When I first married William and moved to this little town, I heard some wild stories about the people and the place. Most of the stories I hear involve my husband’s grandfather, Dr. W.R. Carter who seems to be a Legend in Repton. So wild were these stories, I thought for sure they couldn’t be true, thus allowing for the Lies in the title. However, so far, most have been proven true and those that haven’t will forever be Myths! Below are a few of my favorites! I will add stories as I hear them. If you know of any, please, we’d love to hear them too!

Graduating from High School meant wearing a
DRESS for Ms. Harper Lee, author of
“To Kill a Mockingbird”. Ms. Harper was not
very fond of wearing that dress and would have
preferred to skip the ceremony to avoid the dress.

Just before graduation, Ms. Harper had an
appendicitis attack and ended up in Carter
Hospital where Dr. W.R. Carter performed an
appendectomy. Therefore, Ms. Harper was able
to avoid the graduation ceremony and the dress!
Her family laughed and teased that it was premeditated
and she had done this on purpose!

Realizing Ms. Harper missed her graduation,
Dr. Carter sent for her diploma. When it
arrived, he entered her room, gave a
baccalaureate speech and presented Ms. Harper
Lee with her High School Diploma!

When William & I got married and I arrived in Repton, everyone knew me but I knew very few. So, the first day at church, everyone wanted to introduce themselves. When Mrs. Helen Langlois introduced herself, she told me how she use to spend the night with William’s Aunt Ann in the Carter Home (Dr. Carter’s home which we live in). She then proceeded to tell me how she and Ann caught Dr. Carter one night “spiking the punch”. My husband’s grandmother was a devout Baptist and there was NO drinking to my knowledge. So I shrugged the story off thinking she must have been mistaken. Years later, I told Aunt Ann that Mrs. Helen had told me a story about “Doc” but I didn’t believe it. Before I could go any further, Aunt Ann said “every word of it is true!” I replied that she didn’t know what I was going to say. Then she told the story in its entirety. Aunt Ann said that “Doc” grew tired of all the meetings/parties that Tae (Mrs. Alice Carter-his wife) would have at the house. So, at one particular state WMU meeting (a womens mission meeting with the preacher in tow), “Doc” slipped into the dining room without notice, so he thought, and spiked the punch. When his eyes turned toward the kitchen door, he saw two little girls (Ann & Helen) observing his actions. “Doc” simply smiled brought his finger to his lips meaning shhhhh, don’t tell. Aunt Anne then told me with a bit of glee in her voice, “Daddy always said that was the best damn meeting mother ever had!”

My husband, William, told me this story. William is definitely Scotch/Irish because he can tell a huge fib with an incredibly sincere face! I am told he is a lot like his grandfather (Dr. Carter). William said that when he was a teenager he was pushing his grandfather, “Doc” around the old Carter Hospital when his grandfather said to him, “you see that tree, that’s were I tied him”. William then told me a story I knew had to be a lie! I repeated this story to a group of older ladies one day and stated that I was sure it wasn’t true. One of the ladies began to smile and chuckle and I asked her why. She said, “it is true because I was the one that brought the man to the hospital!” The story goes like this….

One Friday night sometime in the 1940’s, a gentlemen got his paycheck and began to drink until he became very intoxicated. Back then Repton was a very busy railroad town and I’m told that on a Friday & Saturday night you could hardly walk the streets for all the people. And, it was common for the men to let off some steam on the weekends. Anyway, the man got into a fight and he was cut open from one side of his abdomen to the other leaving his intestines to be seen by everyone! He was brought to Carter Hospital and “Doc” proceeded to sew him up. Just about the time he would finish, the man started jumping and pulled all his stitches out. Not amused, “Doc” told the man that if tried this again, he was going to make sure he wouldn’t be able to pull any more out! For the second time, “Doc” proceeded to sew him up and again the man started jumping and pulled out his stitches. “Doc” calmly left the operating room, went into the kitchen and picked up an iron “frying pan” and upon returning he hit the man in the head, knocked him out, sewed him up and then tied him to a tree outside until he sobered up!