Scanned page 349 of Book 1
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Transcription

A tall newspaper clipping, the only item on the page. A head-and-shoulders portrait photograph of the bride heads the clipping.

Photograph caption:

MRS. F. L. FITZSIMONS, JR.

Headline:

Miss FitzSimons And Mr. FitzSimons Wed in Savannah

Article:

Announcement has been received here of the marriage Wednesday morning in Savannah of Miss Clara Mather FitzSimons, daughter of Mrs. Theodore Barker FitzSimons, of Savannah, and the late Mr. Theodore B. FitzSimons, of Willtown Bluff plantation and Charleston, to Mr. Frank Lockwood FitzSimons, Jr., of Golden Glow farm, Hendersonville, N.C., son of Mr. and Mrs. FitzSimons, of Hendersonville.

The ceremony took place at 9 a.m. in St. John’s Protestant Episcopal church with the Rev. Ernest Risley officiating. Only members of the immediate families attended.

Given in marriage by her brother, Mr. Theodore Barker FitzSimons, Jr., the bride was attended by her sister, Miss Anne FitzSimons, as maid of honor.

Mr. William McKay, of Hendersonville, was the bridegroom’s best man.

A reception was held at the home of the bride after the ceremony.

The bride’s mother is the former Miss Clara Mather, of Savannah.

The bridegroom’s mother is the former Miss Margarita Kershaw. He served in the navy for two years in the South Pacific during the war and is now a student at Clemson college, where the couple will reside after a wedding trip.

Out-of-town guests at the wedding included the bridegroom’s parents and Mrs. William McKay, of Hendersonville, and Mr. and Mrs. Donald McKay Allston, Jr., of Charleston, brother-in-law and sister of the bridegroom.

AI Notes

A single tall newspaper clipping mounted on the album page. Reports the marriage of Miss Clara Mather FitzSimons of Savannah to Mr. Frank Lockwood FitzSimons Jr. of Hendersonville, N.C. The bride and groom share the surname but are not closely related — the bride is the daughter of the late Theodore Barker FitzSimons (of Willtown Bluff plantation and Charleston) and Mrs. Theodore B. FitzSimons (the former Clara Mather of Savannah); the groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lockwood FitzSimons of Hendersonville (the former Margarita Kershaw). The wedding took place at St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Savannah, with Rev. Ernest Risley officiating. The groom served in the Navy two years in the South Pacific during the war. The clipping carries a head-and-shoulders portrait photo of the bride, captioned ‘MRS. F. L. FITZSIMONS, JR.’

The bride and groom are in fact first cousins — both descended from Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons Sr. and Mary Anne Perry — and this 1948 marriage is one of two such cousin marriages tying the Charleston FitzSimonses to the Hendersonville (Frank Lockwood FitzSimons Sr.) branch in the same generation; cf. the Allston-FitzSimons cousin marriage of Donald McKay Allston Jr. to Margarita Consuelo FitzSimons. Cousin marriages of this sort were not unusual in Lowcountry gentry families through the mid-twentieth century.