Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Sallie Gibson and Kip

  • wcu_picturing-5392.jpg
  • This 1941 image of Sarah “Sallie” Aveline Parrish Gibson (1880-1954), daughter of former slave Minnie DeHart Parrish (1863-1962), is part of the Stearns-Grueninger Collection. Sallie lived with her husband Julius (1871-1951) near I. K. and Betty Stearns on Leatherwood Hill, later Hospital Hill. 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).