Matsey Dekle

Martha Hopkins Dekle, 69, Tampa, Florida. Room 1402. President of Dekle Holding Company. Native of Thomasville, Georgia. Staying in Atlanta while daughter and son-in-law visited new summer home in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Ralph Moody

Vernon Ralph Moody, 32, Arlington, Georgia. Suite 1210-12. Operator of a garage. Came to Atlanta to see about buying sawmill equipment. Accompanied by his friend, Billy Newberry, who survived the fire.

Mary Stinespring

Mary Stinespring, 58, Cornelia, Georgia. Room 1628. Accompanied neighbor and close friend, Louise Brown, to Atlanta on shopping trip. Widow and mother of five children. Active church worker.

Louise Brown

Louise Brown, 46, Cornelia, Georgia. Room 1628. In Atlanta for doctor's appointment

Dr. Carl Rasmussen

Dr. Carl Rasmussen, 49, Des Moines, Iowa. Room 1620. Small-town Midwest physican who joined Veterans Administration in May. Transferred to Atlanta in November. Staying at Winecoff until home ready. Scheduled to move out following week. Wife, Helen, survived the fire.

Frank Hale

Frank Hale, 31, Nashville, Tennessee, Room 1426. Machinist for United Shoe Machine Corporation. In Atlanta on business. Father of four year old daughter.

Jack Sheriff

Jack Bowen Sheriff, 32, Atlanta, Ga. Room 720. Owner of Jack Sheriff's Theater Restaurant, a night club next door to the Winecoff Hotel. Father of four childern. (Photo courtesy: the estate of Martha Ewing Manning, the club's manager.)

Harriett Strickland

Harriett Strickland, 16, Iron City, Georgia. Room 930. Youth Assembly delegate. President of Seminole High School senior class. Attended first Youth Assembly in March 1946.

Jeannette Riley

Jeannette Riley, 16, Donalsonville, Georgia. Room 930. Youth Assembly delegate. Senior at Seminole High School.

Jerry Jenkins

Jerry Jenkins, 15, Donalsonville, Georgia. Room 930. Youth Assembly delegate. Senior at Seminole High School. More here.
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Dorothy Tyner

Dorothy Marie Tyner, 16, Columbus, Georgia. Room 730. Youth Assembly observer. Senior at Baker Village High School. More photos: click here and here. Her parents' photo: click here.
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Nell Sims

Nell Zorn Sims, 33, Barnseville, Georgia. Room 1504. Photo circa 1931. Secretary at Aldora Mills. President of Business and Professional Women's Club. Came to Atlanta at the request of a friend who was buying a trousseau and meeting her fiancee.

Herbert Swanson

Herbert Edward Swanson, 38. Chicago, Illinois. Room 522. Associate editor of Rock Products, a trade publication serving the highway construction industry. Former State of Illinois, Division of Highways engineer. In Atlanta on editorial mission. More here.

Rutledge Minnix

Aubrey Rutledge Minnix Jr., 15. Columbus, Georgia. Room 1116. Youth Assembly delegate. Junior at Columbus High School. Member of student council and debate club.
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Cleve Sisk

Cleveland Dillard Sisk, 48, Asheville, North Carolina. Room 928. Bus driver for Smoky Mountain Trailways for 26 years. Staying in room permanently rented by bus company. Winner of safe driver award. Personalized belt buckle recovered from fire.

Grace Winecoff

Grace Smith Winecoff, 76, Atlanta, Georgia. Suite 1010-12. Wife of the hotel's builder, William Fleming Winecoff. Resident of the hotel for 31 years.

Mildred Boschung

Mildred Chandler Boschung, 23, Cullman, Alabama. Room 1208. Newlywed. Married exactly one week earlier. She was spending her honeymoon in Atlanta. Her husband, Charlie Boschung, survived the fire.

Robert Fluker

Robert Alvin Fluker, 41, Thomson, Ga. Room 702. Georgia Tech Graduate. Safety engineer for J.A. Jones Construction Co. Stopped in Atlanta for a dentist appointment before going overseas to rebuild Okinawa air base.

Sara Miller

Sara Baggett Miller, 34, Gordon, Ga. Suite 1108-1110-1112. Widow and mother of two children. Made bags for kaolin mining company. Came to Atlanta to shop with sister, Catherine McLaughlin, who survived the fire.

Irene Justice

Irene Delores Justice, 27, East Point, Ga. Room 624. Pictured here in 1934. Worked for firm in nearby Candler Building and attended law school at night.

Florence Baggett

Florence Allen Baggett, 43, Claxton, Ga. Room 1110-1112. One of best known auctioneers in Southeast. Came to Atlanta to see doctor about enlarged vocal chords.

William Winecoff

William Fleming Winecoff, 76, Atlanta, Ga. Suite 1010-1012. Built the Winecoff Hotel in 1913. Turned operation over to Robert Meyer chain in 1915. Sold hotel during Depression but continued to live there.

Bill Todd

Willian Barr Todd, 39, Columbia, South Carolina. Room 1214. South Carolina director of Civil Aeronautics Administration. In Atlanta to attend meeting at regional headquarters. Father of daughter born six weeks after the fire.

Anne Smith

Emma Anne Smith, 14, Valdosta, Ga. Room 1502. Overcame 80 percent deafness sufficiently to attend public school. On shopping trip with her mother, who survived the fire.

Ann Walker

Phoebe Ann Walker, 16, Albany, Ga. Room 822 Youth Assembly delegate. Senior at Albany High School. President of Bookworm Club.

Marianne Scherle

Marianne Scherle, 16, Albany, Ga. Room 822 Youth Assembly delegate. Assistant editor of the yearbook. President of youth fellowship at church.

Julia Hall

Julia Nell Hall, 16, Albany, Ga. Room 822. Youth Assembly delegate. Senior at Albany High School. Student council member. Homeroom president.

John Irwin

John Newton Irwin, 23, Long Island, New York. Room 422. Salesman for the Luxene Corp. Father of three month old baby.

Elmer "Spike" Conzett

Elmer Andrew Conzett, 32, Dubuque, Iowa. Room 1230. Pictured here at age 18. Later became Navy lieutenant commander and war hero. Sank Japanese destroyer at Guadalcanal as dive-bomber pilot. His 1942 Scouting Squadron is pictured here (Conzett kneeling, 2nd from left). In Atlanta on one night stopover while ferrying Navy planes from Norfolk, Virginia to Long Beach, California.

Dr. Irene Tollett

Irene Harris Tollett, 44, Atlanta, Ga. Room 824. Librarian at Russell High School in East Point. Earned Ph.D. in library science in 1942. Spending night with sister, Lena Harris, who was visiting from Tennessee.

Virginia Torbert

Sarah Virginia Torbert, 16. Room 1430. Thomaston, Georgia. Room 1430. Youth Assembly reporter. Senior at R.E. Lee Institute. More here.

Patsy Uphold

Patricia Anne Uphold, 16. Thomaston, Georgia. Room 1430. Youth Assembly observer. Senior at R.E. Lee Institute.

Christy Hinson

Christine Adams Hinson, 16. Room 1430. Thomaston, Georgia. Room 1430. Youth Assembly observer. Senior at R.E. Lee Institute. Scheduled to enter Agnes Scott College in 1947.

Earlyne Adams

Earlyne Adams, 16. Thomaston, Georgia. Room 1430. Youth Assembly Delegate. Senior at R.E. Lee Institute.

Elaine Sullivan

Elizabeth Elaine Sullivan, 20. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Room 1028. Working internship at Davison-Paxon's Department Store. Senior at the University of Alabama. Photo courtesy: Hoole Library-Special Collections, University of Alabama.

Gloria Riemann

Gloria Tess Riemann, 20. Gulfport, Mississippi. Room 728. Working internship at Davison-Paxon's Department Store. Senior at the University of Alabama. Member of the Delta Gamma sorority. Photo courtesy: Hoole Library-Special Collections, University of Alabama.

Jean Pruett

Jean Pruett, 21. Fort Payne, Alabama. Room 1028. Working internship at Rich's. Senior at the University of Alabama. Fifth grade teacher in 1945-46. Photo courtesy: Hoole Library-Special Collections, University of Alabama.

Robbie June Moye

Robbie June Moye, 16. Donalsonville, Ga. Room 930. Youth Assembly delagate. Treasurer of the Seminole High School senior class. Cheerleader.

Peggy Cobb

Martha Harriett Cobb, 21. Fayette, Alabama. Room 828. On internship at Davison-Paxon's. Senior at the University of Alabama. Member of the newspaper staff.

Sarah Aldridge

Sarah Aldridge, 28. Eva, Alabama. Room 1028. Working internship at Rich's. Junior at the University of Alabama. Leader in women's intramurals program. Worked with USO during World War II.
Photo courtesy: Hoole Library-Special Collections, University of Alabama.

Eloise Buck

Eloise Evelyn Buck, 40, St. Louis, Missouri. Room 1124. Graduate of the University of Oregon. Masters degree from Wellesley College in 1929. Vocational counselor for the Katherine Gibbs School, New York. In Atlanta on a speaking tour. More here.

Margaret Nichols

Margaret Wilson Nichols, 30, Atlanta. Room 720. Press agent and hostess at Jack Sheriff's Theater Restaurant, next to the Winecoff. Former Miss Atlanta runner-up. Nicknamed "Lucious".

E. B. Weatherly

Ernest Benedict Weatherly, 63, Cochran, Ga. Room 1026. Macon, Ga. attorney who moved to farm during the Depression and became one of the South's top cattlemen. Former chairman of a federally appointed committee on the beef industry. Father of six children.

Dwight Morrison

Captain Dwight Lane Morrison, 26, Lumpkin, Ga. Room 1026. Pilot of B-26 nicknamed "Tobacco Road" during World War II. Flew sixty-five bombing missions over Europe. In Atlanta looking for a job. Father of a son born two months after the fire. More here.

Ethel Stewart

Ethel Stewart, 20, Ralph, Alabama - Room 1228. Senior at University of Alabama. Working internship at Rich's Department Store. Worked at her father's country store. Engaged to be married in 1947. More here.

Maxine Willis

Betty Maxine Willis, 16, Bainbridge, Ga. - Room 920 - Youth Assembly delegate. Senior at Bainbridge High School. Recently selected "Miss BHS" candidate. Daring horse rider. Click here for full portrait. More photos are here and here and here.
Full biography at Winecoff in Depth.

Sue Broome

Dorothy Sue Broome, 16, Bainbridge, Ga. - Room 920 - Youth Assembly reporter. Voted "Most Popular" by Bainbridge High School senior class. President of the Glee Club. Frequent church soloist. Cheerleader.

Ruth Powell

Ruth Powell, 16, Bainbridge, Ga. - Room 920 - Youth Assembly delegate. Bainbridge High School Glee Club member. Selected "Best Mannered" by the senior class.

Mary Alice Davis

Mary Alice Davis, 48, Bainbridge, Ga. - Room 926 - Advisor to Youth Assembly delegation from Bainbridge High School. Youth director at First Methodist Church. Graduate of Huntingdon College.

Patsy Griffin

Patricia Ann "Patsy" Griffin, 14, Bainbridge, Ga. - Room 926 - Youth Assembly observer. Sophomore at Bainbridge High School. Daughter of Georgia adjutant general - and future governor - Marvin Griffin.