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Kate Rhinehart, 'Backbone of Webster,' turns 95By Rose Hooper |
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"My grandfather, Jackson Moore, they used to call him 'the Captain,' cause he served in the Civil War, lived to be 94 and I thought that was old. But I'll be 95 this week and I don't feel a bit old," said Kate Rhinehart from her comfortable living room in Webster.
But, if you are old, "Webster is the best place in the world to be old because people take care of you," Rhinehart said. "Every meal I put on the table includes something somebody brought me, whether it's fresh vegetables from their garden or a bowl of soup or pot of spaghetti they made." |
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At 95, she's still in her own home, a rather historic one, and still cooks. In fact, she threw a New Year's Eve party for her friends over age 90 and cooked a big spread for them.
"I'm strong because I ate pinto beans and cornbread growing up...and I was made to eat everything on my plate." Now about that historic home - the bricks in her house came from the old Webster courthouse which used to stand proudly as the first county seat in Jackson County. Her charming white house with the welcoming courtyard, dubbed "Kate's Korner," stands stoically on that same spot. |
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"Kate is the backbone of Webster," said long-time friend and neighbor Martha Coward.
"Everybody feels welcome at Kate's," said neighbor Billie Jo Bryson who visits her daily. "It's always been the place to go. Even when I was a little girl I remember Kate decorating up their garage for Halloween and all the kids in the neighborhood would come over and bob for apples. We considered Kate our neighborhood mother." Children knew her not only because her door was always open to them, but she was their favorite school teacher. A graduate of Stetson University in Florida, Rhinehart taught in various rural schools in both Macon and Jackson counties. At Webster School she taught American history, Latin, science and algebra. She remembers one of her best students, a little boy named John. His only problem was that he was continually late. "Finally, one morning I took him aside and said, 'John, why are you always late?' "He said there was the cutest little bird on the front fence at his house and he just wanted to watch it and see what it did.' "So I told him, 'That's fine, John. Just watch it in the evening not the morning." When the schools consolidated, she went to Sylva-Webster High School where she finished out her teaching career, retiring at age 65. "When I went to college, I went to learn so I took more courses than I really needed just because I wanted to learn the information. Years later, all those extra courses made it easier for me to get my master's degree," Rhinehart said. The turning point in her career, she believes, was going for her master's. "That's when I really got serious about teaching and I began to see things with a different feeling." Using her wits pulled her through many troublesome situations as a teacher - such as the time all the bigger boys in her class disappeared. "I saw them down by the privy and all of them smoking cigarettes so I just quietly slipped up on them. One of the boys named Jim said, 'I wonder what Miss Kate would say if she saw us now.' "She would say, 'All of you march up to the schoolhouse right now!'" I told them in my most authoritative voice. Now I knew I couldn't whip all those boys so I decided to give them a choice, either a whipping or learning the poem 'Farmer Brown.' Luckily for me, they all chose to memorize the poem." That prompted Rhinehart to remember a time when she was a young girl and got into trouble for cutting her hair. "I had long, white curly hair and my grandmother would always braid it for me in these two long braids - real tight and heavy, with a part down the middle. It hurt - all that pressure weighting down my head so one day I took the scissors and headed to the smokehouse. That was the only place with a lock on it. I cut a big chunk out of my left braid and was working on the other side when my grandmother found me, "My God, Katie, you've ruined yourself!' she cried. "Well, my uncle Alex Moore, he was sheriff of Macon County at the time, took the scissors and finished off my hair cut, giving me a fashionable short bob and bangs and that shut everybody up 'cause they weren't going to tell him that he hadn't done a fine job." Walking through Webster one day with a friend, this native of the Ellijay community in Macon County spied Joe Rhinehart. "I told my friend that I was going to have a date with that boy. Turns out first time Joe saw me he told his friend, 'That's the girl I'm going to marry.'" "Marrying Joe was the most important event in my life," said Rhinehart of her late husband. The couple had two sons, Jim Rhinehart of Stone Mountain, Ga., and Joe Parker Rhinehart of Webster and Georgetown, Ky. "I always wanted to have our own ball team of nine, but we ended up just having a pitcher and a hindcatcher. Other than that, I don't know a thing about my life that I would have changed." This retired teacher spends a lot of time reading and crocheting, but what she enjoys most is "when people drop in and we just have a pleasant visit." Everyone is invited to "drop in and visit" Rhinehart during her birthday party this Saturday, Jan. 22, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Webster Methodist Church. |
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