Nashville Retrospect

Dancing at the Hermitage Hotel. Being at teenager at the start of World War II. Confronting Jim Crow injustices. Host Allen Forkum (editor of The Nashville Retrospect newspaper) interviews 94-year-old Mary B. Williams, who also recalls her career as a presenter in the early days of Nashville television, when commercials were performed live and occasionally made for humorous bloopers. (Segment begins at 04:40) (Special thanks to Tom Vickstrom) Mary Binkley Williams and her husband, Thurman P. Williams, are pictured at the time of her marriage in 1942 when she was 18 years old. She grew up at 1509 Russell St. in East Nashville before going with her husband to Virginia the day after their marriage. (Image: Mary B. Williams) The Hermitage Hotel, Nashville’s first million-dollar hotel, opened in 1910 and is pictured here on a vintage postcard. Mrs. Williams has fond memories of the hotel, from fraternity dances, to sorority lunches, and even her honeymoon. (Image: Mike Slate) Mrs. Williams landed a job modeling