Dr. (Bailey Graham) Weathers was born in the Zion Community of Cleveland County December 8, 1895.
In his boyhood days he tended farm chores and went to school.
He dropped out of school and farmed until he was eighteen.
Since there was no high school in his community he entered
Piedmont High School in Lawndale where he had completed two years when World War I broke out.
He enlisted in the Army and during the next two years he saw service
with the 30th Division in the States and Overseas.
In 1919 at home again he returned to Piedmont High
School where he received his diploma in 1921 and married
his high school sweetheart, Ora Edith Bumgardner Weathers of Casar, NC.
From Lawndale Dr. Weathers entered the NC State
College and attended summer school at Lenoir Rhyne College with the idea of following the
teaching profession. During this time he decided what he really wanted to do was
be a country doctor. With this in mind he entered Wake Forest College and graduated in 1927.
From Wake Forest he entered the Medical College of
Virginia and received his M. D. Degree in June of 1929. He
did post graduate work at Cooke General Hospital in
Chicago. Dr. Weathers heard there was an opening for a country doctor in Stanley. He moved there in
July of 1929. His career at Stanley spanned forty-five years and covered
a fifteen mile radius. During World War II he was the only
doctor in Stanley. He was on call twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. Very few roads in the county
were paved and the doctor expected to be hauled out of mud holes at almost every farm house where he made
a winter call.
During those first twenty years when there were few cars Dr. Weathers estimated he covered 450,000 miles of
mostly dirt roads and wore out nine automobiles. He delivered three thousand babies.
In 1949 Dr. Weathers was named Gaston County's "Country Doctor" of the year by the Gaston County Medical
Society. In an interview with the Gastonia Gazette, Dr. Weathers was quoted as saying, "I made up my mind to be a
country doctor. That is what I wanted when I started out and I've never changed my mind."
Dr. Weathers was a member of the First Baptist Church of Stanley, the Masons, and Stanley Lion's Club. He was
the first President of the latter organization. He was also active in other civic endeavors.
Dr. and Mrs. Weathers had four children: Dr. Bailey Graham Weathers, Jr. of Stanley, John Lewis Weathers of
Stanley, Jerry D. Weathers of Stoneville and Ruth Anne Weathers Grigg of
Kemersville.
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