MY SISTER PHYLLIS

My sister Phyllis is number 3 in the line of 8 Spencer kids. Phyllis was born when mom and dad lived over on Oak Hill Avenue in the Lonsdale Community. I guess you could call the first four kids city  kids and the last four country kids. I have often wondered what our family would of been like if mom and dad hadn't moved to the country. Phyllis was just about 3 & 1/2 years old but she says she still has some memories of living on Oak Hill. Phyllis was 5 years older than me so I don't remember a lot about our early childhood together. I do remember us walking to school together. Her best friends were Alma Jean Resser who lived across the road from us and Helen Landsen who lived down the road about a mile. I know there were a lot more but these are the two that I remember the most.

 We attended Highland Baptist Church and below is a picture of Phyllis and her class at that time. She is the first one standing on the back row holding the book. Later as a teenager Phyllis was the pianist at the church. She is now a member there again.

Phyllis used to baby sit with the younger kids when mom and dad would go to Revivals and different church services and one of my memories was she would make chocolate candy off of the recipe on the cocoa box. I think she still makes it for her son. Another memory that I have is she liked to talk on the phone a lot probably to her boyfriend. I remember one time she was probably about 15 or 16 and our dad got upset with her talking on the phone so much that he pulled the phone cord out of the wall and tossed the phone across the road to the Reesers field. I don't know how he explained that to the telephone company. Phyllis must of wanted to be a cheer leader growing up as the picture below proves as she is stepping high and twirling her baton.

 Phyllis  met the love of her life when we attended Highland Church. I asked her how she met Charles when he lived in town and we lived in the country. She said her class had a party at the Atchleys that lived on Babelay Road and some of their family lived just down the block from Charles and they invited him to come to the party and he came. It must of been love at first sight because soon after that we left Highland Baptist and my dad helped to establish and was the first Pastor of North Acres Baptist Church. Phyllis was a charter member there and her and Charles were the first couple married in the original first building that was North Acres Church. She was 16 (almost 17) years old and Charles was probably 18. They were married over 60 years when he passed away. 

From this point on we didn't see a lot of Phyllis. Again us living in the country and her living in the city.  Now that doesn't seem very far now but at that time with no interstates and only having one car that would of been a trip that had to be planned.  The next year their son was born and Phyllis was going to classes to finish her high school and then on to business school and later college classes. After finishing business school Phyllis got a job at Life and Casualty Insurance Company and although it changed names several times she worked for them 55 years and 11 months until she retired in 2013. Below are a few pictures of her Retirement Party. 

Phyllis was one of the servers in mine and James wedding in June of 1962.

Left to right: Pat Ogle Curl, Barbara Chesney DeMarcus, Mary Spencer Williams, Phyllis Spencer Parks, Maxine Spencer

Working and raising a family the years seemed to slip by and it wasn't until around 2003, soon after the death of my daughter Pam who was only 39, we decided we needed to see each other more knowing that life was short and time was swiftly passing. So from that time on Phyllis, our sister June and I started meeting weekly for supper. For the first several years we would meet at O'Charleys as it was close to where Phyllis worked at that time. When her office moved West we still continued to meet there. Ron also meet with us if he could and if any of our brothers and sisters were in town they would come and eat with us also.  Now we go different places each week. 

 Phyllis had one child who added a daughter in law to the family.

They had 3 sons who married and have added  3 daughter in laws and 9 grandchildren to the family. So now what started out as a 16 year old marrying her 18 year old love of her life has now totaled a family of 19. 

Our sister June's husband died in 2011, Phyllis's husband in 2015 and my husband in 2016. Being alone now we try to fill in the void  by going out more. We have been to the National Quartet Convention, went to Nashville to celebrate June's birthday a couple of years ago, took a trip to North Carolina to visit my daughter, to Pigeon Forge more times than I can count to shop, out to eat more times than we wish to count at least 2 times a week and sometimes 3. Phyllis calls June every night just to see how she is and to share their day together. Then June calls me to see how I am. Since we all live alone now it is good to keep a check on each other. 

I am glad I have my sister Phyllis and I hope we have many more years to celebrate life together.

MY BROTHER JIM

My brother Jim was the last one born before my family moved to the country. He was just about 6 months old so he spent most of his early years on Edmondson Road.

Jim is the one I remember most in my growing up days. He was two and a half  years older than me and most of my childhood memories revolve around us doing most things together as children. We played in the fields and woods, walked to Ritta School through the fields and across the creek together, picked blackberries and played in the Reeser's corncrib and hay stacks. Mine and Jim's best friends were Grant and Carolynn Carr who lived just down the road from us and we spent many days at their house getting into lots of trouble.  I don't remember Jim getting into quite as much trouble as some of my other brothers that I won't name at this time. We had a great childhood growing up. Jim also had a dog named Mickey.

 Jim went to Ritta Elementary School from the first through the eighth grade and then to Central High School until his last year when he transferred to the newly built  Holston High School where he was in the first graduating class of Holston. I started in the 9th grade the same year so we only had one  year together in high school.

Jim always had a kind heart and one of my memories was when he was working at Kerns Bakery and he would get paid and would walk down to LeMarrs Store on Washington Pike and he would buy us some Coke A Colas and Snowball Cakes. That seems trivial in todays world but to us it was a big treat. Jim also loved to go to gospel singings with the family. It was one of the few things that we got to do as far as entertainment was concerned. My dad loved gospel music and we would go to the Mulls Singings at Chilhowee Park and then later to the Tennessee Theater and then to the Colosseum.  Jim went to Highland Baptist Church and was probably saved there because he was a charter member of North Acres Baptist Church when it was built.  He had many friends there including my future husband to be Carroll Chesney (AKA James), Bill Monday, Eddie Copeland just to name a few. I was friends with Jean Copeland so Jim and I spent a lot of time at the Copeland's house with Eddie and Jean.  My then boyfriend Carroll and Jim went to Florida one year during the summer and Carroll came back home but Jim stayed for a while. 

After graduating from Holston High the Vietnam War had broken out and our boys were being drafted. My brother Bill although younger than Jim was already in Vietnam when Jim was drafted and Bill signed up for another tour in Vietnam so Jim wouldn't have to go so Jim was sent instead to Korea to serve his time. 

Jim worked at different places and traveled a lot. He ended up going to work for Southern Railroad and later worked for the Federal Railroad. We didn't see a lot of each other for several years as he was working in different states and he married and was raising a family and  I was raising my family here in Knoxville. He was here when our mom was diagnosed with cancer and was able to go to church with all of our family on Mother's Day of that year. My mom always made Jim a French Coconut Pie when he would come home. We used to tell her he was her favorite. I guess Jim was more like our father in looks than the other brothers. He never seemed to get upset with anything. We took several pictures the year mom died and these are the last ones with his brothers and sisters.

My heart was broken when I found out Jim had cancer and not long to live. I was able to spend a little time with him before he died and he had a strong faith and trust in God that a better home awaited. This week is the 6 Year Anniversary of his death but one day we will meet again.