Pat (Gunter) McCurley visit, Julian and Barbara Frazier visit, Woodruff School Burning Article.
On Wednesday, March 16, 2005, I called Pat (Gunter) McCurley at her bank in Smyrna, Tennessee,
and went over and had lunch with her at O'Charley's just off I-24 at exit 66. We had a great
visit and got re-acquainted. Our waitress made this photo of us, which I have named the
beauty and the beast. Pat is really into ballroom dancing, and you can see from this photo
that she derives a lot of personal benefit from it.
The Friday before that, Ann and I went to lower Giles County, Tennessee, to look in an old and
almost fully deteriorated cemetary to try to find her ancestors graves. They were buried in this
cemetary in about 1815. The owner of the property sent someone to lead us back in the woods
to the cemetary.
After that we drove on South on I-65 and met Julian and Barbara Frazier. They have been painting
their house preparing to sell it and to move from Huntsville to Atlanta. We met at the Cracker
Barrel Restaurant at the intersection of I-65 and U.S. Highway 72.
Julian and I had a casual bystander take this photograph, of the Petersen's in their Cemetary
searching clothes, and the Fraziers in their painting clothes. You can see that Julian and
I may have the same barber.
Julian brought with him a lot of information about the Woodruff School. I photographed a news story he had
written by Carolyn Cunningham, about the day that Woodruff School Burned. Classmembers who came to
Central from West Helena may find it interesting. We all spent many days together in this old building.
