Happy Birthday Aunt Grace

Grace Kelly Birmingham would have been 114 today; as many of you know she died in 1994 just a few days after her 100th birthday.

Today is also the birthday of a close friend and of Carl Kingsley, my first cousin, whom many of you know.

Tomorrow is the 40th birthday of my one and only daughter; cannot believe my baby is 40.

Plantersville Town Meeting

Received the following message from Gloria:

"I need the help of each of you that is receiving this email. Our town has been "adopted" for lack of a better word, by a graduate class at Mississippi State University to assist with brainstorming and strategic planning to improve the quality of life in our town. This began back in January of this year with meetings with Dr. Marty Wiseman and Dr. Phil Hardwick of the Stennis Institute for Government at MSU. How can you help? First of all, the most important thing we need is your attendance. Dr. Wiseman and Dr. Hardwick go all over the country doing this type of workshop and training, and they are not charging us a penny to come and work with us. Secondly, you can get the word out to your neighbors, friends, etc. Not all of you that are getting this email actually live in the city limits of Plantersville, but I emailed you because of some ties you have, whether they be business, church, community involvement, etc. It has been stressed to me over and over that attendance can make the difference. The meeting will be on Saturday, Sept. 20th, from 9:00-2:30 a.m. and will be held in the Fellowship Hall at the First Baptist Church on Old Planters Road. Frances Wuichet, Neicy Grant, and Shirley Freeman are our food committee and may be contacting some of you to assist with the noon meal. I will need help with publicity as well, as we want every living, breathing soul in this town to take part. From this meeting, a trip is already being planned by MSU to go to Washington, D. C. to look for money after we develop this plan that will tell us what we are willing to do and what we need to do in our town. If you don't see someone's name in the list that I sent out, please forward it on to any other person/people that you know has ties to this community. I want happy people, disgruntled people, indifferent people, passionate people, young, old and in-between. Please let me hear fr om you as I will need your help to make this a success. If you would like to volunteer for the food, please contact one of the ladies on the committee. If you want to volunteer in some other way, just email me back. I am so exctied about what this can do for all of us. Thank you for taking the time to read this epistle! GH"

Joan and Jimmy

I borrowed this picture of Jimmy and Joan Jeffreys from Amy Bostick's blog. Jimmy, as many of you know, is married to Sharon Monts, and Joan, who underwent back surgery this week, lives in south Alabama.

Jimmy and Joan are Carole's first cousins. Carole and I met in the spring of 1964; despite having been in high school together for one year, neither of us remembers encountering the other in school.

In the spring of 1965, on a Tuesday night, Carole and I had our first date, and the next day Jimmy and Sharon married at the Methodist Church in Plantersville, I think. Amy correct me if I have that wrong.

To continue this small world story; Jimmy and Joan's mother once dated my uncle, and their father, Benjamin, worked at the Strand, later the Tupelo, theater, where many of us spent our Saturdays.

Amy Bostick's Father-in-Law

Amy sent the following:

"We got some bad news yesterday. Heath's dad has cancer. It is in both lungs, around his heart, in his stomach and his liver. It is just a matter of how much time we have left with him. He is at home and on pain medication. Please be in prayer for him and the whole Bostick family. With God's grace we will be fine. I know it isn't going to be easy but with prayer it will be bearable."

Thanks,

Amy

Elizabeth Kelly Langa

I spoke with Elizabeth on the telephone yesterday which was her 83rd birthday.  She's had some health issues but sounded good; friends were taking her out to eat last night.

Minor Surgery

I had a little surgery on my left arm this morning to remove a possible skin cancer which reminds me of one of my Uncle Ernest's favorite jokes.  As most of you know, Uncle Ernest was a surgeon in Memphis and liked to ask if anyone knew the definition of minor surgery.  Answer: surgery on someone else. I would have to agree; as Uncle Ernest frequently said, it is never natural to cut into the human body.

But all went well and I'm fine.

Plantersville From the Air

What can you recognize; not a lot looks familiar to me.

Clicking on the picture should enlarge it.

Barry Collier

Mike Collier's oldest son, his wife and three children joined the church that Carole and I attend yesterday. Barry told me that his grandmother, Grey Collier, would be entering a nursing home soon, and he thought that Flossie Monts would be entering one as well.

Hill Country of Monroe County

I have added a link to Terry Thornton's Hill Country of Monroe County, one of the best and most interesting blogs I have read.

Terry's Plantersville connection is that he is married to Betty Rooker whose parents lived in Plantersville near where Jiggs Monts lived. I think Mrs. Rooker and her daughter, Joyce, are now in a nursing home.

I don't know Terry, but there is a personal connection as well. His sister-in-law, Ellen, is married to my first cousin's son, and some years ago, they lived next door to the Rookers in Plantersville.

Miss Flossie

The doctors have requested that Flossie should receive no telephone calls to her room or receive any visits.

Flossie

I received the following in an e-mail from Gloria Holland:

"If you would like to send Miss Flossie a card via email, all you have to do is go to the North Mississippi Medical Center's web site and, I think it is on the right side, there is a place where it instructs you to send patients and email. Her room is 182. Please pass this on to anyone that you think might want to send one."

Can someone give us an update on Flossie's condition?

Happy Birthday Dad

I met a former pastor of First Baptist in Clinton today and during our discussion he mentioned that today would have been his father's 114th birthday; today would have been the 100th birthday of Ezekiel Candler Kelly.

Fairgrounds School

The Fairgrounds school in a picture taken in the 1920s. Does anyone recognize any of the students?

Tulane Posey

Tulane Posey from an article about Richmond.

These old eyes can't read the cut line; will some of you younger folks report what it reads.

The Twins and Classmates

From left: Ann and Sue Ellis, Jean Lann, and Joe Hussey.

The twins, Ann and Sue, lived on the hill next to Raymon who was their mother's brother. Before Raymon married my mother, he and their dad, Bill Ellis, farmed together, but after marrying mother, Raymon took aa job in Tupelo driving an oil truck for the Pure Oil Company. and Bill and his family farmed the land. Ann and Sue had sisters, Martha, Jean and Billie and brothers, John and Jimmy.

Ann married Boy Drake and they live in the Tupelo area; Sue married a Weeks, someone help me with his first name, who died several years ago; Sue has remarried and lives out of state, Arkansas maybe?

Sadly, I only see my former neigbors and step-cousins at funerals. I saw Ann and her sister, Martha, at my mother's funeral on June 1.

I did not know or have forgotten Jean and Joe and hope someone can give an update on them. I know there are a number of Hussey families in the Richmond area.

These Four

If you can not read the names, from left: Junior Morgan, Joyce McWhorter; Jean West and Helen Presley.

Can someone give me an update on one or all of these four; I think I know something about a couple, but because my memory is not infallible these days would like someone to substantiate.

Helen Presely was the sister of Reed whose picture I posted a month or so ago; Reed's son, her nephew, and I have exchanged e-mails; he's a cousin as his mother was a Kelly.

I think Junior, Joyce and Jean all lived east of Plantersville near where I lived with Raymon. Where did the Presley family live?

Jack Andersen

At my mother's funeral in June several people asked me about a former neighbor here in Clinton, Jack Andersen, whose wife Jo Ann (she died several years ago) was a Donaldson from East Tupelo and attended Lawhon School. She wrote an article about the school published in Gail Geno's history of Lawhon.

Jack died last week while we were in Orange Beach. He was a good friend and neighbor; in fact, we hid my daughter's car in his garage when Cam and Tim were married in 1999.

Jack's father-in-law had a candy company in East Tupelo; Jack worked there in the 50s.

Brother Johnson's 100 Birthday

Today would have been Brother Silas Johnson's 100 birthday; he was only a couple of weeks older than my dad who would have been 100 on the 20th of this month.

McFarling Famiy

Karen Daniel, the daughter of Gwynne McFarling, lives in Denver and recently discovered this blog. Her mother, grandfather, great grandfather and other family members are all an important part of my memories of growing up in Plantersville.

My earliest memory is running away to Mr. Monts' store. I was fortunate that there was little traffic on Highway 6 in those days considering the number of times I probably crossed the road without supervision. I've been told that at times I made my escape to the store in the buff.

Youth Group

I hope someone can identify these young folks.

More Youth Pictures

Plantersville Youth Group

I found these pictures online from the youth group of Plantersville Baptist Church taken in 2007.

Blocked Road

The pecan tree which struck the young's man garage also blocked the road in front of his house.

Old Pecan Tree

A large, old pecan tree on the property of the old Hillman College adjoining First Baptist Church crashed down on this young man's driveway striking two vehicles and his garage.

Church Services Have Been Cancelled

We received a call early yesterday morning from our Sunday School secretary informing us that all services at First Baptist Church had been cancelled due to a thunderstorm which roared through here Saturday night.
On the left is the church parking lot, the activity building and the church. At six last night, power had still not been restored to this area of Clinton.

Miss Carly and the Sail Boat

Carly relaxing on a sail boat which belonged to her friend, Isabella's Dad.

The Pool

A shot of the pool from the balcony; that's Carly and a friend on the left. Carly met two friends and stayed in the pool with one of them most of the day.

One of her friends, Ellie Pratt, was from Columbia, Tennessee, and the other one, Isabella Kral, was from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Last Week's View

Our view of the Gulf that we enjoyed last week in Orange Beach.

Brother Johnson With Brother and Sister

I copied this picture from Cathy's site; Brother Silas Johnson is the youngest pictured with his brother, Paul, and sister, Mildred.

About eight years after this picture was taken, Paul was killed on Christmas Day by a drunk driver, and later Mildred drowned trying to rescue her husband, who also drowned.

Return from the Beach

We arrived back in Clinton yesterday afternoon after a week in Orange Beach. We had a wonderful vacation despite Carole having a serious fall early on and cutting and bruising herself rather badly. Nothing was broken, and she recovered enough to enjoy our stay. Carly found two friends and spent most of each day in the pool and on the beach playing with them.

My mother-in-law, Altha Tackett, and sister-in-law, Margaret Pickard, met us their last Sunday and stayed through Thursday.

Last Sunday when we left the forecast was for 100 degrees for the next three days; just saw today's forecast which predicts 100 for next four days; the dog days of summer are here, and school begins here next week.