Dear Editor:

I am sending along a picture of “The Ugly Brother.”

The picture was taken in 1946 or 1947. The photography studio was in Bluefield, but the picture was probably taken in Hinton where I was born.

My brother, Weird, appears to be about four years old, and I appear to be about one year old.

Weird is three years, two months and three days older than me.

Weird was born October 21, 1942 in Durbin, and I was born December 24, 1945 in Hinton.

We moved to Talcott when I was about a year old. Our neighbors in Talcott were the Loudermilks, who moved to Clover Lick a few years after we moved to Marlinton in 1950.

Mary Charlotte Loudermilk graduated from Marlinton High School in 1960 and Leonard Ashby Loudermilk graduated in 1961.

Our father was the depot agent in Marlinton from 1950 until we moved to White Sulphur in 1960. Mr. Melvin R. Loudermilk was the track foreman in Marlinton.

One of the guys in the picture was an All State Baseball Player and a 1960 MHS graduate – after my father bribed the governor, two state senators and the State Superintendent of Schools.

The other guy in the picture is good-looking and royalty – King of the Valley.

This picture is the last time that I wore a dress until Viet Nam.

If you put this picture on the front page of The Pocahontas Times, you will sell a lot of papers.

Best wishes always,

Your buddy, The King
aka Fred Holland
Woodstock, VA

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