Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Bobbie and Mary Ruth Crisp at Carolina Wood Turning Company picnic

  • wcu_picturing-5501.jpg
  • This 1941 image taken at the Carolina Wood Turning Company annual picnic of sisters Barbara "Bobbie" Crisp (1932-2001) and Mary Ruth Crisp (1930-1992), is part of the Stearns-Grueninger collection. They are the daughters of photographer Robert Crisp and Amanda Simonds Crisp, who owned a photography shop in Bryson City and is likely how the Stearns and Crisp families knew each other. Irving Kip Stearns (1895-1942) was president of Carolina Wood Turning Company from 1928 until his death in 1942. Stearns’ grandfather, Jeremiah Shank, started the company in 1903 as Bryson City Pump Works and it grew to be a thriving industry for the community. In 1911, Stearns was in the first graduating class of Bryson City High School. He had one son, Joseph Pease Stearns (1917-1948). In 1935, I. K. married Betty Grueninger (1896-1971).