The Legacy of a Ring

                                                  In 1888, Fred V. Dale

 gave this ring

to this woman, Maud Paine

who gave it to her daughter Florence Letitia Dale Walker

who passed it along to her daughter Natalie Dale Walker Watters

who asked her daughter-in-law Holly Smith Watters

to keep if safe for her son John Cecil Watters 

until such time he found the woman he wanted to marry.

She Said Yes!

ANNOUNCING THE ENGAGEMENT OF 

JESSICA RENEE FUDGE AND JOHN CECIL WATTERS!

The French Connection

"He was such a nice addition to our family." 

- Nat Watters, August 10, 2014

This is the unusual story of a friendship that involves a Frenchman, the U.S. Army, lack of proficiency of the English language, the Indianapolis 500, the Grand Prix of Monaco, a restaurant in New York, Sports Illustrated, and several generations of Walkers and Watters.

René Dreyfus was a French gentleman and racing car driver from Nice, France. In the 1920s and 1930s he raced Maseratis, Ferraris, Bugattis, and more. He became the Race Champion of France in 1938, and won the 1930 Grand Prix of Monaco. In the early 1960s, he was awarded the Legion of Honor by President Charles de Gaulle. In 1940, when René was the equivalent of a corporal in the French army, he was granted special leave to represent France and compete in America's premier race, the Indianapolis 500. While in the U.S. for that race, Germany conquered and occupied France, and René was trapped in this country. He joined the United States Army and was sent to Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1942. Because his English was so poor, he was assigned to the 40th Battalion, a special unit reserved for illiterates.  

And here's where we come into the story. Florence Dale Walker was a USO volunteer who served coffee and snacks to Camp Croft's soldiers every Sunday. If you are a grandchild on the Walker/Watters side, Florence was your great grandmother - the mother of Natalie and David. She invited René to Sunday dinner, and according to René, "I was a little surprised at the invitation, but I went. And almost every Sunday after that, too." Natalie was a teenager and David was preparing to go to West Point. Arch Walker contacted Miss Gee, who René described as a "lady professor of French at Converse College" who taught him English on a regular schedule, and he passed his I.Q. test and became an American citizen on February 1, 1943. After leaving Spartanburg, René was sent to Europe where he was put in charge of a transportation company composed of 100 American and 100 British vehicles to be landed in Italy.

After the war ended, René settled in New York and with his brother Maurice and sister Suzanne and founded Le Chanteclair, which opened in 1953. It was a small and fashionable restaurant which became a popular stop for international auto racers. 

Somewhere in his travels, René lost his address book and with it contact information for his Spartanburg friends. As fate would have it, Sports Illustrated published a story about the brothers and the restaurant and in Spartanburg, Arch Walker read the story. A few months later, Natalie was in New York and called Le Chanteclair. René's account of the reunion follows: "Maurice called me at my apartment from the restaurant, and said that a lady with a Southern accent had inquired about me and that he had given her my phone number. A few minutes after that the phone rang. When I heard the voice, I shouted Natalie! - it came at once - how did you find me?" The two friends caught up over lunch.

In 1984, René, his brother Maurice and Maurice's wife Renée visited Spartanburg for a few days, and the families remained friends until René's death in 1993.