Charles E. Whitmeyer
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Charles E. "Croatan" Whitmeyer (April 17, 1918-March 27, 1975) was an illiterate undertaker, bootlegger, inventor, turned state legislator from North Carolina. Whitmeyer was the second of four children of Emeline and Alfred Whitmeyer of Maggie Valley, Haywood County, North Carolina. Born into a family of undertakers and bootleggers, Charles spent his formative years helping his father at the family funeral home and running moonshine stills. Tragically, his father and older brother died in a moonshine accident in 1934. In order to provide for his mother and two younger brothers, Whitmeyer was forced to forgo his education and begin work as an undertaker and bootlegger. His mother died in 1937 in a farm accident. It was in 1939, that Whitmeyer discovered the benefits of embalming bodies in his father’s alcohol recipe.
During World War II, Whitmeyer began marketing his moonshine as an additive to gasoline, as petroleum rationing increased. This allowed North Carolina’s agriculture industry to continue to produce resources necessary in the war effort. Along with his two younger brothers, Whitmeyer moved from Maggie Valley to Mesic, Pamlico County, North Carolina in 1942. While there, Whitmeyer expanded his moonshine and undertaker business. By 1953, Whitmeyer was the chief supplier of Moonshine in eastern and central North Carolina. His influence was felt as far away as Hoke County when, in July 1952, he famously delivered 20 gallons of white lightning after the local supplier was arrested for bootlegging.[1] In 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck eastern North Carolina destroying Whitmeyer’s business. His two younger brothers were rumored to have been washed out to sea during the storm.
Whitmeyer; because he could not have children of his own, focused his attention on helping the children of others. His nickname Croatan came after he invented one of the first known child leashes. Whitmeyer famously declared, “No more will we have generations of Lost Children.”[2]
Whitmeyer rode the success of his child leash to the State House when he was elected as a State Representative in 1964. He served in the North Carolina General Assembly from 1965-1969 as a Representative and from 1969-1971 was a Senator. While serving in the General Assembly, Whitmeyer became fast friends with R.C. Soles, Jr. Due to his inability to read, Whitmeyer spent his nights with Soles, who read aloud bill drafts and legislation. Before his death, Whitmeyer attempted to open the Charles E. Whitmeyer School of Reading in his beloved childhood hometown of Maggie Valley, North Carolina. The school never came to fruition due to his lengthy and painful fight with cancer. Whitmeyer succumbed to liver cancer on March 27, 1975. His ashes were spread in the Pamlico Sound; because as he said, “I’ll be back with my brothers drinking Daddy's moonshine in Heaven.”[3]
