Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Marie Shank

  • wcu_picturing-5386.jpg
  • This 1941 image of I. K. Stearns' aunt Martha Marie Shank (1886-1961) is part of the Stearns-Grueninger Collection. Martha was the youngest daughter of Jeremiah (1847-1930) and Helen Caughey Shank (1849-1930). She served as a court reporter for the Western North Carolina Superior Court from 1906 to 1914 and was licensed by the state of North Carolina to practice law in 1921. After her death, her estate went to help students from western North Carolina, particularly minority students, acquire a college education. 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).