| Transcribed by Norma Knotts Shaffer from microfilm of
the Calhoun Chronicle dated 6/3/1943.
George White, "The Stone Man," Dies at Belpre
George W. White, aged 40, who appeared at the New York World's Fair
in 1939 as "The Stone Man" because his body was almost completely (illegible)
died Sunday morning at 11:40 o'clock at the home of his brother, Robert
White of Belpre Ohio.
Death followed only a short illness, although his body began to be ossified
at the age of ten years. His legs, arms and neck stiffened, with
the soft tissue at the joints hardening into a bone-like substance.
He felt a strange stiffness creeping through his limbs when he was a child,
he told reporters a few years ago when he was at the World's Fair in New
York. He suffered no physical pain and rested as easily on a small
pedestal as in a bed, he said.
He traveled in show business for the past eight years until a few months
ago, when he went to Belpre to make his home with his brother.
John Hix, originator of the newspaper cartoon, "Strange As It Seems,"
featured him in a drawing for May 19, 1939.
Mr. White was a native of West Virginia, being born at Big Bend, son
of the late Dr. I.C. and Flora Basnett White. He lived there until
1925, when he moved to Ohio.
Surviving are one brother, Robert B. White of Belpre, O.; four half-brothers,
Ted Haverty of Parkersburg, Jack Haverty of the U.S. Army, Fort Thomas,
Ky., Sam White of Texas and Golden White of California; three half-sisters,
Mrs. Stella Lawrence of California, Mrs. Winnie Farrell of Texas, and Mrs.
Annette Bailey of Charleston, and his stepfather, Bert Haverty of Arnoldsburg.
Services were held at the Spencer Funeral home in Belpre Tuesday afternoon
at 2 o'clock, with burial in the Rockland cemetery. |
