[gurley.FTW]

PROOFS IN POSSESSION:
Parentage:
Birth:
Marriage:
Death:
Other Proofs:



1900 Milam Co. Tx. census shows nine children at home. Nell Sue among them, listed as daughter. All given birth places agree with other research.


FARNAM: "Elder Charles Deboze" He studied three years at Bethel College, Russellville, Ky., but left the year before graduation, in 1877. Since that time he has been engaged in teaching and preaching, and was for two years engaged as a home missionary by the Baptist Association of Webster county, Mo. Was engaged in teaching and preaching at Willis, Texas; at present, taking a partial course of study in the Southern babptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. The family resides near New Market, Alabama."






Burnsville, Alabama, 20 miles east of Selma, site of old Hall plantation and birthplace of Rev. Charles Dubose Whitman. His mother, Jane L. Hall, married Dr. Robert Molyneux Whitman at Burnsville.

It is possible that Charles Dubose lived his younger life with his grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Hall, and his aunt, Miss Frances Hall, at Burnsville Alabama. A check in the Dallas County, Alabama 1860 census would help with this point.

We need firmer "record" proof of the fact that Charles was the son of Robert M..
Supposedly, there is a paper in the courthouse in Selma, showing that Robert M. Whitman was appointed guardian of his SON, Charley D. Whitman, age 16, so that he could inherit $143 from the estate of his grandfather, Richard Hall, by ight of his deceased mother.

Virginia Meynard: "There are many papers in the courthouse concerning Halls and family including R.M. Whitman, that Gandrud did not find or include in her manuscripts. The court house staff says she left out a lot, so if you want to know about Dallas County, you must research it yourself. The papers in the courthouse are in a mess; many are misfiled or misplaced in cabinets. staff will not do anything to help you. They feel they are there for legal, not genealogical matters."

REV. CHARLES DUBoSE7 WHITMAN
-

7. Rev. Charles Dubose7 Whitman (b. 23 March 1855 Burnsville, Dallas Co., Ala.,
d. 27 Dec. 1919 Waco, McLennan Co., Tex.; buried Oakwood Cemetery), son of
Dr. Robert M.6 and 2nd wife, Jane (Hall) (Reed) Whitman of Burnsville, Ala.
c~
_ and Lincoln Co., Tenn.; m. 18 Dec. 1880 New Market, Maidson Co., Ala., Emma
_,
Dale Jones (b. 24 Jan. 1860 Salem, Franklin CoO, Tenn., d. 22 Feb. 1932 Waco,
Texas, buried Oakwood Cemetery), dt. William R. and Gilliann (Rice) Jones of
New Market, Ala.; - 10 c.
~ Micro Bio: Born Burnsville, Ala, 23 March 1855. Attended Mulberry Academy,

Lincoln Co., Tenn.; graduated Bethel College, Russelville, Ky.,
1879. Ordained Baptist minister, 1879. Missionary for Webster
County Missouri Baptist Assoc., 1880-1885. Pastor, Willis, Tex.
Baptst Church, 1885-1888. Studied Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Louisville, Ky., 1888-1889. Pastor, Antioch Baptist
Church, Anderson, Tex., 1889-1893. Missionary, Waco, Tex Baptist

[ ~Association, 1893-1896. Moved to Baileyville, Tex., 1896. Teacher,

preacher at Caddo Church, three others. To Cameron, Tex., 1899;
organized churches in Milam Co. Supply pastor, First Baptist
Church, Cameron, 1900-1901. Continued missionary work; pastor
of Gause Baptist Church, 1906. Returned to Waco, 1908; pastor
Third Street Baptist Church, 1910-1915. Qrganized Provident
Heights Baptist Church, 1915. Involved in Home Missions until
death in 1919. Buried Oakwood Cemetery. Married 18 Dec. 1880
in New Market, Ala., Emma Jones; 10 children. Listed in History
of the First Baptist Church of Cameron, Texas; Ilistory of the Waco
Baptist Association, and Charles Farnam's Descendants of John Wh~t-
man of Weymouth, Massachusetts.

Proof: Birth, death dates in obit, Baptist Standard, 4 March 1920; also on gravestone. Marriage license on file Madison Co., Ala., Marriage Book 11, p. 286. Names son of parents in Dallas Co., Ala. Probate File 65, No. 194, and File 22, "Richard Hall."

Proof: Emma (Jones) Whitman's dates of birth, death in

her obit, Waco Times-Herald, 22 Feb. 1932; also
on her gravestone, Oakwood Cemetery. Named daugh-
ter of William Jones in his funeral announcement,
Cameron, Tex., paper, 5 Feb. 1908. Children named
in 1890 Census of Cameron, Tex., and by married
names in parents' obits.

Early Life and Education
Charles7 Whitman, son of Dr. Robert M.6 and his second wife, Jane (Hall)
Whitman, was born on 23 March 1855 at the home of his maternal grandmother, Mrs.
Sarah Hall, in Burnsville, Ala., while his parents were on a visit from their home
in Tennessee. His mother died when he was two years old, and he spent his earliest
years with his father and half-siblings on the Mulberry farm in Lincoln County, Tenn.
Dr. Whitman married again in 1860 and took Charles, then aged 5, to live with him
on his wife's plantation near Burnsville, Ala.
1
Dr. Whitman moved to Texas in 186S, and Charles, then aged 13, returned to
Tennessee to attend Mulberry Academy. Two of his half-brothers still resided on
hulberry lands given to them by their father, and it seems that Charles spent time
on their farms as well as with his eldest half-sister, Mrs. Mary Ann (Whitman) Trimble,
in nearby Winchester. Mary Ann's husband, the Rev. Dr. A.D. Trimble, was pastor of
the Winchester Baptist Church, which Charles joined immediately and was baptized.
Dr. Trimble was a great influence on Charles, and after completing his studies
at Hulberry Academy at age 18, he announced his intention of becoming a minister.
He entered Bethel College at Russeliville, Ky., graduated in 1878, and taught school
for one year. Then he accepted a call by the Baptist Association of Webster County,
Missouri to serve as a missionary to the people living in the isolated Ozark Mountains.
They were descendants of pioneers who had settled there after the Revolutionary War,
had been cut off from civilization for almost a century, and were in great need of
preachers and teachers.
Before departing for Missouri, Charles was asked to raise funds for his work.
~He traveled throughout northern Alabama seeking support for his mission from well-to-
81 do Baptists. At New Market, near Huntsville, he was introduced by his uncle, William
E Whitman (a merchant at New Market and officer of the New Market Baptist Church),

I| to the wealthy planters of the area. One of them was "Squire" William R. Jones,
as he was called, whose large plantation was on the outskirts of the town. Mr.

8 Jones was a declared atheist, but his wife, Gilliann (Rice) Jones, was a dedicated

1

Baptist and faithful contributor to foreign and home missions.
The Joneses had a large family, and their second daughter, Emma Dale, aged
20, had just graduated from Mary Sharp College at Winchester, Tenn., which had
been founded by Dr. Trimble. She probably had attended Dr. Trimble's church while
in Winchester, and it is possible that she and Charles had already met. Certainly
they had much in common, as Emma was as ardent a Baptist as her mother. Charles
returned often to the Jones home, courted Emma, and on 23 December 1880, they were
married. After a short honeymoon, the couple departed for Missouri.

The Ozark Mission
Rev. Whitman's first pastorate was at Antioch, a country church near Spring-
field. He soon served a second church 20 miles away, and also organized and
taught in a school. "He built up a good school from almost nothing," says his
biographer in History of the Waco Baptist Association. "It grew so much that four
teachers kecame necessary. He also increased the church membership from three to
fifty, baptizing a large number of them."
Emma made friends with her neighhors, but she found it hard to accept some of

,'' their strange Ozark customs. She returned to New Market in 1881 for the birth of
-I her first Child, Alixe, and again in 1883 for the birth of Celeste (Les), but she

remained in Missouri for the birth in 1885 of her third child and first son, Rober, William (called Will), who was named for both of his grandparents. 1 ~

First Texas Pastorate

.
Failing health forced Rev. Whitman to resign his work in Missouri in 1885,

7 ~and seeking a warmer climate, the family moved to Montgomery County, Texas, where

his brother, Walter7 Whitman, lived. Charles preached and taught school at Willis

'.' but they resided in a large house at nearby Danville. Another daughter, Nell, was ~ born at Danville in 1887.


An opportunityarose in 1888 for Rev. Whitman to take a six-months advance
course at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ky. He resigned
1-from the Will i5 church, and leaving Emma and the children at New Market with her parents, he journeyed to Louisville. Edward Walter Boyce7 (Ted) Whitman, named for Rev. Whitman's Texas brothers, was born at New Market on 1 January 1889.

After completing his studies, Rev. Whitman accepted a call to Antioch Church at Anderson, Tex. Gillie May was born at Anderson in 1892, and Jennie (Jen) in 1893. Later that year, Rev. Whitman was called by the Waco Baptist Association to take over Sunday School and Colportage work (organize churches and distribute Bibles) in McLennan County.

The Move to Waco

The Whitmans had seven hildren, all under age 11, when they moved to Waco, and the eighth, Emma, was born there in 1894. They lived in a two-story frame house at 1118 South Fifth Street immediately across from the campus of Baylor Uni-versity. The house was one of the first to have steam heat, and the coal furnace had to be stoked. With Rev. Whitman out of the ~city many days each week (he preach-ed 87 sermons and distributed hundreds of Bible in 1893), Emma took in a Baylor student as a boarder to handle thts chore.

Emma's mother, Gilliann (Rice) Jones, died in Alabama, and her father, "Squire" Jones, came to live with the Whitmans in 1894. They were joined by Emma's sister, Nell Jones, who enrolled as a student at Baylor.

Squire Jones kept his children in Alabama informed of the Whitmans' activities. On 10 March 1894, he wrote to daughter, Jennie Latham, at New Market that "little Jennie can walk some. She is very small. She is the brightest child Emma has. Nellie [Nell Jones] studies hard and has a great deal to do. She was elected Pres-ident of the Calliopian Society a few days ago. Scarlet fever is raging in the city, and some of the schools have closed. May [Gillie] was taken with a severe pain in her side last nightO We sent for the doctor at midnight. She is up some today, and Mr. Whitman is now able to get about."

A month later, Jones informed a Latham granddaughter, "We are all well except Will. A horse ran over him in the street some time ago and hurt one leg very bad. The doctor had to sew up the wound. He can hobble around now. Little Jennie i5 a

|| sweet little thing. She favors your Ma more than any of the Whitman children. Ted
j and I have a good deal of fun. He is a hard case."


Then he added, "The Scarlet Fever has about died out. The school [Baylor] is getting along very well, some four or five hundred students. Some fifty to eighty of the boarding girls take a walk every few evenings after school along the street we live on all dressed in uniforms. It is a great sight!"

It was during this period that William Cowper Brann, editor of Waco's infamous magazine, The Iconoclast, attacked the morals of Baylor's female students in his writings. Citizens of Waco were outraged, as were the parents of the students. The Rev. Dr. Rufus C. Burleson, President of Baylor, asked Emma~Whitman if she would counsel the girls living in Burleson Hall and placate thei r parents. She did this unt;1 1897, when she contracted typhold fever and became seriously ill. Her doctor said that if she were to regain her health, she would have to go to the country to recuperate.

Balleyville, 1897-1899

Rev. Whitman was then preaching at four churches in the Waco Association, at R;esel, Pleasant Grove, Caledonia, and Rosebud. The Whitmans moved to rural Baileyville, a farm community near Rosebud, and the Baptist Association reported, "He is teaching in the neighhorhood of Caddo Church. He is a good preacher, mod-est, consecrated, spi ritual."

By 1898, Rev. Whitman was moving from church to church as pastor, sometimes ministering to four congregations at a time, preaching in their pulpits everyother Sunday, morning and evening, and teaching school during the week. The Balleyville years were lean ones for the Whitman family. A ninth child, Charles Jr., was born in 1898, and although there was a ;4egro cook in t!~e kitchen, there were tasks for all. The older girls helped their mother with the younger children, and the boys, supervised by thei r Grandfather Jones, did the outside chores, chopping wood and milking the cow.

Emma was not well, and needed rest. Even though ;t was against the Baptist tenets to play cards, a friend gave her a deck and taught her how to play Solitaire

for relaxation. It was a welcome divertissement, and occasionally, when Rev. Whit-man was away, she would get out her cards and play the game.

The Cameron Years, 1899-1908 ~ _

Emma's health improved so much that in 1899 Rev. Whitman accepted a call from _
the Baptist Association to organize churches in Milam County, and the Whitmans _
moved to Cameron, about 15 miles south of Baileyville. They lived in a house on _
Belton Street, across from Judge Thomas S. Henderson, a noted attorney, politician _

and Chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas. Judge Henderson

became a mentor to the older Whitman girls, urged them to attend college, and helped
them to find the means. Alixe, then aged 18, left for Decatur College in Alabama,
and Les entered Mary Hardin Baylor College at Belton, Tex , but she dropped out the
next year, at age 17, to marry Thelston Ford of Baileyville.

The 1900 Census of Cameron lists Charles D. Whitman, preacher; his wife, Emma, and all of their children, except Harry Lee, who was not born until after the cen-sus was taken. It also lists as members of the household, William R. Jones, "father-in-law," and Nellie S. Jones, "sister-in-law," who was away at school.

The First Baptist Church of Cameron granted leave in 1900 to its pastor, the Rev. Lee R. Scarborough, to go to Louisville, Ky. for further study at the Seminary. During his six-months absence, Rev. Whitman served as the church's supply pastor. According to the published history of the church, "hr. Whitman was living in Cameron at the time and was serving as County missionary. His family added much to the life of the church during the time they lived in Cameron."

"Squire" Jones

Emma's father, William R. Jones, Esq., was still an atheist, hut he spent many evenings discussing theology or philosophy with his son-in-law, and Rev. Whitman never gave up trying to save the Squire's soul. Jones was a portly man, then aged 80, and would sit on the Whitman~'s porch each afternoon in a buckskin chair. He would eventually lean the chair back on two legs, drop his head, and go to sleep. This became a ritual, and his young grandsons, Charles and Harry Lee, would watch in fascination as he slept tipped back but never fell.

The boys adored their grandfather, and he often took them fishing. One day he dozed off on the riverbank, and Charles fell into the stream. The child nearly drowned before his cries for help brought the old man to the rescue. The Squire said saving the boy's life was an omen from Heayen, "by the Grace of God," and it changed his way of thinking.

The next Sunday, Rev. Whitman, after preaching an inspired, evangelical sermon, inyited anyone wishing to confess his faith to come forward. There was a commotion in the rear of the church, and then Squire Jones came down the aisle. The congrega-tion watched in silent amazement as he strode towards the pulpit, enfolded his son-in-law in his arms, and announced that he wished to profess his new-found faith. He asked to receive the sacrament of baptism, although he was fully aware that in the Baptist church, baptism is by full emersion, no matter what the age or size of the cQmmunicant.

The following Sunday there was not an empty pew in the church when Squire Jones, dressed in a long, white robe, waded into the baptistry, publicly proclaimed Jesus Christ as his savior, and was emersed.

The years the Whitman family spent in Cameron were the happiest they had known. They were never an affluent family on a minister's salary, but they were rich in friends. The Whitman girls had many beaus, but their father reared them according to the strictest tenets of the Baptist faith, which included no dancing and no playing cards. There was a payilion in the town park where the young people gath-ered on summer evenings to listen to band concerts. On special occasions, like the Fourth of July, there would be dancing and fireworks.

The Whitman sisters could not resist the urgings of their friends, and often participated. One night while swirling on the dance floor with their partners, their father appeared. As he entered the pavilion on one side, they slipped out the other. Their friends then truthfully swore to the Baptist minister that his daughters were not present.

Because of the strict social code of their father, the two eldest boys, Will and Ted, left home in their teenage years. They would no longer abide their punish-ments for transgressions, such as playing ball on Sundays.

After Dr. Scarborough returned to Cameron and took over the pastorate of his church once again, Rev. Whitman resumed his missionary work in Milam County. The family moved to another house on the outskirts of town, and Squire Jones wrote his daughter in New Market that Emma had chickens, two cows, and sold butter and milk, but still had plenty for the family.

The wedding of eldest daughter, Alixe8 Whitman, aged 22, and James Sampson of Cameron took place in 1903. Nell8 Whitman, aged 16, left for Austin to attend the
University of Texas. Squire Jones missed the girls, but he was a popular person among the town's residents and had many friends. On 17 September 1907, the Cam-eron newspaper announced, "Mr. William Jones today celebrated his 87th birthday. He is hale and hearty and gets around like a man of 60. He attributes his years to an active, temperate life."

The Squire wrote his grandchildren in New Market to thank them for their gifts to him. "I got several presents," he said, "and a lady gave me a silver watch. My health is very good and am getting along all right and have a good time. I go fish-ing every few days. I caught a trout the other day that weighed over four pounds. You ought to have heard me holler, 'Hooray for Billy Jones.' Will close ... may the Lord bless you ... ."

It was his last letter. He died on 5 February 1908, and the paper announced, "The friends and acquaintances of Rev. and Mrs. C.D. Whitman are respectfully in-vited to attend the funeral of Mrs. Whitman's father, W.R. Jones, this afternoon. Services at the residence at 3:30 p.m. with burial in Oak Hill Cemetery."

The Move Back to Waco

In the summer following Sguire Jones's death, the Whitmans moved back to Waco so that younger daughters, Gillie, then aged 17, and Jen, aged 16, could attend Baylor University. They lived at Minglewood, the concrete block house of Judge John C. West at the corner of Seventh and Dutton Avenue. It was just across from the northern end of Baylor's campus, and in later years was occupied by Dr. A.J. Armstrong, the noted Browning scholar and professor at Baylor.

Third Street Baptist Church was organized in 1910, and Rev. Whitman served as its first pastor. While the church was being built on part of the old Gurley plan-tation on the southern outskirts of town (on land donated by Capt Davis Gurley II), Rev. Whitman held seryices at Gurley School. Miss Earle Gurley, daughter of Capt. Gurley, was the Sunday School teacher.

The Whitman's home at Minglewood became a center of activities for young people and Nell~ Whitman joined her family to teach in the Waco schools. Jen was courted by Wallace Fraser, a young man who had come to Waco from Hinesville, Ga., and young est daughter, Emma Whitman, was called on by John Gurley, nephew of Capt. Gurley. Most of the young people played musical instruments, and there often were serenades or songfests on the porch accompanied by banjos, mandolins and guitars.

In the summer following Sguire Jones's death, the Whitmans moved back to Waco so that younger daughters, Gillie, then aged 17, and Jen, aged 16, could attend Baylor University. They lived at Minglewood, the concrete block house of Judge John C. West at the corner of Seventh and Dutton Avenue. It was just across from the northern end of Baylor's campus, and in later years was occupied by Dr. A.J. Armstrong, the noted Browning scholar and professor at Baylor University. They lived at Minglewood, the concrete block house of Judge
John C. West at the corner of Seventh and Dutton Ayenue. It was just across from
the northern end of Baylor's campus, and in later years was occupied by Dr. A.J.
Armstrong, the noted Browning scholar and professor at Baylor.

Third Street Baptist Church was organized in 1910, and Rey. Whitman served as its first pastor. While the church was being built on part of the old Gurley plan-tation on the southern outskirts of town (on land donated by Capt Davis Gurley II), Rev. Whitman held services at Gurley School. Miss Earle Gurley, daughter of Capt. Gurley, was the Sunday School teacher.

The Whitman's home at Minglewood became a center of activities for young people, and Nell~ Whitman joined her family to teach in the Waco schools. Jen was courted by Wallace Fraser, a young man who had come to Waco from Hinesville, Ga., and young-est daughter, Emma Whitman, was called on by John Gurley, nephew of Capt. Gurley. Most of the young people played musical instruments, and there often were serenade


In 1915, Rev. Whitman organized Providence Heights Baptist Church in north Waco, and they moved to Gorman Avenue. Nell Whitman and Davis Gurley III were married in that house in June of that year, and in 1917, the wedding of Gillie Whitman and Eugene Hanszen of Dallas took place in Providence Heights Church. Charles Whitman left for Texas A. and M. College, and the youngest child, Harry Lee, became a foot-ball star at Waco High School.

54

Emma Whitman, aged 18, and John Gurley were married at Minglewood in 1912. Soon after, the Whitmans moved to a house on South Third Street to be nearer Rev. Whitman's church. Jen Whitman, then aged 21, and Wallace Fraser were married in its garden in 1813.

With only Harry Lee still at home, the family planned a reunion to be held at Christmas, 1919, but Rev. Whitman became ill and it had to be postponed. He died on 27 December, and his children gathered instead for his funeral. It was held at Providence Heights Church, and he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

His obituary in the Baptist Standard gave his vital statistics, named his heirs, and ended with the praise, "He was a voluminous reader, and one of the best informed men in the state."

Aftermath

Emma (Jones) Whitman lived another thirteen years in a house on North Twenty-first Street. Alixe8 (Whitman) Sampson divorced her husband and returned with her young son, Tom, to llye with her mother. Will Whitman, who had left Cameron as a teenager, found a successful career in the West, married, and had a child, but after the death of his wife, he brought his young daughter, Lucile, to reside with his mother.

As the years passed, times and religious attitudes changed, but Emma still pulled down the shades when she got out her cards to play Solitaire. Alixe smiled and told her of a long-kept secret with Rev. Whitman. He had come home one day at Baileyville to see Emma through the window playing Solitaire. He turned his horse around, made a detour, and returned another route over a nearby wooden bridge so that the noise of his mount's hooves on the timbers would let her know he was approaching. Ever after, he found some way to alert her of his arrival home so that she could put away her cards before he entered the door.

Emma (lones) Whitman died on 22 February 1932 and was buried beside her husband in Oakwood Cemetery.


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1. 2. Alixe Florence WHITMAN   b. 25 Sep 1881, New Market, Madison Co., Alabama; d. 28 Jun 1972, Harlingen, Texas.
2. 3. Celeste Jones WHITMAN   b. 27 Jun 1883, New Market, Madison Co., Alabama; d. ABT. 1930, Baileyville, Texas.
3. 4. Robert William WHITMAN   b. 15 Feb 1885, Springfield, Green County, Missouri; d. 29 Jun 1930, San Antonio, Bexar Co., Texas.
4. 5. Nell Sue WHITMAN   b. 21 Feb 1887, Danville, Texas; d. 10 Sep 1974, Laguna Nigel, California; bur. 1974, Waco, McLennan Co., Texas.
5. 6. Edward Walter Boyce WHITMAN   b. 1 Jan 1889, New Market, Madison Co., Alabama; d. 1929.
6. 7. Gillie Mae WHITMAN   b. 1892, Anderson, Grimes County, Texas; d. 21 Jun 1943, Dallas, Texas.
7. 8. Jenny Harris WHITMAN   b. 28 Feb 1893, Anderson, Texas; d. 1978, Hinesville, Liberty, Georgia.
8. 9. Emma Dale WHITMAN   b. 1894, Waco, McLennan Co., Texas; d. 1946, Los Angeles, California.
9. 10. Charles Dewey WHITMAN   b. 7 May 1898, Baileyville, Texas; d. 16 May 1992, Cheraw, Chesterfield, South Carolina.
10. 11. Harry Lee WHITMAN   b. 1900, Cameron, Milam County, Texas; d. 1956, Long Island, Queens, New York.

[gurley.FTW]

Alixe attended Decatur college in Alabama, and after her marriage lived in Waco. In 1920, she divorced her husband and with her son, Tom, resided with her widowed mother, Mrs. Emma Whitman. Alixe then entered the business world and became the first female employee of citizens National Bank. she was made custodian of the safety deposit vault, a position she held for 27 years.

during her career, she was active in the Business and Professional Women's club, and served two terms as its President. She was so well known and liked, that when she retired from the bank in 1947, her picture and biography appeared on the front page of the Waco New-Tribune. she moved to McAllen, Texas to live near her son, and died there in 1972, at age 91.


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[gurley.FTW]

Les attended Mary Hardin Baylor college t Belton, Texas, but withdrew at age 17 to marry her Baileyville sweetheart, Thelston a. Ford. They resided all of their lives on the Ford farm at Baileyville, which was a favorite place for a Whitman family reunion.


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[gurley.FTW]

Bob left hom in his youth and established himself in the West where he met and married Althea Foster. After her death, he brought his young daughter, Lucile, to live with his widowed in Waco. His second wife was a Mormon, and their son was reared in the Morman faith in Utah.


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[gurley.FTW]

PROOFS IN POSSESSION:
Parentage: Gurley Whitman Family Bible Record
Birth:
Marriage:
Death:
Other Proofs:

NELL WHITMAN GURLEY 1887-1984
THE ACTRESS


She was 92 years old, but young men vied to sit beside her at dinner parties. She was not beautiful in her old age. she had lost weight and ws thin, and her former silver hair had lost its lustre and was just plain gray, but her wit and repartee were her attractions. People gathered around her to tell stories, but unexpectedly she always topped them, which brought forth roars of laughter from her audience.

She was the "belle" in any setting, but she never remembered the next day even having been there. She lived every minute of the present fully, but she could not recall the immediate past.

Nell Whitman was born in 1887 at Danville, texas, the fourth of ten children of a Baptist minister, the Rev. Charles DeBose Whitman, and his genteel wife, Emma Dale Jones. Both her mother and father were college educated and sprung from the antebellum planter families in Tennessee and Alabama. Her father's chosen profession made them poor, but all of the children were endowed with good looks, intelligence, and fun loving spirits.

Somehow, all of the ten children got to college. It was there that Nell excelled. She was introduced to drama at the University of Texas, and from then on, her idol was Sarah Bernhardt. More than money, she wanted a career on the stage, but to her minister father, that was unthinkable. So, she obtained a scholarship to the Chatauqua Summer School in New York state, where a drama professor fom the University of Chicago taught her elocution and how to tell Bible stories in a theatrical manner. She developed this teaching into a remarkable skill which she possesed and applied throughout the rest of her life.

She returned to Texas to the respectable profession of school teaching, but each summer she signed up with the Chatauqua Circuit to perform before small town audiences in a tent. As long as she confined her actiing to Bible story-telling, she had her fther's approval, but she was allowed to appear only i towns where she could be the house guest of the local Baptist minister's family.

At 28, she married Davis Gurley, III, heir of a prominent and wealthy Waco family. She had four children, and through the Depression, motherhood widowhood, and a reutrn to teaching, she put aside her dream of being an actress. Then, after retirement when she entered old age and her arteries began to harden, she forgot tribial day to day events, but her mind remembered those wonderful summers of Chatauqua training and her longed for destiny. From then on, she was THE ACTRESS--the main attraction at every gathering she attended, glowing with the story telling and repartee.

At age 92, she developed pneumonia and was taken to the hospital, where she was fed intravaneously. Even the tubes nd parapharnalia could not heep her "off stage" when she decided to leave her bed and roam the hospital corridor. Told by the nurse that she could not go because the equipment must remain attached to her body she declared, "Then I will just take it with me," and started out the door. The nurse grabbed the bottle, and holding on to the long tube, followed her down the hall. "The Actress", in her element, made it look like the procession of a queen and her entourage.

Upon her return home from the hospital, she did not like the placement of the furniture in her room, and so began re-arranging it, lifting and moving heavy objects without physical repercussions. That very same night, she turned over too far in her bed, fell out, and broke her hip.

Back to the hospital for surgery and a lengthy stay, then home again. While still confined to bedpans, she declared she was going to get up and go to the bathroom. The nurse reminded her, "You cannot walk on that leg with a broken hip."

And she answered, "The I'll hop." And The Actress did.

She recovered completely from the broken hip and lived on to age 97. She died in 1984 in California, but was buried beside her husband on the Gurley lot in Oakwood Cemetery at Waco, Texas.

Virginia Gurley Meynard
1984


I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w

I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w

I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w

I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w

I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w

I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w

I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w