| Sources |
- [S104] Cocke County, Tennessee, and its People, Cocke County Heritage Book Committee, (Walsworth Publishing, 1992), 236.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 6 Feb 2010.
Good old golden rules days for longtime friends
Author: David Popiel
With the first week in February past, another storm threatened our hometown by week's end, and businesses readied for Valentine's Day.
A visit to Manes Funeral home last Monday will lead us to a story of lifelong friendship and of an unusual occurrence shared with me first by our police chief. Fortunately, I was not visiting when the Toyota's accelerator pedal allegedly stuck and crashed into the wall.
It was the hours preceding the funeral for Dean Shults that I dropped by the funeral home after hearing of her death. As I told David Shults and their son, Randy, that I always felt welcome and comfortable in Dean's presence, especially at her business Ribbons & Roses. She was such an affable person and good to the heart. She was a dear friend to the Plain Talk, having catered events here, and helped us in many ways and we reciprocated. I shared my condolences with her brother, Junior Stinnett, who was greeting friends of the family.
Last year, Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults suggested that there is a story connecting his father and Hollis Allen, who lives not a mile as the crow flies from Doyle Roger Shults, a man I've often heard about,good things, but never talked with so far as I can recall. Then last November,while sitting in my office Roger walked in and we began to talk. At 69, he is slightly younger than Hollis but neither looks their age, as chasing ornery cows keeps them in shape. Hollis lives on a portion of his late father's, Frank Allen, farm off O'Neil Road not far from Lower English Creek. Roger lives with his wife, the former Lillian Teague, at 271 Friendship Road. This is less than a quarter mile from where he grew up by the Gray Graves home. She too was raised in the neighborhood near where Sherry Jarnigan now lives. After seeing how tall and attractive Lillian is, I can see where the children get their looks and height. Her Dad was Raymond Teague.
You probably know one or all of their children: Chief Shults, Detective Lynn Shults, who is oldest, Deborah Williams, and Denise, who I know as a fellow Kiwanian and assistant vice-president at Greenbank's Newport branch. Just a few days after this chat with Roger, I bumped into Judy Barnes,one of my former Cosby students, who told me of the connection between her and Deborah. She and husband, Timmy, run Jack's Market off Cosby Highway on the way to the Sevier Co. line. Judy is married to Timmy's brother, Mark. Both men are Cosby postal mail carriers. Roger has a gang of brothers and sisters, many of whom you and I know well and respect. They are the children of Ivan Shultz, who was married to Mary Lee Bryant. She died in 1971 at age 49. Ivan then married Loan Phillips. They had two children, Benjamin and Henrietta. The family is well acquainted with work, Ivan spending many years with Automatic Sprinkler,of Knoxville. One of Roger's brothers is a former East Tenn. Sheriff, Harry Shultz, a retired state trooper. I think I always referred to him as "Big Harry," when gathering news in those years. Master mason Larry Shults is another brother. Now let me say right here it is somewhat confusing that members of the same family have chosen to use a "z" instead of"s," but, hey, that's their business.
Ivan's son, Jimmy M. Shults, is married to Dean Shults' sister,Betty, the older of the Stinnett sisters. Other siblings are Ivan Ray Jr.;Glenda Mayfield, who was married to the late builder, Lester; Dwayne, who follow's Dad's trade in N.C.; Danny, a cook at Shoney's in Millington; and Marsha Thomas, who works in the Bent Creek office.
The family lived not far from English Creek Church just up the road from Ida B. Brown. Before I get back to Roger and Hollis and what they have uniquely in common, let me say that after graduating, Roger worked at Bush Brothers and then spent about five years at Rhyne Lumber. But for nearly39 years, he worked at American Enka at Lowland and retired in 2002. One of hismain jobs was unloading acid and gases from tanker cars. Today, his work consists of "piddling" on the farm, custom bush hoggin' and collecting cast iron frying pans. I'm not sure but he may still be in the running with Hollis for Farmer of the Year. Last Tuesday, I went over for a visit and enjoyed the talk, and especially seeing Roger's major project for the past four years: a large cabin built from many kinds of wood throughout. It's worth a story on its own.
If you stand at Lane's Market, facing English Mountain,and look towards Bogard Road, there is a now vacant lot where a large apartment building burned some years ago. This land was the site of English Creek Elementary School. And in 1946, that's where our story of Roger and Hollis begins. Perhaps they had been friends before this and thrown stones at each other or accompanied their fathers to the stockyard and met. Hollis' late brother, Hal, and Roger's brother, Jimmy, also started school together. The children who succeeded graduated in eight years, like Lillian did. Roger shared a list of principals and teachers from that era of 1946 to 1954: Principals Goldie Eisenhower, Neil Harper, Ray Pierce, Myrtle Hickey, and Dorothy Sutton. Other teachers he recalled were Delsie Bryant, Edna Spencer Clark, Mable Proffitt, Ida B. Brown, Elmer Lillard, and Estilee Prizer. Somehow, despite their pranks, and not being the book-smartest frogs on the log, they graduated. Then they both entered Cosby High School and graduated together in June 1958. Roger says that so far as he knows they are the only friends that started English Creek Elementary together and graduated together 12 years later.
"We were tight," said Roger of their friendship. Both liked sports and girls. Roger still remembers when Hollis(Buddy) borrowed Frank's 1956 Ford truck and the two rode to Cosby together. I wonder if Frank knew this?
Roger remembers a lot about the old school, which had several rooms and a cafeteria in the basement where children bought meals for20 cents. It was the time when a six-pack of Nehi grape sold for 25 cents,bread for 16 cents, and bologna, 25 cents per pound. I think that Roger must have been the brains of the two as he was almost a B student and Hollis prevailed more with welder and machine tools in ag classes. William Hartsell was their teacher and was still at the school, when I taught in 1972/73. Roger recalled that he and Hollis built snow sleds out of white ash and burned the grain for an antique look. It was here that Hollis became a good welder, a skill he mastered and that served him well for about 40 years at Stokely cannery, later operated by ConAgra. Roger still has one of their projects from about 1957, and it wasn't a modified Chevy. The boys built boom poles for tractors. Roger still has the one he put together. He also is proud of a heavy steel wood stove that Hollis hand built and welded years ago. Roger calls it the"Allen Stove."
In a rapidly changing world mostly made in China is it comforting to see an enduring friendship grown in our nurturing mountain home.
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1940 - (83 years)
, d. 2 May 1982 (Age 68 years)