>From Ms Kathy Ossi,at the Williamson Library,I received the following,today. Nashville Banner,Oct 13,1987 ,"Mrs Edythe Rucker Whitley,a tough-minded genealogist who helped thousands of people-two former presidents and author Alex among them-trace their roots,has died at the age of 99. "I've got work to keep me busy for the next two years,if I live that long" said the pioneer in genealogy in a newspaper interview in 1979. "I began when you could count genealogists on your hands and toes and when we had to beg for work. Now there are more than 5,000 reputable genealogists and people are begging me to do work" When Roots novelist Haley wrote to her asking for help in tracing his Tennessee roots,Mrs Whitley had no idea who he was. He asked her about two families that had taken their slaves from North Carolina to western Tennessee. She provided him information about the families, the property and the slaves' names. "The work in the Roots television program and book was so fictionalized and distorted,I couldn't even recognize the work I had done" Mrs Whitley said. Mrs Whitley began her genealogy practice more than 60 years ago after receiving her education at a teacher's college in Murfreesboro and Blackstone's College of Law in Chicago. She compiled a book on the history of the Johnson family for President Lyndon Johnson and did re- search on President Richard Nixon's family tree. Mrs. Whitley's career took her to at least every county courthouse in nine states and placed her in many adventourous situations. Once,when she was poking through a graveyard in South Carolina,she fell into one of the graves and felt herself sinking slowly into the red clay. Luckily,a friend came to her rescue....The ashes will be brought to Mount Olivet Cemetery in about a month for memorial services and burial. Mrs Whitley was a native of Rutherford County. She was married to Albert Boyd Whitley,who died in 1932.." The Tennessean,Wed Aug 28,1985 100,000 Family Genealogical Collection Given to Library "When Helen Sawyer Potts discovered that information on 100,000 families was up for grabs,she grabbed it for Middle Tennessee. Potts purchased the Edythe Rucker Whitley Collection in 1983 and donated it to the Wil- liamson County Library to keep the collection in Tennessee and to start a genealogy center. "When I bought it I had an ambition we could make this a nucleus for a genealogical center" Potts said. "In other places you find genealogical center,why not in Franklin?" With Homecoming '86 aiming to draw natives back home to Tennessee from all across the country,she felt the collection would be a welcome find to those seeling to trace their roots. Potts bid against libraries and individuals from across the country and purchased the collection with her $40,500 bid. She then donated the collection to the library. "It is a primarily a manuscript collection of working notes for family history re- search foucused on the southeastern United States" explained Janice Keck,Williamson County librarian. The collection includes various gene- alogical periodicals,approximately 800 published works and manuscripts held in 600 corrosive-proof boxes Whitley,a professional genealogist for more than 50 years,authored a number of books....She(Keck)added,"This is a unique collection,not only to a public library of our size,but to any public library"..The collection contains information on about 100,000 families. It is organized by family histories and according to geographical locations where information is found. As stated earlier,I owe a great deal to Mrs Whitley and we all owe a big deal of appreciation to Ms Helen Sawyer Potts. Kevin Kelly,St Louis,researching Pearce in Rutherford Co