By Yolanda McCormick
The Parham family has gifted to the Dillon County Library System a picture of Latta Library’s first librarian. Her name was Mrs. Dora Bethea McGee.
She was Latta Library’s very first Librarian and served from 1915 until 1917. It was only recently that Mrs. McGee’s first and maiden names became known to the library staff. Around the turn of the last century, it was common for most married women to be known as Mrs., to whatever the husband’s name was.
In the history of the Latta Library, we knew Mrs. T.C. McGee was the first to serve as librarian, however her first name remained a mystery.
One morning a relative of Mrs. McGee informed me that she found a picture of the first librarian and asked if the library would like a copy to hang along side the other historic honorees that grace the walls of the Latta Library, to which we admittedly agreed. This week the library was presented with a beautiful gold framed picture and a short bio of the librarian.
Mrs. McGee was the wife of Dr. Thomas Courtney McGee. Dr. McGee was a dentist by profession. Mrs. McGee was born in May of 1889 and died in September of 1965. She was a homemaker, wife, mother of one daughter, Dora Elizabeth, and for a short time, Librarian, where she takes her place in Latta’s History.
Special thanks to Mrs. Dora Bethea McGee, the first librarian of Latta Library.
