Rutherford Exposed: The Story of Berta and Bonnie (page 27)

Athanasius

Thanks for the research Blondie and Lady Lee. I wonder why Boyd and Heath, two people who were very prominent in Watch Tower affairs during the Rutherford era, receive only brief mention in Witness publications, while lesser personages receive a three to four page story? Macmillan even had a book ghost written for him.

homme perdu

Thank you Farkel for sharing the information.

kls

Welcome Homme. Come out and introduce yourself . If you want.

homme perdu

kls i will make a thread for for my introduction and for everyone to understand what kind of situation i am in.

kls

Homme we are all here to help in any way we can : )

MerryMagdalene

from the 1978 interview w/ Hayden Covington, talking about the 1939 Madison Square Garden Convention:

"When the mob started, Brother Heath got down off the speaker's platform because he was in charge of all the ushers....one mobster grabbed Brother Heath and hurt him very badly, physically. And that's also written up in the Society publications." (http://www.freeminds.org/history/covington.htm)

Unfortunately, he doesn't mention which publications and what dates, but perhaps a search involving that convention would yield some results.

Leolaia

I'm doing some research on William Heath, and have already found some interesting stuff, but I need some additional info, like:

His middle name (what does the "P" stand for?)
Age or year of birth
Date of death
Place of residence at time of death (San Luis Obispo? San Diego?)

The California Death Index has a "William P. Heath" born in Georgia on 22 MARCH 1906 who died on 6 JULY 1973, but I am almost certain that the year of birth is wrong.

cyberguy

Holy smokes! This thread has taken on a life of it?s own! -- hehe

Athanasius

If that is the right William Heath, then he was much younger than I thought. Good research Leolaia.

Leolaia

Okay, here is what I found out about William P. Heath, Jr.

First of all, before he met Bonnie Boyd, he had already been married to another woman, Dorothy S. Heath. I haven't yet found out her maiden name, but they got married around 1929-1930 and lived for a while in DeKalb Township, Camden City, Kershaw County, South Carolina. Dorothy was also a native of South Carolina, so it looks like William met her while working in the state. I have no idea what happened to their marriage, whether they got divorced or William was widowed, but it still might constitute a promising lead for further research.

I don't yet know exactly when he was born but he appears in the 1920 census as "William," the 16-year-old son of Mr. William P. Heath, Sr. This points to 1904 as the year William Jr. was born. William Jr.'s mother's name was Susan and he had a sister named something like Susseth (illegible?). The occupation of William Sr. was "Vice President [...] -- Soft Drink," and the family lived in Atlanta, Georgia. Then, a decade later, William Jr. was living in South Carolina where he worked as "Manager of Bottling Plant," presumably a bottling plant for Coca Cola. The 1930 census states that he was 26 years old at the time and born in Georgia, which again points to 1904 as his year of birth.

William Jr. however was first mentioned in an article in the February 28th, 1906 issue of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. At the time, William would've only been two years old. The article states that "Mrs. Mary Taylor and Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Heath, Master William Heath, and Mrs. A. T. Heath have returned from Florida." I also have some additional information about William Jr.'s mother Susan. She apparently was a Presbyterian (according to one article), and thus William P. Heath Jr. was likely raised as a Presbyterian. Susan was born in 1880 and William Heath Sr. was born around 1876.

There are still some gaps in my knowledge, but hopefully this sheds some more light on the man who was a member of the Watchtower Board of Directors and who was involved in the purchase of Beth Shan.

Rutherford Exposed: The Story of Berta and Bonnie

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