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FEATURE FOR
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2003
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The Adventures of Raymond and Jessie McDade |
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Raymond and Jessie
McDade
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Raymond and Jessie McDade live in McKenzie
in their beautifully restored home that was
built in 1925 and once
served as the Church of Christ manse. Backdoor guests immediately gain
insight into the McDades' life seeing the 2003
"Hollywood Star" Relay for Life stepping stone
that sets Raymond out as a cancer |
"Just get me to Tennessee, that's all I want to do,"
McDade asserted as he was being reassigned after three
years aboard ship in the Coral Sea and Vietnam. |
survivor. The couple work
hard with Relay every
year, and Raymond was Honorary Co-Chair year before
last.
He was a fighter from the time
he was born at home in the Big Buck community on October
20, 1929 at just two pounds and three ounces. His twin
brother, sadly, was stillborn.
Ray lost his mother to tuberculosis when he was 12 years
old, and says he doesn't remember her any other way than
sick. His Aunt Lorene and her husband Milton McDade
lived "at the bottom of the hill" with his grandmother,
Emma, and those two ladies "more or less raised" him
after his mother passed away.
He attended Wilders Country School, two and a half miles
up from Jerrell, then started seventh grade in Trezevant
after the family moved to town when his father left the
farm for public work.
Raymond became known in school as Wimp or Wimpy while
his cousin was called Popeye. Ray's wife, Jessie,
relates with an indignant smile that Ray looks more like
Popeye than his cousin did, and that Ray's nickname
stuck while his cousin's didn't. Yet she still calls her
husband Wimp with great affection.
Popeye might have been a fitting nickname for Raymond,
who quit school in the 11th grade to join the Navy on
July 8, 1948. He finished his training in October that
year and was sent to the Naval Air Station in San Diego
where he was assigned to the U.S.S. Badoeng Straits CVE
116. He went back to school the following year for
aviation boatswain training and in 1950 was on a cruise
to Hawaii aboard the Badoeng Straits when the Korean War
broke out.
"Needless to say we offloaded the Naval Academy
midshipmen on board and came back to get ready to go,"
tells Raymond.
A collision at sea delayed the ship's entry into the war
in which its crew was assigned to provide close air
support to UN forces landing in Korea.
In January 1951 Raymond received orders to board the
U.S.S. Bon Homme Richard CV 31 aircraft carrier, which
was also assigned to provide close air support missions.
Already past his projected discharge date, he left the
ship in May 1952 and was assigned to a photography
squadron in Miramar, California until July 5 when he
rejoined civilian life for a time, though he remained in
the reserves.
Back home, Wimp worked at H.I.S. in Trezevant during the
daytime and in the evenings hung out with friends at Dee
Ray Neisler's service station in McKenzie. During the
summer of 1953, a common friend associated with the
station introduced him to Jessie, a young woman from
Bradford who had moved to McKenzie to attend Bethel
College after graduating from high school in 1949.
Born in Milan, she was the fourth of three brothers and
three sisters. Her family moved to Bradford when she was
in the first grade.
"We were a dirty half a dozen," she laughs, recalling
also that the neighborhood was "full of kids and they
were all were at our house."
"Kids breed kids," she declares.
Jessie was a member of the school basketball team, and
team members who lived in the country frequently spent
the night at her house after games instead of going
home.
It was a drastic difference from the way Raymond had
grown up as an only child with just two cousins on his
street for company.
"They broke me in," he says with a knowing nod and not a
hint of a smile. "We scared him to death!" Jessie
declares, laughing uproariously.
She had intended to become a teacher like her mother,
who taught in a one-room country schoolhouse, however,
"that didn't happen," she relates.
After two years of college she began working at Wilker
Brothers where she became a forelady while continuing to
attend classes at night with GIs who were coming home
from the war.
She also worked part-time at Booth's Department Store.
The store owner, Mr. Bernice Booth, who was also an
ex-serviceman, attended night classes as well.
"If I hadn't worked for him he'd have never gotten
through English class," declares Jessie, who attributes
her own success in math class to Mrs. Otis Cox, who was
obtaining her degree in order to meet new state
requirements for teachers.
"Back then stores were open on Saturday at 8:00 in the
morning and from can to can't on Saturday night," Jessie
relates. "McKenzie would be full of people at 10:00 on
Saturday night - we worked all day for $3.00 and a
discount on whatever we bought."
She describes the joy of working at the store, wrapping
gifts at Christmas-time and watching the people who came
to town.
"Lots of people came uptown just to watch people. We had
parking in the middle and Booth's where the Paul Carroll
Insurance Company is now; Ben Franklin's (dime store)
was on the corner and one door down was Richardson's
Department Store."
The couple married January 29, 1954 and in 1955 added
daughter Debbie to their family. The pregnancy was a
difficult one during which a uterine tumor grew along
with the baby and exploded after her birth. Raymond was
required to make two trips, back-to-back, to retrieve
blood for transfusions. After the second seemingly
impossible 18-minute trip from Jackson to Trezevant,
Raymond fell apart, Jessie relates. Dr. J.H. Robertson
gave him a shot and sent him home.
REJOINING THE NAVY WITH FAMILY IN TOW
Debbie was nearly three years old when Raymond noticed
on the bulletin board of the Naval Air Reserve Training
Command in Millington an advertisement seeking active
duty servicemen. When he came home and told his wife he
had applied for the position, she just laughed at him.
"You didn't do it," she said, laughing.
He received a call Tuesday following the weekend
application, however, advising him to appear for a
physical that Friday. Two weeks later, with Debbie
standing between them in the new hula hoop Raymond's dad
had brought her, the couple left Trezevant, headed for
Grossville, Michigan, in their turquoise and white 1954
Chevrolet.
"We were squalling our eyes out, we were so close with
everybody up here," recalls Jessie, "but it was the best
thing that ever happened. The Navy was good to us; the
service was good to us. We always lived like civilians,
out ten miles from the base."
Raymond served as fire chief for the Naval base and as
leading petty officer of the crash crew and base fire
fighting teams.
During his years in Michigan, he also obtained his high
school diploma through a Naval training course and
completed two years of college.
Jessie was happy to be near her sister, Geraldine, who
with husband Joe Walker lived in Flint, Michigan.
"That was quite a blessing - it was fun," she says.
"Geraldine and I got to be together often."
They first lived in the upstairs apartment of a family
of Italians from "the old country" whose grand-daughter
was the same age as Debbie. Although the two families
spoke different languages, they were still able to
communicate.
"They were very interesting people," Jessie says. "The
father had moved to the United States 12 years before
bringing the rest of the family over."
The McDades later moved to a close-knit neighborhood
that mimicked the experience of Jessie's growing-up
years.
"All the people in the area congregated in the summer
time in our yard - playing volleyball and having big
cookouts - and shooting pool inside in the winter. You
got so close to the people on your street; a lot of
people went to the same church we did and some he worked
with. It like to have killed us when we left there and
went to Dallas."
Raymond received orders on November 23, 1963 - the day
after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated - to
report to Naval Air Station Dallas the following
February. Debbie was in the second grade. A year later,
Raymond was promoted to Chief Petty Officer.
"That was quite exciting for an enlisted man to make
chief," Jessie gloats, proud of her husband.
Exciting wasn't quite the word Ray might have chosen,
however, as he sat nude on ice, singing as "punishment"
for the guilty verdict rendered by a kangaroo court for
trumped up charges that were part of his initiation into
the higher rank. He still has the individually-sized pig
trough from which he was forced to eat hot-peppered
spaghetti during the ritual.
Better was the banquet held that evening in honor of CPO
McDade and one other new chief petty officer who was
also a member of the base fire department.
Raymond declares the five-week Chief's Academy in
Pensacola was "worse than boot camp ever thought about
being."
In his new position, McDade was responsible for
coordinating between Navy and civilian firefighters and
was lead petty officer for administering leadership
training for the base, a program that was visited by
officials from all over the country for its celebrated
status.
VIETNAM SEPARATES FAMILY
Debbie was in the fifth grade when she and her mom moved
back to Trezevant after Raymond received orders to go to
the Coral Sea and Vietnam in 1967.
Raymond served as Flight Deck Chief, responsible for
moving, shuffling and launching aircraft on the aircraft
carrier from June until November 1967 and then as Chief
Master at Arms of Internal Security.
"That was just the beginning of the drug problem," says
Raymond, who regularly searched for drugs, often
discovering caches in passageways and at the edge of
bulkheads. He directed a drug program for about a year
and a half during the final length of his tour.
During two cruises to Vietnam, casualties to aircraft
personnel and on deck personnel were plentiful but not
extreme, said Ray, going over a list of the deceased in
his unit's record book.
Jessie and Debbie spent three Christmases alone during
his Vietnam tour.
"That was kind of hard to take," says Jessie.
Helping to ease the sailor's homesickness were the
performances of Bob Hope and Raquel Welch. Evangelist
Billy Graham also visited the men aboard ship.
BACK TO TENNESSEE
"My next job was my favorite," Raymond smiles. Scheduled
to return to the States, he requested a recruiting
position anywhere in Tennessee, giving up the chance to
become company commander of NTC (Naval Training Command)
San Diego in May 1969.
"Just get me to Tennessee, that's all I want to do," he
asserted.
After eight weeks of recruiter training in San Diego he
arrived at his duty station in Chattanooga the same year
the United States landed astronauts on the moon. With
the extra $100.00 per month allotted for recruiters, the
couple was able to find a home they loved close to the
high school Debbie would eventually attend.
Ray became the new Recruiter In Charge over five other
recruiters. In addition to administration duties, he
promoted the Navy through advertisements on three
television stations and on the radio in a territory that
covered 15 counties in Tennessee, five in Georgia and
three in Alabama, as well as visiting schools and
holding seminars for graduates.
Jessie was employed with the Zales Jewelers East Gate
store when rioting broke out in 1971, resulting in
children being locked inside their classrooms for safety
and eight days of 6:00 p.m. curfews.
"Helicopters were everywhere," Jessie says, moving her
arm expansively skyward as she described the city that
resembled a battle zone.
The draft was discontinued in September 1971, changing
the face of recruiting. For four months Ray was able to
meet his quota before "falling on his face" in January.
New enlistment programs were invented to spur interest
in military service.
In July 1972, when it was time for Ray to move on, he
requested to go anywhere except one of those "gray
ghosts", as he referred to the aircraft carriers.
With only a year or so left before retirement, he began
a short tour to Bataan Philippines while Jessie and
Debbie returned home, this time to McKenzie. Debbie had
graduated in her junior year 36th in a class of 300 in
Chattanooga and entered Bethel College when she was just
barely 16 years old. Having taken piano and voice
lessons since the second grade, she earned a degree in
"her first love", music. She later earned a masters
degree in music from Scarritt College in Nashville and
is now married to James Ketzell in Waterman Illinois.
In the Philippines, Ray was in charge of the air
terminal over 120 civilian and 96 military personnel. He
enjoyed military life in the Philippines where his shoes
were shined for him and his bed made each morning.
He applied for retirement three months into his tour of
duty and was accepted on his second attempt. Less than
30 days later his replacement arrived and McDade no
longer had a job. He soon became manager of the Top of
the Mark Chief's Club, netting $40,000 per year above
his military pay.
At his retirement ceremony, eight aviation boatsmates
served as his sideboys in a ceremony similar to that
reserved for admirals. His official date of retirement
from the U.S. Navy was December 5, 1973.
Back home, Jessie was working as Store Manager of the
Jewel Box, a jewelry store owned by Paul Carroll and
Billy Bryant.
After "loafing" for a few months, Ray became credit
manager for auto dealer Pug Vickers, but found the
repossession side of the job depressing. He wanted to
work in the Fire Department, but with no openings
available he joined the McKenzie Police Department where
he spent five years as a patrolman, then worked for
Republic Builders and ran the VFW for almost two years
before taking on management of the Country Club.
"I jumped from the firing pan into the fire," says
Raymond.
When Joe Morris was elected mayor in February 1982, he
asked McDade to take on the responsibility of Chief of
Police.
"So I took the job and he worked right with me," says
Ray, "The first thing we set up was a dispatcher 24
hours a day."
They also drew up plans to replace the one-room jail,
which contained two strap-steel cells. They ordered new
vehicles that were spruced up in Lyndell Glisson's
garage with identical paint jobs including distinctive
striping.
"McKenzie was the first city in this area with blue and
white police cars," says McDade.
Raymond was Chief during the time when, unbelievably for
McKenzie, Neo-Nazis targeted Judge Larry Logan, sending
threatening letters to both Logan and the McDades and
throwing a huge rock through the judge's office window.
When court action sent local leader Charlie Parker back
to prison, the group disbanded.
Six years later Chief McDade became embroiled in
political infighting that resulted in his dismissal from
the police department, though he was later exonerated in
a court of law.
He worked with the Trezevant Police Department for a
time, then returned as manager of the Carroll Lake
Country Club where he and Jessie worked together until
both retired in 1992.
The following year, he was diagnosed with cancer on
April 21.
"That was a blue day," he says.
"I cried my eyes out and he learned to cry," Jessie
declares. "Sometimes we would laugh and cry in the same
five minutes."
The couple joined a support group in Paris of 35 to 40
people, to which they still belong.
"We had such a good time laughing and cutting up," says
Jessie, recounting the stress relieving benefits of the
group. Even when sick while enduring chemotherapy people
were able to smile, she recalls.
The couple also began collecting Department 56 Dickens'
Village collectibles during the year and a half that
Raymond underwent chemotherapy and have amassed quite a
collection.
Always believers in prayer, Jessie says she and her
husband are stronger people for having born the struggle
of cancer.
The couple are members of the First Methodist Church in
McKenzie. Additionally, Ray has been a Mason since 1975
and was a Shriner until three years ago. He served as
Post Commander for the VFW in 1983-84 as well as 8th
District Commander and traveled to Washington D.C. along
with Wilbur Headden in 1984 as a part of their
involvement in the Voice of Democracy program.
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2003
Feature
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2002
Feature
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2001
Feature
Archives: |
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Phone (731) 352-3323 or
Fax (731) 352-3322
washburn@mckenziebanner.com
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