Making the Society Pages Fun to Read

 

It was the year the Kingsport Times’ Society pages became fun to read. Normally the Society section was filled with wedding notices and bridge club scores. It was a tough slog to read, lots of names of bridesmaids and descriptions of outfits along with bridge winners and scores. That all changed in June 1943 with the arrival of a summertime hire from the University of Tennessee. Nineteen-year-old Betsy Morris was named Society Editor that summer, filling a void created when all the regular Society staffers were moved to the News department to replace reporters and editors who had been drafted into the service (19 in total from news, advertising, circulation and the pressroom were drafted).

What new Society Editor Morris did was create the Kingsport Times first society column. Wedding notices became more than just a dull recitation of the flowers and the dresses. And bridge parties became fun events.

In just her third column she interviewed many of Kingsport’s first families about their summertime plans in the face of war-time restrictions – meaning no drives to Cape Cod or cross-country trips to the Grand Canyon in light of gas rationing.

In the current news climate interviewing two people is enough for a story and interviewing three people makes it an investigative report.

Betsy Morris talked to 21 locals for her story about thwarted vacation plans, among them such bold-face names as Mrs. J. Fred Johnson, Mrs. Ross N. Robinson, C.K. Koffman (longtime Dobyns-Bennett principal), Mrs. J.C. White (her husband was the head of Eastman), Mayor Glenn Bruce and Mrs. W.B. Greene of the hardware store family.

Morris called her new column “I See By The Times,” and that name stuck until Betsy went back to UT four months later.

Her replacement, Rosemary Stelling, changed the name to “Don’t Say I Told You But” and the style to a chatty letter from one girlfriend to another. The first “Don’t Say” column on November 7, 1943 even began: “Dear Betsy [a nod to her predecessor Betsy Morris], How’s the ole college gal doin’ now?” Stelling, who was the daughter of press room foreman S.J. Stelling and sister of city editor Tom Stelling, even signed the column off with “Love, Rosemary.”

Stelling, who was training to be a nurse, wrote 67 columns over the next year before giving way to Helen West, who would later become women’s editor. Helen ended her gabfests with “Love, Helen.”

The society column hung around for a decade even as the section changed its name from “Society” to “Society and Women’s News” and the column was renamed, again, to “Have You Heard.”

The final Dear Liz-Love Helen column ran on October 14, 1951 with coverage of the weekly Ridgefields Bridge Club luncheon where a new arrival in town was introduced, Mrs. Cy Bahakel.

Four years later, in September 1955, Dia Bahakel, by then general manager of WKIN radio, would promote a country music show at the Civic Auditorium. The middle act was a fellow from Memphis named Elvis Presley. Years later Dia would tell me there were only 270 in attendance that night and that she paid Elvis and his band $37 for their performance.

Here are highlights from a few of those early Society columns, beginning with the stay-at-homes column (with my own addition of bold-face) of June 20, 1943:

 The citizens of Kingsport are responding with the urgent request of the government that civilians refrain from travelling and are going no further than their own backyards for their vacations this summer.

Typical attitude was that of Mrs. W. C. Hagan, faced with the prospect of a whole summer in town. When asked what she was planning in the way of a vacation she laughingly replied, "Nothing, just like everybody else."

The Ross N. Robinsons have a vacation spot in their side yard that rivals any mountain resort in the coolness. The stone terrace is the center of the family's social life and many a picnic supper is spread here. Mr. Robinson and daughter Mary were away when we stopped by, but Mrs. Robinson, daughter "Tish," sons Ross Brown and Charles, and "Snookums" the dog, were enjoying life in their favorite spot.

Taking care of three young and lively children is a career in itself but attractive Mrs. C. J. Bryan manages to keep Linda, Gene and Clark looking as if they had just come out of a band-box and at the same time she is an active club woman. The young Bryans were all cleaned up for the afternoon when we arrived and were enjoying a glass of ginger ale with their mother out on the terrace. They certainly made a very striking busy family portrait.

1943: Goerdel, Libby and Bryan families.

The Glenn Bruces are looking forward to a delightful summer at Bruce's cabin out from town on Crescent Drive. [The Bruce home was at 914 Watauga Street, a distance of a mile and a half from “Valley View Cabin,” as it was known.] They always spend their summers there and count themselves particularly fortunate to have such a place this summer.

We could just hear the smile in Mrs. J. Fred Johnson's voice when she told us on the telephone, "I'm practically running a nursery for the summer." The neighborhood children spend their days playing on the swings in the Johnson's back yard and Mrs. Johnson thoroughly enjoys playing hostess to the little people.

The C. K. Koffmans and the Paul Scotts spend all their spare time on joint fishing trips to Galbraith Springs [in Hawkins County]. Says Mrs. Scott, "We just sit on the bank and wait for the fish to nibble." Mr. Koffman has quite a booster in the person of daughter Anne who says "Daddy catches more fish than anybody."

Mr. and Mrs. J. C. White, 1224 Linville, have had as their guests their son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Jack White, and their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. George Schilling. Mrs. Jack White is the former Miss Hunter Johnston, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. T. P. Johnston. She and Jack are home from Cornell University at Ithaca, N. Y. Jack has been spending most of his time building a children’s house in his parent's back yard. Mrs. Schilling is the former Miss Barbara White. She and her husband visited the Whites on their way to Camp Davis where George is to go to Officers Candidate School.

Mrs. A. D. Brockman, 1122 Watauga, said that her garden really doesn't deserve the title "victory garden." Evidently, she feels that she hasn't been exactly victorious in the game of gardening.

Mrs. W. B. Greene, 1647 Belmeade, told us her family enjoys eating summer meals in the out-of-doors. Valerie, eight, and Billy, five, gather their young friends in the yard for badminton and croquet.

 

1943: Lela Johnson engagement photo

I knew about wartime rationing: gas, tires, coffee and sugar. But in one of Betsy’s columns, I discovered another item that was rationed, shoes:

The engagement of the week is that of the popular and pretty Lela Johnson to Mack Slaughter. Lela and Mack met at a dance down at the University of Tennessee when Lela was visiting Sherry McClellan. After that Lela found herself practically a commuter to Knoxville, making all the important football games and formals on the "Hill.”

Lela and her sister, Mrs. Forrest Pilgrim, along with Sherry McClellan, made a trip to Bristol this week and spent the day just "looking, looking, looking," for trousseau items.

When we asked Lela if she was having any difficulty with the shoe rationing problem, she laughed and replied that she had used Mack's coupon that very day. That, indeed, is true love, when the groom-to-be offers in proof of his affection his shoe ration stamp.

 

1943: Engagement photo of Jacqueline Pinckney White of New York City, who married Kingsport (and Princeton) football star Bobby Peters. 

And talk about bold face names, that same column also announced the marriage of local football hero Bobby Peters:

Kingsport is all excited over the surprise wedding of Robert Lynn Peters, Jr., and glamorous Jacqueline Pinckney White in New York.

Plans for the wedding had to be put on an accelerated war-time basis in order for "Jackie" to accompany Bobby to California, where he is to be stationed at Camp Beale, and news of the marriage came as a surprise to the many friends of the Peters family here in Kingsport.

The ceremony was a very quiet and simple one performed by the Rev. Thomas J. Delihanty at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Pinckney White, 125 East 84th street, New York City.

Lieutenant and Mrs. Peters left immediately for the west coast. The wedding has been of much interest in eastern circles as "Jackie" was introduced at the famous Bachelors' Cotillion in Baltimore last New Year's Eve.

 

1943: New York Daily News story about wedding of Bobby Peters

Footnote to the Bobby Peters’ wedding story:

A day later the  New York Daily New reported on a honeymoon hoax perpetrated by Bobby and Jackie:

It seems a shame to spoil such an amusing story, but the night club set has fallen for the biggest hoax of the season. Most of them solemnly believe that Lieut. Robert Lynn Peters Jr. and his beautiful bride, the former Jacqueline Pinkney White, made the first lap of their honeymoon trip in a railroad baggage car.

Bob and Jackie started the story themselves when they were having trouble in getting train reservations. They finally got a pair of upper berths, but the baggage car gag seemed good enough to keep up.

Details were added as the story made the rounds of a bunch of the wedding guests after the reception on Tuesday. The baggage car became an empty box car. The railroad had promised to fix them up comfortably with a few wooden crates and a couple of old gray blankets ordinarily used as packing.

 

Rosemary Stelling also incorporated the war into her Jan. 9, 1944 column:

Dear Betsy,

I've heard of so many interesting things this week. One that I thought might interest you, is the list of unusual gifts that some of our Kingsport soldiers sent home for Christmas.

I had lunch with Linda (Mrs. M. D.) Massengill the other day. I had to hear all about the things that M. D. had sent her from Oran, Algeria. The last box had some beautiful linens in it. There were two luncheon cloths and napkins, one pink and one white, two bridge cloths and napkins, one green and one yellow.

They are all of sheer linen, with hand drawn work, all handmade, and really something to be proud to own. While M. D. was being transferred to India, he sent Linda twin brass vases. They are about five inches high, engraved around the sides in red, blue and gold, which makes a sort of Paisley design.

Mrs. J. B. Stevens, Pineola Ave., had some interesting things to tell me. One of the nicest gifts she has received from her husband, Capt. J. B. Stevens (formerly with Tennessee Eastman) was a clear glass decanter. It has compartments for four different wines.

He has sent her several pieces of jewelry, a small mounted cameo, to be used for either a necklace or a pin, a necklace and pin of silver filigree, an agate pin, a pair of coral car rings, and a piece of enamel jewelry.

Then there is the "spread," which is what it will be called, until Captain Stevens returns home and tells her how it can be used. Elizabeth says: "It is a piece of satiny woven tapestry, with a native scene woven into it, about the size of two double bed spreads."

She says when she does find a use for it, it sure will be a good one. Captain Stevens said the scene woven into the tapestry, was typical of North Africa, Sicily and Italy. Mrs. Stevens was the former Miss Elizabeth Cloyd and taught in the Kingsport schools before her marriage.

Tommy McNeer sent his mother, Mrs. Thomas McNeer, Fair Acres, several grass skirts. They are just "grass colored," the ceremonial skirts have only one layer of grass, but the every day ones have six layers of grass. His present to "Dr. Tom" was a Japanese clinical thermometer, which Tommy found in a hospital that once had been in the hands of the Japanese. Other things were shells, coins and beads.

I called Dorothea Hoskins, she is just recovering from the flu, but she told me about the box Bob (R. J. Hoskins, Birch Street) sent from North Africa. He sent her a genuine Egyptian scarab and a sandrose from the Sahara desert. A hand painted scarf, French perfume and handmade leather pocketbooks filled with African coins for herself and the children were also included in the box.

Love.

Rosemary.

 

In one of the last Dear-Liz-Love-Helen columns, from 1949, was this bridge club story that didn’t mention the high score or the lunch spread:

 

Dear Liz,

You remember Gene and Jamis Armitage moved to their country home on the Fordtown road not long ago. [Gene Armitage was the mayor of Kingsport at the time.] She has the house just about the way she wants it now - and a group of girls while playing bridge one day, decided it was high time they descended on her for a day of bridge and lunch.

They were considerate enough, though, to "pack their own lunch."

No, Liz, I didn't go to Jamis' house. I was in the same predicament that the old country lady was in when she couldn't attend a party. When asked if she went, she gave this classic answer: "No, I didn't went, didn't wanta went, had I wanted went, wouldn't gotta gone." The only difference is - I wanted to went.

Love, Helen.

 

I feel like I should end this post with:

Love, Vince