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Descriptive Summary |
| Title: Stovall and McKay Family Papers |
| Creator:
Stovall family
|
| Inclusive Dates: 1886-1998 |
| Language(s): English |
| Extent:
12 box(es)
(10.5 linear feet), including 346 photographs
|
| Collection Number: RBRL193SMMF |
| Repository:
Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies
|
| Abstract: The Stovall and McKay Family Papers document Walter Louis and Alice Woodliff Stovall, and their children: Walter Louis, Jr., James Edwin, Mary Katherine, Sarah Elizabeth, Martha Woodliff, and George Woodliff. The majority of the collection is correspondence between the three girls and their parents and document their daily lives. Also, there are letters between George and his wife, Martha McKay, during his service in the Air Corps during World War II. A small amount of correspondence from George and Martha's son, Walter L. Stovall III and his wife Charlayne Hunter (Gault) discuss their controversial biracial marriage and the birth of their daughter. The McKay papers belonged to Martha McKay and her brother Wright Judson McKay. The majority of her files are related to the Sub-Debs, a women's civic club, established in 1934. There is also scrapbook about J. E. Mathis, McKay's maternal grandfather. |
Biographical Note
Mary Alice (Alice) Woodliff (1880-1966), daughter of George F. and Sarah Elizabeth Woodliff, and Walter Louis Stovall (1876-1955), son of George Wilkes and Rosetta Jane Owen Stovall, were married on April 18, 1900 and had six children: Walter Louis, Jr., James Edwin, Mary Katherine (Katherine), Sarah Elizabeth (Boosh), Martha Woodliff, and George Woodliff. They raised their family in Fitzgerald, Georgia, where all of their children completed high school.
Mary Katherine (Katherine) Stovall (1906-2005), Sarah Elizabeth (Boosh) Stovall (Clark) (1909-2001), and Martha Woodliff Stovall (1912-1999) all attended Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, graduating in 1927, 1929, and 1932 respectively. Katherine taught in North Carolina, and then worked for the Red Cross in San Francisco, returning to Douglas, circa 1941, to serve as the Director of the Coffee County Welfare Department. In 1960, she received her master's degree from George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville and taught in Savannah and Douglas before retiring in 1985. Elizabeth moved to New York to become a registered nurse and graduated from St. Luke's program in 1938. Martha became a librarian and spent a year in France and Germany after World War II as an army librarian. She later settled in Massachusetts as a school librarian. Both Elizabeth and Martha remained in the Northeast for their adult lives.
George Woodliff Stovall (1916-2007) married Martha McKay (1918-1997), daughter of William Donald McKay and Lynn M. McKay, in the 1930s. Together they had two children: Walter Louis Stovall III (b. 1938-2018) and Lynn Stovall (Cass) (b. 1942). George served in the Air Corps during World War II. In 1934, Martha, along with eleven other high school girls, founded the Sub-Deb Club (a girls club focusing on etiquette and community service). They held annual reunions from 1985 to 1996. A scrapbook in this collection documents Martha's maternal grandfather, J. E. Mathis. This collection also holds the military file of her younger brother Wright Judson McKay (1922-1950).
Walter Louis Stovall III was born in Douglas in 1938. He studied journalism at the University of Georgia where he met Charlayne Hunter (Gault), one of the first African American students to be accepted to the University of Georgia. On June 8, 1963, the two were married in Cleveland, Ohio, and in December 1963, their daughter, Suesan, was born. The couple divorced in 1971, and Walter married Susan J. around 1973. Walter Stovall was a reporter and editor for the Associated Press before publishing two novels, Presidential Emergency (1978) and The Minus Pool (1980). His younger sister, Lynn Stovall (Cass), affectionately called "Lynnie Pie" in letters from their father George, attended Mercer University (1960-1964) and lives in Macon, Georgia.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of correspondence and papers belonging to the Stovall and Woodliff families. Series I contains correspondence between Walter Louis and Alice Woodliff Stovall and their children. Alice's letters related daily life and significant events of extended family and friends, while Walter received business-like mail. Their daughters, Sarah Elizabeth (Boosh), Martha Woodliff, and Mary Katherine (Katherine), wrote prodigiously to their parents while they attended Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville and later about their careers. The bulk of the letters in this series dates from 1919 to 1966.
George Woodliff and Martha McKay Stovall received correspondence from family and friends, especially from their children Walter Louis III and Lynn Stovall (Cass). George and Martha had extensive correspondence while George served in the Air Corps during World War II. George collected both U.S. and Nazi artifacts in addition to photographs and postcards while overseas. Lynn wrote to her parents while she traveled through Canada in 1960 and about her sorority life at college in 1961. Walter corresponded about work and his daughter Susan Stovall.
Martha McKay compiled photographs and clippings into a scrapbook, designing her dream home, and, in 1939, she made a baby book for Walter. A third scrapbook contains clippings, photographs, and letters dating from the early 1900s related to her maternal grandfather, J. E. Mathis. Finally, this collection contains Martha's Sub-Deb files and photo albums. The club was founded in 1934 and the original twelve members began holding annual reunions in 1985. Martha, as a member of the planning committee, had ample correspondence, clippings, and notebooks on planning these reunions. There are even photo albums with color photographs from the reunions and black and white photographs from their founding.
The additional materials in series 6 contain more family photographs, news clippings, and several issues of the Stovall family geneaological newsletter.
Organization and Arrangement
This collection is organized into five series: I. Family Correspondence (Walter Louis and Alice Woodliff Stovall); II. Family Correspondence (George W. and Martha McKay Stovall); III. Marth McKay Stovall Family; IV. World War II; and V. Sub-Debs Files.
Stovall and McKay Family Papers, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia, 30602-1641.
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Before material from collections at the Richard B. Russell Library may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permissions. Persons wishing to quote from materials in the Russell Library collection should consult the Director. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.
Finding Aid Publication
Finding aid prepared on: 2012.
Subject Terms
Walter Stovall Papers
Charlayne Hunter-Gault Papers
University of Georgia Integration Materials 1938-1965, University Archives, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library
