Vintage Fall of 1946 recording of Maxine Willis singing:
A Winecoff Fire Biography by Chet Wallace:
Betty Maxine Willis was born December 3, 1930, the daughter of Thomas Felton Willis and Ruby Evelyn Bruce Willis in Bainbridge, Georgia. Thomas’ family was from Decatur County and Ruby was from Cartersville, Georgia. Thomas met Ruby while she was a school teacher in Cartersville and they settled in Bainbridge. Thomas owned a lumber business and had a tobacco farm. Maxine had one sister Sara Willis Parker and one brother Robert Willis.
Maxine is related distantly to Lottie Moon through her mother Ruby’s family. Lottie Moon was a famous American missionary in China from 1873 to her death in 1912. She taught school in Danville, Kentucky and Cartersville, Georgia before her work in China. Toward the end of her life she stood by her Chinese friends in the famine that occurred there and almost starved to death. She grew very weak and just before Christmas of 1912 she attempted to return to America but died on her ship that was in the harbor of Kobe, Japan. Many Southern Baptist missionaries still look up to her today and an annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Missions has raised $1.5 billion for missions since the late 1800’s.
Maxine went to grammar school in a nearby town south of Bainbridge called Fowlstown. While they attended the school in Fowlstown Maxine and Sara sang Shirley Temple songs on the school stage. Then for her high school years she attended Bainbridge High School. Her best friend in high school was fellow Winecoff fire victim Ruth Powell and they were inseparable. They both attended First Baptist Church with their families and this is where their funerals were held.
The Bainbridge High School yearbook, The Purango, of 1947 lists Maxine’s nickname as “Mac” and states that she was “always seen with her shadow, Ruth”. Ruth said of “Mac” she was “her best friend”. They loved to hangout at the youth center with other friends after school and especially on the weekends. Going to Rex-All pool was also a hot spot although they didn’t know how to swim. They would take a dip hanging onto the side in the pool and then get out to lay in the sun.In school Maxine was a Beta Club “A” student and excelled at all of her subjects. Her favorite subject was English. She was very popular in school and had recently been selected “Miss BHS”. She was a member of the Gamma Chi high school sorority, secretary of the Tri-Hi-Y, a member of the Glee Club and Sub Deb Club and was editor of the school newspaper. Because her class at Bainbridge was so small Maxine knew all of her classmates very well and got along well with everybody. Back then since Bainbridge High School only had eleven grades Maxine was considered a senior even though she was in the 11th year of her studies.
Her sister Sara was exactly 14 months older than Maxine but it seemed that Maxine was the older because of her being more of the leader between the two sisters. Sara and Maxine were like twins in everything they did and were always together.
Maxine was more outgoing whereas Sara was more of the quiet type and a little shy growing up. Maxine liked to design clothes and actually designed some of her own clothing as well as clothing for her sister. They had a seamstress make their prom dresses. They shared their clothing so Sara and Maxine would always be deciding on which dresses to use for certain events and even when Sara decided to attend Mercer College in Macon, Georgia she had to talk it over with Maxine on what dresses she should take with her.
Sara spent a lot of time with Maxine because there wasn’t much else to do in Bainbridge. Their mother Ruby called Maxine, Sara and Ruth Powell the Three Musketeers. They loved to go riding around town in a jeep that Thomas Willis had bought and go visit everyone. On numerous occasions Maxine was stopped by the local police because she was carrying too many riders in the jeep at one time.
Sara was very dependent on Maxine as they were growing up but became more independent when Sara went off to college. Sara left Bainbridge for Mercer College while Maxine was a senior at Bainbridge High School.
Sara describes Maxine as “personality plus”.
She was very talented artistically as well as musically and played the piano. To this day Sara gets teary eyed when she hears the beautiful classical music piece “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy. Maxine had performed this piece at the last piano recital that was held before her death at Bainbridge High School. Sara and Maxine had the same music teacher at the high school and Maxine excelled at the piano more so than Sara because, according to Sara, she didn’t practice as much as Maxine did.
Maxine loved to go to the movies and loved songs of the hit parade as well. Her favorite songs were “You Belong To My Heart” recorded by Bing Crosby, “Gypsy”, “To Each His Own” and “When You Were Sweet Sixteen” written by James Thornton. Sara and Maxine loved to sing the songs of the hit parade together. Sara still remembers the words to these songs she sang with Maxine.
Maxine had an ambition to learn how to fly and was very adventurous. She enjoyed sports and loved to ride horses on their farm. She was quite a daring horse rider and always tried to ride the more spirited ones. Her sister Sara was afraid of the horses. The Willis family loved to go to the beach and their favorite spot during this time was going to St. Simon’s Island in southeast Georgia on the east coast. Sara and Maxine used to make trips to Cartersville to visit their aunt also.
Maxine looked up to her mother as a role model and admired her.
Even though Ruby was her mother she was also her friend. Ruby kept up with anything her children were interested in and also anything they did with their friends. Sara remembers her mother Ruby sending them a penny postcard when Sara and Maxine attended Camp Sawyer outside of Bainbridge in the small town of Blakely. Ruby mentions in the postcard that she was so worried about them and hoped that they were keeping warm. Ruby was always involved with anything her children did.
On December 3, 1946, a mere four days before the Winecoff fire, Ruby held a birthday party for her daughter Maxine at the air base club in Bainbridge called Club Lynn Haven. Ruby talked to Maxine telling her that she wished she wasn’t going to Atlanta because at the time Maxine had a cold and Ruth didn’t want her daughter going because of the cold temperatures of December in Atlanta but Maxine was excited to go. She was excited to attend the youth assembly at the state capitol as well as looking forward to doing some shopping and spending time in Atlanta.
Maxine Willis was pictured departing for the Winecoff Hotel She was wearing this coat when she leaped from her hotel window to escape the fire.Room 920, where Maxine, Ruth Powell and Sue Broome stayed, faced the 10-foot alley on the back side next to the Mortgage Guarantee Building. It will never be known exactly what happened in room 920 that night but Maxine did put on her coat and put her wallet inside her coat pocket, perhaps knowing that if she didn’t survive she could be identified. She was one of the first of the 119 victims to be identified because of the wallet.
Maxine had apparently held on to bed sheets tied together as long as she could judging by the rub marks and cuts on her hands and wrists. It is assumed she eventually was either overcome by smoke or couldn’t hold on any longer. She could have fallen also by hanging out the window and being overcome by smoke or by being knocked from the window by a falling body. Maxine fell to her death along with her friend Ruth Powell and their bodies were recovered from the alley below.
When Maxine’s mother heard about the fire she practically had a nervous breakdown. She never got over the death of her daughter. Sara was at Mercer when she learned of the Winecoff fire. The morning of the fire her friends and sorority sisters came into her room to be with Sara but Sara didn’t know what was going on. Sara didn’t seem suspicious but they seemed to want to talk about something. Then Sara’s father, brother and two of her uncles arrived on the way to Atlanta to tell Sara the news. Sara went into shock and had to be taken to the infirmary.
She then accompanied her father, brother and uncles to Atlanta. They listened to the radio for further developments on the fire. Sara has never fully gotten over her sister’s death. She describes it as something that one never gets over…. the shock and sadness. She never thought that anything like the Winecoff fire could have happened.
After the fire back in Bainbridge remembrances were held in both schools and the churches. People came in and out of the Willis home for days after the fire offering condolences. Sara noticed that when she returned to Bainbridge to be with her family that Maxine’s presents from her birthday party on December 3rd were still sitting on her bed unopened.
Maxine was laid out for her wake at the Willis home in the dining room in front of a bay window. Sara describes how when she viewed Maxine’s body there she noticed the marks on her fingers and also noticed that Maxine’s hair was not the way it normally looked and attempted to straighten it. Maxine and Ruth Powell’s remains were the only ones out of the eight victims from Bainbridge who could be viewed at their funerals. The rest were closed caskets.
Ruby for many years after the fire kept Maxine’s coat that she was wearing that night in Maxine’s closet in her room. Even after years past her coat still smelled of smoke.
A couple of years after the fire Thomas Felton Willis, Maxine’s father, decided to visit the Winecoff with the intention of seeing the room Maxine had occupied on the 9th floor. He took from the room a sheet of hotel stationary that showed at the top the advertisement for the Hotel Winecoff describing it to be “absolutely fireproof”. On the paper a family member wrote “This paper was found in room 920 – room in which Ruth, Sue & Maxine were in, during fire – Felton went in the room, Sat, Apr. 30 – (19)49 – 2 yrs – 4 mo – after fire – “
Two portraits were painted just after the fire. One was of Maxine and one of her sister Sara. These portraits now hang on the walls of Mrs. Sara Willis Parker’s house. Her mother Ruby said to never let these portraits separate - and they never have. Sara has even asked her children to keep the two portraits side by side.
Sources: The Winecoff Fire by Sam Heys and Allen Goodwin
The Children of Bainbridge by Addie Livingston
Southern Baptist Historical Library & Archives website
“These three girls were the best of friends” Ellen Darley – Bainbridge Post- Searchlight – Nov. 24, 1993.
Sara Parker interview – January 9, 2011 – Alpharetta, Ga.
