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FEATURE FOR
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2002
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Bill and Edna Heath ~ Valentines for 77 Years |
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At 99 and 94 years old, Bill and Edna Heath are possibly
the county's longest wed couple with 77 happy years
behind, having wed on December 24, 1924 when they were 22
and 17 years old.
Edna recalls the couple probably met at school and Bill
can't quite remember but agrees that she is probably
right.
Bill and Edna Heath on an early outing. |
"That was several years ago," he says with a smile that
rarely leaves his face as he fights occasional bouts of
homesickness with cheerful conversation and lively
memories. Mr. Bill currently resides at the McKenzie
Health Care Center where he moved in September last year
after several falls at home.
"I'd love to go home but I can't," he says, "I like this
too; this here's a nice place." He especially loves Mr.
Charles Jones: "He takes care of me - he's stout!" Mr.
Bill declares.
He enjoys the rare days through the cold season that Edna
can come to visit, though leaving is hard on both husband
and wife, and is more than thankful for daughter "Suzie"
(Suzanne Russell) and son-in-law Dr. Harold Russell.
"She's a college graduate!" he loves to say proudly,
regarding his daughter - an understatement with her
bachelor's degree from Bethel College, coursework at the
University of Tennessee, a master's degree from Peabody
and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University.
He chokes up a bit while recalling giving her a checkbook
when she went to college, saying, "I'm not rich but I'm
going to send you to school; when you get hungry you use
that."
"Suzie's been wonderful," he continues, "She built this
house and said she wanted us to have part of it, then a
couple of years later she met Doc and he moved in, too!"
he says as if it were a knee-slapping joke with a punch
line that was in reality a wonderful blessing.
"He's one of the best men you ever seen; he's a good man.
Before I came here he and I would get out in the car and
take a ride every Saturday and Sunday. I think a lot of
Doc; he's one of the best fellers. I couldn't live without
Doc, he's a wonderful boy, he likes to fish. He's been
awful good to me and my wife," Mr. Bill goes on and on in
happy appreciation.
Suzanne built the duplex in 1992 where she and her husband
reside in one half the home while Bill and Edna live in
the other side, moving from their beloved Gleason to live
near Suzanne who has cared for her parents with great
devotion.
By all appearances, Mr. Bill gained not only a son-in-law
in Dr. Russell but a kindred spirit and friend who has
made his tenth decade of life an even greater joy than it
already was with the many blessings he and his wife have
enjoyed during their lives.
Mr. Bill was born in Greenfield on August 28, 1902 in a
family of five girls and five boys, though little Jack
died as a baby. The family soon moved to Gleason, however,
where Bill grew up.
"Uncle Elmer (Bill's oldest brother) was funny," Suzanne
recalls, "the kids liked to be around him listen to his
stories, he could tell some good ones." Another of her
favorite uncles was Uncle Jiggs (Earnest) who got his
nickname from throwing newspapers while crying, "Read
about Maggie and Jiggs!"
Bill worked at Nance's Mill in Gleason when he was a boy,
putting the inside hoop on sweet potato hampers.
He learned to drive at the age of 14 when his father
bought a car. "I was the only one learned to drive it!" he
laughs. He transported the family to Sunday School and
church every Sunday, where his father was an elder in the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
He remembers making hominy and killing hogs, cooking the
cracklin's in a big kettle slung up over a fire outside.
For their feather beds, his mother plucked the geese
"pretty clean" while Bill held their heads.
"If she pulled a tough one they would bite and I don't
blame them!" he says.
"There were lots of things back in them days we did," he
smiles. "That was our best days; people were closer
together and loved each other more."
Ms. Edna was born in the Sandhill Baptist Church community
in rural Gleason on September 18, 1907 where she grew up
with two younger brothers. Her father was a deacon in
Sandhill Church and Edna grew up playing the piano.
When she was old enough to go to school, she boarded with
"Auntie Jones" in town until she completed the eighth
grade. Bill went through the ninth grade, finishing
several years ahead of Edna.
When he was 18, Bill moved to Michigan where he worked in
the Motor Wheel Plant where spoked automobile wheels were
made from hickory.
Bill had quite an adventure when he, his brother "Jiggs"
and five other boys decided to hitch a ride on a freight
train from Lansing, Michigan to Fulton, Kentucky. They
rode on top of the cars most of the time, running as hard
as they could to escape the "railroad bulls" at each stop
along the way.
"If they caught us they would put us in jail," Bill
declares, "we was scared to death half the time afraid we
would get separated, too."
Money he had hidden in his shoe was worn through from
running and smelly from sweat when he finally took it out
to spend it.
"Where has this money been?" asked a suspicious clerk? "In
my shoe," Bill grinned.
The boys took a bath in Fulton before making their way
home to Gleason.
Bill and Edna married on December 24, 1924 during hard
times in Gleason. Shortly after their marriage, Bill says,
sweet potatoes sold for just a dime a bushel and half of
them rotted unsold.
A better memory was Mr. Blakeman's store which doubled as
a post office. "All the boys", including 24-year old Bill
and his father-in-law, would gather there to collect the
mail while Mr. Blakeman popped popcorn in a long handled
wire popper.
"It wouldn't have any oil on it," Bill says, "I like this
buttered popcorn that you put in the microwave. He pauses
in his story telling to relate how he calls "Suzie" to
say, "Bring me some of that - pop it up and bring it."
"It would still be warm when she would get here," he says.
Bill returned to Michigan with his bride to find the
factory was now making automobile wheels of steel.
"I went north before I got married, then when I came back
they had changed from wood to steel," he says.
The couple was married for 16 years before Suzanne came
along in 1940. She started kindergarten at the age of four
in September, 1944, turning five in October. She was
halfway through first grade when the family moved back to
Gleason where they stayed with Suzanne's Grandmother and
Granddaddy Bullock in the Sandhill community while their
house in town was remodeled.
"Suzie cried when we left, she loved that teacher," he
says.
As World War II came to an end, Bill worked at the Milan
Arsenal where he "was in charge of "one of the biggest
lines over there" as well as the powder house.
The family returned to Michigan after the war for a few
more years, living in Lansing for a total of 26 years. The
years they lived up north were enjoyable years marked by
frequent visits from his parents and in-laws, though the
men were more likely to make the trip while the ladies
stayed home.
He and Edna had a habit of going to Sunday School and
church then going somewhere that afternoon, often a
singing where Edna played the piano. Outings were
especially enjoyable when folks from home were visiting,
however, and Bill loved to show them the cherries growing
on hillsides of red and green. "I tried to show them
everything," he recalls.
A special treat was a trip through the Detroit-Windsor
Tunnel that runs underneath the Detroit River.
"The tunnel goes right under the river from Detroit to
Canady," Bill says in homey terms. "It was scary to my
mother," he says with a mischievous glint in his eye. "I'd
say, 'What if the river breaks through?' and she said,
'Oh! Don't talk like that!'"
There were many southerners living in Michigan and Bill
wasn't the only one with a green thumb. He and other men
would go together to lease a 10-acre tract from a local
farmer who would work up the land for them to use in
planting their gardens.
"That land was just as black and sandy, we had a good
garden," says the veteran gardener who is known in Gleason
for his beautiful gardens and the fact that everywhere he
went he carried a sack of something from his garden to
share with others.
Back in Gleason, Bill began developing the nine-acre tract
he owned along the old McKenzie Highway, adding a grocery
store called Bill's Market (where Ann's Beauty Shop is now
located). What were once cotton fields he sold as lots
including the land upon which the Gleason Funeral Home was
built.
Suzanne recalls her mother enjoyed sewing and was so
proficient that she didn't always need a pattern.
"Many times I called her from school and told her I needed
an outfit for that night and she would have it ready for
me," Suzanne says.
Bill became an alderman on the city board, making many
trips to Nashville on business for the city where he
became acquainted with many businessmen.
"I'll never forget the first time I saw Governor
Browning," he recalls. "He was a big man sitting there in
that arch and I though, 'Lordy mercy, what a man!'"
Bill worked for Jess Margrave's potato business, buying
and selling sweet potatoes, sometimes arriving in a new
town at midnight to find no hotel in town. He later worked
at Frank and Junior Margrave's City Cash Grocery and he
and Edna both worked at the Gleason Department Store for a
time. He operating a dry goods store in Gleason, then
managed a furniture store in Gleason for Herbert Brasfield
before working for Mr. J.A. Abernathy in McKenzie where he
worked until a physical ailment prompted his retirement in
1962.
Ms. Edna continued playing the piano at the First Baptist
Church in Gleason until she could no longer see the music.
Gardening remained Bill's passion even after moving to
McKenzie at the age of 90. While working in his new garden
on Magnolia Street, Mr. Bill paused to eat a plum or two
from an adjacent tree, spitting out the seeds and peeling.
It was only later when he went into the house for a drink
that he realized he had spit out his teeth with the seeds.
After a fruitless hunt, some days later Dr. Russell and
Bill were preparing to leave for a Fourth of July whole
hog barbecue in Gleason at the home of Bill's niece, Helen
and James Dale, when Bill insisted on one last search.
"He went out there and plowed those teeth up!" laughs
Suzanne, showing a bit of her father's humorous nature.
The teeth were still as good as new.
In 1995, Bill's gardening days came to an unfortunate end
when he tripped on a root while working in the garden,
suffering a broken leg that required 11 smaller pins and
one big one to stabilize the bone that feathered from knee
to hip.
Mr. Bill has no regrets. "We've had a good life," he says.
Bill and Edna have two grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren. Grandson Steve Russell is married to
Cherry Murray from Henry. Their children are Travis and
Lee Russell. Marshall Russell is married to Robin Bouldin
from McKenzie. Their children are John and Elizabeth
Russell. |
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Phone (731) 352-3323 or Fax (731)
352-3322
washburn@mckenziebanner.com
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