A Labor of Love

Sometimes i feel extremely lucky being old and regret i didn’t appreciate my past when i was younger. i was also lucky in that i began to appreciate my past when my father and mother would travel to the Southwest corner to spend a month or more with us to miss the harsher time of winter back home in Lebanon. They began that annual sojourn in 1986. My father was 72, my mother was 69. We shared many tales of our and Lebanon’s past for fifteen winters.

i don’t think most younger folks really understand the beauty and worth of family memories. i certainly didn’t. After all,  i had things like the Navy, three wives, two daughters, and many other distractions. And of course, they were old fogies and my generation knew how to save the world and themselves. Even though it didn’t happen. It seems the following generations are faring no better and perhaps worse in learning from their predecessors.

But who knows? i am too old to worry about it. i will just keep writing and talking about memories and my lessons learned and hope some of them will take just a little bit, maybe on anecdote to make the young’uns  lives a little better.

i usually post old photos in Facebook albums, primarily as an easy way to make the photos accessible to a wide array of relatives from both sides of the Jewell-Prichard family. Hopefully, family will appreciate the past and my using my post to share family memories.

But these photos are a bit special to me. You see, about sixteen years ago, my parents made their last fifth wheel run to the Southwest corner to miss the harshest part of winter in Tennessee. They began that tradition in 1985 and ceased making the trip in 2001, three years shy of my father’s ninetieth birthday. On this particular trip, one or two before they gave it up, a photo album was created. It was a compilation of old Jewell and Prichard photographs. What is really special about it is Maureen and my mother worked on it together.

i can see them putting it together. The descriptions of the folks in the photos written to the side is Maureen’s handwriting. i can see them taking each photo out of one of the cardboard boxes we have kept to organize all of our photos together. i can almost hear my mother telling Maureen a story behind each of the photos as they slide them into the plastic sheaths to protect them.

So when i look at the photos, i not only see some slices of history from our past, but i see these two women, so special to me, working on the project. Maureen and Estelle Jewell had a wonderful relationship. They truly loved each other and enjoyed each other’s company. It was always a great pleasure to watch them together.

There are lot of photographs here. i almost stopped several times. My inability to do proper layouts in WordPress is discouraging. But there was a stubbornness that overcame me and i was determined to finish. Maybe a bit of Estelle Jewell wore off on me. The captions here are mine.

And every time i look at the album or this post, i will think of the love these two shared. And i will be happy.

Again, i apologize for the layout.

So here are the photos:

My cousin, Johnny Orr, just before i was born in 1943
Uncle Pipey, James Orr, with me in front of our home on Castle Heights Avenue, 1944.
Aunt Evelyn, mother of Johnny and Nancy, wife to Pipey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cousin Jon, nee Johnny Orr on the Webster farm on North Cumberland.
Cousins, 1945

 

 

 

 

 

Three cousins, again, 1945.
Cousins, 1944.

 

 

 

 

 

Granny (Katherine Webster Prichard with three grandchildren, 1945.

 

 

Cousins, 1946.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Orrs, Red Bank (Chattanooga), 1958

 

 

 

Uncle Pipey, Aunt Evelyn, and Jon, 1966.

 

 

 

 

Jim with the Winklers, Jay, Nancy, Kathy, and Johnny in Cocoa Beach, 1973(?).

 

 

 

 

 

Ann Orr, Estelle Jewell, Evelyn Orr, Mama Orr, Granny Prichard; Red Bank, c late 1950’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon, Aunt Evelyn, and Uncle Pipey, 1970.
The Orr’s, Red Bank, c 1970’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jewell’s. san Martha, Rockwood, c 1960’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Estelle, Blythe, and Blythe’s mom Kathie, 1977.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The den on Castle Heights Avenue: Maureen with Tommy, Jewell siblings, c1985.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother and Daddy’s 50th Anniversary party. Too many people to list here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cousins Jon Orr and Nancy Winkler, c 1980.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jimmy and Estelle Jewell, Evelyn and Pipey Orr; the Smokies, 1980.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Kate Jewell Hansen, several years before the Hansen and “Dr.” were added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy couple in the first home they owned, c1987.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uncle Pipey Orr, none better, c 1980’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aunt Evelyn and Jon Orr; Chattanooga, 1985.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the last Navy photos of goofy guy, 1987.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful woman with goofy guy, 1987.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 sisters with lots of grit still left: Estelle Jewell, Evelyn Orr, Bettye Kate Hall, c1993(?).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lena, Sarah, Oliver, Christmas, 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Orr’s obituary, 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie Jewell. Jimmy Jewell’s great uncle. i’m guessing this was in the 1880’s/1890’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martha being pulled by a goofy guy, 1949.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beverly and Roberta Padgett with Martha and three goofy guys, two of whom would melt, 1950.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas at the Jewell home, 1948.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jewell children, 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jewell children, dressed up for church obviously, 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Estelle Prichard about the time she started dating Jimmy Jewell, 1933.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Betty Joy (nee Hall) Jasahke’s birthday at the Hall farm, July 22, 1953; Joe Jewell, Barbara Leftwich, Gary Hall, Betty Joy (5 years old) Randy Hall, Martha Jewell, Ann Chenault; the goofy kid in the back is the oldest one there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jimmy Jewell on his first date with Estelle Jewell, 1933.
Estelle Jewell on her first date with Jimmy Jewell, 1933.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wesley Wayne Jewell with a baby even goofy at that age, 1944.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The goofy kid, 1947.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Hall, a sensible young man with the goofy kid, 1946.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granny Prichard with her flock: goofy kid, Johnny Orr, Martha Jewell, Bill (Butch) Prichard, Nancy Orr, 1947.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jimmy Jewell, showing off for his girlfriend, 1933.
Lovebirds, 1933.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evelyn Orr and Estelle Jewell; Paris, TN, 1945.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My great grandparents, Bishop Joseph Webster and Katherine Webster, his wife, 1932. Annotated in the album, Maureen wrote at my mother’s direction, “Mama and Papa Webster.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dapper Jimmy Jewell, his high fashion wife, Estelle. The car, i believe is the one they carried the blocks of ice on the front bunker for the ice box (now known as a refrigerator) in their first home, an upstairs apartment in a home on North Cumberland, 1940 although by the time of the photo, they had moved into the one-room home he built on the corner of her grandfather’s property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The man! Joseph Webster, Methodist circuit rider, reverend, bishop, and a fixture in the Lebanon community. One of his last services was to marry Jimmy and Estelle (his granddaughter) Jewell in 1938. i’m guessing this was in the 1890’s.

1 thought on “A Labor of Love

  1. You: “good guy…”
    Me: lololololol
    Never fails.
    Oh, yeah, LOVE all the wonderful pictures. That era was so much fun.

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