film with Nick Nolte and Tuesday Weld. The film was based on Robert Stone's 1974 novel Dog Soldiers, which is well worth reading. 

Hat Check Honey was released on March 10, 1944; many films took longer to make their way around in the country in those days. The Very Thought of You came out on October 20, 1944. The Pearl of Death, released on August 1, 1944, was a Sherlock Holmes film so I probably would have gone to see that one. 

The Windmill operated from the 1930s until 1951, when its beer license was revoked for selling to minors and other offenses. In the 1930s and early 1940s it was the only place in the Auburn area to obtain legal alcohol. The place was frequented by veterans in school at Auburn; no co-eds were allowed. The entrance was a faux windmill. The business was really a gas station with a few booths and tables inside. 

I did not find any information on the Varsity. 

Auburn Grille advertised as "an institution within itself." The Greek immigrants John and Lucas Gazes operated the Grille and Roy's Place. The Grille was the first restaurant with air conditioning in Lee County and  was named for the Auburn automobile, manufactured in Auburn, Indiana, from 1900 until 1937. Their father Emmanuel Gazes operated the Auburn Cafe from 1907 until 1921. The family was also involved in various other eating places, including what became the War Eagle Supper Club.

Some of these places such as Roy's and the Windmill operated outside city limits since according to state law at the time alcohol could not be served inside the limits.

War Eagle Theater was part of the Martin chain & the first chain theater in Auburn. This one must have been known as Martin Theater and later renamed.

By 1982 there were 300 Martin Theaters in the southeastern U.S. In that year the chain's owner, Fuqua Industries sold the chain to Carmike Cinemas. In 2016 Carmike was purchased by AMC Theatres. 

This particular Martin opened on August 19, 1948 and closed in 1985. In October 1970 it hosted the first Alabama showing of I Walk the Line, based on the novel An Exile by Madison Jones [1925-2012], long-time faculty member at AU. 

One of the films showing that I especially note and have enjoyed was To Have and Have Not, released in October 1944 and starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The movie was based on Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel. 

"Chief" Shine provided the first rental car service in Auburn.

I did not find anything about this establishment, even in a general Google search.