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.