Library of Virginia
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Processed by: Jim Greve
Augusta National Golf Club files are closed until 2038.
There are no restrictions.
Mary Blanton Easterly Papers, 1877-2006. Accessions 43509 and 44141. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Gift of Mary Blanton Easterly, Richmond.
Mary Friend Blanton was born in Richmond, Virginia on 20 November 1923. She was the daughter of Dr. Wyndham Bolling Blanton (1890-1960) and Natalie McFaden Blanton (1895-1987). She attended St. Catherine's School in Richmond, and Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. On 28 August 1943, Blanton married Harry Watkey Easterly, Jr. (1922-2005). They had two sons and three daughters.
Papers, 1877-2006, of Mary Blanton Easterly (b. 1923) of Richmond, Virginia, including correspondence, subject files, scrapbooks, memoirs, books and other publications, ephemera, and oversize items. The bulk of the collection covers the years 1900 to 1945.
This collection is arranged into the following series:
I. Correspondence. II. Subject Files. III. Scrapbooks. IV. Memoirs. V. Books and Publications. VI. Ephemera. VII. Oversize Items. VIII. Augusta National Golf Club Files (RESTRICTED).The correspondence covers the years 1900-2006, but the bulk of it dates from 1937 to 1945. Subjects include attending summer camps in West Virginia, student life at Converse College and the Virginia Military Institute, social life, visits with family and friends, courtship, marriage, and raising children. There is information concerning activities in Richmond during World War II, and a good deal of corrrespondence between Easterly and her husband while the latter was stationed on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The later letters in the collection deal with trips abroad, and also relate to Harry Watkey Easterly, Jr.'s interest in golf.
Chronological.
The subject files include accounts and receipts, announcements, artwork, awards and honors, certificates, clippings, diaries and medical notebooks kept by Dr. Wyndham Bolling Blanton while he was stationed in France during World War I, genealogical notes on the Armistead, Blanton, Bolling, Crouch, Friend, McFaden, Temple, and Wallace families, golf publications, greeting cards, invitations, a 1917 journal and photograph album of Harry Watkey Easterly, Sr., while he was in Russia on business, information relating to ladies member/guest activities at the Country Club of Virignia, memberships, newsletters, a notebook kept by Harry Watkey Easterly, Jr. while he was stationed on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, photographs, poetry, programs, materials related to the Virignia Military Institute, including information on the reinstatement of married cadets following World War II, and other items.
Alphabetical.
There are fourteen scrapbooks contained in the collection that were presented to Harry Watkey Easterly, Jr., on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 1982, as well as a scrapbook (ca. 1930-1945), kept by Mary Blanton Easterly. The volumes include brochures, certificates, clippings, correspondence, invitations, greeting cards, photographs, programs, and ephemera. For preservation purposes, they have been disassembled.
Easterly wrote her memoirs, and they were published in November 2008 under the title "M.E. and sometimes H.E.: Before I Forget What I Know." This series contains typewritten drafts of the various chapters, with handwritten corrections, as well as supporting documentation, photographs, and other material. A signed copy of her published memoirs is also included.
A portion of the correspondence between Easterly and her husband, written between 1940 and 1945, as well as some of her husband's 60th birthday scrapbooks, were also published, and copies are contained in this series. There are numerous other books and publications as well, many of them were written by Natalie McFaden Blanton (1895-1987), including, "A Little More," "B.R. to N.B.," "Hopping, Skipping, and Jumping," "Long Ago," "Let's Not Be Grave," "Love Remains," "Miss Jennie and Her Letters," "Ninety-Nine Notes to Love Remains," "Nothing Much," "Poems for Christmas," "The Door Opened," and "West Hill, Cumberland County, Virginia: The Story of Those Who Have Loved It." Also contained in this series is Dr. Wyndham Bolling Blanton's three-volume history of medicine in Virginia.
There is one box of ephemera which includes patches, track and field ribbons and medals, and notecards relating to a genealogical research project by Harry Watkey Easterly, Jr.
The oversize items include many of the same types of material found in the Subject Files, including articles, certificates, genealogical charts, newsletters, newspapers, and photographs.
There is one box of material relating to the Augusta National Golf Club, including a draft and final version of "Inside the Masters: Green Jackets and Green Olives," by Mary Blanton Easterly, published in 2008 by Tabby House. Also included is correspondence and a photo album. This series is closed until 2038.