Southern-Style

Houston County, Alabama, Heritage

Bellingrath Revisited: an intimate look at an Alabama dynasty
by Sharman Ramsey

(Hank Elmore with Tom McGehee, Bellingrath Museum Director)

One beautiful flower bed	Our group	Courtyard at Bellingrath	Hank in the door of her old bedroom at Bellingrath
Hank reminisces to Walt	Hank tells Joe and Tom about her and Uncle Walter's kitchen raids	Hank near the dock	The dining room in which they ate at Bellingrath

        When Georgilee Henry (nicknamed Hank) completed the nurse training program as a WAC and received her RN degree in 1943, her assignment was Fort Myers, Florida, to serve under Dr. Heywood Bartlett.  Then, just nineteen years old, the fifth of a family of six children, “Hank” was taken under Dr. Bartlett’s wing and into the hearts of all in his family, including his wife, Mary Elmore Bellingrath Bartlett, and most especially, their daughter, Elmore Barlett, whom Hank took to her first day of school. 

            After her assignment was over and the young woman from Crane, Missouri, came to visit the Bartlett family in Montgomery, a plot was underway to bring the family’s favorite young nurse into the family.  Mary Elmore Bellingrath Bartlett called her cousin, Stanhope Elmore, with a question, “Would you like a date with a wacky WAC?” 

            Mary Elmore Bellingrath Bartlett (named for her mother, Mary Elmore, but known as “Elmore” Bartlett) was once listed with her sisters, Jean Bellingrath (who married John Albritton, then, when widowed, McMillan Lane), and Suzanne Bellingrath (who married George von Gal) as the wealthiest women in Alabama.   These women were daughters of William Bellingrath, brother of Walter Bellingrath, who, with his wife Bessie Morse Bellingrath, established Bellingrath Gardens.  While Walter and Bessie Bellingrath had no children, they had the love and affection of all of their nieces and nephews. 

            Hank Elmore remembers “Uncle Walter” fondly.  Tom McGehee, Museum Director, encourages her recollections as we walk through the beautiful home that she visited first with the Bartletts before being a part of the family. 

            Hank identifies the members of the von Gal wedding party in the picture in the guest entrance to Bellingrath Gardens.  “There’s Elmore,” she says of the child standing in the front.  Hank grew to love the little girl she took to the first grade more and more over the years.  The affection was mutual.  Elmore Bartlett Inscoe donated $1 million to the University of Alabama building fund for the School of Nursing in Hank’s honor to add to the $1 million Hank and her two daughters, Kate Elmore Wolverton and Jane Elmore Mickle donated in Stanhope Elmore’s memory. 

Just as a footnote to the Bellingrath/von Gal marriage one should note that when he married Suzanne Bellingrath, George von Gal was a member of the family that made Royal Typewriters.  Yet it was his design work led to the invention of a machine to automatically palletize 24 bottle wooded cases of Coca-Cola. The website to their company located in Montgomery, Alabama states:  “The company grew to become the world leader in palletizing solutions.”

Hank recalls being a guest at the breakfast room table and for supper in the elegant dining room.  The room she calls “my room” at the head of the stairs that she later shared with her husband Stanhope Elmore has been rearranged.  The tester bed is missing from the room which is now furnished with twin beds.  Downstairs, Hank looked, but could not locate, the place in the informal breakfast room where the liquor was hidden, something she and “Uncle Walter” enjoyed after “Miss Bessie” had retired for the evening.

The Bellingrath fortune was founded on Coca Cola.  Two brothers, Walter and William, took a chance and sank every hard earned penny they had on the Coca Cola bottling franchise for South Alabama.  Since the two brothers did not see eye to eye on business particulars, they decided to split their territory with William taking Montgomery and Walter taking Mobile.  Mary Elmore, Stanhope Elmore Sr.’s sister, married William Bellingrath.  When Stanhope Elmore, Sr. came to Montgomery to stay with his sister and her husband to attend college, his uncle put him to work in the plant.  He later acquired several bottling companies, including one in Dothan, Alabama, where Stanhope, Jr. and his bride, Hank eventually settled.  They raised their girls in a modest home on Girard Avenue and Hank played golf at the Dothan Country Club, the center of the social life of the city.

When she married Stanhope Elmore, Jr. December 15, 1946, Hank acquired a fascinating collection of relatives in the fifty-eight years they were married before he passed away.  Stanhope Elmore Jr.’s mother was Kate Durr, who was the sister of Clifford Durr who served in the Johnson Administration as Director of the Federal Communications Commission.  Their family owned Durr Drug Company.  Clifford married Virginia Foster whose sister, Josephine Foster, married Hugo Black, who was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by Franklin Roosevelt.  Virginia Foster Durr, (of a Black Belt plantation family that settled in Birmingham after the Civil War) wrote of her and Clifford’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama in her autobiography, Outside the Magic Circle. [1]

Hank recalls attending Virginia Durr’s 80^th birthday celebration, given by her daughter Lucy Durr Hackney, wife of the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Sheldon Hackney, [2]at Martha’s Vineyard.  The party was attended by Lady Bird Johnson, Art Buchwald, and other Washington notables. 

Kate Durr Elmore, Stanhope’s sister, was a great friend of Scottie Fitzgerald, F. Scot and Zelda’s daughter.  Hank joined in on happy visits with her sister-in-law and Scottie in Montgomery, Alabama when visiting Stanhope’s father and mother and brothers, Nesbitt Elmore, John Durr Elmore, and William Bellingrath Elmore. 

            It was a great day for Alabama and Dothan, particularly, when Stanhope and Hank Elmore returned from the family’s bottling company in Independence, Missouri, to manage the Dothan Coca Cola Bottling Company.  Stanhope Elmore, Jr. was much involved in community affairs and Hank has honored Stanhope’s love for the Boy Scouts by continuing service on its Board of Directors. 

Although Hank attended the University of Oklahoma and Stanhope attended Sewanee, their shared devotion for the University of Alabama is evident by her loyalty to the University she and her husband adopted as theirs long before both daughters, Kate and Jane both attended the school.  While some might be impressed by Hank’s association with the politically and economically powerful, Alabama fans will most appreciate her friendship with Bear Bryant. 

Hank’s greatest joy is the fact that her grandson, Hank Wolverton of Orlando, Florida, given many other opportunities at highly regarded universities, will be in the Honors program at the University of Alabama next year.  Her other grandson, Andrew Mickle, of Huntingdon Beach, California, although now just 13, swears his loyalty to the University of Alabama as well.  Hank’s only granddaughter, Sarah Mickle, now 21, has stayed close to her parents in California and attends the University of California in Santa Barbara.  Hank holds out hope of getting her daughters closer to home when their sons join the family’s University of Alabama tradition. 

While most of us see Bellingrath Gardens as one of the nation’s premiere garden treasures, to Hank Elmore it is a treasured family memory.  84 years old, bubbly, vivacious, Hank Elmore now divides her time between Dothan and Panama City Beach, Florida.    She remains involved with family, friends, the Episcopal Church, and her community.  Hank Elmore continues to bring joy to those around her and to make the world a better place in her own inimitable way.

1-Durr Owned Durr Drug Company in Montgomery, Alabama
 +Unknown 
|--2-Kate Durr 
|   +Stanhope Elmore , par. Elmore and Unknown
|  |--3-Stanhope Elmore 
|  |   +Georgilee "Hank" Henry b. Crane, Missouri
|  |  |--4-Kate Durr Elmore 
|  |  |   +Robert Woolverton 
|  |  |  |--5-Hank Woolverton 
|  |  |--4-Jane Elmore 
|  |      +Andrew Mickle 
|  |     |--5-Andrew Mickle b. Huntingdon Beach, California
|  |     |--5-Sarah Mickle 
|  |--3-Nesbitt Elmore 
|  |--3-William Bellingrath Elmore 
|  |--3-John Durr Elmore 
|  |--3-Kate Durr Elmore 
|--2-Clifford Durr (Served in the Johnson Administration)
    +Virginia Foster , par. Sterling Johnson Foster and Anne Patterson
Wrote Outside the Magic Circle
   |--3-Ann Durr 
   |   +Lyon 
   |--3-Lucy Durr 
   |   +Sheldon Hackney 
   |--3-Virginia Durr 
   |--3-Lulah Durr 

Virginia Foster Durr's sister Josephine was married to Chief Justice of the 
US Supreme Court Hugo Black.

1-Elmore 
 +Unknown 
|--2-Stanhope Elmore 
|   +Kate Durr , par. Durr and Unknown
|  |--3-Stanhope Elmore 
|  |   +Georgilee "Hank" Henry b. Crane, Missouri
|  |  |--4-Kate Durr Elmore 
|  |  |   +Robert Woolverton 
|  |  |  |--5-Hank Woolverton 
|  |  |--4-Jane Elmore 
|  |      +Andrew Mickle 
|  |     |--5-Andrew Mickle b. Huntingdon Beach, California
|  |     |--5-Sarah Mickle 
|  |--3-Nesbitt Elmore 
|  |--3-William Bellingrath Elmore 
|  |--3-John Durr Elmore 
|  |--3-Kate Durr Elmore 
|--2-Mary Elmore 
    +William Bellingrath , par. Bellingrath and Unknown
   |--3-Mary Elmore Bellingrath 
   |   +Dr. Heywood Bartlett 
   |  |--4-Elmore Bartlett 
donated $1 million in Hank Elmore's 
honor to the University of Alabama 
School of Nursing)
   |      +Jim Inscoe 
   |--3-Jean Bellingrath 
   |   +John Albritton 
   |   +McMillan Lane 
   |--3-Suzanne Bellingrath 
       +George vonGal 

William Bellingrath's brother, Walter 
and his wife Bessie Morse Bellingrath, created Bellingrath
Gardens in Mobile.

The Bellingraths bought the Coca Cola Bottling rights in 
Mobile and Montgomery (and several others)