Women's History Month: Giles was first director of county heritage museum

As we celebrate March as Women's History Month, we take a look at some of the prominent women in Henderson County history.

This week's feature is on Jennie Giles, a former news reporter, editor and page designer for the Hendersonville Times-News. She won several North Carolina Press Association awards in her nearly 30 years at the paper and went on to become the first director of the Henderson County Heritage Museum in downtown Hendersonville.

A 1969 graduate of East Henderson High School, Giles is a native of Henderson County and also a descendant of at least 30 of the earliest pioneer settlers in Henderson and Polk counties. She has spent more than 30 years studying the area's history and genealogy.

Giles, who attended Wake Forest University and UNC Asheville, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in sociology, began her journalism career at the Times-News in 1972, working as a proofreader until 1982. She obtained her teacher's certification and taught social studies in Henderson County and Polk County schools for five years before returning to the Times-News in 1992.

She has a passion for the county's history and heritage.

"Our heritage and history are often ignored. People moving here don't even know in which community they live," she said.

It was this passion that inspired her to write many award-winning stories, including features on lost cemeteries in the county and Hendersonville's unsolved murder case from 1966.

The cemetery series began when two old family cemeteries were destroyed (later we found more). The Henderson County Cemetery Advisory Committee and the Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society have worked hard to preserve our county's history and heritage through the preservation of the cemeteries," Giles said.

Five months of hard work and research went into the series about the unsolved murder case which was titled "Small town big crime" and was about the triple murders of Vernon Shipman, Charles Glass and Louise Davis Shumate. The eight-day series resulted in Giles receiving the New York Times Chairman’s Award and an N.C. Press Association first place award.

"It was many hours over many months of work, with sleepless nights at the end. The hardest part was separating gossip and rumors from actual facts," she said. "Even today, people still want to believe gossip and rumors. Without the help, at the time, of local law enforcement and retired state law enforcement, this series could not have been written."

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In 2007, Giles left the Times-News to be the Henderson County Heritage Museum's first director. Bill Moss, who was editor at the Times-News then, said he was sad to see her go.

"My initial selfish reaction is, 'That stinks,'" Moss said. "My secondary reaction is Jennie will go from being an off-the-record to an on-the-record source for our questions about Henderson County history and pioneer families. Finally, as a citizen of Henderson County, I congratulate the Heritage Museum for a terrific hire."

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As director, Giles conducted tours to historic sites in the county and and conceived, researched and directed the museum's opening exhibit “Let Freedom Ring.” She also started the website HendersonHeritage.com that has the following sections: History and Heritage, Communities, Cemeteries and Unsolved Triple Murder.

"It is my love for the local Appalachian Mountain people, their history and heritage, that was the impetus for the Communities section of that website and the Cemeteries section," she said, noting that she's planning to have Fletcher and Saluda added in the section in the next few months.

Giles currently teaches a continuing education class at Blue Ridge Community College on the history and heritage of Henderson County.

Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Women's History Month: Award-winning writer Giles' passion was history