| Sources |
- [S86] McCammon-Ammons-Click Funeral Home, (http://www.mccammonammonsclick.com/), 18 Sep 2003.
Elizabeth Pearl Burns obituary
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 15 Apr 2016.
Centerarian looks back fondly on life in Blount County
Mary Sue Waters Thames
One of Mary Sue Water Thames’ sixth grade classes at Everett. She taught in various places until retirement in 1976.
By Melanie Tucker melt@thedailytimes.com
As 50 of her friends and family gathered around, Mary Sue Waters Thames took a deep breath and blew out the candle on her birthday cake honoring her 100 years on the planet.
The mother of three, grandmother to four and great-grandmother of three, will turn 100 this Sunday, April 17. She was born in Blount County to Joseph D. Waters and Lula Yearout Waters and still lives on the same road in the Wildwood Community where she was raised.
This week, Thames looked back on a century of living. She attended Porter School from first grade to high school graduation in 1935 and met her husband, the late Clarence W. Thames, in church while attending high school. They both attended Porter, where they played basketball.
“We weren’t that good,” she said of herself and her fellow teammates. Thames, who weighed in at less than 100 pounds, said there were some “great big girls” she had to compete against. She got banged up a time or two.
A different way of life
This centenarian has four brothers and one sister who are all deceased. She is the oldest girl, but that didn’t mean she did all the work.
“We all had to work back then,” Thames pointed out.
Growing up, her family heated their home with a coal stove and used washboards to do laundry. They killed hogs and had a smokehouse where they cured their own meat. Meals included whatever they grew in the garden.
After graduation from Porter in 1935, Thames and her husband went to Maryville College. It was an easy decision for them. “That was the only place to go where you didn’t have to drive there,” she said. She lived at home and rode with her dad to school. She hadn’t yet learned to drive.
Working through college
To help pay her tuition, Thames did what a lot of other female students did: she worked in the Maid Shop on MC’s campus, beginning in 1936. Her job was sewing uniforms for nurses all across the country, she said. She and the others earned 50 cents for each uniform they made.
“It took half a day to make one,” Thames said. “They had sleeves that had cuffs on them. Not many people would do that now.”
Mary Sue Waters then became the bride of Clarence Thames in 1941. She was teaching before that, at Porter, but had to quit when she got married. Rules stated that only single women could teach school in those days.
That rule was later changed and Thames continued her teaching career. After Porter, she taught at Rockford Elementary and also Everett. She was teaching at Union Elementary when she retired in 1976, a school that no longer exists. She mostly taught sixth grade. Clarence worked for ALCOA Inc. for 40 years.
When a president came to town
There are so many memories easily pulled from Thames’ keen memory. Like the time she took her class to stand along Chapman Highway to watch as President Franlin D. Roosevelt’s motorcade drove by on the way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the Park’s dedication. That was in 1940.
As a small girl, she also remembers playing a prank on a friend who wasn’t pulling her weight with the chores. Thames said she starched the girl’s “bloomers.” When Thames’ mom found out, she made her wash the girl’s clothes.
She still laughs about that.
It wasn’t until Thames was married that she learned to drive. Clarence taught her so she could drive herself to work each day. “Women back then didn’t drive,” she said. “I didn’t mind. I didn’t have to ask anybody to take me places.”
As for traveling, Thames has done her share. She’s been to Europe twice and owns a home in Florida. She spends time in Virginia with daughter, Virginia Dodson, and has visited many national treasures like the Grand Canyon. She still gets the chance to take a trip now and again.
Thames’ daughter, Elizabeth Holland, moved back to Blount County a few years ago. Her other daughter, Eugenia Carnes, is deceased.
Stepping back in time
A classmate who dipped Thames’ pigtails in the ink well on his desk, the hobos who rode the trains through town and stopped for food, folks showing up at their door in the wee hours of the morning seeking her father, who was a bondsman, to hep them get a friend or family member out of jail — these are all memories shared and also written down by family members who want to preserve a piece of history. These same family members are the ones who gathered around Thames at this important milestone birthday party held last week.
It was indeed a special day, the birthday girl said. They enjoyed a wonderful meal with family that came in from Michigan and Ohio. Fireworks lit up the night sky in Thames’ honor. President Obama sent his birthday wishes.
Surrounded by loved ones
These days, she is surrounded by family members who live nearby. She depends on them to get her where she needs to go, but that is a recent development. Thames only quit driving two years ago.
Her daughters convinced her it was time.
She doesn’t get to attend her church, Logan’s Chapel, and misses seeing friends there. Eating out is a special treat. One of her favorite places is Cracker Barrel.
Reading is also one of Thames’ favorite activities. She keeps a book by the bed, she said.
No one can visit with a centenarian long before the questions comes up about longevity and just how one gets to reach this milestone birthday. When she was asked, Thames said she doesn’t have the answer. “Behave yourself,” she offered up as one rule to live by.
There’s been on smoking or drinking, either. But, Thames did admit to using colorful language on occasion.
“I maybe cussed a few times,” she admitted.
Holland has to laugh. She said her mom is a woman with a sweet spirit and great outlook on life who has continued to care for her family. She was a wonderful teacher and is still an awesome cook, Holland added.
When she wakes on Sunday morning to her 100th birthday, Thames said she doesn’t know how she will feel, maybe older, maybe not.
She’s glad to be enjoying life in her own home, surrounded by those who love her.
- [S112] Census, 1920.
Name: Mary Sue Waters
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Census
Event Year: 1920
Event Place: Civil District 12, Blount, Tennessee, United States
District: 28
Gender: Female
Age: 3
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): White
Can Read:
Can Write:
Relationship to Head of Household: Daughter
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Daughter
Own or Rent:
Birth Year (Estimated): 1917
Birthplace: Tennessee
Immigration Year:
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Sheet Number and Letter: 3A
Household ID: 42
Line Number: 34
Affiliate Name: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Affiliate Publication Number: T625
GS Film number: 1821729
Digital Folder Number: 004390801
Image Number: 00982
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Joe Waters M 39 Tennessee
Wife Lula Waters F 34 Tennessee
Son Elgert Waters M 14 Tennessee
Son Max Waters M 9 Tennessee
Son Carl Waters M 6 Tennessee
Daughter Mary Sue Waters F 3 Tennessee
Daughter Elisebeth Waters F 1 Tennessee
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Name: Joseph D. Waters
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 10 Sep 1904
Event Place: Blount, Tennessee, United States
Age:
Birth Year (Estimated):
Father's Name:
Father's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Name: Lula Yearout
Spouse's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Age:
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated):
Spouse's Father's Name:
Spouse's Father's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Mother's Name:
Spouse's Mother's Titles and Terms:
Reference ID: 2009/2010
GS Film number: 2074040
Digital Folder Number: 004646474
Image Number: 02012
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