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Louise Bigmeat Maney

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  • Louise Bigmeat Maney (1932-2001) was raised on Wrights Creek in the Painttown community of Cherokee, North Carolina. A member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, she was a third-generation potter. While she was a young child, she and her two sisters began making pottery with their mother, Charlotte Welch Bigmeat (1887-1959). Louise Bigmeat married John Henry Maney and, together, they established Bigmeat House of Pottery. In this photograph, Maney talks with Joan Mondale (standing center), wife of Vice President Mondale and members of a delegation. The photograph was made on June 7, 1977 when Mrs. Mondale attended the ground breaking of the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, NC. Mondale was accompanied by the wife of the U.S. Senator from North Carolina, Robert B. Morgan, and Lana Gudger, wife of Vonno Lamar Gudger, a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina's 11th District. The photograph was likely taken by David Gaynes.