Southern Belle
The ••
Only a good wife—
that is to say, one
with skills in the
kitchen, lady-like
sophistication for entertaining and
motherly instincts for rearing her
youngsters — could stomach firing
her brother Jack’s BB gun at an albino
mule that threatened to eat her newly
sewn rye grass seed. She has swung a
bush axe at a snake, sat alone in the
woods in a bear stand, witnessed a hog
killin’ and allowed a wild snapping
turtle the size of a dinner plate, named
Gertrude by her son, to accompany
him to Camp Seagull in the back seat
of the car. All the while this country
doctor’s wife attended medical seminars
with her husband and consoled
patients whose bizarre and tragic stories
could fill volumes.
Martha Denny Jeter, wife to two
doctors, was a Jeter twice.
Altogether, Martha Jeter claims 57
years of medical expertise passed down
to her firsthand from two fine North
Carolina physicians she found as her
companions.
As a young lady, Jeter vowed to
love and to cherish Dr. Vernon Jeter,
who was certified in family medicine.
He became the father of her three
children, but just 15 years into the
marriage he succumbed to a heart attack.
With children still to rear, Jeter taught
English composition and American literature,
keeping food on the table and her
mind satisfied.
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WBM january 2012
Years later she would marry Dr. Jeter’s
second cousin, Harold, a University of
Virginia Medical School grad.
Martha Denny Jeter