Junior, Carroll and Joe

A picture of these three gentlemen (Junior McWhorter, Carroll Mitchell, and Joe Rogers), evokes these memories:


After Raymon died, my uncle found an apartment for my mother in Tupelo, and Joe Ballard and Junior looked after and worked our place. When Joe Ballard retired from farming, Junior continued to take care of the place.

During those years my mother and I grew to trust Junior totally, and I always looked forward to my visits with him.


When I was growing up, Roy Partlow’s store was next door and Charlie Mont’s was across the street while Mitchell’s was farther away, but I saw Carroll some at his father’s store and also at church; years later during my visits with the coffee club at Matt’s, I renewed my acquaintance with Carroll, and we quickly became close friends. For the last ten or twelve years of his life, Carroll and I spoke and corresponded frequently; in fact, I was composing an e-mail to him when I was informed of his death.

In the spring of 1964, I was employed as credit manager for the Sherwin-Williams Paint Company in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and after working there for a few months, I saved enough money to purchase my first car.

Since my mother and Raymon always bought their cars from Joe Rogers, they insisted I come home and talk to him before my purchase.

Times were different then and Fooks Chevrolet had few used cars and none in my price range. Sunday afternoon I boarded the bus on my way back to Jonesboro, and a few minutes later a beautiful young lady entered and took a seat directly in front of me. I was way too shy to initiate a conversation, but fortunately she spoke to me, and we discovered she had been in the tenth grade at Tupelo HIgh my senior year and was friends with Sherry Sumner, Linda Stovall, and ironically Barbara Rogers. She was on her way to Ole Miss where she was a senior.

Three weeks later, I found a car I liked in Jonesboro, but decided to come home and check once more with Joe Rogers who still didn’t have any cars I could afford.

That Sunday my prayers were answered when the same young lady came down the aisle and sat next to me. The bus trip from Tupelo to Oxford seemed to only take a couple of minutes, and since I would not be riding the bus again, I thought I might never see her again.

Almost exactly a year later in the spring of 1965, I was in Tupelo working part time and planning to commute to Ole Miss to summer school when I ran into that lovely young lady again.

In the spring of 1966, April 2, to be exact, Brother Silas Johnson pronounced Carole and me husband and wife.

I am grateful to Junior for not only looking after our place but making it such a pleasant experience, to Carroll for his friendship, and to Joe Rogers for being the catalyst that brought Carole and me together.

Carole Kelly says: "This is the sweetest, finest essay I have read in some time ..."