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Brooxie and Warren Barksdale married nearly 65 years
ago, when both were 17 years old. Warren met Brooxie
at church, and courted her from one of the few
roadsters of the era in rural West Tennessee. He
later became a businessman, teacher, and firefighter
in the community. |
Mr. Warren Barksdale of McKenzie seems the mischievous
sort, his eyes frequently narrowed in laughter as he
recounts the times of his life, with the thread of humor
running even through times of hardship.
Born in the Crawley Store community between McKenzie and
Greenfield, Warren was too young to know when his daddy,
George, moved the family to Cat Fight (now called
Liberty), four miles out of Greenfield. There he took a
job driving the piano tuner, Mr. Gossett, "all over the
country" to tune pianos. Cars were few and far between in
those days; in fact, says Warren, "back then very few
people knew what a car was."
When the piano tuner's circuit was complete, the family
moved again to McKenzie, when Warren was about a year old,
where his father began working as a mechanic. His mother,
Pauline, worked making pills for Dr. Elinor in a process
that sounds quaint today. "She used flour and whatever
they mixed with it," Warren explains, describing how she
rolled and formed the pills.
Growing up with four brothers - Wilbern, Wendell, Willard,
and Kenneth - and one sister, Mary Frances, automobiles
were always a part of Warren's life. He recalls learning
how to drive as early as age seven and by age twelve was
driving on his own. "When I was 12 years old I was driving
to Memphis and wouldn't hardly see one car," he says,
incredulous at the rapid pace of change over the years.
The grammar school burned when Warren was of high school
age, and classes were moved to the McTyiere Institute
building where Webb School is now located.
Born with a talent for mechanics, Warren was fortunate to
be able to develop his skills not only in classes at
school but also through opportunities to study with his
father, who was working at the local Ford dealership. When
George was sent to Memphis several times a year for
advanced training, Warren "ditched classes" to go with
him.
"A round trip ticket by train was just $4.00 and the hotel
was just $4.00 a night," Warren reports, admitting wages
were low as well and jobs hard to come by in the
industry-poor rural economy, even before the Great
Depression hit. He recalls working at "anything that come
by."
"I baled hay, plowed corn, picked cotton - I done it all -
dug ditches," he says, "Those were days when them was it
as far as work goes."
Aside from school, one place to gather with friends and
meet new people was at revivals, where groups of teens got
together on steamy evenings in churches with no air
conditioning. For years, the yearly revival at Enon
Baptist Church located between McKenzie and Trezevant was
one of the revivals he didn't miss. "They always waited
'til the last of August cause they figured they would
sweat the hell out of you," Warren guffaws with a
characteristically mischievous glint in his eyes.
Also attending the revival was 16-year-old Brooxie Penny,
who would later become his wife.
"Back then everybody knew everybody in Huntingdon, Gleason
and McKenzie," Warren says, explaining how he met Brooxie
through some of the friends she was "hanging out with"
when the service was over, as groups of teens lingered
outside "cooling off".
Dating often meant "going to the girl's house and sit,"
says Warren, but the couple also went to movies together
and attended parties they or their friends would throw at
home.
Brooxie recalls visiting her aunt in Greenfield early in
their courtship, when Warren pulled up with "ten or 12
kids hanging on his roadster."
"She wasn't going to let me go with him," smiles Brooxie,
who was able to convince her aunt her mother would let her
go.
Warren jokes he married Brooxie because her last name was
Penny: "I knew I'd never be broke as long as I had a
penny," he chortles. The two were married on November 7,
1937, nearly 65 years ago, when both were 17 years old.
The following year, Warren began working for 16 cents an
hour tearing down old buildings, then digging the trench,
pouring concrete, and helping construct a new building
that is now Alexander Hall off McKenzie's city square.
He also used his tractor to do "custom work" for farmers
such as disking. Brooxie stayed home and, as the years
went by, looked after the couple's children: Shirley,
Alice, Kenneth and Janice. Attending church remained a
mainstay for the family, and Warren and Brooxie joined the
Methodist Church together after meeting the pastor, who
Warren declares was "one of the nicest fellers I ever
met."
He eventually began working as a mechanic, working for
first one dealership then another, as their needs for
mechanics ebbed and flowed, in between working
independently at Barksdale's Auto Service. During World
War II, he also taught welding in the evenings at
Tri-County Motors to farmers and G.I.'s.
"Back then so many farmers had nobody to do their work, so
the government decided to teach them to keep up their own
equipment," Warren says, explaining the government
sponsored program.
Meanwhile, between jobs and raising a family, Warren
pursued his boyhood dreams. "Back when I was growing up, I
always said I was going to fly one day," he says. He
obtained his pilot's license and in 1955 - the same year
he joined the Civil Air Patrol - drove to Memphis and
bought an airplane.
Brooxie relates he built the airport at Greenfield, where,
during night flights, he would set smudge pots along the
runway to land by.
"I flew with him to Nashville one time and he told me we
ran out of gas right over the river," she accuses affably.
"We did run out of gas," he protests, "We had 45 minutes
of fuel when we left McKenzie." Nevertheless, the couple
survived to tell that story and others about Warren's
playful antics.
Brooxie relates he used to get on the river and fish at
night. During the day, the family enjoyed riding in a
speedboat on Kentucky Lake. The only time she ever got
scared, she says, was when the children piled on the boat
in front of the windshield and the waves got so rough that
they stopped the boat to let them get inside.
Mechanics wasn't Warren's only God-given talent; he also
learned to play the mandolin and guitar. "He just picked
it up after we married," Brooxie relates.
He joined a band that played country music three or four
nights a week at square dances, fairs and ice cream
suppers. Other members of the band were James Stout, who
played guitar, Stout's father on the banjo, J.C. Tucker on
guitar, and Fred Clements on the accordion. "Boy, he could
play," Warren says, the memories as thick as yesterday.
By the time the children were in high school, he operated
Barksdale's Auto Service on a fulltime basis with Brooxie
keeping books for him.
In 1965, Warren started teaching auto mechanics at the
technical school in McKenzie. "I was second instructor
they hired," he says. During his 23 years at the school,
Jerry Bush was also hired as a mechanic. "When I had a
heart attack, they hired him as an assistant to help and
he just stayed on as my assistant for as long as I was
there," Warren explains.
He had planned to work until his 70's, but decided to
retire at age 67 in the summer of 1987. "I really enjoyed
it, the only reason I quit was the concrete floor got my
knees, walking 8-9-10 hours a day and then night classes
too," he relates.
He celebrated his retirement by buying a new car with the
intentions of going out to see the world. He made good
progress toward that goal, visiting Hawaii, Alaska, and
Victoria, Canada, then heading out west to Seattle,
Washington.
"We also went out west with the bank bunch," Warren says,
referring to the travel program sponsored by the Bank of
McKenzie. "Just when we got to where we could enjoy it,
health problems started to break out."
Warren, who will be 82 on November 3, has had open heart
surgery twice, two strokes, and cancer three times.
"Now I've got it again," he says, relating how cancer that
had spread to his lymph nodes, through removed, had
returned to settle in his right eye.
One of the worst consequences about his current setback is
missing working his garden. "I miss raising my tomatoes
and other stuff; this is the first year I've missed," he
says.
Reflecting a perpetually bright outlook on life, however,
he advises, " There ain't no use in worrying about that
stuff; just have a big time and go on."
Warren learned after one stroke that laughter can be the
best medicine. "I laughed myself out of that stroke," he
chuckles, "I couldn't talk but I could laugh. About the
time I got to where I could talk the doctor wanted to know
if I was still in a good humor."
He pushed his way through his first stroke in 1975 as
well, beginning as soon as he got out of the hospital to
build a fishing lake at their then-Hinkledale Road home,
and stocking it with fish.
The Barksdales have lived in four McKenzie homes during
their marriage. "When we first married we built on Linden
Street, then Hinkledale, then Oak Street, and then here,"
Warren says.
During most of that time, starting when he and Brooxie
were just starting out in their married lives, Warren was
a member of the McKenzie Fire Department, for 52 years
working to save lives and property.
"When I started we had five people on the Fire
Department," he recalls, "Whoever was on the street and
seen it came and helped; that's how we fought fires. I got
in it that way and joined up in 1939-40."
His job, as dictated by former Fire Chief Luther Brewer,
was to drive the fire engine, keep the truck going and
operate the pump. Drawing on his mechanical ingenuity,
Warren also built another fire truck designed to fight
fires outside the city limits where there were no fire
hydrants, outfitting a trailer with a big, 3,000 gallon
gasoline tank converted to haul water, complete with an
American La France fire pump.
All in all, Warren Barksdale's life has been a celebration
of the good things of life, starting with God and
encompassing family, hard work, fun, and adventure in
heaping doses. As he faces surgery on October 4, may the
hearts and prayers of the community reach out to increase
his strength and speed his healing.
Warren and Brooxie's children are: Shirley Crutchfield;
Alice Barnett of Nolensville; and Kenneth Barksdale of
Manchester. Their youngest daughter, Janice Wright of
Nashville, passed away in June following a bout with
cancer. The couple also has three grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren. |
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