My daddy and mother, Bennie Wesley White and Imogene Barber White, married on September 1, 1949. She was 22, and Daddy was 21 years old.
When they were still dating, Daddy asked Mother if she wanted to go to the “show.” She said she would, so he picked her up and took off for the Villa Rica Theater. They got there early, so they stood around outside and waited for the crowd to come out who’d just seen the first show.
Daddy smoked, and there was a little grocery on the corner, so he asked Mother to wait while he went down and got some cigarettes.
The man who ran the store was just getting ready to close up, so Daddy got there just in time. He bought the cigarettes and went back to stand with Mother till they could go in to see the movie.
Just a few minutes later, they saw the man close the grocery, get in his car and start across the railroad tracks which ran right down the middle of town and was directly across the street from where they were standing.
They watched in horror as a fast moving train barreled through the intersection, hitting the car of the retailer, killing him instantly.
Mother was so affected by that incident that she kept one of those cigarettes in her scrapbook and still has it – 60 years later.
Does anyone have any idea who this man was who died? It would have happened sometime, I’m guessing, between 1946-1949.
Mother doesn’t remember his name, but she and Daddy both were devastated for him and his family.
