Jerrold Waverly

*"Will Rogers always said he never found a man he didn't like.... Unfortunately, he never met Carl Griggs, now, did he?" - Jerrold Waverly*

**Jerrold Waverly** is former Mayor of Lake Wales in Hamilton County and a former resident of Ashford Falls, New York. Considered an amenable and effervescent local personality, he has had a long established career as a lawyer and local politician with altruistic pursuits.
Born in or around 1920, Waverly's family has had a long family tradition of mostly doctors and medical practitioners. His father served in World War One, and his grandfather was a physician in the infamous Andersonville Civil War Prison in Georgia. He has two siblings, Albert Waverly and Anna Whaley. With his close friend, Alan Fairwood, they attended the original Ashford Falls High School in the 1940s when it was located in the Culbertson Mansion. Among his classmates was Carter Hedison, whose sister, Naomi Hedison, had briefly dated Jerrold, but she was often wooed by Albert and Alan. Jerrold soon developed eyes for Jennifer Tidicutt, the daughter of a local teacher. Although she was not interested in him at first, he gradually earned her love and respect and married her. They had two daughters, named Morgan and Simone Waverly.

Breaking from family tradition, Jerrold pursued a career in law and attended Albany Law School in the Fifties, briefly working in a Schenectady law firm before getting a job for Mayor Frank W. Kerr in Lake Wales. When Kerr's office was exposed on charges of corruption, Jerrold served as his replacement for ten months, getting re-elected in 1957 and serving two more terms intil 1971. During his time in office, he adopted Timothy Bond, the son of one of his employees, a single mother who had died of cancer.

Unlike his brother, Jerrold avoided investing in Hedison Pharmaceuticals to avoid a conflict of interest, but he often chided Mayor Carl Griggs of Ashford Falls for showing favoritism toward Carter that favored his businesses. He was interested in challenging Griggs for the office in 1991, but his tenure in Lake Wales was not up yet. During his career, Jerrold was greatly influenced by former Ashford Falls Mayor Lionel Creekmore, and like him, ran on preservation projects that protected local landmarks, road projects and development as well as reversing the damage by Kerr's administration. When he decided to retire, he backed his own administrator, Isabella Kramer, as his replacement. After him, Kramer was the first woman mayor to serve in the county.

Since his retirement, Waverly has spent his time camping and hiking on the trails in Haverstraw Canyon west of town and going on fishing trips at Winchester Lake with Alan and his brother, who he called "Allie." In 1991, they were returning to Ashford Falls when they found Jack Gable in a car accident on the bridge at Coogan's Creek, calling Sheriff David Carmichael to rescue him and taking him to Dr. Paul Kirkwood to take care of him.

In 1995, Jerrold was seriously mulling over coming out of retirement to run against Griggs in the Ashford Falls Mayoral Election. Backed by Alan and his brother, as well as by newspaper editor Vernon Potts and local businessman Anthony Marolaro, he started campaigning to unseat the unscrupulous Griggs from office. However, the early campaigning took a hard toll on his physical health, and he collapsed five months into the campaign. Although he survived, he switched his support to Sabrina Collins, a young lady lawyer very quickly gaining the popular vote.

Waverly passed away in 1997, almost exactly two years after his brother. He was buried at Hedgecombe Cemetery behind Ashford Falls Presbyterian Church, the resting place for many of the town's most beloved citizens.