Photo of The Month – Sep 2002

July 4th

Contributors: Ben Humphries & Eloise Whisnant-Fuleihan

I was allowed to copy this photo in the early 1960s by Mrs. Ola Humphries Whisnant, who is seated under the steering wheel in the picture. (This was an early model Maxwell automobile). The car belonged to her husband, Dr. J.F. ‘Fletcher’ Whisnant, who is standing against the car. Dr. Whisnant was a well-known dentist who had an office in Henrietta. Ola was Dr.Whisnant’s second wife. His first wife died and left him with several children, one of which is shown in the photo. Her name was Mattie L., and she is the young girl with the umbrella. She later married Dr. T.C. ‘Claude’ Lovelace. Dr. Lovelace was a legendary doctor in our part of the country. He must have practiced medicine for at least seventy-five years! His office was in Henrietta, but he had many patients in Cliffside and the surrounding areas. He delivered several thousand babies, and many of them were named after him. One that you would know is Claude Lovelace Bridges. (His twin brother, George Moss Bridges, was named after Cliffside’s Dr. G.O. Moss.)

The lady with the big hat in the car is Dicey Waters Beason, wife of Joseph Pinkney ‘Pink’ Beason. ‘Aunt Dice’ was the mother of Estelle, who married Lee Harrison; Mary Helen, who married Archie Humphries; Madge, who married Jack Matheney; Clyde; Jud; and John P. Also, it might interest you to know that Aunt Dicey’s sister, Belle, married Henry McKinney. They were the parents of Jim and Emmit McKinney of the Trinity Church community.

This photo was made in the early 1900s at a 4th of July celebration in Ellenboro.

—Ben Humphries

Note: Read “Live Cliffside News,” a 1903 community column in which the marriage of Dicey Waters and Pink Beason is announced.