Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Lottie Salley

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  • This 1941 image of Lottie Lee Salley (1883-1964), friend of I. K. Stearns' aunt Marie Shank (1886-1961), is part of the Stearns-Grueninger Collection. Salley was president of the Business and Professional Women’s Club in Asheville. She graduated from Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 1902. 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).