History of library

This is what I wrote about the library, before coming to the PLMI class.  I am slowly working on a power point of pictures for the library.  I've never did one by myself, so I'm learning.

 

Lee Ola Roberts Library

A Brief History

By

Glenda Kinney Doyle

       Mrs. Lee Ola (Rhodes) Roberts was born on Jan. 19, 1867 to R. J. and Martha (Neville) Rhodes.  She married Dr. C. M. Roberts at the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Fayette Co., near Whiteville, TN on May 5, 1890.  They lived in Arkansas for a short period of time. They didn’t have any children. Dr. Roberts was born on Aug. 24, 1866 and died on Aug. 4, 1922 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  He is buried at the Melrose Cemetery in Whiteville, TN.

      On Jan. 7, 1955, Mrs. Lee Ola wrote her last will and testament.   In the will she gave her house to her friend Mrs. Lucy (Mitchell) Rhodes to live in until her death.  Upon the death of Mrs. Lucy the house was to be left to the Town of Whiteville, to be used as a library and recreation center.  It was to be used as a meeting place for various clubs, especially the Inter-Se Club.  The Inter-Se Club was to have a hand in helping the Town manage the property.  A picture of Robert E. Lee is to stay hung above the piano.  Robert E. Lee was supposedly some kin to Mrs. Lee Ola and she was named for him.

      Mrs. Lucy was the wife of A. H. Rhodes who was some kin to Mrs. Lee Ola.  They had no children.   Her house had burned and she had moved in with Mrs. Lee Ola as a border.  Mrs. Lee Ola died on May 30, 1956 and is buried in the Melrose Cemetery beside her husband.  Mrs. Lucy died in April of 1960 and is also buried in Melrose Cemetery.

     On March 22, 1961 a hearing was held at the Chancery Court in Bolivar, TN between Mrs. Bernice Norment, President of the Inter-Se Club, and the Town of Whiteville.  It was a hearing to decide how to proceed with the property.  The court decided that the Inter-Se Club was to decide what furniture to sell and what was to be used. The money was to go into an account to be used for the management of said property.  The only exception was the piano and the picture, which had to remain in the building.

      Sometime later one room in the house was set up to be the library.  The remainder of the house was used as a place for club meetings and rented out as a place for family gatherings.  I can remember going to the library to get books as early as 1969, which is when I started school.  Mrs. Eleanor Gideon was the librarian.  My family also rented the house on Christmas Day every year to have family reunions.  We rented it until 1980.  The library was only open on Saturday’s for a long time.  The summer’s that I was 15 and 16, Mrs. Eleanor had me run the library for her, while she and her husband Harry went on a two week vacation.

     In 1970 the school system changed and the Whiteville High School was no longer the Whiteville High School, but the Whiteville Elementary School.  At this time a monument dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Veterans of World War II presented by the Senior Class of 1944-45 was moved to the library.  Mr. Robert Wesley Wilson was the president of this class.  He said that every year the senior’s had to do some kind of project before graduation and the monument is what they did.  Also the Whiteville High School Graduation pictures were put at the library.  In 1979 the Whiteville Elementary School burned.  The archway that was in the front of the building, remained at the site of the old school.  The façade that represented the school was saved by a committee of WHS alumni in 2006.  The façade was moved to the library.  The work to recreate the façade was completed in 2010.  A dedication ceremony was held on April 30, 2011.  Prior to the dedication an upstairs room was refinished with the pictures of the Whiteville High School graduates put up on the walls.  Some of the pictures had to be reframed.  Also the playground equipment was repainted and repaired.

     At some point, half of the kitchen was turned into a room to be used by the library.  In 2009 this room was turned into a computer room.  At this point the library expanded into the meeting room, taking up about half of the space.  The only club that still meets at the library is the Inter-Se Club.  On April 26, 2013 the parking lot was paved.