| Sources |
- [S74] Atchley Funeral Home Records, Volume IV, 1987-1999, Larry D. Fox, (Smoky Mountain Historical Society), 2 Mar 1994.
Betty Mae Manis Carr obituary
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 31 Mar 2011.
Pass it on: Maryville grandmother encourages others to share stories
By Melanie Tucker melt@thedailytimes.com
A week shy of celebrating her 89th birthday, Lucille West has plenty of stories to share about her growing up days in Elkmont, Tremont and Huskey Grove. And while not everyone may be interested in her tales, she nonetheless wants to encourage other grandparents to open up some dialogue before some of their stories vanish entirely.
West, a resident of Maryville, was born in Huskey Grove in Sevier County, a small community that was situated between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, on April 8, 1922, at the home of her grandparents, Isaac and Betty Huskey. She said her mother didn’t want to be alone during childbirth, so she stayed with her parents for this most important occasion. West’s father spent a lot of time away from home working as a logger.
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The Huskey name is certainly well known in these parts. It was West’s great-grandfather, Sherrod Huskey, who donated the land for Huskey Grove United Methodist Church and also the cemetery.
“Huskey Grove was my second home,” West said. “I loved it up there.”
Humble beginnings
David Arthur Manis and Mollie Huskey were married in 1918 and had nine children, with West being the second oldest. She became a second mother to her younger siblings, and remembers how the family moved around as her parents sought to raise the family in those Depression days.
Soon after West was born, the Manis family moved to Knoxville so Arthur and Mollie could work at Brookside Mill, which was located on Baxter Avenue. It wasn’t their cup of tea, so the family picked up and moved to Elkmont before settling in at Tremont.
“I just remember the rows of houses there,” West said as she described her life in Tremont before the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established. “On the right, the houses were at ground level, but ours was on the left and you had to climb down an embankment to get to them. It was between the river and the railroad tracks. The spring was across the river. That’s where we had to get our water.”
West isn’t sure how long her family lived in Tremont before they packed up once more and moved back to Sevier County, in Boyd’s Creek. Next was Grainer County where her family eked out a living as sharecroppers.
By that time, West was a teenager and she moved to Knoxville to look for work. She found it at a place that made airplane parts for World War II, Fulton Bellows. She worked at the plant for two or three years and remembers the day the war ended.
“When the war was over, I was laid off that very day,” this grandmother recalled. She promptly went uptown on Gay Street and found a job the next day at George’s Department Store. Her salary: $18 a week.
Starting the dialogue
A lot of these memories started coming back to West after her grandson, Luke asked her some questions because he was working on a family history project at Maryville High School a couple of years ago. She said he took photos of her mother’s flat iron, butter churn and her father’s old gun. West said the idea behind that project — to get the younger generation to become inquisitive and learn about the past — is a wonderful one.
She can tell hers about riding the train from Elkmont, about walking to school two miles across the woods to Big Ridge when she lived in Huskey Grove. She remembers how her family raised chickens and pretty much everything else they needed. And she can show them two letters written to her by the president of George’s Department Store when she earned top salesperson awards.
Looking past, present
West and her husband Luke met and were married in 1950. He worked at ALCOA Inc. before going into business with another man at Maryville Builders Supply. They have four sons (Steve and Carol, Mike and Nancy, Joe and Darlene and Richard), four grandsons (Peyton, Jamie, Luke and Michael) and one great-grandson, Oscar. Lucille’s husband Luke passed away 11 years ago.
This hard-working, talented seamstress who hand-pieced numerous quilts over the years and made her own clothes said she doesn’t understand lazy people or those who sit around bored. “I can always find something to do,” she said. “I haven’t been bored one day.”
West expects to celebrate her birthday with lots of family and friends on April 16 and she hopes to be able to take a drive to Elkmont and Tremont sometime soon. Over that weekend, she may pull out several photo albums and trace back to the early days when she was just a toddler and life in the mountains was primitive and yet the best place to be. She has other mementos held onto for safe keeping, like a glass given to her mother as a wedding gift in 1918. It was rescued from a house fire in 1919. And the decades-old box camera responsible for taking so many Huskey and West family photos is tucked safely away as well.
Close at hand will be those family members who might just learn something they never knew about this senior matriarch.
- [S112] Census, 1930.
Name Lucil Mannis
Event Type Census
Event Date 1940
Event Place Civil District 3, Grainger, Tennessee, United States
Gender Female
Age 18
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) 1922
Last Place of Residence Rural, Grainger, Tennessee
HOUSEHOLD
ROLE
GENDER
AGE
BIRTHPLACE
David A Mannis Head M 40 Tennessee
Lola M Mannis Wife F 37 Tennessee
Glen Mannis Son M 20 Tennessee
Lucil Mannis Daughter F 18 Tennessee
Jame V Mannis Son M 15 Tennessee
Hugh Mannis Son M 14 Tennessee
Betty May Mannis Daughter F 12 Tennessee
Thomas Mannis Son M 10 Tennessee
Jack C Mannis Son M 8 Tennessee
Ruba B Mannis Daughter F 6 Tennessee
Paul S Mannis Son M 4 Tennessee
- [S86] McCammon-Ammons-Click Funeral Home, (http://www.mccammonammonsclick.com/), 26 Sep 2015.
April 8, 1922 - September 26, 2015
Resided in Maryville, TN
M. Lucille West, age 93 of Maryville, passed away Saturday, September 26, 2015, at the family home in Jamestown, TN. She was an active member of First United Methodist Church of Maryville for 63 years, Shields Sunday School Class, and Women's Circle #6. Preceded in death by her husband of 49 years, Luke L. West; father and mother, David A. and Lola Molly Huskey Manis; brother, Glenn Manis; sister, Betty Carr.
Survivors include her sons, Steve West and wife Carol of Soddy Daisy, TN, Mike West and wife Nancy of Oak Ridge, TN, Joe West and wife Josie Darlene of Jamestown, TN, Richard West of Yuma, TN; grandsons, Peyton Lane West and wife Jessica (and their children, Oscar Brutus, Archer Wyatt, and Violet Sky), Jamie Lee West, Luke Austin West, and Michael Bruce West; brothers, Vaughn Manis, Hugh Manis both of Seymour, T.M. Manis, Jack Manis all of Virginia, and Paul Manis of Sevierville; sister, Ruby Harris of Virginia; numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held 1:00 pm Tuesday, September 29, 2015, at First United Methodist Church Maryville with Rev. Catherine Nance officiating. The interment will follow in Grandview Cemetery. The family will receive friends 12:00-1:00 pm at the church.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to First United Methodist Church of Maryville, 804 Montvale Station Road, Maryville, TN 37803.
McCammon-Ammons-Click Funeral Home, Maryville, TN 865-982-6812
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