We went from Liberty Pike to what is known now as Wyatt Hall. I spent most of my childhood there. To me it was a castle. Back of the lovely old house was a big flower garden with lilacs, snowballs, hydrangeas, violets, wisteria, arches with honeysuckles, old fashioned buttercups. Just simply a fairy land to me. There were also grape vines on a trellis. The butterflies were everywhere, and I just adored them--still do. I had a little schoolmate from Russia, Anna Brodsky. I taught her the first word she spoke in English, and that was butterfly. What a thrill!

My brother David was born July 4, 1922. The day he was born there was a Fourth of July program at BGA, and I went with Grandpa and Grandma Butner. Dr. Nolen had to leave the celebration to go and deliver David. He said this child “belongs to Uncle Sam.” Thus came the name David Nolen. The David was for Uncle Simmie Butner. His name was David Simeon Butner.

David Nolen Gentry, about 1923. Ironically, Uncle Sam's baby, born July 4, 1922, was killed in action in Minturno, Italy, on April 29, 1944. His body was returned to Franklin, where he was buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery on September 15, 1948.

While we lived at Wyatt Hall, Jessie Lee and Horace Harmon ran off and got married. Daddy was so mad. Our preacher, Bro. Smith, talked to him.

I have wonderful memories of the people near us at Wyatt Hall. Nell Adkerson was such a sweet playmate. We had such great times sewing for dolls. We would sometimes have Christmas in the summertime. I remember going on the hills behind where we lived and cutting down a little cedar tree, and we decorated it in popcorn and strips of letter paper. We made clover chains for decorations. Mrs. Adkerson was such a sweet lady. She, however, would not allow us to play on Sunday. She said that you read the Bible and rest on the Lord’s Day. Mr. Adkerson had the very last room on the back of the house and stayed there most of the time. He was a very good neighbor but drank pretty heavily. He was not at all good to his wife. She came to our house once with a broken arm. I don’t remember how it happened, but she was so afraid of him. Gong to Nashville in those days was really an experience. Nell’s aunts Miss Hattie and Ray Rosser (Mrs. Adkerson's sisters) took us on the old trolley car. They bought each of us a little doll and a doll trunk. We were so proud of them. We made clothes. I know mine must have been a mess. I didn’t know how to thread a needle. However, I learned. Nell taught me. She was also a year old than I.

The Beasley family lived across the road. Fulton was my first boyfriend. He would leave notes under a rock at the gate and help me carry water from the spring. All the water we had came from the spring. So washing took a lot of bringing water to the house. We had a wash woman named Mary Etta. One time she went to a tent meeting the black folks were having, and someone told Mama that Mary Etta shouted. She laughed and told Mama, “I didn’t shout. There was a woman there after my man. I pretended to shout, and I beat the devil out of her.”

It was really great growing up in this place. Fulton and I were carrying the water from the spring one day, and he was talking about a preacher who was conducting a meeting here at the old tabernacle—N. B. Hardeman, a Church of Christ preacher. Fulton asked me if I was ready to be baptized. I suppose I said, ‘Yes.” Anyway, he said "When you see me going forward, you come right on and do as I do .” So, when he went forward that night, I went right behind him. Fulton had a sad life in a way, but he was a sweet person. . We used to play school; and he would be the professor, and I would be the teacher. When we played school, Dorothy would be a student; and Horace Beasley, his brother, would also be a student.

Louise Gentry, about 1923. The Buster Brown haircut was a problem at various times throughout her childhood. Her sisters had natural curls; and when Mother was small, she became jealous of the compliments her sisters received on their curls. One Sunday afternoon she persuaded younger sister Dorothy to play barber shop and cut off Dorothy's curls. Her visiting Grandma Gentry talked her mother out of punishing her, saying that the jealousy was only natural and that her mother should let her hair grow and curl it.

We had a horse and buggy or a surrey. We had a horse named George and a mare called Maude. The train ran at the back of the house. One morning we had George hitched to the buggy, or rather our father did. We were to drive to town later. The train came around the curve and blew the whistle, and George broke loose and tore the buggy beyond repair. We then used Maude with the surrey, and she was so fast we could hardly handle her. She would be impatient when she had to wait for us to open the gate. She came from a race horse strain of horses. She was really black with a white face. We had to get rid of her. She just would not adapt to a regular pace.

We walked to school after the horses were gone. The bridge we crossed was at a different place then. The little place they kept the telephone truck was just over the river close to the turn where the old jail is now. The old jail house is still there. The bars on the windows now are where they kept the prisoners; at one time the sheriff and family lived in the front part of the house. They cooked for the prisoners. Of course, the only crimes were perhaps getting drunk, fighting, or stealing a chicken or two. Mr. Sawyer was the first sheriff I remember. Mr. Sawyer was a pretty rough sheriff. I think he had shot someone. He was called Cat Sawyer. One time while we were at Wyatt Hall, Dan killed a baby chicken. When Dan killed the chicken and we had a funeral and buried the chicken, we wouldn’t let Dan have any part in it. We called him "Cat Sawyer."

In those days people had more time for visiting. Women never went to church without a hat on. While we lived at Wyatt Hall, I got my doll Grace for Christmas. My Baptist Daddy joined the Church of Christ, and Aunt Donie came to live with us. She was a dear person.

After Frances’ birth the Harmons became a part of our family, really and truly. Horace died when Frances was three months old. I think that is correct. We loved all the Harmon family. Christine was so little when her parents died. Daddy was so sweet to her. The first Christmas they spent with us he went to town and bought her a baby doll. There was Olive; she died the next. Olive was the oldest that we knew. The others were Aline, Eddie, Malcolm, Sue, C. B. and Christine. C. B. and Sue are the only ones left at this time. Sue was married to Roy Giles McMurray when she was seventeen years old. We have all had so much sadness,

Roy and Sue McMurray

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