Real Name: Martha Lois Hinkle
Case: Lost Sister
Location: Greeneville, Tennessee
Date: July 1924
Case[]
Details: Martha Hinkle is the twin sister of Mary Carter. They were given up for adoption as infants. The Hinkle family has since found Mary, but they are still searching for Martha. The family has survived hard times and endured to see better times. But there is a sadness that the passing of sixty-five years has not managed to erode. It began when Mary and Martha were torn from their home. The family hopes that if Martha is found, those painful memories will finally be put to rest.
In 1924, the Hinkle family lived in Greeneville, Tennessee, a small rural community sixty miles northeast of Knoxville. Though the Great Depression was five years away, it had arrived earlier for the tobacco farmers who carved out a marginal living in the countryside. Times were tough that summer, and tenant farmer Rufus Hinkle was forced to make an agonizing decision.
On May 22, 1924, Julie Hinkle, Rufus' wife of twenty-two years, died shortly after giving birth to Mary and Martha. With nine other children to feed and care for, Rufus felt incapable of making ends meet. One day in July, he took the twins away, telling his children that he was taking them to the hospital because they were sick. Rufus' youngest son, Albert "Shorty" Hinkle, was four at the time. He says that Rufus loved his family and hated to part with any of them, especially the twins. But, Shorty says, he had to make a sacrifice and do what was best for the family.
On that hot July afternoon, Rufus took Mary and Martha on a one-way trip to the Holston Home for Children, an orphanage in Greeneville. He hoped to reclaim them once his fortunes improved. Rufus' granddaughter, Jackie Reynolds, believes that after he left them at the orphanage, he worried about them and thought about them a lot.
Several weeks later, Rufus changed his mind. He and his son, Lloyd, went to the orphanage to see if they could take Mary and Martha back. Sadly, it was too late. They had already been given away to separate families. The orphanage tried to place them together, but it was not possible. An employee told Rufus that the twins were with "fine" families. Sadly, he never saw them again. On June 4, 1950, he passed away at the age of seventy-seven.
At one point, Shorty heard that the orphanage would not tell the Hinkle family where Mary and Martha were located until after Rufus died. So shortly after his death, the family started looking for them. In 1955, Shorty contacted the orphanage. Though they were unable to locate Martha, they were able to trace Mary, who was adopted by the Saunders family. In September, Shorty and his wife, Jo, drove to Bluefield, West Virginia, to meet the sister he never knew.
As Shorty and Jo drove by Mary's house, Jo said to him, "Look right there. That's her. She looks just like your brother". He says he knew from the first time he saw Mary that she was his sister. He remembers their reunion as a very happy time. He says it was like finding a part of himself that had always been missing.
Mary says she feels great knowing that she and her siblings can all be together as a family and that they are a part of her and she is a part of them. On the afternoon of her reunion with Shorty, she learned that she had a twin sister, Martha. She says she cannot explain how she felt, not knowing that she had a twin sister – a part of her.
Shorty told Mary that the orphanage had lost track of Martha. She had never been officially adopted but had instead been sent to a temporary home. As a result, the Hinkle family has been unable to locate her. Mary and Shorty have often wondered how Martha’s life has been, where she is located, and if she is searching for them as well.
In 1986, thirty years after Mary was found, Jackie took on the family quest. She started her search for Martha at the orphanage. While there, she uncovered the original orphanage records. She learned that in November 1924, Martha had been temporarily given to Charles and Lida Meeks of Johnson City, Tennessee, a small town thirty miles from Greeneville.
Jackie centered her search around Johnson City. She went through old record books, census records, city directories, and things of that sort. She went down City Street, where the Meeks were supposed to have lived. However, she was unable to find any trace of them. So, she does not know what happened to them from there. Not much is known about the Meeks other than the fact that Charles was a thirty-four-year-old farmer and a member of the Holiness Church.
In April 1990, three generations of the Hinkle family got together for a family reunion. Only one person was missing: Martha. Today, the family refuses to give up the search for her. They are certain that she is alive somewhere. They want her to become part of a family that has never stopped caring about one another.
Shorty says their family has been very close, but they are not complete without Martha. He says when they found Mary, that was "part of it". But there is still a part of them that is missing. Mary says reuniting with Martha would be the happiest day of her life.
There are no known pictures of Martha. But there is a chance that she and Mary are identical twins. They were born in the spring of 1924. They were taken to the Holston Orphanage (also known as the Holston United Methodist Home for Children) in Greeneville, Tennessee, when they were four months old.
Extra Notes:
- This case first aired on the October 24, 1990 episode. It was updated on the October 16, 1991 episode.
- Some sources spell Rufus' name as "Rufis" and state that he died in 1955.
Results: Solved - In May 1991, shortly after this story was re-aired, a viewer, Sandy DeTinne of San Bernardino, California, contacted the Hinkle family with surprising news. During a search for her mother's biological family (she initially believed her mother was related to the Hinkle family), Sandy accidentally discovered the location of Martha's adoptive family.
Martha had lived with Charles and Lida Meeks for three years. Sandy found records from the Mormon church that showed that Charles had been treated at a Veterans Administration center in Johnson City, Tennessee. She and Jackie traced Charles, Lida, and Martha to Meeks, Georgia (a town named after Charles' family).
Shortly after moving to Georgia, Charles and Lida divorced. Martha initially went to live with Charles but was later adopted by his friend, Dan Jackson, and Dan’s wife, who lived in Johnson County, Georgia. In 1940, Martha married James Thomas, and they had four sons. They later moved to Savannah, Georgia, where she worked in a nursing home. She was known by her family and friends as a very giving and caring person.
Sadly, on April 19, 1991, Martha passed away at the age of sixty-seven, just weeks before the Hinkle family could contact her. Mary says she is glad that she found Martha and that they will not have to do any more searching. But she is sad that she was unable to meet Martha and be with her. She wanted to talk with Martha for just an hour or two and tell her that she loved her.
Although she never realized her dream of meeting her sister, Mary's thirty-five-year search was not in vain. On July 27, 1991, Martha's four sons met Mary and a side of the family they had never known. That day, in a bittersweet reunion, the two families came together as one.
One of Martha's sons, Trenny Thomas, says that he and his brothers were part of the Hinkle family before they even walked up and hugged them; it was "written all over their faces". When he saw their smiles and tender hearts, all of his fears and apprehensions just left. It was all over. And he was glad to be home with his family.
Mary says she is proud that Martha left four sons – left part of her here for Mary to get together and know her through her sons. She says, "Part of me is gone that I never found and never will find. But she'll always be in my heart".
On December 4, 1995, Shorty passed away at the age of seventy-five. On December 9, 2007, Mary passed away at the age of eighty-three.
On February 8, 2005, Rev James Trenith “Trenny” Thomas Sr. passed away at the age of fifty-six.
Links:
- TV to air Martha’s mystery (Page 1)
(Page 2) - April 21, 1990 - Long-sought twin found to have died - June 3, 1991
- Search for twin has an unhappy ending - June 4, 1991
- Hinkle hunt ends bittersweet - July 1, 1991
- Rufus Hinkle’s Obituary
- Mary Carter on Find a Grave