WHITMIRE — A mural that has called the Town of Whitmire home for around 40 years has received a much needed repainting thanks to W.E. Baker and Sons, Inc. and Janette Marvin of Clinton.
“My grandfather Elmer “Brut” Baker had it painted and it has just faded and deteriorated over the years. Before it faded away completely, I just wanted to hire somebody to get it touched up — kind of bring it back to life before we lost it,” said Jesse Baker, W.E. Baker and Sons, Inc.
Baker did research on a woman in Clinton, Janette Marvin, who was currently working on a piece in Clinton. Baker was able to get Marvin to take a look at the mural, to see if she would be interested in taking on the project.
“She came out here, looked at it, and she was really excited about the challenge. She’s never re-done an existing one — so she was definitely interested in that and wanted to take on the challenge. She’s done a great job,” Baker said.
The mural holds a lot family history for Baker — his dad, uncle and grandfather are all in the mural.
“Of course the railroad track is across the street and used to be the old rail station over there (across the street). Lumber would come in by way of that station. Our trucks would be unloading and delivering it to customers,” Baker said. “This is a building supply business — we’re general contractors mainly, but we also have a building supply business here, so we sell lumber and plywood, any type of building material. Those rail cars would bring a lot of the building supplies in and it would be offloaded and either delivered to job sites or to customers.”
Marvin began repainting the mural about a month ago — at the time this interview was conducted, Baker said Marvin had about 95 percent of the mural completed.
“I can tell with her it’s more than just a job. She really enjoys bringing these small towns back to life, if you will,” Baker said.
Baker has also received feedback from the Whitmire community for bringing the mural back to life.
“It means a lot to the people of Whitmire to see it come back, just because it’s something that’s been there for many years. It means a lot to the people in the town and I’ve heard a lot of feedback from people who are really appreciative that we’re bringing it back,” he said.