Alabama Author: Gladys Baker

I recently wrote a blog post on a poet with Alabama connections, Sara Henderson Hay. In the course of researching Hay, I discovered her relationship in the 1930's with another state author, Gladys Baker. 

Here's what I wrote in that blog post about Baker: "In 1935 while at Scribner's Hay was able to tour Europe as secretary to Gladys Baker, a syndicated newspaper columnist. Baker had moved to the Magic City in 1926 to begin working for the Birmingham News. Small world, isn't it? I've yet to discover how the two women met, but on the tour they met with Pope Pius XI, Mussolini, Ataturk and other notables."

Unfortunately, I still haven't discovered how Hay and Baker met. Let's investigate.

Baker was born around 1900 in Jacksonville, Florida. Despite a fair amount of searching, I have yet to find an exact date. Her parents were Arthur Herbert [1869-1926] and Johnnie Niblo Baker [1873-1936]. They were married on December 23, 1890, in Glenn, Georgia. 

Before her death on December 18, 1957, Baker had published countless  newspaper articles in papers around the world and two books. Her first book, I Had to Know, was published in 1951 and chronicles her life up to that point and her conversion to Catholicism and from a Southerner to a "Damyankee" in Vermont. She retired from newspaper writing in 1942. 

She landed her first newspaper job at the Jacksonville Journal while in her late teens. According to the 1919 Jacksonville City Directory the family lived at 1849 Riverside Avenue, and her father worked as a clerk at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Her next job was at the Birmingham News Age-Herald, "where that great editor Charles A. Fell created a job for me--special New York correspondent." Her contract called for a full-page interview with a celebrity or newsmaker for the Sunday edition.

In her autobiography she tells us she soon moved to NYC and had her pieces appearing not only in the Birmingham paper but also publications in Dallas, Charlotte, Atlanta and Jacksonville. Before long she had national syndication. Baker met H.L. Mencken, who introduced her to fine dining at the 21 Club, downstairs where celebrities ate. "Our table was the mecca of the literati," she declared. Unfortunately, she does not name a single one of them. By this time Mencken had met, but not yet married Sara Haardt, an author and native of Montgomery, Alabama. 

Baker often fails to offer names and dates. For instance, she discusses her childhood and parents, but does not give us their names! We learn them from the New York Times notice of her marriage to automotive executive Howard Coffin on June 2 1937: the late Mr. and Mrs. A. Herbert Baker of Jacksonville, Florida. The parents names also appear in Baker's "Alabama Authors" entry linked in the second paragraph.  Strangely, Baker is not named in Coffin's Wikipedia entry; at any rate the marriage did not last long. He died later that year. Oh, and he's not mentioned in her book, either. She also didn't bother to name her four siblings. 

She wrote two syndicated serial fiction stories, "Sallie's Temptations" and "Mr. and Mrs. Sallie" The first installment of "Sallie's Temptations" can be found in the Carbon County [Montana] News on January 8, 1925. Syndication to various newspapers had begun the previous year. Like so many such serials, neither was ever published in book form.

Baker had four husbands: William H. Oates, William H. Kellig, Jr., Howard E. Coffin and Roy Leonard Patrick.

Her first book, dedicated to her fourth husband, is mainly a record of two things: all the celebrities she interviewed during her newspaper career and her search for spiritual fulfillment that ends in Catholicism. One chapter also chronicles her battles with a mysterious illness in 1946. All well and good, but for my purposes very disappointing. There is little mention of her time in Birmingham or even the years she spent in Jacksonville. There is no mention at all of Sara Henderson Hay. 

I have not read her novel, Our Hearts Are Restless, published in 1955. You can find her first book at the Internet Archive. 

So my search for information about Hay in New York in the 1930's was fruitless. I did learn more about Baker, but she did not seem to be much interested in giving many details of her life before her conversion. Her connection with Alabama is also pretty slight. Another thing I found frustrating was the lack of information I found in census and other records about her parents and siblings. 

That "Alabama Authors" entry on Baker gives as sources "files" at the Birmingham Public Library and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Research at those two places might produced more details. I was also unable to view her obituary in the New York Times; it's behind their paywall. 

Oh, well, you never know where these journeys down a rabbit hole will end up....

Published by Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1951

Baker may have been famous in her day, but she's forgotten now. 

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1955

Source:

Files at Birmingham Public Library; Alabama Department of Archives and History; and from New York Times, December 18, 1957.

Publication(s):

I Had to Know. New York; Appleton Century, 1951.

Our Hearts Are Restless. New York; Putnam, 1955.

Alabama History & Culture News: April 17 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. Enjoy!

BOOKS: Abandoned Wiregrass: Brian L. Braden Valdosta Daily Times ... North Florida, South Georgia and parts of Alabama. Some backroad travelers may literally recognize some of the places photographed for this book.

The Montgomery County Historical Society Hosts Ribbon Cutting for The Oakwood Cemetery ... Alabama News Network This project is open to volunteers who want to help find the exact location of all of the people buried in this local cemetery. The Montgomery County .

Author Gregory N. Whitis' book “Nighthope” is a riveting story of a humble trucking executive who ... PR Web His midlife crisis entails moving his family to an Alabama catfish farm, leaving behind unfinished business with a Mexican drug cartel. GREENSBORO, ...

Sweet tea: When did the South start drinking it? al.com It reveals Alabama's history and culture through 14 iconic foods, dishes and beverages including -- you guessed it -- sweet tea. Drawing on historical ...

THE ALABAMA HISTORIC CEMETERY REGISTER   [PDF] Alabama - Alabama.gov THE ALABAMA HISTORIC CEMETERY REGISTER. AS OF FEBRUARY 5, 2021. Click on the county name below to go directly to beginning of each ...

Alabama is about to have a new state vegetable: The sweet potato al.com The idea for a state vegetable came from a group of North Alabama homeschool students who, while researching state history, came across the fact ...

Bernie Madoff's year at the University of Alabama was 'low-key,' classmates say WKRG News 5 (WIAT) — For one year, the man behind the biggest investment fraud in American history was a student at the University of Alabama. Bernie Madoff ...

The Auburn family that owns half of Camp Hill's empty units seeks to restore them one by one The Alexander City Outlook In addition to her small business ventures, Emberly is trying to get downtown Camp Hill deemed a historic district by the Alabama Historical Commission, ...

Final football games being played at legendary Legion Field 247Sports Best known for its Iron Bowl history, Legion Field hosted Alabama-Auburn every year from 1948 to 1988 and saw many of the greatest games in the ...

Preserving history: Bloody Sunday billy club finds new home at voting rights museum Wetumpka Herald When Elmore County NAACP President Bobby Mays first got the call about a billy club that was used by an Alabama trooper during Selma's Bloody ...

BPL's Jim Baggett Honored By State Historical Association, University Of Alabama Patch.com On Friday, April 9, Birmingham Public Library Archivist Jim Baggett received top honors from both the Alabama Historical Association and the University ...

Michael Donald's 1981 Mobile, Alabama murder to be featured on CNN's 'The People vs. The Klan' al.com That book gives a detailed account of the murder and the slow-moving investigation that followed. It also covers the court proceedings in detail, with ...

Ray Lambert, D-Day survivor, WWII torch bearer, Alabama native, dies at 100 whnt.com “I did what I was called to do,” he wrote in his book, “Every Man a Hero,” published shortly before the 75th anniversary. “As a combat medic, my job ...

Book Review: Photographer Andrew Feiler documents the Rosenwald Schools of the Jim Crow ...

Chattanooga Times Free Press

John Lewis, who attended a Rosenwald School in a small, whitewashed church building in Pike County, Alabama. Lewis' school lacked running water ...

Benton County in 1852

Alabama has had several county names that are no longer in use, and Benton is one of them. Let's investigate.

On December 18, 1832, the state legislature created Benton County. The Encyclopedia of Alabama entry notes, "The county was initially named Benton County in honor of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, an arch defender of westward expansion and slavery. After Benton declared himself an opponent of slavery in the 1850s, Alabama supporters of slavery voted to change the county's name to Calhoun in honor of radical secessionist John C. Calhoun."

Benton was an important figure in antebellum American history. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1821 until 1851. During that time he supported what became known as "Manifest Destiny", the idea that the United States should expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He supported slavery and owned slaves himself, but after the Mexican-American War he began to oppose it and the domination of slave interests in the nation's political life. After he rejected the Compromise of 1850 as favoring slavery interests, the Missouri legislature refused to re-elect him to the Senate. He did serve a term in the U.S. House before his death in 1858.

Benton had practiced law in Tennessee beginning in 1805, and served a term in the state senate. Andrew Jackson noticed him and appointed him lieutenant colonel and aide to represent him in Washington during the War of 1812 Benton wanted to see action, and the two ended up brawling in 1813; Jackson was wounded. In 1815 Benton moved to the new Missouri Territory. 

Benton, a town on the Alabama River in Lowndes County is also named after Thomas Hart Benton to honor his efforts in the Creek War. His later apostasy on slavery did not trigger a name change. A post office was established there in 1833, and the town incorporated in 1964. Bill Traylor, the famed African-American self taught artist was born in the town around 1853; he died in 1949. 

The map below of Benton County in 1852 was created by Jerry A. Daniel in 1975. The name was changed on January 29, 1858, a few months before Benton died on April 10. 

Created in 1975 by Jerry A. Daniel

Source: Jacksonville State University Digital Commons

Thomas Hart Benton [1782-1858] 

Photograph taken by Mathew Brady sometime between 1844 and 1858. Brady later became famous for his Civil War photos. 

Source: Wikipedia

Sara Henderson Hay, Poet

Last year for National Poetry Month  I wrote a couple of blog posts about  anthologies of poems by Alabama authors. One focused on Alabama Poetry published in 1945 and edited by Louise Crenshaw Ray. Another looked at the Anthology of Alabama Poetry 1928 published by the Alabama Writers Conclave. In this post for the annual poetry celebration, I want to discuss a particular poet with state connections, Sara Henderson Hay.

She was born on November 13, 1906 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Anniston. Her parents were Daisy Henderson [Baker] Hay and Ralph Watson Hay. The 1940 U.S. Census gives Daisy's birthplace as Alabama and the year as about 1878; she died in Anniston on August 27, 1966. Ralph was also born in Pittsburgh on February 9, 1873, and died there on February 23, 1938. Hay's parents were married in Anniston on November 15, 1905.

The family seems to have done a lot of back-and-forth between Pennsylvania and Alabama. According to his Find-A-Grave listing, her father was a superintendent with Samuel W. Hay's Sons , & Manufacturers Light & Heat Co. and salesman with Oil Well Supply Co., all in Pittsburgh. Ralph's father was Samuel W. Hay, so presumably that one was the family business. Since Anniston had many metal and pipe industries, Ralph may have lived in both places and travelled back and forth for business interests. 

Sara received her education before college in Anniston. In the 1880's one of Anniston's founders Samuel Noble established two private schools affiliated with the Episcopal Church, Noble Institutes for Boys and Girls. Established in 1886, the Noble Institute for Girls was located at the corner of 11th Street and Leighton Avenue.  The boarding school closed in 1914, and the building later burned. The day school, which Hay presumably attended, closed in 1922. In that same year a new brick Anniston High School opened, which Hay attended. 

At age 10 she had published a poem about golf in Judge Magazine and in high school published in the Anniston Star newspaper. She continued writing and publishing poetry while in college. She left Anniston to enroll at Brenau College in Georgia from 1926 until 1928, then moved to New York City and graduated from Columbia University in 1931. 

Hay worked in the Rare Book Department at Charles Scribner's Sons publisher from 1935 until 1942. After Columbia she had started with the company  as a secretary in the editorial offices and then worked in the firm's bookstore. During this period her poems began to appear in various magazine and anthologies. While there she was an editor on Stevenson's Home Book of Shakespeare Quotations, published by Scribner's in 1937. 

In 1935 while at Scribner's Hay was able to tour Europe as secretary to Gladys Baker, a syndicated newspaper columnist. Baker had moved to the Magic City in 1926 to begin working for the Birmingham News. Small world, isn't it? I've yet to discover how the two women met, but on the tour they met with Pope Pius XI, Mussolini, Ataturk and other notables. 

Hay resumed work at Scribner's, continued writing poetry and published poetry and fiction reviews for the Saturday Review of Literature. In 1939 her second book was published by Alfred A. Knopf, another major New York publisher. I have included a number of images from This, My Letter below, including two from her "To My Small Son" series about an imaginary child. 

In 1938 and 1940 she recorded 28 of her poems at the City College of New York; they are listed at that link. In 1953 they were copied for the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress. 

During the 1950's and 1960's Hay continued to publish collections of poetry. The Delicate Balance [Scribner] appeared in 1951 and The Stone and the Shell [University of Pittsburgh Press] in 1959. In 1963 Doubleday published The Story Hour; see some comments about it below. Doubleday also published her final book The Footing on the Earth in 1966.

The 1951 collection The Delicate Balance won the Edna St. Vincent Millay Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. The Kentucky Poetry Review published an issue devoted to her work in 1980. 

Hay was married twice. Her first husband was Raymond Holden [1894-1972], a novelist, poet and publisher she married in 1937. Hay was the third of his four wives and the union apparently did not last long. On January 27, 1951, she married Nikolai Lopatnikoff, and they remained together until his death in 1976. He was a composer, and you can see a photo of him in the classroom taken by famed photographer W. Eugene Smith here. He taught music composition at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh from 1945 until 1969. I have found no indication that Hay had any children. 

Sara Henderson Hay died on July 7, 1987, in Pittsburgh. Her death was covered by the New York Times. She and her second husband are buried in Homewood Cemetery in that city. 

I have found these two items of scholarship on Hay's work:

Joyce, Christa Mastrangelo. "Contemporary Women Poets and the Fairy Tale." Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings (2009): 31-43.

Wilson, Dorothy Ann. Irony and Satire in the Poetry of Sara Henderson Hay. Diss. Indiana State College (Pa.), 1964.

I also found an essay by Alabama's eighth poet laureate, Helen F. Blackshear, "The Poetry of Sara Henderson Hay" in her collection Southern Smorgasbord [1982]. 

Images and some more commentary are below. I have included many from Hay's second poetry collection, since that is the only book of hers I own. I've also included one related to a mystery I've yet to solve. 

 I looked at Ancestry.com and found a Michael Actis-Grand in the 1930 U.S. Census. He was 37, living in Yonkers, New York. His profession? He was a hair dresser who owned a beauty shop. Could this be the Michael of this dedication?

Hay was obviously still married to Holden when this book was published. 

As this page demonstrates, by 1939 Hay's poems had appeared in a wide variety of publications. 

I can sympathize with the situation in this sonnet. Once when very young our daughter Becca acted like this "Beloved Sphinx" as Dianne and I, her brother, the photographer and other parents and children waiting tried to coax a smile from her. 

This collection contains fairy tales retold in sonnet form. The foreword is by poet Miller Williams. Reprinted from the 1963 Doubleday edition.

This special issue of Sagetrieb published in 2000 featured Hay on the cover in a photo taken in 1973. 

Alabama marriage certificate for Willa Baker Hay. Note the address as 1124 Quintard Avenue in Anniston, the same location identified below as Hay's "childhood home" and listed in various sources as her mother Daisy's residence for some years.

 In one obituary for Ralph Hay his children are listed as "Ray H. Holden; Willa Baker Hay". Just a simple error? Yet here's a marriage certificate for Willa listing her parents as Sara's parents and the Quintard address [see below]. At this time, June 1939, Sara was in New York City still working for Scribner's. 

And what about Ray? Beats me; by this time I gave up in confusion. More research is required to sort all this out. 

."

This Anniston newspaper article notes Hay's visit in 1950 to the city to visit her mother in her childhood home at 1124 Quintard Avenue. She also gave a talk to the European Study Club. 

Source: Anniston Star 22 October 1950 

Alabama History & Culture News: April 8 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. Enjoy!

Alabama tax created for veteran Confederate soldiers could preserve South's Black history Montgomery Advertiser the pamphlet reads. The park is run by the Alabama Historical Commission. The move to establish the park was made in the build up of the centennial of ...

Could the Confederate Memorial Park be a future home for Alabama's displaced monuments? Gadsden Times The veterans' home modern history. The state closed the home Oct. 31, 1939, 81 years ago, by Legislative act, and the five remaining widows were ...

Creek Indians Study Tour Planned for June Opelika Observer Contributed by Charles Mitchell. A Creek Indians in Alabama study tour with the Lee County Historical Society and Chattahoochee Valley Historical ...

History preserved in Herald files Union Springs Herald The monthly Historical Preservation report was presented at the Union ... In February 59 years ago, the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, ...

National Aeronautic Association honors Tuskegee Airmen AOPA Pilot ... staff” trained at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama, according to History.com. Tuskegee Airmen flew Curtiss P–40 Warhawks, Bell P–39 Airacobras, ...

Blakeley re-enactment set Saturday Gulf Coast News Today BLAKELEY – The Battle of Blakeley being re-enacted Saturday played a major role in local, state and national history, Historic Blakeley State Park ...

Daughter's hair challenges inspire educator to write book Champion I am really excited about getting it finished because I am an HBCU graduate (Alabama A&M University) and I love everything about HBCUs and the ...

5 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month in Birmingham Bham Now ... April 11, 7PM: All Around Alabama Inaugural Reading: Jason McCall, ... Check out books like Ashley M. Jones' Magic City Gospel, Emma Bolden's ...

“When Stars Rain Down” By: Angela Jackson-Brown Alabama Public Radio 1930s Small-Town South Setting for Dramatic Novel ... Don Noble's newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, ...

Alabama lawyer Bryan Stevenson to appear at Lincoln Center Kenosha News Wynton Marsalis will be the musical director. Stevenson founded the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative and wrote the best-selling book “Just ...

'A man with the human touch:' Legendary Alabama sports writer Bill Lumpkin dies at 92 al.com “In the rich history of Alabama sports writing, Bill Lumpkin is easily on the Mount Rushmore,” said talk show host and former Post-Herald columnist ...

Smiths Station celebrates two decades through new city clock Alabama NewsCenter On April 2, city officials led by Mayor F.L. “Bubba” Copeland unveiled a city clock that will honor history while looking to the future. Nestled between ...

Babe Ruth and Chadwick Boseman? Alabama HS baseball team 'connected with greatness' at ... Yahoo Sports And he knew the park's rich history. “I asked them,” Gray said, “if they knew about Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and the Negro League baseball. They ...

Push continues to memorialize civil rights martyr Viola Liuzzo in her hometown of California, Pa. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette She chalks that up to a combination of no historical markers in the area to ... was in the KKK car that shot at her in Alabama and did nothing to stop her murder. ... has the blessing of Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe, Viola's 73-year-old daughter.

Montgomery's long abandoned Grove Court Apartments to be redeveloped WSFA MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The historic Grove Court Apartments in downtown Montgomery are getting a much-needed makeover after being ...

Luverne Football's Legendary Coach Glenn Daniel Dies at 95 Alabama News Network ... took the job, which paid him $2,100 a year, “because I had a family to take care of,” he said in the book, “Tales from Alabama Prep Football” in 2000.

'A Better Life For Their Children' Looks At The History Of The Rosenwald Schools WABE 90.1 FM He becomes an educator, and he's the founding principal of the historically Black college in Tuskegee, Alabama, known as Tuskegee Institute,” said ...

UAB history journal for student scholarship wins a national award UAB News The annual Vulcan Historical Review was honored in the 2020 Gerald D. Nash History Graduate Online Journal Competition. The University of Alabama ..