On a lighter note, Carly is attending a birthday party today; nothing special about that as she has one just about every weekend, except this one is at the American Doll store in Dallas. They left after the bad weather yesterday arriving in Dallas around ten last night.
Emergency and disaster relief agencies set up a staging area in the parking lot of the Big Lots and Freds on Clinton Blvd. in Clinton.
Yesterday a little before eleven in the morning, the local news station reported a tornado headed toward the Woodmoor subdivision in Clinton, which happens to be where we live. There was intense wind and rain for about ninety seconds, but we did not lose power.
Yesterday was my bride's birthday. We celebrated by eating out last night. In the picture with Mama Cita is our precious Carly.
Carly's new season of softball began last night in weather more suitable for football. That's Carly at bat; she was two for two.
Carole and I celebrated, and that's the right word, our 45th wedding anniversary Saturday. We spend the night in Vicksburg, eating ourselves into oblivion, and then the kids took us out to eat Sunday where this picture was taken with Carly and her monster high doll.
Today is my 71st birthday, where have the years gone; with me in the picture taken a couple of months ago is Laurie George with whom I worked at Hinds.
The 31st chapter of Proverbs describing a virtuous woman lists a number of talents and traits of women we have all known. Many of the contributions of Altha Camille Jeffreys Tackett to family and friends parallel verses in Proverbs 31, as in “she maketh fine linen . . .” and “strength and honour are her clothing,” “she openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness, and “she looketh well to the to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.”
And her children do indeed “arise up, and call her blessed.” Among the talents she so willingly shared were her gifts of sewing, gardening, and cooking. She was one of those gifted persons who could look at a drawing and make a pattern to sew a dress or gown. She could take a neglected plant into her garden and bring it back to life. Her basic recipes as well as her more exotic ones such as gazpacho enhanced with neatly chopped vegetables and croutons were family delights. She could draw and she could make a house look more like a home with her artistic talent. Her sewing included treasured tooth fairy pillows for many young friends complete with the special tooth fairy poem in the little pockets.
The third child of Mary Jane Dupree and Benjamin Franklin Jeffreys, she heartily focused on her family, devoting herself to her daughters and their families, with a love that has always extended to her sisters and brothers and her nieces and nephews. A sickly childhood made it necessary for her father to home-school her after tonsillitis and a tonsillectomy left her weak and recovering for a long period of time. Family love and nursing finally brought her back to health and allowed her to enjoy relatively good health for years. The influence of her father and his teaching of writing and reading no doubt influenced her in her love for words and her hobby of working crossword puzzles. She chuckled about ‘Papa Jeff’s’ dismay over her lack of aptitude for learning the multiplication tables and studying arithmetic.
Her love for children was shown in her work with five-year-olds in Sunday School at Calvary Baptist Church, as well as nursery work. She worshiped at South Green Baptist Church, and later also found joy in her church home when she joined St. Luke United Methodist Church.
Her ‘outside’ work included years at Reeds and then at South Central Bell where she retired in 1988. She and her family survived the Tupelo tornado of 1936, and she saw her husband, brother and brothers-in-law off to World War II.
She cherishes memories of her parents and her sisters, Velma, Alma and Ann. and her brothers, Bennie Addison (Donk) and J. C. (Billy).
Family members who delighted in and will always cherish her personality and life are her daughters Carole Kelly and her husband George, and Margaret Pickard; her grandson Marshall Jenkins; granddaughter Cameron Kelly Chennault and her husband Tim; her great-granddaughter Carly Grace Chennault; her niece Laney Sims and her husband Tip and their daughter Paula; brother and sister-in-law Huey and Linda Jeffreys; and sister-in-law Betty Jeffreys.
“Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” Proverbs 31:30 Surely Altha favored this verse, but there was nothing wrong with her asking for her lipstick even when being treated in the emergency room. She confessed with a chuckle that her longevity might be attributed to the fact that she felt her kids don’t have sense enough to handle things without her. . .
Plantersville's own Steve Holland had the honor of being roasted last Saturday night in Jackson for a charity event.
Karen Balint sent this a week or so ago while I was in Tupelo.
Carole's mom and my sweet mother-in-law, Altha Tackett, died Thursday, February 24 at Darlington Oaks in Verona; services were Sunday at two at Holland Funeral Home.
