Joe McGrady, a former Trion resident now living in New York, found this website and was kind enough to share the following information and photographs about his family:
"My grandmother, Alice McBryant McGrady, was born in 1876, lived on DeForest Avenue, and worked in the cotton mill. My mother, Edna LeMaster, moved from Maysville, Georgia to be with her sister, May Elizabeth LeMaster Ray, for the birth of May's youngest daughter, Sara Edna Ray. Edna LeMaster got a teaching job in Trion and that is how she met my father, Carl McGrady. May's husband, Rev. Fred Herman Ray, then pastor at Trion Methodist Church, performed their marriage ceremony at his church."
Carl and Edna during their "courting days."
Unidentified, Carl McGrady, and Edna LeMaster McGrady at Chickamauga battlefield, circa 1928.
Carl McGrady at his graduation from Young Harris College in 1931. He stands next to Sharp Memorial Chapel.
"Mom always said that (my father) Carl was the most unlikely person to enter the ministry she had ever seen. He stuttered badly and was extremely shy in front of people. I guess God must have had a hand in things because Carl became a successful, beloved minister for over 50 years."
Carl McGrady holds his son, William "Joe" McGrady, circa 1941. Writes Joe, "This photograph was taken a few months before I was stricken with polio in 1942." Carl McGrady retired in 1965 from the ministry, but continued to preach at revivals and as a substitute minister. He died on Christmas Day 1989 in Grantville, Georgia.
Former Trion resident Alice McBryant McGrady in front of the parsonage in Hogansville, Georgia, circa 1949. She died in 1957. Grandson Joe writes, "During this 1900-1930 period, Alice not only lost three sons, but her husband Ernest McGrady to typhoid fever in 1907; her mother Caroline McGrady in 1918; a brother, Wesley Scott McBryant in 1924; and a father-in-law, John Thomas McGrady to rabies in 1909. Remarkable how she kept her sanity."
Edna's brother, Henry Brannon LeMaster (1903-1973), stands next to Jewel Wesley Drennan in a photograph taken in November 1958 across the street from Alpharetta Methodist Church. Everyone in Trion called him "Shorty." He stayed at the old Trion Inn for years. He was engaged to Jewel who died before they were married.
Thanks to William "Joe" McGrady for sharing his photographs and family history. Joe says he would "die and go to heaven" if someone found a photograph of his grandmother, Alice McBryant McGrady, during her earlier years at Trion.