Fant Thornley

Fant Hill Thornley (born c. 1909 - died 1970) was director of the Birmingham Public Library from 1953 until his death. Prior to that he was a reference librarian from 1949, and had previously been a partner with Emma Bostick in the Columbia, South Carolina publishing company of Bostick & Thornley.

It was because of his friendship with Thornley that Birmingham investment banker Rucker Agee donated his extensive collection of antique maps to the library.

Thornley is thought by some to haunt the Linn-Henley Research Library in downtown Birmingham. In 1977 archivist Marvin Yeomans Whiting saw the elevator doors, then a set of swinging doors open, followed by the smell of Thornley's favorite Chesterfield cigarettes. In 1989 an electrician working at the library says a ghost appeared and spoke to him. He refused to return to the archives area.

References

• Bagley, Jim. "Birmingham Public Library Archives". Alabama Ghostlore. - accessed March 22, 2006
• Barrett, Mark. (October 27, 2005) "Haunted hunt: Searching for the ghosts of Alabama." Birmingham Weekly.
• "Haunted repository? Library staff isn't just blowing smoke." (October 30, 2006) Birmingham News

External links

• The Haunting of Linn-Henley video on YouTube.com