Family Life
Harry Clifton Byrd was born on February 12, 1889, in Crisfield, Maryland, one of seven children of William Franklin and Sallie May Sterling Byrd. William Franklin Byrd was in the seafood industry and held political office as a member of the Somerset County Board of Commissioners and the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served two terms, 1910-1912 and 1924-1927. Sallie May Byrd was devoted to her family and was a life-long, avid gardener.
Harry Clifton Byrd, nicknamed “Curley” for his magnificent head of black, wavy hair, grew up in Crisfield, graduating from Crisfield High School in the spring of 1905 at the age of sixteen and enrolling in the Maryland Agricultural College (M.A.C.) the succeeding fall.
After his graduation from M.A.C., Byrd pursued a number of employment options, including semi-professional baseball, sports writing, and coaching high school football, before returning to his alma mater to begin a long and distinguished career as a faculty member, football coach, administrator, and president.
Shortly after his return to M.A.C., he married Katherine (Kate) Dunlop Turnbull on December 27, 1913. The Byrds had four children: Harry Clifton, Jr., Evelyn Westover, William Kirkland, and Sterling Jefferson Byrd. They divorced in 1934, and Harry Clifton Byrd never remarried.
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William Franklin Byrd, 1924, during his second term in the Maryland House of Delegates.
From the Sterling Byrd Collection.
Byrd family group in Crisfield. Harry Clifton Byrd is in the striped shirt at left in the back row, standing next to his father, William Franklin Byrd. Byrd’s mother, Sallie May Sterling Byrd, is seated next to the young boy in the sailor suit in the front row.
From the Sterling Byrd Collection.
Crisfield High School graduating class, 1905. Byrd is seated third from the left in the front row.
From the personal papers of Harry Clifton Byrd.
Marriage certificate of Harry Clifton Byrd and Katherine Dunlop Turnbull, December 27, 1913.
From the Sterling Byrd Collection.
Kate and Harry Clifton Byrd feeding the “alligators” on their honeymoon trip to Florida, January 1914.
From the Sterling Byrd Collection.
Byrd and his son, Harry Clifton Byrd, Jr., known as Clifton, c. 1960.
From the Sterling Byrd Collection.
Byrd’s daughter Evelyn receiving a basket of flowers from the Georgetown University cheerleaders, c. 1939. All four of Byrd’s children graduated from the University of Maryland.
From the personal papers of Harry Clifton Byrd.
Harry Clifton Byrd with sons William (Billy) and Sterling in the mountains of West Virginia, August 27, 1936.
From the Sterling Byrd Collection.