John Baxton Flowers III Papers
1777-2024; bulk 1969-2024
Manuscript Collection #1001- Creator(s)
- Flowers, John Baxton, III, 1942-; Flowers, Eleanor Gaillard Simons
- Physical description
- 32.64 Cubic Feet, 49 containers and 4 oversize folders
- Preferred Citation
- John Baxton Flowers III Papers (#1001), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
- Repository
- ECU Manuscript Collection
- Access
- No restrictions on most of this collection, but some access restrictions imposed by the donor are in effect until 2029.
Papers (1777-2022) relating to John Baxton Flowers III academic career, family history and Scottish genealogy (Flowers, Kennedy, and Thompson families of Wayne County, NC), historic preservation, horticulture and garden history. Included are correspondence, financial and legal papers, academic records, newspaper clippings, photographs, typescripts, genealogical material, publications, certificates, house plans, watercolor drawings, and newsletters.
Biographical/historical information
John Baxton Flowers III was born in Mount Olive (Wayne County), North Carolina, on September 25, 1942, to John Baxton Flowers, Jr., and Katherine Yelverton Kennedy. He graduated from high school in 1960 and attended Louisburg College and University of South Carolina in Columbia. After he completed service (1965-1969) in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps during the Vietnam War, he graduated from East Carolina University with an AB in history in 1971. Subsequently, he did graduate study work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1972-1974).
Flowers's long and successful career includes Assistant Curator (1972-1974) at the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, research staff member (1974-1976) at the N.C. Division of Archives and History, founding director (1976-1984) of Stagville Preservation Center in Durham, N.C., founding director (1984-1985) of the Thomasville Cultural Center in Georgia, and director of development (1985-1988) for the Community School of the Arts in Charlotte, N.C. At this point his career took him to a different course but still involved in education with his years (1988-1993) at Ketchum, Inc., as capital campaign director in higher education. Ketchum is an international fund-raising consortium. In 1993, Flowers left Ketchum to be Vice President of External Affairs at St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, N.C., and then in 1995 he was named Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Augusta College in Augusta, Georgia. Flowers remained there until he retired in 2005 to his home Tulip Hill near Hendersonville, N.C.
John Baxton Flowers III has been married twice. His first wife was Marilyn Maxine Rogers; they were married on October 4, 1969. Their son John Bryan Kennedy Flowers was born on January 3, 1974. Flowers and his first wife were later divorced. He married Eleanor Gaillard Simons on May 11, 2002.
Administrative information
Custodial History
June 7, 2019, (unprocessed addition 10) 0.80 cubic feet; Correspondence (2002, 2011-2018), diaries (April 1982; 2012 about the garden at Tulip Hill), obituaries and funeral programs of family and friends (2013-2018), correspondence related to a dinner at Tulip Hill to honor the inauguration of Pres. Obama (2013), and membership rosters and ancestor lists and newsletters for Order of First Families of North Carolina (2008-2018), Caledonian Foundation (2014-2015). Also included are papers (2009-2018) related to the North Caroliniana Society, the North Carolina Soc. of The Cincinnati, the Southern Garden History Society, the Sons of the Revolution in North Carolina, the Nat. Soc. of Americans of Royal Descent, and the Soc. of Colonial Wars in the State of North Carolina, Kanuga Conference Center Board of Visitors list (2016), 100th Anniversary of Boy Scouts order of the Arrow (2015), programs, photographs, and articles (1973-1976) by or about John B. Flowers III. Donor: Mr. John B. Flowers III
January 24, 2023, (unprocessed addition 11), 1.0 cubic foot; Personal papers (1989-2022), and issues of The Highlander magazine, and issues of The Social Register. The issues of the 2 publications were transferred to the North Carolina Collection. Donor: Mr. John B. Flowers III
September 24, 2024, (unprocessed addition 12), 1.25 cubic feet; Personal papers (1950-2024) of John Baxton Flowers III including correspondence; material related to his early years, his career, and to the history of the Kennedy family; information related the furnishings in John and wife Eleanor Flowers's home Tulip Hill near Hendersonville, North Carolina; and newsletters, directories and programs related to Scottish genealogy, historic preservation (especially Flat Rock, N.C.), horticulture and garden history, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the National Society of Americans of Royal Descent. Donor:John B. Flowers III
Source of acquisition
Gift of John Baxton Flowers III
Processing information
Encoded by Mark Custer, December 18, 2007
Descriptions updated by Ashlyn Racine, May 2023
Copyright notice
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.
Metadata Rights Declaration
Related material
Eleanor Gaillard Simons Flowers Papers (Manuscript Collection #1053)
Key terms
Personal Names
Flowers, John Baxton, III, 1942-Family Names
Flowers familyCorporate Names
Historic Preservation Society of North CarolinaSociety of the Cincinnati
Southern Garden History Society
Topical
Gardening--North CarolinaGenealogy--Societies, etc.
Historic preservation--North Carolina
Scottish Americans--North Carolina--Genealogy
Places
Mount Olive (Wayne County, N.C.)--GenealogyWayne County (N.C.)--Genealogy