Mt. Olivet News

On Monday, April 20, we had a big birthday part for Elizabeth Browning’s 95th. She was spending it alone basically because of the shelter in place order.

Her friends formed a parade of well-wishers including Amanda and Bro. Charles Reed, Martha Jo Hall, Sue Stroup, Rhonda and Dale Skipper, Larry and Patsy Browning, Susan Carlisle and Jayme, and myself.

We gathered on her lawn and sange Happy Birthday, twice, just to demonstrate (in jest) how long hand washing should last now.

I was saddened to read the obituary of Betty Hawkins Flint. She came to Batesville right out of Mississippi College for Women. She was our homeroom teacher at Batesville High School as well as the home economics teacher.

She was so cute and did not look any older than us. We took to her immediately and she to us. We even teased her about a little red-headed boyfriend that eventually became her husband 0 Mr. Armistead Flint.

In 2018, when she was 89, she and I happened to be taking physical therapy at the same time. Although her body was frail, I invited her to a reunion of our class that was meeting the next day. She enthusiastically went.

She remembered each student and even had something special that she recalled about each one.

Also the death of Mildred Hardy Moore of Pope was a shock because she, like Betty Flint, was a larger-than-life person. I remember her best for taking all five of her children to piano lessons in Memphis, to dance lessons, and never missing a band performance.

Her late daughter, Margaret, so honored me by majoring in piano at Mississippi State.

Another change that will be hard for us readers will be the absence of Sherry Hopkins’ column that she has written for 15 years. Although I have only written weekly for a year, I feel obligated to my readers.

If my math serves me right, a weekly column for 52 weeks a year and 15 years is approximately 780 columns. Wow! Sherry, I hope that from time to time you will be a guest columnist and give an update on Dear Don.

The newspaper columns will not be wanting if Pam Bock keeps up the good work. Her article last week as she looked out her kitchen window at the little lambs was so serene that I felt a calmness as I read.

I wanted to sit in the middle of the pasture and meditate.

Monday, April 27, was the 70th anniversary of the wedding of Hilda and Sonny Wilson. Of course, they will have a celebration at a later date. I will be happy to see this celebration gets full coverage in the newspaper.

Last week I got a call from Maxine Ledbetter White of Wynn, Ark. She takes The Panolian and reads the Mt. Olivet news. This very brilliant lady will be 92 years old in June. She is the daughter of Clester and Mary Ledbetter of the Enon Community.

Her siblings were Clester Fae, Lucille, Jamie, Bobby, and Marie.

She graduated Crowder High School in 1946, got married to J.C. White that same year and the couple moved to Arkansas. She mentioned the “Dummy Line” road in the Enon Community. I told her I had heard of the Dummy Line all my life and didn’t know exactly what people meant.

She told me the Dummy Line was a former railroad track that was built by a logging company to haul logs from Crowder to the sawmill. She thinks it was abandoned in the early 1900s and then became a road.

She went to one of the old-timey singing schools at the age of five. She knew all the great singers of Panola County. She mentioned Ed Wilson, former sheriff, and pastor at Mt. Olivet for a number of years; the Meurrier family; Milton Wardlaw; and Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Fisher.

She played the piano and sang in a quarter with the Millsaps Boys of Crowder.

Bro. Charles Reed, as well as Bro. Ron Wilson of Black Jack, is continuing to give sermons on Facebook.

Remember, you can mail tithe and offerings to Cindy Prince, 228 ½ Pollard St., Batesville for Mt. Olive Methodist.

While you are housebound, call me and give me a story from your family history. Readers will love to hear your story. Home phone is 662-563-1742 and cell (and text) is 901-828-8824.