A Once in a Lifetime Test of Courage

Grover C. Williams 1939

Friday night in Atlanta, the war was over and a festive atmosphere pervaded the city. After a night on the town, 35-year-old Grover Williams and a buddy were looking for a room. They stopped by the 15-story Winecoff Hotel but were told it was already full for the night. No vacancy. So they walked a short distance to the corner of Houston and Pryor Streets and checked into the Avon Hotel. 

When silence finally descended on the city, the men were safe in the Avon. Then came the commotion on Peachtree Street: a cacophony of screams and sirens. One man said it sounded like the crowd at a football game. 

Out of the Army and back on the job with Atlanta's Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Williams and his buddy went to investigate. What they saw shocked Williams into a life of silence on the subject. 

The Winecoff Hotel December 7, 1946

A scene of horror played out before a growing crowd on Peachtree Street. Fire was working its way up the Winecoff, forcing guests out of their windows. They saw a shower of window screens, suitcases, broken glass - and bodies - falling from the hulking brick structure. 

A once in a lifetime test of courage lay before the two men. His buddy peeled off, done for the night, but Grover Williams stepped up. He helped Atlanta firefighters with a net on the Peachtree Street side of the building. Suddenly, Dr. Bob Cox, 33, and his three-year-old son struck the net from high above. Dr. Cox's head struck the net's rim, killing him,  but his son, little Bob, landed on the net and was scooped up by Williams, who took him to an ambulance bound for Grady Hospital.  

Williams worked 36 years for the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Atlanta.

 

Whatever else Williams saw and did that night died with him in 1996. He never spoke about the Winecoff fire. He only revealed the story of the net rescue forty-eight years later when he met the one person whose right-to-know outweighed his own need to repress the whole experience: little Bob Cox, all grown up, and a physician like his father. The two men met in 1994 when a historical marker was dedicated at the site of the Winecoff, honoring the fire's 119 victims and the firefighters who saved the rest.

 To Bob Cox, Grover Williams told his story. Cox wrote in 2021, "he (Williams) was emotionally touched when he met a person he had helped survive. It was a special time for both of us." 

(Photo by Sheryl Cox)

Youth Assembly Ribbon Discovered

YMCA Advisor's Ribbon

Carlos Hamil

Winecoff fire survivor Richard Hamil recently discovered his father's YMCA advisor's ribbon. Carlos Hamil was the faculty advisor for the eight member 1946 YMCA Youth Assembly delegation from Rome, Ga.

Carlos Hamil kept the ribbon all his life, as he did a sense of guilt that four of his charges died on the tenth floor, even though there was nothing he could have possibly done to help them. The Hamils were trapped on the fifteenth floor until they were rescued by ladder across the alley on the hotel's west side.

Winecoff Fire 70th Anniversary Commemoration

Against all odds, Dr. Robert Cox, 73, and Richard Hamil, 79,
 survived the Winecoff Hotel fire 70 years ago

Many whose lives were touched by the Winecoff fire gathered to commemorate the fire's 70th anniversary Tuesday at Heritage Sandy Springs in north Atlanta. Among the guests were two survivors of the fire and a host of people with family connections to the 1946 fire.

Dr. Robert Cox was three years old. His father, forced by heavy smoke and encroaching flames, took little Robert into his arms and leapt toward a fire net ten floors below. The net was manned by a mixture of firefighters and civilian volunteers. They all told the same story:

As they were falling, Robert's father realized they would not land in the center of the net. So he pushed his son away from himself and toward the middle of the net. An instant later the toddler landed safely but his father struck his head fatally on the net's metal rim. His final act in life saved his son.
 
Richard Hamil was on the alley side of the hotel on the fifteenth floor with his own father. They barely survived two terrifying hours of smoke and heat in the room. They were rescued by ladder across a ten foot alleyway into another building.
 
Other audience members also shared their stories about how their lives and families were effected by the fire. 

Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin discussed their book, The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire and Chet Wallace spoke about his own book to be released next year titled The Winecoff Fire Victims: A Dedication to the 119.

Sandra Parish covered Tuesday's gathering for Atlanta's WSB radio here.
Doug Walker has written about Richard Hamil for today's Rome News-Tribune here.
Rescued alongside the Hamils was Jane Wallace.
Robert Cox's parents are remembered here.
 

Jane Wallace Photos Acquired

Jane Wallace survived the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire

Jane Wallace was 24, a nurse, and in Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel to meet her husband, Byron, for a last attempt to save their marriage. It must not have gone well, or at all, because he wasn't there when the fire broke out, though both of their names appeared on the guest list.

She was rescued via ladder across a ten foot alleyway on the hotel's West side - fifteen floors up. She was soon divorced and spoke little of Byron or the fire thereafter. She remarried in 1947 and died in 1984. More photos and full biography are here.

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

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.

'Til Death Do Us Part

This newly acquired photo shows newlyweds Charles and Mildred Boschung. According to family members, it was taken in the Winecoff Hotel on Friday evening December 6, 1946.

Only a few hours later the Boschungs found themselves trapped in room 1208 with fire racing up through the building towards them. They fashioned a sheet rope in hopes of reaching a ladder four floors below. Mildred was knocked from the ladder when another woman fell from room 1008. Only Charles survived.



The Boschungs Were Married One Week Before The Winecoff Fire

Their story is told on pages 52,53,134 and 224 of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire.

Betty Huguley's Escape Remembered

Betty Huguley On Her Wedding Day In 1953

Sixty-six years ago today Betty Huguley escaped the Winecoff fire. She showed poise, calm and courage as she edged along a tiny eight inch ledge, four floors above Ellis Street, then descended an aerial ladder to safety. Then sixteen years old, she was a Youth Assembly delegate from Griffin, Georgia. Today she lives in Newark, Delaware.

Bess Dansby

Winecoff fire survivor Bess Dansby was badly injured when she fell from the window of room 730 to the roof of Chandler's Shoe Store, next to the Winecoff Hotel. Now, Robert B. Simpson has written a special article about her for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. The article is here.

Winecoff Firefighters Reunite

Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran welcomes Winecoff firefighters R.B. Sprayberry, Rick Roberts and Jim Smith

The sixty-fifth anniversary of the Winecoff Hotel fire was marked by the return of three heroes to the scene of the fire.

Winecoff fire firefighters R.B. Sprayberry, Rick Roberts and James Smith were the honored by Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran at a special luncheon hosted by Winecoff Fire co-authors Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin at the Ellis Hotel.

Also on hand to express their gratitude to the firefighters were three of the fire's survivors: Margaret Foster, Connie Foster Broom and Richard Hamil as well as eyewitness George Goodwin.

Margaret Foster and daughter Connie Foster Broom greet Rick Roberts, the firefighter who in 1946 rescued them by ladder from their fifth floor room. Photo by Donna Bowman

The three former Atlanta firefighters signed autographs for an impressive turnout of well wishers and gave interviews to local media outlets.

The fourth living Winecoff firefighter was unable to attend for health reasons. Raymond McGill, 94, explained, "I'm in no shape to go up there." He sent his best wishes.

WSB-TV & WAGA-TV's coverage of the event is here 

Appeal For Information

Winecoff.org is seeking to locate family or friends of two soldiers from Ft. Bragg, N.C., whose names appear on the December 7, 1946 Winecoff Hotel guest list above.

Capt. William C. Wilford and Lt. Frank Johnson were both registered in room 1128 at the time of the fire. Though that area of the hotel was heavily burned, neither soldier 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 William C. Wilford or Frank Johnson, please contact allenbgoodwin@yahoo.com

The Fortunate Ones

.             John, Betty Jean and Virginia Miller

Army Air Corps pilot Lt. Col. John Miller had planned a fun weekend in Atlanta. He'd be reunited with his family and stay in a first-class hotel suite downtown. But his plan was interrupted – just in time.

While his wife and daughter were in flight to Atlanta from Louisiana, Miller slept alone in suite 310-12 during the hours before the fire. The wake-up call he'd left with the front desk never came, but he woke up anyway in time to get to the Atlanta airport – and to leave the Winecoff Hotel.

Miller traveled to Candler Air Field. There, he picked up his wife, Virginia, and their three week old daughter, Betty Jean, who had just landed. They never made it back to the hotel. As they approached, they saw that the streets surrounding the Winecoff were blocked with fire trucks and the hotel was ablaze. They were fortunate. The airport rendezvous had saved Miller from being trapped in the burning hotel.

Later in the day John Miller responded to Grady Hospital's emergency call for blood donors. Six months later his shaving kit and partial bottle of scotch from room 310-12 were returned to him. The shaving kit still smelled of smoke.

Reid and Cary Horne

Pictured here shortly before the Winecoff Hotel fire are Reid and Cary Horne. Together they ran a grocery business in Cordele, Georgia. They were frequent visitors to Atlanta. Young and full of life, they enjoyed the excitement of "the big city". This photo shows them walking in front of Davison-Paxon's Department Store, a stone's throw from The Winecoff Hotel and on the same side of Peachtree St. They were in the hotel on December 7, 1946 - room 1606 - on the Peachtree St. side when the fire began. Their struggle to survive included several acts of high drama acrobatics on the outside of the hotel - fifteen stories up. They were forced by smoke to leave through the window of room 1606, down to 1506, then to make a terrifying, sidestepping journey along a tiny ledge at the fifteenth floor and eventually up by sheet rope to room 1612. From there the Hornes' survival strategy had to be revised several times, risks re-assessed. New escape plans were implemented and abandoned as other hotel guests perished all around them.

The Hornes' harrowing story is told beginning on page 97 of The Winecoff Fire.

Listen to a brief segment of the authors' original 1986 interview with Reid and Cary Horne. Reid tells about the unusual thing he did, standing at the window of room 1612, when all hope for survival seemed lost.

Major General Paul Baade

During World War II Winecoff fire survivor Paul Baade was commander of the 35th Infantry Division in Europe. His division saw almost continuous combat action during the eleven months that followed D-Day. His wartime papers are housed at the Truman Library.

A veteran of both World Wars, Paul Baade, 57, was sixty-eight days into retirement when he and wife Margaret were guests at Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel.

"My wife and I were awakened to the screams of, 'help help'. We got up. I smelled a little smoke. I opened the door, found the hall full of smoke and realized we could only be saved out the window," Baade said. They were trapped - six stories up.

Their corner room afforded a view of both Ellis Street and the back alley. Slowly the enormity of the event and the urgency of their situation within it became evident. Fire was below them and rising. A grueling period of uncertainty ensued. An aerial ladder was fully extended toward room 618.

"When the ladder did arrive, it was only six inches on the window and how Mrs. Baade and myself got on and down is still a miracle," he said.

Baade said of the Winecoff fire, "I have never seen anything worse than this in all of my experience in the war. There you have chance for an escape. You can lie down or you can move. Here you just had to wait."

Nell McDuffie

Nell McDuffie came to work at the Winecoff Hotel in 1928. She was a capable secretary to several general managers during the next eighteen years. She knew the hotel's operation top to bottom. "I was sort of the assistant manager and just general flunky really," she said. During World War II she moved into the hotel. She survived the Winecoff fire when Atlanta firefighters rescued her by ladder from the window of room 1120, across the ten foot alleyway and into the Mortgage Guarantee building. She was still there when Ed Kiker Williams fell - unconscious - from room 1520 and landed miraculously on the ladder still stretched across the alley - a three story plunge. He was injured but survived. McDuffie later recovered the Gideons bible from her room and claimed it as her own with an inscription. She also typed out some of her special memories of her years at the hotel. Nell McDuffie moved to Raleigh, NC. following the fire but eventually returned to Atlanta.

Listen to a three minute excerpt from The Winecoff Fire authors' 1987 interview with Nell McDuffie. She is asked about co-lessor Robert O'Connell and a disturbance in the hotel's bar on Thursday night December 5th, 1946.

 

Sworn Statement Discovered

An original 1946 copy of a sworn statement given by Winecoff fire survivor Paul Lankford has been discovered. Lankford, 26, of Birmingham, Alabama was an Army Air Force veteran of World War II and was in Atlanta working for the Southern Natural Gas Co. He was asleep in room 324 of the hotel when the fire broke out and was one the first to discover it.
In the weeks that followed, he was one of many asked to give sworn statements to insurance investigators.
His son Wayne recently made the find: his dad's carbon copy of the statement. Paul Lankford's story is told beginning on page 21 of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire.

Richard Turk - Newly Acquired Photo

Richard B. Turk, room 1022, used a blanket and a rope to help three other guests escape the fire before escaping himself. His story is told beginning on page 68 of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire.

Bob & Pauline Bault - Newly Acquired Photo

Few survived The Winecoff fire as narrowly as Bob & Pauline Bault. Fourteen floors above Peachtree St. searchlights found them and spectators gasped as they moved precariously from the window of room 1404 to the window of room 1406. Trapped there, room 1406 became a virtual oven during the fire. It was directly above the middle floors which were roaring flames from their windows during the fire's explosive flashover. Fortunately, eleven month old Sally Bault was safe at home with the family's maid. The Baults' story is told in chapter three of The Winecoff Fire.

Margaret & Warren Foster - Newly Acquired Photo!

Margaret and Warren Foster were rescued by ladder from room 508.
It was what Warren overheard happening in the room next door, prior to the fire, that has intrigued arson investigators ever since. He overheard an argument, a fist fight, breaking glass and a threat as a man departed room 510-12, "I'll get even with you before the night's over!"