Maude White Home in Buxton, NC
[Submitted by Ann Brewer Ianuario]

UPDATE from Jaye Finnegan Torok received 8/10/2010 - Miss Maude was sister-in-law to my grandfather's sister, Josephine, who married Miss Maude's brother Baxter Miller....maybe one of the most decorated coast guardsmen on the island, excepting Mr. Levine Midgett of Rodanthe, both having saved multiple lives from shipwrecks, and in treacherous waters off the island.  The man to the far left is Estus Preston White, Maude's husband; the man next to Estus is unidentified; the girl in the flowered dress is Maude's daughter, Mary Ormond White (born 1922 & married a Fuller); the girl to the left of Maude is her youngest daughter, Carol Miller White (born 1928 & married William Patrick Dillon).

Mrs. Maude Leigh (Miller) White led an interesting and varied career. At different times she had been a school teacher, postmistress, county welfare supervisor, and WWII coastal observer. Her father, Christopher Columbus Miller, was originally from Avon and her mother, Mary Maude Ormond Tyer, was from Bath.  Mrs. White's house is the tallest standing house on the entire island. When asked how old the house was, Mrs. White explained that her father bought it from his oldest brother in 1870. She said that they tried to trace it back, but all the records were destroyed when the courthouse burned. Mrs. White was also born in this house. Mrs. White and her sister attended school here as far as they could go. Then they went to Braxton College for girls, which was really a high school. She took several correspondence courses and went to the University of North Carolina and State College. She got credit for 3 years of college. Mrs. White taught a total of 17 years, six of those years in Bertie and Tyrrell Counties. A retired postmistress, Mrs. White spent 30 years in the postal service. She first began her job in 1936.