George Goodwin Dies at 97

Winecoff fire eyewitness, Atlanta Journal reporter George Goodwin, died peacefully at his Atlanta home early this morning. At his side was his beloved grandson, Warren Goodwin. Biography here. George Goodwin remembered here.

A Worthy Legacy

The Rome News-Tribune has published an article remembering the four teenaged boys from Rome, Georgia who perished in the Winecoff fire and traces the fire safety improvements the fire inspired. The article by Doug Walker, Winecoff fire in Atlanta 68 years ago prompted safety changes, is here.

Funeral Photo Mystery Solved

This photo appeared in the Salvation Army's regional magazine, The War Cry, December 28, 1946. The name of the Winecoff fire victim being laid to rest was not mentioned in the magazine, only that the service was conducted by Major Frank Longino. Now, Winecoff.Org has determined to near certainty that the funeral pictured here was that of Emelda Reeves, 21, at Mount Zion Methodist Church in Hapeville, Georgia.

Emelda Reeves died in the Winecoff fire

The Salvation Army played a key role in identifying several of the fire's victims as well as caring for many others displaced by the fire. Emelda Reeves left behind a husband and a son.

Dickerson Family Photos Newly Acquired

Will, Bill, Mary and Mary Melinda Dickerson

A bright future awaited Will and Mary Dickerson in post-war Georgia. Will, a Washington & Lee University graduate and a World War II veteran, worked as a lawyer for the Georgia Labor Department at the state capitol. He was a heroic figure in his hometown of Douglas, Ga. More here.

Mary was from a prominent Carterville, Ga. family. She'd attended the Florida State College for Women. The Dickerson family was staying at Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel while their new home was being built in Jonesboro, Ga. They all died of suffocation in room 1630 on the hotel's top floor. Their story is told on pages 111 and 112 of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire.

Separated by Fire

Harold and Robert Irvin

Two brothers, both recently discharged Navy pilots, came to the Winecoff Hotel but only one left alive. Harold Irvin, 23, perished in the 1946 fire but his older brother Robert, 26, escaped.

Robert Irvin  1920 - 2014

Robert Irvin

Harold Irvin

Winecoff fire survivor Robert Irvin passed away on Father’s Day, 2014. His brother Harold died in the 1946 fire at age 23. Both were Navy pilots who flew together in World War II until Robert was sent back to the United States to train more pilots while Harold served on a torpedo bomber squadron.


By 1946 the brothers were in Atlanta to interview for jobs as commercial pilots and staying at the Winecoff Hotel. It is believed that Harold had been offered a job as an Eastern Airline pilot. Friday night December 6th Harold and Robert were together, attending a party in the hotel, until Robert retired to room 806. Harold remained at the party. A few hours later they were separated by fire and only Robert survived. He was rescued by ladder from the eighth floor, as high as the ladders would reach. "I went down the ladder and left everything that I had in the room except the clothes that I had on," he said.

Robert Irvin later become a Delta Airlines pilot and flew for Delta until his retirement.


Robert A. Irvin Remained a Pilot Until Retirement

Photos courtesy of Robert K. Irvin

Information On Navy Pilots Sought

Winecoff.org is seeking to locate family or friends of two Navy pilots from the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, whose names appear on the December 7, 1946 Winecoff Hotel guest list above. Lt. H. J. Curtiss and Ens. G. J. Walton were both registered in room 806 at the time of the fire.

Though that area of the hotel was burned, neither pilot was listed among the dead or injured. More than 95 percent of all other guests were accounted for during The Winecoff Fire book research.

If you can help us learn more about Winecoff Hotel guests H. J. Curtiss or G. J. Walton please contact allenbgoodwin@yahoo.com. We are interested in learning of their stories.

Information is still being sought about two Army soldiers, Capt. William C. Willard and Lt. Frank Johnson.

Striking Winecoff-Based Painting Sells Quickly

Emelda by June Johnston

Emelda Reeves

Her phone rang about 6:00 p.m. December 6, 1946. June Frazier, 19, answered. On the line was her dear friend, Emelda Reeves, 21, with news that a party was brewing at Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel. She begged June to join her there. But June was soon to be on her way to Florida, so she declined Emelda's kind invitation. It was their last conversation. Twelve hours later Emelda Reeves lay dead, a victim of America's deadliest hotel fire.

Mystery still surrounds her time at the Winecoff Hotel.

In the years following the fire and her near-miss with death, June Frazier Johnston became an award-winning artist. In 1999, still haunted by the uncertainty of her friend's death, she immortalized her grief in a painting she entitled simply, Emelda. The painting was eventually purchased by Sonya Swain of Watkinsville, Ga. Swain has now re-sold the painting to an as-yet undisclosed buyer.

The painting:
Artist: June Frazier Johnston
Title: Emelda
Materials: Acrylic/mixed media on textured board
Size: 37 x 51 inches with a 2 inch unpainted wooden frame

Ponce Press Article

The April 2014 issue of The Ponce Press features an article remembering the Winecoff Hotel fire. The Ponce Press is a monthly publication serving the well established in-town neighborhoods on Atlanta's East side including the city's most eclectic and interesting street, Ponce de Leon Avenue. The article by Bob Foreman is here.

New Survivor Photo Acquired

Anna & Edward W. Sherwood

Winecoff fire survivor Ed Sherwood, 54, of River Forest, Illinois told his story to the Chicago Tribune for Sunday's December 8, 1946 edition.

"I went to my bedroom (room 922) about 7:30 p.m. and retired, leaving a call for 8:00 a.m. I had intended to check out and leave Atlanta today. I am a light sleeper and I woke up at 3:30 a.m. hearing cries of 'fire' from the alley under my room. I opened the door but found the hall full of smoke, so I shut the door at once and plugged up the cracks with bed sheets.

"After a while the floor got so hot I could no longer stand on it. I opened a window and crawled out on the ledge. The heat from the room was so intense I managed to close the window while clinging to the edge. I could see dozens of persons from my floor and from floors above and below me also standing on window ledges. Every once in a while one of them would shriek and dive off.

"A woman was standing on a ledge next to mine. She kept crying that she was going to fall. She was just too far away for me to reach her. I pleaded with her to hang on, but it did no good. She plunged down.

"I was clinging there praying, and the heat was so intense it seemed I could not bear it another minute. Then from the office building across the alley, firemen pushed a ladder at me. They were above me and the ladder came down at about a 30 degree angle. I grabbed it and got it fixed to the ledge. Then I crawled upward across the alley to the office window."

Maude Whiteman's Courage Recalled

 

Maude Whiteman

Maude Whiteman, 61, survived the Winecoff Hotel fire and saved the lives of eight others.

Whiteman operated the Winecoff Hotel's cigar shop by day but had agreed to stay in the hotel overnight to assist the elderly wife of one of the hotel's co-lessors who was away on a hunting trip.


Unable to go down, some guests were pulled up to room 1612.

Whiteman sustained back and rib injuries when she helped pull other desparate and terrified guests into her room's window via sheet ropes.

Her quick and rational thinking had kept smoke from overtaking room 1612, the hotel's uppermost room on the Peachtree-Ellis Street corner. Said Whiteman, "I never lost my head for one moment. I put our predicament up to Almighty God."




Nero Pitman carries Esther Geele
away from the fire scene.

"I could hear precious little Esther (Geele) calling, 'Mrs. Whiteman Mrs. Whiteman,' from her room (below).

"She fell into my arms when we got her up and opened those big old eyes and said, 'God owns the world'," said Whiteman.

Whiteman was the stalwart against rising panic in room 1612 and the group she sheltered lived to tell about it.




Maude Whiteman is assisted away from the
scene of America's deadliest hotel fire.

Maude Whiteman's story is told on pages 103,104 and 117 of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire. More on the action in room 1612 is here. Whiteman's full biography is here.

Sixty-Seventh Anniversary Coverage

Atlanta public radio station WABE-FM has broadcast a story noting the sixty-seventh anniversary of the Winecoff Hotel fire. In a six minute radio piece Steve Goss interviews well known Atlanta historian Cliff Kuhn. Kuhn tells the story of the fire. To listen click here.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a remembrance of the fire including quotes from Winecoff Fire co-author Sam Heys. The article by Andy Johnston appeared in the December 3rd edition.

Mary Marsh has written a loving remembrance of Winecoff fire victim Freda Constangy. Read it here.

Dan Whisenhunt, writing for Decaturish.com, has interviewed Jennifer Hardy about her grandfather's Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. His article is here.