My great-uncle Gentry grew up on his parent's farm just north of Spartanburg near the Southern Shops railroad station on what was then called Howard Gap Rd, I am sure he studied farming under his father but his family emphasized higher education and he attended Wofford College and law school. His father had little formal education as a youth but he was a very successful farmer and the first County Demonstration Agent, his mother was the oldest daughter of the former Sheriff of the county and a product of the Limestone Institute. Gentry grew up on a working farm where money was tight in a strict household run by his mother. With nine children to feed, clothe and send to college, his mother was quite conscious of the value of everything and taught her children to be conscientious, hardworking and obedient to their parents. They were also taught to be charitable, his parents took in several older relatives and cared for them until they died. From what my grandmother said, I'm sure Gentry grew up with Christian teachings and a strict moral code and probably a strict regimen of chores to accomplish every day. His mother Hattie came to rely on Gentry, my mother said her mother Hattie Weste told her that Gentry had too much pressure put on him as a child by his mother, she had many rental properties in town left her by her father and she would often send young Gentry out to collect the rent for her when he was just a young teen, my grandmother believed their mother was putting too much responsibility on his young shoulders.

Gentry wanted to go to the war in 1917, but he was blind in one eye from amblyopia caused by being born with eyes with different focal lengths (an hereditary trait which at least one sister also had), so they would not take him; he persisted & eventually he was given a clerical job and was made water boy according to his sister Mella which pleased him greatly.

Mella told me that Gentry was dating a very nice girl in Spartanburg for a while who his family approved of, but then one day he dropped her and started dating a woman from out of town, he ended up marrying her instead. Mella said it surprised everyone.

His uncle was Judge JJ Gentry in Spartanburg. Gentry & his two brothers Carlos & John all became lawyers, his cousin Marjorie told me that she often heard adults commented on his amazing ability to persuade a jury to his side. By the time he died, Gentry's law office was on Morgan Square in the heart of Spartanburg and he had purchased a large two story home in Hampton Heights, so outwardly he looked like a very successful man who had a flourishing career, the respect of his contemporaries and a wife and three children.

Gentry was the Principal of West End school as listed in "Who's Who in South Carolina" in 1934, and he was also the head of the local Federal Land Bank office when he died in 1935 by his own hand. When they found his body at his desk, he had left a suicide note which he was writing while he was dying of gas. His law partner said he later realized Gentry had tried about a week earlier & failed, they had found rags stuffed under the door and in the windows. His note was said to have started off with the words: "I am tired, tired, tired, and I want to rest."

I asked our cousin what she remembered of Gentry, she was a student at Converse College at the time along with her two first cousins Margo and Happy Anderson, all three were walking to Converse across the Square that morning when she saw the cars gathered down at his law office, but they did not know what had happened until the school came to their classes and pulled them out and sent them home. She said she asked his law partner that day if he thought the trouble that Gentry was in was insurmountable, but he said no, that Gentry had plenty of friends in high places and could have pulled in favors and probably stayed out of jail and the news. Marjorie therefore believed Gentry was very unhappy in his personal life, and his sister Mella agreed, Mella said between the intense pressure his wife was putting on him to get richer and the pressure his brother John was putting on him, he simply couldn't take it anymore. Gentry had embezzled money from the Land Bank and used it to buy a large tract of land which when divided and sold would bring in much more money than the original purchase price, but it had been discovered before he could put the money back which I'm sure he intended to do. His sister Mella said Gentry was not a thieving person, she did not believe this was his idea. I was told this was about to come to light when he committed suicide.

Gentry left behind a mother, eight siblings, a wife & three young children.

--Jeni