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- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 23 Apr 2006.
Some faces new, others old friends gone on The light yellow-green haze covering your cars and trucks this week in our hometown disappeared at week's end when long-overdue spring rains washed the roads and landscape clear of pollen.
But just wait, it will be back. Nancy Petrey and I always shared a conviction that if you waited long enough, everybody would drop in at the Plain Talk, and we have seen many interesting people. Such was the case last week. The fellow was not familiar to me but was buying copies of our popular Freedoms Heroes military book. Roy C. Jenkins Jr. was born in Newport but has spent most of his life in Ohio where he was raised by his parents-and that's the connection most interesting to me. His father married the former Irene Ramsey, sister to my late friend and antique car collector Mooney Ramsey. Many of you may have known the Ramseys but did not know she died, because her obituary did not run in the Plain Talk. It seems like several years since Mooney died and now his sister died March 8 and was buried Mar. 11 at Cleveland, Ohio, next to Roy C. Jenkins Sr. He had left Cocke County to join Superior Brush where he worked for 53 years. Roy and I quickly found a point of interest. He is a commercial photographer and at 62 still is active-in fact, winning a major state award. His company's name is Crestviews, reflecting his interest in photographing architecture, seascapes, landscapes, and fine art. Born in March 1944, he has had a 50-year career in photography preferring nature scenes. I asked him why he was in Newport and it was to visit relatives, Charles Jenkins, Lucille Jenkins, Paul and Betty Duncan. I also found out that our former employee Collette Andrews is a cousin. Roy and his late wife, Cheri, have four children and seven grandchildren and, yes, he does have a keen interest in old cars. Do you have things squirreled away on shelves, in boxes, dressers at home and in office? One of my distant relatives must have been a pack rat judging by the things saved over years. One item, a framed sketch, in my office should have been returned long ago, so it finally got home to Ida B. Brown on Wednesday, You may have gone to school with her and Bogard friends long ago. She taught for more than 30 years. She showed me another old photo that probably appeared in the Plain Talk. It was the 1926/27 class of English Creek School-located where the two-story apartments are across from Lane's Grocery off Cosby Hwy. Of the original 60-plus class members from grade school only seven survive, she said. I addition to Ida Bryant are Herman Hall, who is shown seated next to the late Budge Acton; Ida's sister, Elizabeth Bryant Ottinger, living in Camden, Arkansas; James "Daddy" Bryant-married to Betty; Mary Florence Clevenger Bryant, of White Pine; Connie Hall Kyker, of Jefferson City; and Gladys Williams Owenby, of Sevier County. Ida could still name every child in the photo. Back to the framed sketch. It was done by sister Elizabeth's daughter, Mary Lou Ottinger, who is now 69. She lives with her Mom and brother, Robert, who is 64. The picture shows the way their Dad, Farl Bryant's farm looked 50 years ago, a barn and corncrib. It is close to the current Paul Bryant home. During our talk, Ida said she had learned that Raymond Large had not been doing well since hip replacement surgery. She though he was 87, but wouldn't admit to her age, yet some of you contemporaries know. Like you, most of the time I only see the obituaries when they appear on the printed page and such was the case last Tuesday. The George "Heavy" Green obituary jumped out because I had known him for many years through my close acquaintance with late film exhibitor Harold Smith. Anyone who attended a movie after World War II probably knew the slim, quiet man. It was at the Newport and Woodzo theaters we first met by which time he was bald and always seemed to have a cigarette in his hand. Like Harold, "Heavy" loved B-western movies and could tell you about any of the old movies and stars-Hoppy, Lash LaRue, Johnny Mac Brown, Tom Mix, Ken Maynard-name any of a hundred. His son, George Green Jr., told me that his father retained that interest until his death. Harold and friends gave George the nickname, but it should have been "Slim." The secret of the name was revealed to me, but I can't tell you. As a young man, he first worked for Winston Baird at the downtown Park Theatre and later the Winston. When Smith returned to Newport from Niagara, New York, he opened the Westgate Theater and got George to work for him. I don't think he ever did anything else. As a young man of that era, he served in WW II in the Navy as a supply clerk on warships. He returned home and married the former Barbara Blazer and they had five children. Because I did see the obituary Tues. at lunch, I went to Union Cemetery in time for the burial. It was warm and Brown Funeral Home folks were properly handling the burial. I walked past tombstones just as the first rounds of a 21-gun salute cracked through the still air. It made me proud to see those veterans lined up for their fallen comrade some 60 years after they all left the battlefield. I can still see the bright beam of white light from the film projector shoot to the silver screen through a light haze of tobacco smoke and talk of the shadowy Smith and Green. In plain Talk, rain may wash away the dust and debris of the day but time never erases the memories we hold of good folks.
Just Plain Talk
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 8 Mar 2009.
Mary Lou Daugherty, 72 of Camden, Arkansas, died Saturday, January 31st.
She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Elizabeth Bryant and Duane “Pete” Ottinger.
Mrs. Daugherty is survived by her daughter, Gina Aultman and her husband, Robby of Celina, Texas; a brother, Roger Ottinger of Camden, Arkansas; three grandchildren, Christy Worthey and husband Ryan, Shana Kriechbaum and husband Ryan, and Robert Aultman. She had four great-grandchildren, Kailee, Caden, Nathan and Justin. She was also survived by her aunts, Ida Brown and Louise Bryant of Newport, Tennessee; uncle, Jay Bryant of Morristown, Tennessee.
Mary’s wishes were to be cremated and placed in W. T. Bryant Cemetery in Newport. Mary was a kind, loving and very talented person. She will be greatly missed.
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Abt 1937 - 2009 (~ 72 years)
