Charmian Lestelle Weatherly

    Emma Baker says her mother Charmian "described glowingly her  childhood living in the hotel (the Hotel Hamilton, owned by her grandparents[William P. and Catherine Roach Hamilton], where her mother [Emma's grandmother Emma Hamilton Thomas] moved the family after her husband was killed in a train accident).  According to her, she was her grandmother's pet, enjoying between-meal treats in the dining room.  In her own words she was 'spoiled' by 'Big Fat Grandma' as Catherine Roach Hamilton was called."  She had a nurse called "Colored Kate," who nursed her back to health after a long bout with typhoid fever.

    "My mother ... had a soft spot for the 'down and out' as she called them.  As a girl, she often brought little news boys to the Hotel Hamilton, gave them a bath, fed them and told them Bible stories. Actually she felt at one time that God wanted her to be a missionary (when my husband Dwight and I went to Israel as missionaries she felt that some of her dreams had been fulfilled)."

    Later in life, Charmian rented a room in the Weatherly home, and taught piano and chorus at the local school.  Gilmer was one of her voice students.  Neices Mary K, Edith, and Mildred accused the couple of not making any music during the "lessons." :-)

    Charmian composed a number of instrumental piano numbers, and published two with words, "Mother Dear," and "Boy o' Mine."

    Emma says that to her dying day (age 98) her two favorite places were a hotel dining room and "railroad train."

                                     Copied from notes made by Charmian Thomas Weatherly:

    Received Teacher's certificate to teach music when I was 14 years old, and had my first pupil, the son of a trained nurse who took care of my Grandfather Hamilton who was paralyzed. 1910--Bachelor of Music--Milligan College, Tennessee (sister Catherine had the same training) 1912--B.M. Virginia Intermont College, Bristol, Virginia 1939--Ph.B. Literary--Milligan College 1915--Summer Course, College of Music, Cincinnati, Ohio 1916--taught piano and chorus in Troutdale High School in Virginia 1917--married Gilmer Burns Weatherly of Troutdale, Virginia

    Later: Pupils in the home--piano and voice, in Bristol, Tennessee, Milligan College, and Elizabethton, Tennessee.  When Gilmer became ill, commuted and taught in boarding school and high school in Johnson City, Tennessee, Swamanoa, North Carolina, and Black Mountain, North Carolina. Gilmer died in 1970 in a rest home in Ashville, North Carolina, where I moved to be near him.

    Played piano for Black Mountain Baptist Church in North Carolina, Swamanoa Baptist Church in North Carolina, and with Mrs. Carter at the organ in Otean Baptist Church, North Carolina.

    Took a special interest in my pupils to let my light shine in their hearts and lives for Christ.  Played piano 9 years every Sunday night for Haven of Rest Mission, Bristol, Tennessee; did the same in Asheville, North Carolina.

From Sandy (W.L.S.) Rowe: "my great aunt. I met her only once. She lived in a trailer in Asheville, North Carolina and appeared to be subsisting on welfare. Mother took us to visit when we went to my brother's house for Thanksgiving. Mother, and maybe one other family member, arranged for the bank to send a small check each month to Charmian's minister who made sure Charmian got it. Most interesting, Charmian was sure the money came from heaven and always left 10% with the minister as her tithe. Mother always remarked, very simply: "She was Daddy's favorite sister."