Wednesday, January 1, 2025
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Buddy, may God bless you and keep you! Buddy is my 1st cousin once removed. He graduated from Madison Heights High School in 1956. Buddy's grandfather was Lucian Lawhorne. Lucian worked on the Oak Ridge Estate in Nelson County, VA. Lucian was a "fancy carpenter: (did inside work, cabinets, stairs, doors, windows, kitchens., etc.), and managed the piggery on the Oak Ridge Estate, owned by Thomas Fortune Ryan. When Thomas Fortune Ryan died, he was the 10th wealthiest man in America. The Lawhorne family including Buddy's mother Bertha Lawhorne lived on the Oak Ridge Estate.
At Christmas on the Oak Ridge Estate, Thomas Fortune Ryan's first wife Mrs. Ida Mary Barry Ryan would hold a Christmas Party in a barn with live Christmas tree and wax candles, lit for only a few minutes. Mrs. Ryan wanted to make sure that each child living on the Oak Ridge Estate, received a Christmas present. So, Mrs. Ryan gave each child a handmade/homemade gift or toy each year.
My grandmother Carrie Sue Lawhorne Jordan and my great aunt Elsie Lawhorne (never married) both told me about Christmas Parties on the Oak Ridge Estate, where Mrs. Ida Mary Ryan gave them presents. For the girls, it was usually a doll or something made of fabric. My grandmother Carrie Sue Lawhorne Jordan and my great aunt Elsie Lawhorne remember receiving dolls and scarves from Mrs. Ryan.
In the book by Jonathan Gregory Reed, The Life and Times of Thomas Fortune Ryan, 2024, Lucian Lawhorne, Bertha, and siblings are mentioned on pages 87-88. This book is available in the Bedford Central Library Tharp Room, Nelson County Public Library and is the Nelson County Oakland Museum.
Bertha grew-up on the Oak Ridge Estate and graduated from the Lovingston High School in 1926. Just a few weeks ago, in October 2024, I donated the Lovingston High School yearbook, "The Mirror" 1926 to the Nelson County Oakland Museum in Lovingston. Bertha's senior photo appears on page 18 of this yearbook. I also uploaded Bertha's senior photo to Ancestry dot com.
I recall fond Christmas dinners in the 1950s and 1960s when Bertha, Lyle, Sandra, Gerry, and Buddy all gathered at my grandparents Lacy and Carrie (Lawhorne) Jordan's house, on Wright Shop Road in Madison Heights.
