Charlie Cogdill, 95, has sense of humor, fair play

By Rose Hooper

Charlie Cogdill invites you to help celebrate his 95th birthday Saturday, March 3, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Balsam Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.

His health has always been excellent, except for a few years ago when he had a terrible accident. Down at his son Lanny's shop, the elder Cogdill mounted a big truck tire when the metal rim exploded, blew off and came over his head. It busted his hip and almost cut off his right ear. Dr. Paul Pflueger told him that the accident would have killed any other man almost 90. What saved Cogdill, according to Pflueger, "were the bones of a 20-year-old man."

Working outside for 20 years at Mead helped condition him, Cogdill thinks. "When I retired from Mead in 1964, I was one of the first to go on retirement. They told me I'd starve to death, but, of course, I never did."

While many men are lost when they retire because their job is their life, their identity, Cogdill said, "When I left, I left it all down there behind me." He took to horse trading, and mule trading, preferring mules "because they wagon better." He liked mules for hauling wood and for plowing the garden.

"Until three years ago, I raised a garden. I planted everything my wife, Dollie, would tell me to. She'd say, "We need two rows of tomatoes, two rows of beans, two rows of corn'­ and whatever, and that's what I'd go out there and plant."

Charlie Cogdill, 95, isn't worried about his age. "Why, this old house, it's 100. It's older than I am," he said of the two-story farm house on Crawford Cemetery Road he's restored over the years.

When his childhood sweetheart and soulmate for 74 years, Dollie Queen Cogdill, died two years ago, Cogdill finally slowed down.

He doesn't even attend Balsam Baptist Church anymore. "Just isn't the same without Dollie," he explained.

"Mother and Daddy were so close and always such loving parents," said daughter Clarine Norman. "I never heard them argue. No matter what time of the day you would come in, you could hear them talking back and forth together. I'd say to him, 'Daddy, what do you talk about after 70 years?'"

Cogdill vividly recalls his wedding day. "The same time Dollie and I married, her sister, Icie Queen married Rob Sutton. It was Aug. 23, 1924, and the Rev. Roland Painter married us at the spring where the Ritz Theatre was in downtown Sylva." The Queen sisters hailed from Ochre Hill, and Cogdill dated Icie first before he decided that her sister Dollie was the right one for him.

Charlie Cogdill enjoyed horse trading and mule trading, preferring mules "because they wagon better." He liked mules for hauling wood and for plowing the garden. This horse, however, was "something special. You could ask him how old he was and he'd open his mouth and roll his lips back for you to look at his teeth," said Cogdill, who turns 95 this weekend.

The couple had nine children; six are still living. In addition to Clarine are daughters Dixie Crawford and Joyce Davis, both of Sylva, Divola Nicholson of Brevard, and sons Willard C. of Waynesville and Lanny of Sylva; plus 26 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren. "Daddy's worked hard all his life," Norman said. "He never had time for drinking, he didn't smoke, and he always made us kids go to church, whether we wanted to or not. We've always been a close family­still are."

In their younger years the couple moved to Sedro Woolley, Wash., because Dollie had lots of family there. But they didn't like it, so they came back home.

Along with young bones, Codgill possesses a sharp mind with instant recall. He knows everybody in the county. All you have to do is mention somebody's name and Cogdill can immediately tell you all about them and their family.

"He's a quick wit, too," his children say. "Take for instance the Christmas we got our first television set," said Davis. "All of us kids were just fascinated and we couldn't leave the living room, We just sat there and watched those live pictures. A while later, daddy said, 'Anybody milked the cow?'

In addition to a sense of humor, Cogdill has a sense of fair play. A large tree used to stand in Crawford Cemetery Road and vehicles had to pull around it to get by. It was a dangerous place because if you pulled out and someone was coming, you'd hit head on, according to Cogdill.

Cogdill contacted the DOT, telling them how dangerous the tree was. "First they told me that the tree was not in the road. Then, a time or two later, they told me they didn't have a saw big enough.

"Well, they waited too long and when a young fella got killed there, I took my truck and parked it in the road by the tree. We took pictures and I wrote letters and mailed them to Raleigh. One morning, about 8 a.m., the DOT was here cutting down that tree."

Cogdill thinks he might let his driver's license go dead this year. "My family's good to take me where I want to go," he said. Generally, that's the barber shop, to Divola's in Brevard or kin folks in Georgia.

At 95, he still lives by himself, but his children live close by and check on him every day and fix his three meals a day. "I've got a good appetite and like about everything, especially if it's from the garden," he said.

A contented man, he wouldn't change his life in any way, he says. Talking about how things have changed since he was a barefoot lad walking 3 miles over the hill to the old school at Addie, he wished "people still took their time. Used to we had time for each other but nowdays, everybody's in a big hurry."

He's not the least bit worried about his age though. "Why, this old house, it's 100. It's older than I am," he said of the two-story farm house he's restored over the years.

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