Bettie Stokes Papers, PC.5352
Abstract
The materials in this collection focus on the family of William G. Gaither of Elizabeth City. Gaither was one of the developers of the Wright Memorial Bridge Company, and his wife Helen Robinson's family owned a vacation cottage in Nags Head. This collection contains papers primarily related to the Sumner-Robinson Gaither Cottage of Nags Head in the 1920s-1960s and the sale of the Wright Memorial Bridge to the State of North Carolina in the 1930s-1940s.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Bettie Stokes Papers
- Call Number
- PC.5352
- Creator
- Stokes, Elizabeth, b. 1925
- Date
- 1912-2003 and undated
- Extent
- 0.200 cubic feet
- Language
- English
- Repository
- Outer Banks History Center
Restrictions on Access & Use
Access Restrictions
Available for research.
Use Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by the United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying these materials.
Preferred Citation
[identification of item], PC.5352, Bettie Stokes Papers, Outer Banks History Center, Manteo, NC, U.S.A.
Collection Overview
The Bettie Stokes Papers, 1912-2003 and undated, consists of four folders of material
primarily related to the Gaither/Robinson/Stokes family of Nags Head and Elizabeth
City, including correspondence, photographs, printed material, and scrapbook pages.
The correspondence folder includes a packet of letters related to the business operations
and sale of the Wright Memorial Bridge in the 1930s and 1940s, together with a note
from William G. Gaither describing how the sale was, in his words, "one of the greatest
underhand jobs I have ever known." Gaither believed his company was forced to sell
the bridge significantly less money than it was worth and describes how the sale left
him financially bereft. Also included is a letter from David Etheridge of the H.M.S.
Raleigh inquiring about copyright for a performance of The Lost Colony aboard his
ship and an undated poem written for William Gaither by Dora Dogwood thanking him
for letting her family stay in his cottage.
Photographs, 1912-2003, primarily focus on the Sumner-Robinson-Gaither cottage and
the people who vacationed there. Included are several photos of Bettie, Bill, and
Mary Leigh Gaither as young children, Eloise Robinson, and other unidentified vacationers
at the cottage in the 1920s; an unidentified white man talking to an unidentified
Black man in a jail cell; Bettie and her friends and extended family at the cottage
in the 1940s, including an image of a group of people pointing a gun at a beached
porpoise; a group of women at a party at the F.E. Winslow cottage in 1945; scenes
around Nags Head Beach Cottage Row after Hurricane Donna in 1960; Bettie Stokes on
the porch of the Gaither cottage in 1984; storm damage to the cottage's steps in 1998;
and aerial photographs of the Duck area (including the Duck Research Pier) taken from
a blimp in 2003.
Printed material consists of two circa 1940s clippings related to the Wright Memorial
Bridge company, a circa 1960 edition of the H.M.S. Raleigh's "Raleigh Journal," and
a ticket for a 1998 tour of Nags Head Beach Cottage Row.
The scrapbook pages in the collection depict groups of people vacationing in Nags
Head around the 1920s, including several young women in bathing caps and dresses swimming
in the ocean, people sitting in horse-drawn carts, and an unidentified woman and baby
(possibly Helen Robinson Gaither and one of her children).
Arrangement Note
Folders arranged alphabetically. Material within folders arranged chronologically.
Biographical/Historical
Elizabeth "Bettie" Stokes was born 28 July 1925 in Pasquotank County. Her parents
were Helen Robinson Gaither (1892-1981) and William Gassaway Gaither (1887-1979).
Bettie had two siblings: Mary Leigh Gaither Overton (1919-2006) and William Gassaway
Gaither, Jr. (1923-1991). She attended St. Mary's School and the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and married Henry Clay Stokes of Perquimans County.
Bettie's father, William Gaither, was one of the founders of the Wright Memorial Bridge
Company, who built and operated the Wright Memorial Bridge as a toll bridge in the
1930s. Bettie's grandfather, C.H. Robinson, owned the Sumner-Robinson-Gaither cottage
in Nags Head, which Bettie's family eventually inherited and where they spent their
summers. The cottage was built in 1868 and was one of the original 13 cottages that
created Old Nags Head's Beach Cottage Row.
Contents of the Collection
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Donated by Bettie Stokes.