“My dad was supposed to go out and pick them up at the airport,” recalls grandson Frank Whitehouse, who was 10 at the time. “And he called the airport and was told the plane was late and that they didn’t know where the plane was.”
The news rocked Lynchburg, where Lawrence Whitehouse was of the city’s— even one of America’s– business leaders, who ran the company then manufacturing and selling ChapStick, the iconic lip balm, as well as the Blair line of personal products sold a la Avon.
The late Mr. Whitehouse made frequent business trips to New York, typically by train, but on this particular one his wife accompanied him for some pre-Christmas shopping, the grandson recalls, noting that his own father was so shaken by losing both parents that he would rely on ships to travel to Europe.
The son, Dr. Francis Record Whitehouse, raised five sons with his wife and lived until January 2009 when he died at the age of 95.
About four years after the crash, John Morton, the co-owner of ChapStick’s then parent company, Miller Morton Manufacturing, sold the firm to Richmond based A.H. Robins, which was eventually acquired by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare.
I am the first cousin of Marguerite (Rita) Dietz and the nephew by marriage of Alvin Record (Rita’s father). Alvin Record was the brother of the deceased ,Marguerite Record Whitehouse. He was waiting at the airport for his sister and brother in law (the Whitehouses) who never arrived because of the crash.
As Rita said, her mother, Dorothy Clary Record, my aunt,came to our house in Haddonfield, New Jersey to visit us. My father, Emmett A Clary, was her brother. Her life was spared because she came to visit us. I still feel very nostalgic about this horrible tragedy which effected us profoundly. Emmett Clary.
I am the niece and namesake of Marguerite Record Whitehouse. It was my father Alvin Record, Marguerite’s brother who was at the airport in Lynchburg to meet the plane. He overheard the control room operators saying that radio contact had been lost. He called my cousin, Dr. Whitehouse and told him what he had heard.My mother had been with my Aunt Marguerite in NYC and had gone to visit her brother in New Jersey or she would have been on the flight. It was a terrible time for our family.
I am Lawrence Whitehouse’s grandaughter and you might want to correct a slight error. He was co-owner and co-founder of Morton Manufacturing with John Morton. He was the president of the company and ran the Chap Stick manufacturing plant in Lynchburg. Lawrence and John bought the formula for Chap Stick from Mr Fleet of Fleet Laboratories. They co-founded the company which was named Morton Manufacturing.
My father, Dr Whitehouse, had 2 daughters and 3 sons…not 5 sons. Also, my father had a brother, Lawrence Whitehouse, Jr. who died at age 61; he raised three sons, all of whom live in the northeastern US.