Nettie Carter Bridges Rivenbark -- Prisoner Advocate

 

Nettie Carter Bridges Rivenbark

Nettie Carter Bridges was born on October 17, 1916 in Canton, Kentucky.  She was the second of three daughters of Alvin Ghent Bridges and Bertha Tyner Major Bridges. Both Alvin and Bertha were natives of Trigg County, Kentucky and Alvin was a son of Ghent and Nettie Cunningham Bridges.  Alvin worked for the Army Corp of Engineers building locks and dams on the area bridges. Because of her father’s job, the family lived in eight different states while Nettie was growing up.  Nettie’s two sisters were  Eleanor Major Bridges, born in 1915 and married William Cleere and Edith Landis Bridges, born in 1920 and married Tudor Strang.

The family finally settled in Hopewell, Virginia where Nettie graduated from high school.  She later went to Nashville where she attended Hume Fogg Preparatory School studying journalism.

After returning to Hopewell, she met Wilburn Harley Rivenbark, Jr. of Norfolk, Virginia.  Nettie and Wilburn were married on October 6, 1935 in a ceremony at the home of the bride’s parents with a large number of friends and relatives witnessing the ceremony. Wilburn was born on April 11, 1915 in Burgaw, North Carolina, the son of Wilburn Harley Rivenbark, Sr. and Scenie R. McLendon Rivenbark, both natives of North Carolina.

Nettie and Wilburn lived in Hopewell after their wedding where Wilburn worked as a teacher. In 1943, they moved to Deland, Florida where Nettie lived for the rest of her life except for five years when she lived in Georgia.  Nettie volunteered as a worker with local prisoners to improve their care.  In 1979 and 1981 she received special awards from the Volusia County Florida Department of Corrections for a Spiritual Program she created for the local prisoners. She was also active in the Democratic Party and worked for the local Election Department.  Wilburn worked as a teacher and coach at the Seabreeze High School and later became dean of the Daytona Beach Community College.

Nettie and Wilburn were the parents of four children, Wilburn Harley Rivenbark, III, born in 1936 and married Charlotte Loren Bowden and then married Nova Lacefield; Kenneth Forrest Rivenbark, born in 1938 and married Beverly Carol Bell and later married Sherry Lee Radtke; Patricia Anne Rivenbark, born in 1941 and married Edward Houston Hendricks; and Randi Diane Rivenbark, born in 1948 and married Edsel Wilkin Poole and later married Clare Eric Snell.  Nettie and Wilburn were divorced on July 25, 1977.

Nettie Carter Bridges Rivenbark died on April 7, 2003 at the age of 93 in the Deland Highlands community of Deland, Florida.  She was cremated and her ashes were buried in the Drury Bridges Cemetery in the Maple Grove community in Trigg County, Kentucky.

 Nettie Carter Bridges in 1934

Young Nettie standing on a car running board in Maple Grove in 1921

Nettie Carter Bridges Rivenbark tombstone

LINEAGE:   (Nettie Carter Bridges was the daughter of Alvin Ghent and Bertha Tyner Major Bridges and the granddaughter of Ghent Alford (Alfred) and Nettie Linden Cunningham Bridges.  Ghent was the third child of Cullen Thomas and Martha Virginia Thomas Bridges.  Cullen was the twelfth child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges.  William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)