Comedy Queen Jackie “Moms” Mabley, Part I

World-renowned comedienne and actress Loretta Mary Aiken, known as ‘Retta’ to her family, was born in Brevard on March 19, 1897. Unfortunately, many of her biographical details are conflicting, fictional, or simply unavailable, which makes her life story unclear at points. Nonetheless, the information that is available is quite remarkable. 

Loretta Mary Aiken, known as Jackie “Moms” Mabley

Born to Mary Smith and Jim Aiken, Loretta came from a large family of mixed African American, Cherokee and Irish ancestry. Her father was a prominent Brevard businessman and volunteer fireman. He was tragically killed in an explosion when his vehicle overturned during a fire call in 1909. Loretta’s mother also died a horrible, violent death in 1946— she was run over by a mail truck on New Year’s Eve. 

Loretta herself suffered traumatic physical abuse. She was raped at age 11 by an elderly black man, and then again at age 13 by a white law enforcement official. She became pregnant both times, and had two babies, the first in Brevard and the second -according to an interview with Loretta- in Baltimore. Both children were placed in the care of women who disappeared with them. Sadly, she was not reunited with these two children until they were adults. Later in life, Loretta had three daughters and adopted a son: Bonnie, Christine, Yvonne, and Charles. 

On the advice and encouragement of her grandmother, Jane Aiken Hall*, who said: “you’re gonna see the world like your granny never did,” Loretta left Brevard for Asheville as a young teenager while pregnant with her second child. It was at this time that Loretta claims that God, in a vision, told her to “Go onto the stage,” whereupon she joined black vaudeville performers and began performing in the Chitlin ’Circuit. Not long after, in order to appease her eldest brother who felt that her involvement in show business as a female disgraced the family name, Loretta adopted the stage name ‘Jackie Mabley.' Incidentally, Jack Mabley was a Canadian comic to whom she had been engaged. He was one of the few men close to Loretta at that point in her life. 

In her twenties, inspired by her love and admiration for her grandmother, and largely as a form of self-protection, Loretta began developing the comic character of a bawdy, young-man-chasing, old-man-hating granny who wore funny hats, frumpy housedresses, droopy stockings and ill-fitting shoes. “I had in mind a woman about 60 or 65, even when I first came up,” she told Mark Jacobson in an interview for New York(October 14, 1974). “She’s a good woman, with an eye for shady dealings. She was like my granny, the most beautiful woman I ever knew.” 

The risqué elderly lady persona that Loretta impersonated as Jackie Mabley, inspired by her grandmother and named after her ex-fiancé, allowed her to get away with saying things that male counterparts of her day would not have been able to. She used Jackie Mabley’s silly and unattractive image to mock males and discuss taboo topics such as ageism, sexuality, gender stereotypes and, more specifically, the marginalization and exploitation of black women. 

Next week's “Picturing the Past” will recount Loretta Mary Aiken’s rise to international stardom as Jackie “Moms” Mabley. *In her performances, Loretta often called her granny, Harriet Smith (the name of her maternal grandmother) but it is believed that the grandmother she actually imitated and was inspired by was Jane Aiken Hall, her paternal grandmother. 

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Anne-Monique Ransdell. For more information, comments, or suggestions contact NC Room staff at ncroom@transylvaniacounty.orgor 828-884-1820. 

A Quarantine Thanksgiving

As we ponder what to be grateful for in 2020, it can serve us well to look back at history. The year 1918 was, believe it or not, far worse than 2020. World War I had claimed an estimated 16 million lives and 116,516 of those were American. The influenza epidemic, the deadliest flu pandemic ever recorded, swept the world that same year and killed roughly 675,000 people in the United States and up to 50 million people worldwide. During its peak, it is estimated that 21,000 Americans died in a single week in October 1918. In that same month more than 5,000 died just in North Carolina. By the end of The Great Pandemic, a total of 13,644 North Carolinians had died of the flu.

November 11,1918 - Thomas Lenoir Gash and Dovie Anne Deavor Gash
celebrate Armistice posing for a photograph with the American flag
and the Christian Observer newspaper outside their home in Pisgah Forest.

So how did Transylvanians celebrate Thanksgiving in 1918? Despite 1918 being a year of unforgettable suffering and death, there certainly were things to be grateful for. Nearly three years after the United States declared war on Germany, a ceasefire and Armistice had finally been declared on November 11, 1918. The peace yearned for by Americans had finally arrived. In learning of the news, Brevard Mayor W.E. Breese delivered a stirring speech in which he proposed that “if the epidemic of influenza subsides sufficiently for the people of the county to meet together, I want to suggest that everyone who is able to do so, to come to Brevard on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, and let’s have a good time celebrating our victory.” He added that “as we the people of Transylvania have so much to be thankful for, we have a great union Thanksgiving service outdoors and all have our Thanksgiving dinner there together.”

This announcement made the front page
of the Brevard News, on November 21, 1918

The fact that there is no further mention of this proposed event in the post-Thanksgiving issues of the newspaper of the time, the Brevard News, may mean that it was not possible to hold the event. We know that a long-awaited and long-advertised minstrel show that was to take place on Thanksgiving night was postponed indefinitely. We also know that the County Health and Quarantine Officer, C.W. Hunt, MD, continually discouraged gatherings and at one point reminded Transylvanians that: “Influenza is a crowd disease. It is spread by ‘spit swapping’ through the means of the unmuzzled cough and sneeze, or the use of drinking cups, eating utensils or towels that have been used by an infected person. The prevention of the disease depends upon each individual avoiding crowds where infection is so easy, and refusing to use the things that someone else has used. The responsibility for preventing the disease rests with the individual directly.”

What is evident in the local newspapers of the time is that despite the many hardships, losses and untold grief suffered by all, Transylvanians were deeply grateful for their hard-won peace, looking ahead at brighter days and solidly there for each other. This is evident in contributors’ reporting of their shared joy for war’s end, the personal mentions of how families stricken with influenza were faring, the many prayers expressed, and the ads of gratitude directed at neighbors, friends and medical personnel published by those who received help from them at their worst time of need.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Anne-Monique Ransdell. For more information, comments, or suggestions, please contact NC Room staff at ncroom@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

75 Years of Bookmobile Service in Transylvania County

2020 marks the 75^th year that Transylvania County’s beloved bookmobile has literally been carting knowledge and entertainment to all corners of our county. The bookmobile service began in 1945, when the county’s first professional librarian, Mrs. Elizabeth Kapp, decided to lend library books out of the trunk of her own car, with the aim of making library resources more accesible to rural residents.

The bookmobile stops at Cedar Mountain.
Panels on the outside of the 1949 bookmobile were raised to
display books; additional books were transported in the trunk. 

Mrs. Kapp started out by rotating small book collections for one month periods at country stores and one-room schools throughout Transylvania. For four years she used her car for this purpose; then in 1949, the county purchased and refitted a Chevrolet panel truck for use as a mobile library. Hall Smith Jr., of Brevard College, was its first driver. Mrs. Burt Cassing joined the effort as the volunteer bookmobile librarian.

Bookmobile librarian, Dottie Vaniman stands
at the front door to the “Truck of Knowledge.”

Later, in 1960, a walk-in style bookmobile was acquired by the library. This sort of bookmobile was much more convenient for users, since they could get out of the cold and the wet weather to comfortably browse the books inside the truck. After nearly 20 years of heavy use, this vehicle was replaced in 1978 with a bright orange second-hand bookmobile (purchased from the Greenville, N.C., library), nicknamed “The Truck of Knowledge.”

In 1984, a brand-new white Chevy Pioneer II van, nicknamed “Moby Dick” by library staff, was purchased and especially outfitted to the library’s specifications. This smaller van, built and designed by the Gersentslager Company, was better able to navigate narrow city streets. Service was now expanded to include rest-homes, childcare centers, and home-bound citizens. After 25 years in service, “Moby Dick” was retired and our current bookmobile took to the roads. This present-day iteration of the bookmobile is unmistakable on Transylvanian roads due to the beautiful photographs of Looking Glass (taken by Thomas M. Atkins) that grace its exterior. It will have been in service 12 years now this coming November 22.

Bookmobile librarians through the years have included Mrs. J.P. Cheek (1951-1969), Mrs. Joe Plemmons (1969-1973), Mrs. J.P. Robinson (1973-1975), Mrs. Dot Rogers (1976-1977), Ms. Dottie Vaniman (1977-1993), Ms. Linda Raxter (1993-1995), Ms. Karen Plumley (1995-2008) and Mr. Gary Greene (2008-2009).

Since 2009 (aside from the months the coronavirus pandemic has forced the Bookmobile to idle by), current bookmobile librarian Miss Brenda Ivers stops at community centers, post offices, churches, day cares, schools and retirement centers throughout Transylvania County. At any given time she has up to 3,000 books in tow! For a complete bookmobile schedule, be sure to check the library’s website at library.transylvaniacounty.org or contact Miss Brenda at the library.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Anne-Monique Ransdell. For more information, comments, or suggestions, please contact NC Room staff at ncroom@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

First Armistice Day in Transylvania County

November 11, the date World War I formally ended at the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918, was selected for Armistice Day to honor veterans of World War I.  President Woodrow Wilson issued the following message to all Americans on November 11, 1919. 

A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.

With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.

Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.

To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.

The first Armistice Day in Transylvania County was to be celebrated with a parade by the students of the Brevard Graded School and Brevard Institute, followed by the singing of patriotic songs, prayers and speaking.  The parade was cancelled due to inclement weather but the other events went forward with a large audience at the Baptist church.

WWI Transylvania County soldiers. 

Front row: Avery Orr, 2^nd from left; Virgil Merrill, 5^th from left.  

Middle row: Jesse Scruggs, 3^rd from left; Carl Hardin, 4^{th from left} .  

Back row: Coy Surrette, 2^nd from left; Travie Hart, 7^th from left.  

Others pictured include Harold Harden, Lauder Lyday, Ernest Miller and Victor Orr.  

They served in France in the Medical Department, at Field Hospitals and 

with Ambulance Company 324 from August 1918 through June 1919.

 Following World War II and the Korean War veterans’ organizations advocated for changing Armistice to Veterans to honor those who had fought in all wars and those who served in the U.S. military forces during times of peace.  Congress officially renamed November 11 as Veterans Day in 1954.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Marcy Thompson. Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs. For more information, comments, or suggestions contact NC Room staff at ncroom@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Fall is Harvest Time!

Fall is harvest time.  Since the first settlers came to the area in the late 1700s agriculture has played a major role in the local economy.  Early families grew their own food and crops for their livestock.  They also took any extra crops and livestock to markets in Asheville or Greenville each fall for much needed cash.  They income allowed them to buy goods they couldn’t grow or make, as well as additional land and to pay taxes. 

They chiefly raised hogs, along with cattle and sheep (mainly for the wool), as well as chickens.  Corn was the leading crop, along with beans, pumpkins, winter squash, cabbage, potatoes, oats and rye. 

Haying time at Cathey's Creek Farm in the early 1900s.  
Front from left:  Leroy Waldrop, Tom Galloway, Rueben
Bracken, Pete Lance, Lewis Waldrop, Jim Waldrop and 
Mannie Waldrop.  Two little boys: Hovey and Arthur Waldrop.
Back from left:  Mays Waldrop on the haystack, Van Buren 
Waldrop and Ray Waldrop standing in the wagon, and 
Robert Waldrop on the car hood.

Throughout the 1800s agriculture grew steadily and continued to be the chief source of income in Transylvania County.  There were 365 farms in 1870, 734 in 1880 and just over 1000 by 1900.  The farms also grow in total acreage over the years. 

The 20^th century began with a shift in the local economy—many were working in the logging and lumber industry and by 1940 manufacturing jobs lured others away from farming full-time.  Real estate prices in Brevard were relatively high but farm owners couldn’t sell their property for enough to entice them to sell and move to town so most continued to farm on a small scale.

Agriculture in the county was also changing.  Dairy farming expanded from the 1940s through the 1960s.  In the 1950s and 60s the nursery business blossomed—with gladiolas, ornamental shrubs and trees, and Christmas trees being leading products.  By 1982 the top grossing farm product in Transylvania County was trout.

Today agricultural remains important but the type of farming has changed.  2017 statistics list 215 farms in the county.  They are smaller, at an average size of 68 acres and the products have changed again.  The leading crops are those that sell at farmers market and roadside stands—vegetables, fruit, berries, melons and flowers.  Greenhouse and nursery products, such as ornamental plants, shrubs, trees, Christmas trees are also grown throughout the county.  The leading livestock product is aquaculture—trout farms and fish hatcheries; followed by beef, sheep, goats, poultry and eggs. 

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. For more information, comments, or suggestions contact NCRoom staff at ncroom@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.