| Sources |
- [S75] Atchley Funeral Home Records, Volume II, 1955-1973, Larry D. Fox, (Smoky Mountain Historical Society), 15 Feb 1966.
Marion Sylvan Lane obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 20 Mar 2016.
Upland Chronicles: Ita Lane Yingst recalls a long, interesting life
CARROLL MCMAHAN
Because finding a job in Sevier County was not easy for young, single women in the late 1930s, Ita Grace Lane and her older sister Ina Elizabeth moved to Knoxville to seek employment after graduating from high school. The sisters rented an apartment on Locust Street in downtown Knoxville. Ina found a job as a salesclerk at Miller’s Department Store on Gay Street and Ita went to work as a teller at Park National Bank.
Although they missed their close-knit family, the sisters remained in Knoxville for many years. Ina worked at Miller’s for 38 years, and Ita worked at various banking institutions and attended evening courses at the University of Tennessee. She once moved to Atlanta but soon moved back to Knoxville, where she met Norman Yingst whom she married when she was about 50.
Born March 16, 1920, Ita recently celebrated her 96th birthday. A resident at Sevier County Health Care Center, she sat in her room a few days before her birthday and recalled vignettes of her long life.
Longevity seems to run in her family. Her father, James H. Lane, lived to the age of 100. Her sister Ina was 99 when she died in 2013, and her brother Trent was 101 when he passed away in 2011. Five of her aunts and uncles on her father’s side of the family lived to be 95 or older, with her Uncle John outlasting them all, living to the age of 105. Her Uncle John was the last surviving Spanish-American War veteran in Sevier County.
Ita was the sixth of seven children of John H. Lane and Olive Sandra “Ollie” Hill. Her brothers were Trent, Sylvan, Lloyd and Eugene. Her sisters were Mildred and Ina. Growing up in Lane Hollow, most of the family’s closest neighbors were extended family members.
They were descendants of her grandfather Moses Lane, who fought for both sides in the Civil War. Known as Mosie, he was first conscripted into the Confederate forces but soon deserted and enlisted in the Third Tennessee Cavalry, Company B. He was engaged in the Siege of Knoxville, the Battle of Nashville and the infamous Georgia Campaign. He died at age 92 when Ita was 10.
Ita attended Walnut Grove School and Walnut Grove Baptist Church. “One time they had a pie supper at the school and they talked me into doing the Charleston,” she remembered. “But Poppa didn’t believe in dancing, so I got a good whipping when I got home.”
“Mamma and Poppa were sitting on the porch one day when they heard me screaming real loud while I was feeding the chickens,” Ita said. “When Poppa came running, he found a snake in the corn crib that my brother Sylvan had put in there to scare me. I was always scared to death of snakes”
Ita recalled growing up during the Great Depression. “I remember Mamma gathering eggs to sell to a peddler,” she remembered. “But he wouldn’t give her but six cents a dozen for them, so Mamma just brought them back home and fed them to her family.”
She also remembered hearing stories about her mother assisting family members and neighbors during the flu epidemic of 1918. Ita had been told that her mother would go in and help where others refused to go for fear of contacting the deadly influenza that gripped the entire country.
Although her siblings attended Sevier County High School, Ita enrolled at Pi Beta Phi in Gatlinburg so she could live in a dorm. “My brother Trent walked from our farm in the Lane Hollow and back every day,” she said. “But I couldn’t walk that far.”
Neither Ita nor her sister Ina drove a car, so when they visited their family they traveled from Knoxville to Sevierville on a Trailways bus and hired a cab from town to Lane Hollow.
While working at the bank, Ita found it humorous that some of her African-American customers would come into the bank when they got paid and ask for a “bo dollar, “a slang term they often used for a silver dollar.
“My sweet Mamma never wanted us to move away from home,” Ita recalled. “She said she never wanted to see another suitcase.”
Ita remembered having to use ration stamps for staple items she and her sister needed during World War II.
Her husband, Norman Yingst, was 17 years older than Ita and a widower when she met him at the bank where she worked. Yingst was a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A building contractor, he came to Knoxville to build one of the building at Chilhowee Park and decided to make Knoxville his home. Before he met Ita, he once owned and operated a skating rink.
He and Ita lived in his home located in East Knoxville. They both enjoyed coin collecting. Sadly, Yingst died only five years after they married. Ita remembers her husband as a good, decent man.
After Ita retired, she purchased property on the Weir Farm in Pigeon Forge and built a house in which to live. Her family still owns the farm in Lane Hollow where she grew up.
Although she has numerous nieces and nephews living throughout the country, Ita is the sole survivor of her immediate family. “I was always close to my family,” she said. “Even when we lived in different places, we always kept in touch by telephone calls and writing letters.”
The feisty nonagenarian is fortunate to retain the ability to remember almost a century of stories which she graciously shares with those around her. Ita Grace Lane Yingst is a living treasure.
Carroll McMahan is special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce and serves as Sevier County historian.
The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column for publication or have comments, contact Carroll McMahan at 453-6411 or cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S112] Census, 1930.
Name: Ita G Lane
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: District 04, Sevier, Tennessee
Gender: Female
Age: 10
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Birthplace: Tennessee
Birth Year (Estimated): 1920
Immigration Year:
Relationship to Head of Household: Daughter
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
District: 0004
Household ID: 112
Sheet Number and Letter: 6B
Line Number: 84
Affiliate Publication Number: T626, roll 2271
GS Film number: 2342005
Digital Folder Number: 4547919
Image Number: 00647
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head James H Lane M 48 Tennessee
Wife Ollie H Lane F 42 Tennessee
Daughter Mildred K Lane F 21 Tennessee
Son Trent Lane M 20 Tennessee
Son Sylvan Lane M 18 Tennessee
Daughter Ina E Lane F 16 Tennessee
Son Lloyd H Lane M 12 Tennessee
Daughter Ita G Lane F 10 Tennessee
Son Eugene Lane M 6 Tennessee
- [S112] Census, 1940.
Name: Ita Grace Lane
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1940
Event Place: Pigeon Forge, Civil District 4, Sevier, Tennessee, United States
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Marital Status: Single
Race (Original): White
Race: White
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Daughter
Relationship to Head of Household: Daughter
Birthplace: Tennessee
Birth Year (Estimated): 1920
Last Place of Residence: Same House
District: 78-5
Family Number: 13
Sheet Number and Letter: 1B
Line Number: 63
Affiliate Publication Number: T627
Affiliate Film Number: 3933
Digital Folder Number: 005461375
Image Number: 00117
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head James H Lane M 57 Tennessee
Wife Ollie Lane F 54 Tennessee
Daughter Mildred Lane F 31 Tennessee
Daughter Ita Grace Lane F 20 Tennessee
Son Loyd Lane M 22 Tennessee
Son Eugene Lane M 16 Tennessee
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