Katharine, as I said, was born in 1912. She was a beautiful young lady
growing up in High Point, and a very popular member of the social set.
There were three young ladies who grew up in High Point, not all the
same age but more or less contemporaries. One was Alice Barbie, who is a
very old High Point family. The second was Mary Alice Tate, I believe
was her name; her father was Fred Tate who was a pioneer furniture
manufacturer in High Point. Then the third was my sister, Katharine
Hayworth. And they were supposed to be—it was always said and I've been
told by people many times over the years that they were supposed to be
the three most beautiful girls who ever grew up in High Point. I had
seen pictures of the—I did not know the Tate girl or the Barbie girl—but
I have seen pictures of them and in truth they were beautiful young
ladies, as was my
Page 5sister Katharine. My father, before
he died, sent her to Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
where she graduated. And then he sent her to Martha Washington Seminary,
which I believe I mentioned on the tape the other day. Nevertheless,
that was a very exclusive, expensive finishing school in Washington,
D.C., and that's where she was when my father suddenly died in 1928. She
graduated in the following year, in June of 1929, and that was the end
of her formal education. She came back to High Point as a young lady,
and as I said became popular with the young social set. She was a member
of, one of the early members of, the High Point Junior League, and had
many, many beaus. Those were—well, she was a part of the roaring
twenties and then into the '30s. She was married in 1938 to a man from
Charleston, West Virginia. His name was Wilson Harley Daveler, and his
father was the president of the Simmons Company—I guess the largest
mattress manufacturer in the United States at that time. And as far as I
know, they're still active in that field. But he was
[unclear] for the company and would come
here to the semi-annual furniture markets. As a member of the Junior
League one of their projects was to entertain the furniture buyers who
came, and I think meals were prepared, that sort of thing, before there
were restaurants and country clubs to provide the buyers with
entertainment. Anyway, she met him at a dance at the then Emorywood
Country Club, and as I said, they were married in 1938. They were
married in New York City because the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church to
which we all belong was under repair—the church was closed at that point
in time. They were married on September 8, 1938, and they were married
at the Episcopal church on Park Avenue right beside Waldorf Astoria; its
name escapes me for a moment, but I don't think that's terribly
important. But anyway, that's where they married, and the
Page 6reception was held at the Waldorf Astoria. I being too young
was not invited to go to the wedding, and neither was my brother,
Joseph, but all the rest of the family went. And then Katharine, I said
to Katharine—they lived in Charleston, West Virginia for awhile, and
then Columbus, Ohio and then Chicago; that's where they were living when
World War II broke out, and her husband, who was called Dave, was
drafted into the Army. Later on after the War Dave was a very, very
popular man with everybody; he was just one of those people that
everybody liked, a truly born salesman. So after the War, my mother
enticed him to come and be a salesman for Alma Desk Company and Myrtle
Desk Company. At that point in time, the two companies had a joint sales
force—which changed some a few years later, but anyway, that's the way
it was at that time. So, indirectly—I said she never had any involvement
with the company—but indirectly she did through her husband. He was a
great salesman, and his territory included Louisiana, Texas,
Arkansas—sort of that southwestern part of the United States. So
that's—he died I believe sometime in the '70s; at that point in
time—they had moved to Dallas, Texas when he began to work for our
companies, and he died, had a sudden heart attack and died. And my
sister, because she was so fond of Dallas she chose to live there after
he died, instead of coming back to High Point. And she died, my sister
Katharine died in 1970, no 1987, excuse me, 1987. She had a stroke which
forced her to—we brought her back to High Point; I went out there and
chartered a plane and flew her to High Point, and she lived for about
two years and died in a nursing home, Maryfield Nursing Home here in
High Point, as I said in 1987. And that sort of wraps that up.