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mark page
11-14-2008, 10:53 PM
This was an excerpt taken from the local newspaper from my original hometown. Now my grandmother Mae is recently deceased but my grandfather Roy is still amongst us. My mother Martha listed in the piece is gone as so is my father. This post is meant just as a reminder of what hard times some of our heritage has come from. The article is as written and non-edited.


Sweethearts to share 67th Valentine's Day together



Mae and Roy Worrell have been celebrating Valentines Day together for 67 years. They were married on Dec. 11, 1937. Compromise, they say, is the secret to a long and happy marriage.
"Give and take," say Roy.
"Sometimes you give more than you take and sometimes you take more than you give," adds Mae.
Both Roy, 90, and Mae, 84, grew up in the area and neither have strayed very far away. Roy was born about four miles down the road from where the couple presently lives on a farm southeast of Gallatin. Mae was born in Nettleton.
As a small boy, Roy and his family moved from the farm to live in Gallatin for 13 years. They had a dairy business and his father was also city marshal. Roy recalls getting up to help deliver milk and then going out to the farm to do chores. "I remember some cold winters," he says. "Feeding cattle at 5 a.m. in the morning when it was ten below zero. And I can remember walking alongside a lister when I was so small I could barely reach the handles."
Mae also spent a lot of time in Gallatin as a child. Her grandmother May Bauer, and her aunt Lora Bauer owned a hamburger stand that used to sit between where Pamida and the BTC Bank sit now.
"Everything was a nickel in the shop," Mae says. "Chili, soup, sandwiches, ice cream, it was all a nickel."
She recalls one Sunday afternoon when she was left alone in the shop with nobody else there but a friend the same age. The Negro church let out and she suddenly found herself swamped with customers.
"I was only ten or twelve years old, but they trusted me to cook their food," she said. "My friend helped me and we got everybody fed."
Roy and Mae met while bobsledding with a group of other young people. That, too, occurred close to home. They can see that hill out the window of their farmhouse.
After they were married Mae and Roy lived 9 ½ miles southeast of town for about a year. That was in 1938, the tail end of the depression.
"Everything we raised went to town to sell," says Mae. "Eggs were 10 cents a dozen and cream wasn’t worth much either. Whatever was left over was what we bought groceries with and we saved out 50 cents for gas."
Back then, hogs sold for three cents a pound. The government would pay $13 for an ordinary cow and $20 for a registered cow.
"Those were pretty rough times and we didn’t have much of anything," Roy says. "But, then, neither did anybody else."
Roy bought his first farm of 58 acres for $800. He farmed and rented ground in the river bottom and started making a little bit of money and buying a little bit of land along. Over the years they have accumulated about 1,700 acres and Roy had about 1,015 head of cattle last year and has about 500 so far this year.
Mae worked at the cap factory for several years making visors. She also worked at the sale barn for five or six years. Mae recalls baking crusts for soft pie fillings. She would take a stack to the dining area of the sale barn where she was head cook.
"I could have sold as many as I could have made," she says.
Hard work and humility marks the life the couple have built together.
"Be honest, that’s the main thing we’ve always taught our kids," says Roy. "We taught them that they’re as good as anybody else, but not any better."
Roy and Mae both went to school at Gallatin. Roy says he can remember when there were six hitch racks in the town and he can tell you the location of each of them. He remembers when Highway 13 was built using three mules on a wagon.
"As you grow older, time flies by a lot faster," says Roy. "We’ve seen some good times and been through about the worst anybody could go through."
They lost two of their four children, the oldest and the youngest.
David was killed in Vietnam. He was there 30 days.
"He left on Mother’s Day and was killed on Father’s Day," says Mae.
Their daughter Martha Page died in December last year
Their two living children are Richard (Dick) Worrell of Gallatin and Judy Leach of Chillicothe. They have 11 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Even though Mae’s eyesight is failing, she still finds plenty to do: "My hands are busy all the time."
Mae used to sew. Now with the help of a magnifying machine, she beads dolls and Christmas ornaments.
"My daughter Judy has nothing on her tree except what I’ve made," says Mae.
Roy has had a hip replaced but still gets out and does chores and tends to the farm.
"Dick helps me with the cattle," Roy says. "I don’t know what I’d do without him."
Roy and Mae both say their families are all gone and they’re the last ones.
"I never expected to live this long," says Roy. "I’ve lived a pretty clean life. I never drank or smoked or anything like that and neither did Mae."
The Worrells have been long time members of the Gallatin Presbyterian Church, Mae since 1926 and Roy since 1951. Roy has served as an elder and trustee in the church. Mae has helped with the children and was superintendent for several years.
"Give and take, work hard, and thank the Lord," Roy and Mae say. "He’s had a lot to do with it, too. We couldn’t live without Him."

Ken Fitzgerald
11-14-2008, 11:24 PM
Some people know how to find happiness, recognize it for what it is and hold on to it. The rest chase dust in the wind.

Gary Herrmann
11-14-2008, 11:44 PM
That's a rich heritage, Mark. Be proud of that.