Lois Brown Seawright had represented

her family proudly, bringing a doctor to Fayetteville and giving birth

to two beautiful daughters, one who would bring a great mayor to the town,

but she did not inherit all of the family's good looks. In fact her

sister Louvale was being referred to as the "prettiest girl in Fayette

County." Louvale Brown watched her sister Lois marry and start a

family and was anxious to do the same. Louvale was younger than her sister.

Lois had spent her teenage

years in the living quarters in the county jail with her father, Sheriff

Tobe Brown, a foreboding character. She was there in 1908 when he fended

off a lynch mob that was after accused murderer Jim Bennett while her

mother hid Bennett in the clothes hamper.

Louvale's mother Elvira

was never convinced that Bennett was guilty although the mob was. A jury

eight days later would be convinced enough to convict him of murder. Louvale

watched as her father hid Bennett under his lap robe (a type of blanket

used on buggy's in the winter) and spirited him away to Jonesboro

for safekeeping until his trial. Bennett was charged with killing Buddy

McEachern, the former town postmaster, and a jury quickly sentenced him

to death by hanging.

The hanging caused quite a

stir in town. Louvale's father Tobe couldn't bring himself to

"pull the trigger" on the gallows that day in 1908 and asked

Sheriff Brown (no relation) from Clayton County to come to Fayetteville

and perform that function. Louvale was 17 at the time. The hanging near

the town square was a big event in 1908, drawing more than a thousand

people to the town square.

Exciting events, no matter

how tragic, were rare for the small town of Fayetteville. Another exciting

event would soon come to Fayetteville and change the life of Sheriff Brown,

his wife Bunch, Louvale and eventually the entire town.

In late June of 1910 a carnival

visited Fayetteville. These carnivals might stay in a town for days or

weeks depending on their success and the town's turnout. During this

1910 visit a "carney" worker named O'neil Lindley Dettmering,

nicknamed Whitey because of the blonde hair he had as a child, spotted

the pretty young Louvale Brown.

The carnival was called Wood's

Shows and included a poodle performing tricks as well as a carousel and

many other attractions.

Whitey was the son of Leo and

Frederica Dettmering, immigrants from Frankfurt, Germany, who had settled

in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Whitey's parents died and left him

to be raised by two aunts who eventually became blind. Whitey joined the

traveling carnival for adventure. When he saw Louvale Brown in Fayetteville,

he gave up his sense of adventure for his infatuation with the girl he

soon learned was the sheriff's daughter.

An unexpected fire disrupted

the carnival on July 4, 1910. The only thing not disrupted was Whitey

Dettmering's intentions. Although he knew he would have to proceed

with caution in pursuing the sheriff's daughter, proceed he did.

When the carnival moved on

from Fayetteville, Whitey Dettmering did not. He convinced Louvale Brown

to run off to Griffin with him and get married. He took her to Texas for

a short while, but as all of the women in her family had done, she convinced

her husband to take her