LUMBERTON — A portrait of a judge was rediscovered at the Robeson County Courthouse, sparking an investigation into the portrait’s subject, the artist who created it, and why it had been lost.
The room where the portrait was discovered was once a law library, before it was converted into a storage room, and is now in the process of being converted into an office. The portrait was of Judge Bert Ivey.
Judge Greg Bell said he asked a couple of the older attorneys if they remembered Ivey and didn’t get any responses. Bell also asked Senior Judge Frank Floyd, who also hadn’t heard of Ivey, and posted on Facebook to no avail. According to Bell no one he asked knew of Ivey’s family.
“It’s got to be at least 50 years old,” Bell said of the portrait, “There’s nothing on the back that identifies it.”
The artist’s signature, Gillespie, suggested it may have come from an artist who once had a studio in Lumberton.
Speculating about how the portrait got lost, Bell said a courtroom had been remodeled in the 1990s and split into a pair of courtrooms. The portrait may have been taken down and never returned to its former space on the wall.
Ideally the portrait would be given to Ivey’s family, Bell explained, though if they cannot be located or reached, the portrait would be placed in one of the smaller courtrooms.
The Robesonian investigation followed the painter’s signature as a lead. A trip to the Robeson Art Guild and a request to the Guild’s Jim Tripp for information produced more facts. Tripp identified the artist as Don Gillespie.
“He photoed and his wife did the hand coloring with oils,” Tripp explained, “So it is a hand-colored photo not a hand-painted portrait. They did thousands.”
A local antique store, Somewhere in Time, was investigated next.
“The Gillespie name I know from way back,” said Faye Moody, a volunteer at the antique store, “But I do not know why I remember it.”
“There was a Gillespie who ran the frame shop,” Moody offered.
Later, something jogged Moody’s memory. She said her son had told her Gillespie Studios did wedding photography and touch-ups on photos to make them resemble paintings.
Another volunteer at Somewhere in Time, Ed Taylor, looked Gillespie up on his phone. He also suggested Donald Semmes Gillespie, who used oil paints on photographs, as the almost certain identity of Gillespie the artist.
An obituary for Donald Gillespie ran in The Robesonian in 2009. According to the obituary, Gillespie was born in Bladen County and educated first at Elizabethtown High School and later at a Chicago technical school.
He did professional photography work in Elizabethtown, and for a brief time in Newark, New Jersey, working in electronics for a defense contracting firm during World War II.
Research unearthed numerous references to Ivey in issues of The Robesonian across the previous century.
Ivey’s name appeared in a 1919 issue of The Robesonian following the end of World War One.
“Corporal W. Bert Ivey of Proctorville arrived home Tuesday from France. Corporal Ivey went overseas with the 81st- or Wildcat- division and belonged to the Co. K 321st infantry. He left his company September 29 and entered an officers’ training school,” the article stated, “When he left his company it was on the front in the Alsace sector and had been under heavy shell fire for several days. Corporal Ivey sailed from Brest March 3 and landed in the State March 11.”
A campaign advertisement for Ivey, then running for Judge of the Lumberton Recorders Court, appeared in the June 22 1950 issue of The Robesonian.
“The friends of W.B. Bert Ivey want you to vote for him Saturday,” read the ad, “because they believe in him, and they are satisfied he is sympathetic with the ills of the unfortunate and fully aware of the necessity to enforce the criminal laws.”
Ivey was the focus of an article in the July 27 1954 issue of The Robesonian, headline “Judge Gets Fan In Court Room.”
“Somebody took note of Recorder Judge Bert Ivey’s suggestion that fans be supplied to his court room, following a crowded session Friday when everyone suffered more from the heat than from court decisions,” stated the article, “Today, whether by judicial direction or common sense, a fan was evident.”
Relatives of Judge Ivey are encouraged to call Judge Bell’s secretary, Gwen Chavis, at 910-272-5916 to claim the portrait.
Copeland Jacobs can be reached via phone at 910-416-5165 or via email at [email protected]