Picturing the Past 62: Bethany Lane

Posted Tuesday, May 25, 2010, at 12:05 PM

I'm assuming this is Shelbyville's mayor or city manager in this 1952 photo of Bethany Lane. (T-G file photo)

From Dec. 16, 1952, here's a look at what appears to be an unpaved Bethany Lane. I'm not totally sure from which direction the photo was shot, but it appears to me that the photographer may have been standing just off Depot Street looking north. The home on the left looks like one still there now, and records show that it was built in 1950.

Bethany Lane is a prime example on how much one city can change in 60 years. Drive it today and you'll pass older homes -- one log cabin was there at one time, with a newer home built around it -- modern businesses and several newer apartment buildings. Quite a change from the gravel road of the early 1950s.

Here are the 1969-70 Wartrace Pantherettes as photographed by the Times-Gazette in the fall of 1969. Kneeling, from left, are Nancy Potts, Debby Vincent, Brenda Floyd, Mary Keele, Cynthia Shirley, Claudia Hawkins and Betty Edde. Standing, from left, are managers Kay Tribble and Bobbie Grubbs, Pam Hawkins, Rhonda White, Susan Grubbs, Cheryl McMahon, coach Hal Skelton, Jimmie West, Vickie Potts, Bessie Redd, Sara Jane Walker, Joanna Walker and Sandy Keele.

Picturing the Past is featured each Tuesday in this blog. Reader contributions are welcome.

Comments
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David, I agree that this picture looks like it was taken just off Depot Street looking North. Bethany Lane was the outer limits of my T-G paper route (route 11) about that same time and it was unpaved. At that time there was no Prince Street. Fairground Heights was a dead end and did not go all the way through to Bethany Lane. There was no Rockwood Drive, and I can not be certain if Maplewood Drive went all the way through to Bethany Lane or not. My best memory is that it did not. However, there was a Cobb Street and there was either two or three houses on it. Thanks David, those are some good memories.

If I remember correctly Bethany Lane also marked the City Limits at that time.

-- Posted by leeiii on Tue, May 25, 2010, at 2:57 PM

The man on Bethany Lane is Atty. John Templeton who I believe served as Mayor and City Manager ....He was a neighbor of ours on Hobson Avenue at that time...I heard that his son John is a Medical Doctor in Winchester, TN....

-- Posted by FlaDon on Wed, May 26, 2010, at 9:34 AM

The fellow in the picture may very well be John Templeton. However, it sure looks like Dayton Cobb to me!

-- Posted by garhawk on Fri, May 28, 2010, at 8:07 AM

I would love to get a hold of more of the Wartrace school info such as the Wartrace Pantherettes, I do remember and any elementary info in those years as well. Just reply back to this post if you have any info!

-- Posted by tyjohns57 on Sat, Aug 20, 2011, at 9:37 AM

David Melson

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David Melson is a copy editor and staff writer for the Times-Gazette.

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