Carolyn Shores Wright, 1929-2023

I've done several posts on this blog about my mother Carolyn Shores Wright and her activities. One item covered her high school modeling stint for Avondale Mills. Her career as a professional artist, mostly in watercolor, lasted almost fifty years. I've written about the time she heard George Washington Carver speak in Camp Hill when she was seven years old. I've also covered the 1950 Auburn football game my parents attended soon after their wedding, and a bit about the Jefferson County town where she was born, Powhatan. 

Mom died on January 17, so I wanted to do a tribute to her on this blog. I've included the text of her obituary, since it covers the highlights. Also in this post are some photos of her and family and some images of her art to give an idea of the variety of subjects she painted. 

More comments are below some of the photos and images. 

Carolyn Shores Wright December 28, 1929-January 17, 2023 

Carolyn Shores Wright, 93, of Huntsville, AL passed away peacefully at home Tuesday, January 17. She was born in Powhatan, a west Jefferson County coal mining town that no longer exists. Carolyn and her siblings were the children of  long-time Methodist minister John Miller Shores, and they lived in various towns including Camp Hill, Florence, Sylacauga, Alex City, and Montevallo. One of her vivid memories from childhood was hearing George Washington Carver speak in Camp Hill when she was about 7 years old. During high school, Carolyn was a model for Avondale Mills. She attended college at Montevallo and Auburn, where she met her husband  of 52 years, A.J. The passions of her adult life were family, her church and her painting. She and A.J. were founding members of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Huntsville. For about fifty years Carolyn was a very prolific artist, first in oils, then acrylics, and finally “her medium” as she described it, watercolors. During those years she created hundreds of works that featured hummingbirds and many other birds, flowers, still lifes, landscapes, people and a series of humorous and whimsical bird paintings she called “Bird Life.” Carolyn was preceded in death by husband Amos Jasper Wright, Jr.; her mother Tempe Flowers Shores and father John Miller Shores; step-mother Edith Shores; sister Hethie Shores Kuehlthau; sister Marjorie Shores Pike; and brother John Miller Shores, Jr. She is survived by her sons Amos Jasper Wright III [Dianne] and Richard Ashley Wright [Lucy]; brother Max Shores [Cindy]; grandchildren Amos Jasper Wright IV [Kim], Ashley T. Wright [Jessica], Becca Wright; and Miller S. Wright [Kathyrn]; and great-grandchildren Ann Collins Wright, Ashley McDonald Wright, and Ezra Jasper Leon. Also surviving are two special nieces Charlotte Shores Ryder [Curtis] and Cindi Shores Sherrill, as well as many other nieces and nephews. Visitation will be held Saturday, February 4, at 11 A.M. at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Huntsville, with service to follow at noon. Internment will be in Maple Hill Cemetery in a private family service. In lieu of flowers memorials to Aldersgate United Methodist Church (Honduran Mission) or the Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranches would be appreciated.

Mom is between sisters Marjorie and Hethie and with brother John.

Mom again in the middle between Marjorie and Hethie many years earlier. 

My grandmother Tempe Flowers Shores and her children. Hethie is standing, then Marjorie, mom and John. 

Mom and dad are flanking my paternal grandparents at their house on Chandler Street in Gadsden. Richard and I are on the floor. I'm really excited over the white socks I'm wearing. The occasion was the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Rosa Mae and Amos Wright; they were married on Halloween 1915. 

Dad and mom on a Christmas trip to Gatlinburg. 

Mom's parents and siblings are in this photo; mom wasn't around yet. Her father John Miller Shores was a minister in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church for several decades. 

Dad and mom and the wedding cake at the First Methodist Church in Haleyville, 10 September 1950. 

Mom and my children, Becca and Amos

Mom with my younger brother Richard and his sons Ashley and Miller. Mom was in her red hair phase; the red hat phase came later. 

A formal family portrait in the late 1950's. Mom always wanted me to digitize this photo and take her out; she was not fond of the hairdo. 

Yours truly, mom and brother Richard on the steps of our house on Cloverdale Drive in Huntsville in the mid-1950s. The three of us revisited the house in July 2018. 

Richard and mom walking toward dad's grave in Maple Hill Cemetery. That spring 2022 visit was the last time we took her there. 

"Spring Fantasy"

"Fancy Flight"

"A Brother's Trick"
Mom said this painting was suggested by her brother John--he would roller skate really fast up to his sisters and turn away just in time...

"Holiday Cruise"

Mom did a number of paintings in what she called her "Bird Life" series that featured birds in human situations. You can see more of them here.

You can see many more of her paintings at her Etsy and Fine Art America shops. 

The Library at Troy State Teachers College Before 1937

The downsizing of my book collection has accelerated in recent months, and here's another departing tome that's coughed up something interesting. 

The book this time is Edward M. Shackelford's The First Fifty Years of the State Teachers College at Troy, Alabama, 1887 to 1937. The volume is a detailed history of that institution up to the year of publication. What caught my attention is the extensive material in the book on the college library. Have worked in Alabama libraries for many years, I'm naturally interested in their history and have posted a number of pieces related to the topic. Some of them--but not all--can be found at Alabama Library History: A List. I really need to update that list...but I digress. I've also attempted a very incomplete chronology of state libraries up to about 1920.

Shackelford wrote this history from experience. He taught at the college for 12 years [1887-1899] and served as President for 37 [1899-1937]. At the time of publication he had been named President Emeritus in 1937. Shackelford Hall,  named in his honor, was built in 1930; it's now a coed dorm. 

As you can tell from the table of contents below, this book covers a lot of topics in the history of what is now Troy University prior to 1937. Two chapters cover the library. In the first one the author gives an overview based on a report written by Charlotte Smith, librarian at the time of publication. Then her report appears in full in the Appendix. 

When Shackelford became President in 1899, the library had some 5000 volumes. By the time this history was written, there were some 16,000 books, 1000 government reports and about 150 magazine subscriptions. The library had been located in several different places, and the current one is shown in the first two photos below. One large room on the second floor of Graves Hall provided a reading and collection area, supplemented by workrooms.

The longer chapter by Charlotte Smith adds many details, including the names of  librarians and the various sources of books in the early days. In 1909 an agreement among the Carnegie Foundation, the city of Troy and the college led to the construction of a Carnegie Library to be used by both townspeople and college students. Two librarians spent the summer of that year cataloging the 5000 books before the facility opened. Unfortunately, this relationship between the city and college only lasted a decade, as Smith details. 

Shackelford's book is a a rich history of Troy in its first half century. In addition to the narrative, he  has included such important lists as faculty by department, school physicians and nurses, librarians, etc. The book includes numerous photographs. 

This card of the Troy library is postmarked February 26, 1911. This Carnegie library served both the city of Troy and the college until 1930, when the college moved to a new location. 

Alabama Cemeteries: A List

Posts have become so numerous on this blog over the years that I've created some items that are lists of related articles. These include "Medical History In Birmingham", "Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960", "Alabama Library History" and "Holidays Past in Alabama." Here's a list that pulls together my posts about Alabama cemeteries or posts that have significant cemetery content.  

A Walk Among the Pelham Stones

Harmony Cemetery in Helena 

Lacey's Spring Cemetery

Peter Petroff: From Bulgaria to Alabama

Allan Cemetery in Northern Shelby County

A Visit to Brundidge, Alabama

A Visit to Hobbs Historic Cemetery in Huntsville

A Story in Stone: John Payne, MD [1860-1901]

An Alabama Author Buried in Marianna, Florida

 

Walker Evans Photographs an Alabama Cemetery in 1936

Visit to Confederate Memorial Park & Horseshoe Bend

Alabama History & Culture News: February 21 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

OTD in Weather History: The Enigma Tornado Outbreak of 1884 The Alabama Weather Blog From North Alabama to North Carolina, temperatures were in the 40s and 50s. Official weather forecasts for the Gulf States called for “local rains” ...

'White Lies': Season 2 of podcast revisits historic 1991 Alabama prison riot - al.com AL.com Titled “The Men on the Roof,” hosts Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace spend the season revisiting the story of an Alabama prison riot in 1991 ...

Poet Laureate of Alabama tells TROY students she hopes to inspire others to write Troy Today - Troy University Jones, who is 32-years old, has made Alabama history by being both the ... Alabama Poet Laureate Ashley Jones visited with students at TROY in ...

Loxcil Tuck, longest serving woman mayor in Alabama history, dies at 89 - CBS 42 CBS 42 Loxcil Tuck, who served as mayor of the city of Tarrant for 16 years and was the longest serving female mayor in Alabama history, has died.

Making the Hank Williams Pilgrimage to Montgomery | Saving Country Music Saving Country Music However, in 2001 the Alabama Historical Association erected a plaque at the front for the cemetery commemorating Rufus Payne, ...

Somerville woman works to preserve a piece of American history - WHNT.com

WHNT.com

The building on Terry Lynn Circle, known as St. John Elementary to some, is just one of hundreds in Alabama. “It's in really bad shape, but you can ...

Art Exhibit Opening: History of Birmingham Rock & Roll - WBRC WBRC Craig Legg's History of Birmingham Rock & Roll Exhibit(Craig Legg) ...

Historic Alabama civil rights city faces long recovery from tornado - CBS 42 CBS 42 In a Selma neighborhood — a few blocks from the starting point of the 1965 voting rights marches — the path of a January tornado remains clear.

New Museum Honors Those On America's Final Slave Ship - Forbes Forbes A new museum in Alabama commemorates the slaves who were brought on the ... Alabama Historical Commission, the History Museum of Mobile and other ...

Fred Gray to discuss landmark legal case, hold book signing - WSFA WSFA The medal is on display at the Alabama Department of Archives & History, where Gray has served as a trustee for 20 years.

Remember the signs of the times - The Troy Messenger The Troy Messenger The Troy Masonic Temple, built in 1892, was named to Alabama's 2013 “Places in Peril” list by the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama ...

Guthrie's "Blues for an Alabama Sky" sheds perspective on Harlem Renaissance CBS News They are cast in a new play at the Guthrie Theatre that is fiction, yet historic, offering an often untold perspective on Black history during the ...

Old Town in Decatur serves as forgotten African American history - WHNT.com WHNT.com “We just have such a rich history here and it's my passion to share our stories.” Old Town Decatur was the first of two cities in Alabama to organize ...

Actress from Alabama: Katherine Emery

Stage and screen actress Katherine Emery was born in Birmingham on October 11, 1906. By the time of the 1910 U.S. Census, she and her parents and two sisters were living on West 139th Street in Manhattan. How did that happen? Let's investigate.

The parents, James A. Emery and Annie Eliza Comer, married in Midway, a small town in Bullock County, in late November 1903 at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Fletcher Comer. The engagement had been announced in the Montgomery Advertiser issue of October 25. 

Emery graduated from MIT in 1893 and began a long career in engineering, utility and railroad businesses. In the early period he ran street railways in New Orleans and Atlanta and served as Vice-President and general manager of the Birmingham Railway Light and Power Company. The couple remained in the state until at least 1909; Katherine and her two sisters were all born in Alabama. However, they were all in Manhattan by the time the 1910 census enumerator came around to their address.

How James and Annie met is unknown. She was his second wife. When he died on February 23, 1943, he was Vice-President of Ford, Bacon, and Davis, Inc., a prominent firm in utility and railroad work. Annie did not outlive him that long; she died on February 9, 1951. As noted below, they are both buried in Eufaula. While in Alabama James had started the Emery Steel Company in Gadsden. I also read that Annie was a cousin of Alabama Governor B.B. Comer, but I've yet to confirm that item.

Thus the subject of this post did not live in the state for too many years. In 1928 Emery graduated from Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where she began her stage acting career. She continued with the University Players of Cape Cod alongside Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda. By 1932 Emery had made it to Broadway. 

She appeared in several productions there over the next twelve years, but one appearance stood out. From November 1934 until July 1936, Emery starred in one of the lead roles in the first Broadway production of Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. Another state native, Tallulah Bankhead, starred in the original 1939 stage production of Hellman's The Little Foxes, set in a small town in the state in 1900 and based on her mother's family in Demopolis. 

Since she retired from acting in the early 1950s, Emery's film career was about the same length as her stage one. Her dozen movies ranged from crime dramas such as Eyes in the Night [1942] and Strange Bargain [1949] to a Boris Karloff thriller, Isle of the Dead [1945]. 

Emery married Paul Conant Eaton, a literature professor, on September 23, 1944, and they had two children. Daughter Rebecca Eaton has been Executive Producer of PBS' "Masterpiece" since 1985.

Emery died on February 7, 1980, and is buried in Maine. 

Cast members, from left: Robert Keith, Anne Revere, Florence McGee, Katherine Emery, Katherine Emmet

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Katherine Emery [1906-1980] in her first film role, the 1942  Eyes in the Night. The film is available at the Internet Archive.

Boris Karloff and Emery in Isle of the Dead [1945]

Both of Emery's parents are buried in Fairview Cemetery in Eufaula. Perhaps Emery returned to her native state for their funerals. The third stone is for Emery's sister Anne, who died in 1921 at the age of 12 while the family was visiting Eufaula. Her Find-A-Grave entry says she was a granddaughter of B.B. Comer.

Source: Find-A-Grave

Look What They're Doing to Old Bryce Hospital

I've done several posts on this blog about Old Bryce Hospital, the state's former giant mental hospital in Tuscaloosa that opened in 1861. One described a quick visit made to the site with several family members in 2014 just before it closed. Others take a look at older photos related to the facility, an aerial view in 1943, and 1916 photos of sewing and other activities by residents. This post shares some photos I took on another quick visit with son Amos in January 2023. 

Several years ago the University of Alabama purchased the closed hospital, and it is now undergoing extensive renovation for a welcome center, the theater and dance school and a mental health museum. You can read a recent newspaper article about the present status here. More history of Bryce can be found in this article. The renovated building is expected to open in late 2023. 

A few more comments are below. 

Changes in the building are immediately apparent as you drive up to Old Main. 

These two photos are from our 2014 visit and show the old portico. Construction began in 1853 but was not finished until 1859. Peter Bryce was hired as superintendent and the Alabama Insane Hospital finally opened with patients in 1861. The portico was not original and added later while Bryce was still superintendent. The structure was not safe and need to be replaced.