PDA

View Full Version : A bit of History!


coldfront
07-15-2005, 05:35 PM
Dora S. Perry

Dora S. Perry passed away June 1, 2004 at the McCreary County Health Care Facility in Pine Knot, Kentucky after a long illness. She was 86. Graveside services were held on June 3, 2004 at the Perry Family Cemetery on Mulberry Road. McCreary County Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

Dora Perry was born May 5, 1918 in Marshes Siding, Kentucky, the daughter of Ewell C. Slaven and Laura Belle Spradlin. She attended public schools McCreary County and Harlan County and worked for two years as a WPA employee for the McCreary County Board of Education.

On June 19, 1938, she was united in marriage to Ledford E. Perry. The couple set up housekeeping in Honey Bee, Kentucky where Ledford was employed as a smokechaser for the U.S. Forest Service. During the spring and fall fire seasons, the couple resided atop Pinnacle Knob Fire Lookout. There, Dora learned to operate the alidade fire-finder and the Forest Service communication equipment. She became known as the Voice of Pinnacle Knob and was one of the first women in the Forest Service to play an active role in forest fire suppression.

When her husband was appointed Fire Control Officer for Laurel Ranger district, Dora moved to Whitley City. There, she settled down to rear a large family of two sons and four daughters. She was devoted to her family and was renowned for her ability to produce a gourmet meal from simple foodstuffs. She knew the value of education and insisted that her children study hard and maintain good grades in school. She was most proud of the fact that all of her children received college degrees and all were, at one time or another, teachers.

Dora was baptized into the Christian faith as a teen-ager at a revival meeting, and in 1945, became a member of the First Baptist Church in Whitley City. She instilled within her children Christian values of hard work, honesty, modesty, and respect for one’s neighbor.

Dora was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; a brother, Avery Slaven; two sisters, Cora Rowings and Gladys Sumner; and a granddaughter, Andria Conrad. She is survived by one sister, Flonnie Matthews, Stearns Kentucky; two sons, Samuel D. Perry and John Jeffrey Perry, both of Whitley City; four daughters, Patricia K. Frakes, Helenwood, Tennessee, Sue C. Johnson, Bronston, Kentucky, Dinah L. Sisson, Middletown, Maryland, and Maxine L Hisle, Lexington, Kentucky; fourteen grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Added 6/1/2004

coldfront
07-15-2005, 05:41 PM
November 28. 1912

ENVELOPED IN SMOKE

Forest Fires Are Buring in the Cumberland and Black Mountains

"Whitesburg, Ky., Nov. 25--Dense smoke envelopes the whole of the country of Letcher, Knott, Pike and Perry, coming from the extensive forest fires that have been raging in the Cumberland and Black Mountains during the past ten days. In many places business is being considerably interferred with owing to the density of the smoke.

The flames have reached cleared land on this side of the Cumberland and are now consuming fencing, palings, etc., in great quantities, while farm homes are in grave danger. A fire brigade is being organized to go and fight off the flames as much as possible. For twenty miles or more Cumberland and Black Mountains are both literally sheets of flame."