Gatlinburg "looks like a winter wonderland" this
time of year, Patty Foster reports breathlessly, just
in from a nighttime viewing of the village's Christmas
splendor during her and husband Ted's
after-Thanksgiving vacation to the Smoky Mountain
retreat. "It looks like another world."
The mountains have claimed more of Patty's time since
her recent "retirement", allowing a spur of the moment
trip with sister Joyce McDearmon in July, just after
Patty retired, as well as forays to East Tennessee
with Ted; the late November adventure is their third
trip during the last half of the year.
Before that, Patty smiles, "we were at the lake all
summer," an exploit enhanced by the new camper the
couple bought last year. Each journey's silver lining
is in the people they meet: "We meet all kinds of
friendly people," she says.
But, she continues with just a tad of nostalgia, "I've
never been anywhere much. I did see the ocean in Miami
and Charleston, South Carolina. I've never flown and
that's one thing I'd like to do, I think, and I'd like
to go some more places if I stay healthy."
Patty's work as a nurse brought a different kind of
adventure to her life, allowing her to see more
acutely the similarities as well as nuances in the
lives of a diverse populace. The experience has given
her a love and understanding of people and a positive
outlook that shines through her daily activities.
"I've seen babies born and held people's hands when
they were dying. Rich or poor folks, it don't make no
difference to me, I just take care of them," she says,
recounting the enrichment of her own life in stories
told by patients happy to have found a listening ear.
"There's a lot of nice people I've met that's done
things I'll never get to do," she adds.
Patty was born into meager means, near the middle of
six children born to sharecroppers Preston and Annie
McKennie outside McKenzie, near Enon, and raised
mostly in a home her father bought and sold seven
times. Her older siblings - Morris, Buddy, and Sue
Nell (Wilson) were nearly grown by the time Patty was
born, followed by the births of Joyce and Wayne.
Another child, who would have been born before Patty,
was lost in gestation.
Patty, who enjoys picking out songs on the piano and
would like to learn how to play more, recalls that her
mother "always sung and played the piano." Her father
was a hard worker, a trait passed on to his children.
"We worked hard growing up," says Patty, acknowledging
with certainty that the three oldest children worked
hardest. She "loved to go to school," a fact born out
when she and Ted married on May 30, 1957, after her
junior year of high school, and she chose to continue
her education.
Getting married while remaining in school wasn't
unheard of - Patty was one of three girls who married
that year and stayed in school, including Sue Traywick
and Janice Seratte - but it did occur with ominous
undertones: the girls were warned they would have to
leave school if they became pregnant.
Ted was a Navy man and spent the first year of their
marriage in Japan, arriving home in time for his
wife's graduation. During the few weeks he was home
before shipping out to Alaska from his base in San
Diego, the couple's first child, Kathy, was conceived
and was born in February 1959.
When Kathy was small, Patty was living in McKenzie, by
the "cheese plant" that is now J & J Auto Racing,
Inc., and working at Wilker Brothers, also known as
the "pajama factory". This was when Patty gained an
early appreciation for the kindness of people, thanks
to neighbors Woody and Hazel Boaz who, she says, "were
just like family."
"They were good neighbors," she continues, recalling
how they would often bring supper or invite her over
after a long day at work, easing the responsibilities
incumbent with living alone with a small child. The
couple's second child, Ricky, followed in 1961, the
same year Ted got out of the Navy and joined the
National Guard, of which he was a member for eight
years. Lori's birth followed two years after Ricky's,
then a gap of ten years ensued between Lori and Amy's
January birthdays.
After Ted's discharge, the family lived in his
family's community in Hinkledale, which at the time
was complete with a store, where they have remained
for the duration of their 47-year marriage.
Patty's life took on a new direction when Morris
decided to build the Oak Manor nursing home, known now
as Oak Manor Health Care Center, in McKenzie. Morris
eventually became an Oak Manor resident himself before
dying two years ago.
"The area needed something like that," says Patty, who
began working at the facility, making beds and other
chores. As the building filled with patients, Patty's
life was enriched by people "from New York and all
over" who she met in her work. Before long, she was
encouraged by Director of Nursing Mary Barnhart to go
to nursing school.
"She was my inspiration," says Patty, who in 1971 was
among the first graduates of the Paris
Vocational-Technical School's new LPN program.
Ted was working at Consolidated Aluminum in New
Johnsonville and the children were ten, eight and six
when Patty decided to quit working to go back to
school. With no grants to help fund the effort, Patty
was thankful when neighbor, Erman Watkins, offered her
a grassy, three-acre patch of cotton that adjoined her
home. With Ted's help plowing the plot, Patty tackled
the hoeing and picking with the resultant harvest
yielding enough money to buy her books.
The then-13 month, 1,080 hour course included a
requirement for students to speak on the subject of
what it means to become a nurse.
Patty's desire to enter the medical field was spurred
by her father's death from cancer at the age of 57 and
her daughter, Kathy's, affliction with a heart murmur,
which was discovered when she was just three years
old. Repair of the defect took place at Lebonheur
Children's Hospital in Memphis which, Patty says, "was
another country to me."
With Ted working 40 hours a week and Ricky a baby, the
family relied on Mary Lou Barker who cared for Ricky
during the ordeal.
Patty recalls Kathy's heart surgery was just $100 and
intensive care another hundred. "There's so much
regulation now," she says, mentioning one reason for
today's vastly escalating medical costs.
After graduating, she returned to Oak Manor where she
became director of nursing. Oldest daughter Kathy
helped watch the little ones while she worked.
"I've got four good kids; they've always been good
kids," says Patty.
She moved to McKenzie Memorial Hospital in December
after its October 1974 opening, where she remained
three years before going to work for Dr. Sidney Ray,
with whom she worked for 20 years. During the latter
years of her employment with Dr. Ray, he merged his
practice with that of Dr. Bryan Merrick, who was later
joined by Dr. Luis Pagoaga.
During the six years Patty worked with Dr. Merrick,
after Dr. Ray's retirement, she also attended a
Friday-to-Sunday X-ray technician school in Memphis.
When Dr. Merrick decided to move his practice to
McKenzie Medical Center, Patty chose to remain with
Dr. Pagoaga's practice that was then located in the
first office in which she had worked with Dr. Ray. A
couple of years ago, the practice moved across the
hall to its current location in the hospital's
clinical wing.
"Dr. Pagoaga is real compassionate and a good doctor,"
says Patty, who also enjoyed the small-practice
atmosphere over the bustling business of a
multi-physician practice. With daughter Amy working in
medical records at McKenzie Medical Center, she says,
"I knew it was quieter working with one doctor and one
receptionist."
She mulls over statistics that, during the hospital's
early years, the patient to staff ratio was greater
with fewer employees taking care of tasks from patient
care and maternity to emergency room with "a whole lot
less bureaucracy."
"Times have changed," concludes Patty, who worked the
midnight shift at the hospital with registered nurse
Vanetta Wright, an aid and an orderly. She recalls
helping to deliver both granddaughters: Kathy's
children Tracy (Byrd) and Angie (Ghyers), and that she
assisted in Lori's tonsillectomy when she was 15.
Concerning her years of nursing, she says, "I met a
lot of fine people; the patients were always just
personal friends to me. It's a fruitful career, you
get a lot of blessings along the way every day."
She decided to retire this year because, she says, "I
wanted to quit while I was able to do some things I
want to do."
She still fills in for daughter Lori, a medical
assistant in Physician Assistant Chris Blount's office
in Trezevant, and for Dr. Pagoaga's new nurse, Reba
Rodriquez, on an as-needed basis.
But she reserves the majority of her time for a
growing family and for fun with Ted, who has worked as
an engineer assistant with the Tennessee Department of
Transportation for the past 20 years, after working
for Consolidated Aluminum for 20 years before they
closed.
Their family has grown to include Kathy's daughters as
well as her husband, Bobby Birdwell, his son Bobby,
Jr. and Bobby Jr.'s daughter Sydney; Ricky's wife Lana
(Foster) and their sons Matt and Mitch; and Lori's
husband Mike Ferguson and his daughter Andi, plus Amy,
who is single and lives with her parents.
"Our family just keeps growing," smiles Patty. "They
all love to come to our house; that's where everybody
hangs out. We've got a big family; we love to laugh
and talk and eat and hug on each other. The Lord
blessed me with a good family and lots of friends and
I just want to enjoy some of it now."
She takes pride in the peaceful setting of her lawn
with its gazebo and water fountains, one large and two
or three smaller ones. "Everyone meets there," she
says, "It's quiet and peaceful and we just sit there
and swing and talk, and the kids come out there
because they know that's where the other kids will
be."
She has adopted as her motto the song title, by Tim
McGraw, "Live like you were dying."
"Life is short and when you look over the past 30
years, it was just like yesterday," she says. "All the
recognition I ever want is for the Lord to be proud of
me and for my kids and family to be proud of me. Other
than that, just live every day like you were dying;
just stop and slow down and think about things besides
money: the blessing you get from people is worth more
than money."
Patty entertained 15 in her home during Thanksgiving
this year.
"The kids and grandkids came and everybody brought
somebody else," she laughs, " We just had a good old
day; we all have a big time when we get together and
there was so much food we hardly put a dent in it."
Beginning in January, she plans to go back to work one
day a week, allowing Lori to have an extra day off; a
plan that is only temporary.
She laughs brightly, "We'll see how it goes 'til it's
time to go camping again."
