overcoming and becoming

Dad was featured in a full spread in The News and Courier of Charleston, SC - Sunday, June 6, 1937.  The article was about five young people who rose above their physical handicaps and attending the University of South Carolina. Entitled 'Courage of Youth in Face of Life-Long Adversity is Dramatic Lesson to the More Fortunate'.  Here's an Westbrook excerpt of the article written by Nell Flinn Gilland.

"Henry Westbrook Finlayson, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Burruss Finlayson, of Cheraw, suffered a severe attack of infantile paralysis when he was ten months old, but gets about cheerfully on crutches. This is Henry's third year at the university.  Music is his hobby.  At high school he conducted the orchestra during his junior and senior years and had his own summer orchestra. He began as a drummer and became leader and soloist. He wrote both words and music for his high school Alma-mater.  Still more remarkable is the fact that Henry played first base  on a Sunday school league nine. On base he used only one crutch: at bat he used both, and one  year led the batting average for the league.  Henry is well known over the Carolinas and Georgia as the leader of a popular dance band known as Henry Westbrook's Orchestra, for which he is soloist. The orchestra recently played at the opening of the new beach resort, Bamboo Gardens, at St. Simons Island, Ga. Several of his own compositions are played by the orchestra. Both Mrs. Finlayson and one of Henry's sisters have been voice teachers and his home atmosphere was musical.  All seven children, he says, enjoy singing. The Henry Westbrook Orchestra played for some of June week dances at Carolina and hopes to have a beach engagement for the summer."