Yesterday: Woodleaf men commuted to Spencer in a hearse

Published 12:00 am Monday, October 6, 2014

Chuck Wetmore, who lives at Ellis Crossroads, brought in this April 1953 photograph that belonged to his grandmother Mary Lee Wetmore. The late Harold Wetmore, Chuck’s grandfather, was a boilermaker at Spencer Shops, and he and his fellow Spencer Shops workers from Woodleaf commuted to the Southern Railway repair facility daily in a hearse. The hearse, a 1951 Packard, is behind the Woodleaf men who posed for this photograph in Spencer. Chuck Wetmore could identify most of the guys. Kneeling, left to right, are Heber Wetmore and Harold Wetmore. Standing, left to right, are unknown, Oscar Nesbitt, unknown, Howard Painter, Milford Pope, William Franklin Wetmore, Robert Fleming, Talmadge Nesbitt, Henderson Fleming, Guy Etheridge Sr. and Buck Painter.