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Family surrounds Nations to celebrate 104 years
By Lynn Hotaling
A life’s journey that began more than a century ago in the Sugarlands area of the Smoky Mountains continues today in the halls of Mountain Trace.
Bessie Nations, born Jan. 29, 1902, near Gatlinburg, Tenn., celebrated her 104th birthday this past Sunday with some 150 family members and friends. Children in their 70s and 80s beamed as their centenarian mother blew out the candles and ate birthday cake.
A few days before celebrating her 104th birthday, Bessie Nations, right, and her son Weldon Nations reminisced about their family’s early years. Nations was born Jan. 29, 1902, in the Sugarlands area near Gatlinburg, Tenn., in what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She has four living children, nine grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, 17 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great-grandchild. – Herald photo by Lynn Hotaling
Believed to be Jackson County’s oldest resident, Natons is the youngest of nine children of the late John and Mary Newman Carr. Her daddy owned more than 300 acres in what is now part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After Nations’ mother died, her father married Mary Trantham and fathered five more children. Bessie is the only one of John Carr’s 14 children who survives.
When she was about 15, in 1917, Nations got a job at the old Elkmont Hotel, which is now also part of the Smokies’ Park, and met Jim Nations. He had walked across the mountains from his Ravensford home to work peeling tan bark at Elkmont. Once he met Bessie, he continued to journey over the Smokies to court her.
Three of Bessie Nations’ (front) four living children were present to help their mother celebrate her 104th birthday this past Sunday (Jan. 29). From left are Geneva Garrett of Greer, S.C., Weldon Nations of Whittier, and Frankie Sheehan, also of Whittier. Daughter Geneva Garrett of Cleveland, Tenn., was unable to attend.
The two married in December, 1917, and walked back through deep snow to Jim’s family’s place on Ravensford. Jim soon had to leave his pregnant wife when he was called into the Army to fight in World War I.
Bessie went to stay with her sister Mel in the logging town of Little River, Tenn. (near present-day Cades Cove) to await baby Flora’s arrival and Jim’s return from the war. Jim came home in 1919 after being wounded in France. He and Bessie took Flora back to Ravensford, but their little girl only lived to be 18 months old. Flora took sick, Bessie said, and died of spinal meningitis before Jim could walk from Ravensford to find a doctor.
Jim Nations and Bessie Carr posed for this picture in 1917 shortly before their marriage. The two met while Bessie was working at the Elkmont Hotel in what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Jim, who lived near Cherokee at Ravensford, had traveled to the Elkmont area to find work peeling tan bark.
Bessie and Jim had five more children – Geneva (Garrett), Mary Helen (Evrett), Weldon, Frankie (Sheehan) and Charlotte. All are still living except Charlotte, who died in 1978.
Though life was hard in the early years of their marriage, Bessie tells the stories with a smile: How she couldn’t get along with Jim’s mother and sisters and fled back to her family in Tennesse to await Flora’s birth; The time 8-year-old Weldon got into her homemade wine; how the family once returned home to find a large black snake in the kitchen; and the way she and husband Jim nearly met an early demise when they surprised a pair of moonshiners near Sugarlands.
Five generations were present for Bessie Nations’ 104th birthday party Sunday at Mountain Trace. With Nations, center, are, clockwise from bottom left, great-great-grandson Cody Lovelace, 6; great-great-granddaughter Casey Lovelace, 10 months; great-granddaughter Carla Lovelace of Clyde; son Weldon Nations of Whittier; and grandson Charlie Nations, also of Whittier.
According to Bessie, there was a lot of corn turned into liquor in her childhood home.
“They about all made whiskey in Sugarlands – it was the only way they had to make a living,” Bessie said last week. “They had to wear badges to keep from selling to each other.”
Bessie, Jim and their children were forced to leave Ravensford when the national park was created. After being paid only $66 for their 22 acres, the family moved to Whittier around 1935. Jim and Bessie’s youngest child, Charlotte, was born in Whittier in 1936.
In addition to making a garden, cooking and canning, Bessie became known for her quilting and crocheting. She often traveled to Gatlinburg to sell quilts.
Jim Nations died in 1980, and Bessie remained in her home until 2003. She moved to Mountain Trace shortly before her 101st birthday.
During her later years she continued to quilt and crochet and was active in the Whittier Baptist Church.
“She was always funny, hard-working and real likeable,” said daughter Frankie. “She’d always laugh and talk and go on with people.”
Bessie celebrated another milestone this past September when at age 103 she was on hand for son Weldon’s second marriage – the only one of her children’s weddings she has been able to attend. Weldon, 79, married Lois Kuykendall Queen, who had been his sweetheart during World War II.
On Sunday, it was Bessie’s turn to take the spotlight, and she seemed to enjoy it. Wearing a bright-colored lei to reflect the party’s Hawaiian theme, she smiled and posed for pictures with various groups of relatives, including a “five-generation” shot. A hoped-for “six-generation” picture did not materialize, though, because daughter Mary Helen Evrett was not able to attend due to her husband’s illness.
Bessie credits her longevity to the fact that she always kept working and never slowed down. Her positive take on life may also have something to do with it.
“I like to go to places where everyone is happy,” she said last week.
The Nations family gathered for a photo around 1948. At left are Bessie and Jim Nations, who married in 1917. Jim Nations died in 1980; Bessie Nations celebrated her 104th birthday this past Sunday. Next is their daughter Charlotte, who died in 1978. Behind Charlotte is their daughter Frankie Sheehan, who lives in Whittier. Next to Frankie is daughter Geneva Garrett, of Greer, S.C. Geneva’s husband Grady, holding baby Connie, is behind her, and their son Jimmy is in front of her. Next is daughter Mary Helen Evrett of Cleveland, Tenn., with husband R.L. behind her and their son Jerry in front. Then comes Jim and Bessie Nations’ only son, Weldon Nations of Whittier. At right is Jim Nations’ mother, Laura Nations, who lived into her 90s. |
