Tullahoma Tn Newspaper

Margaret was married to Burr Willis on March 3, 1929. Their children, born from 1930 until 1947, were named Horace White, Martha, Virginia Ann, Tommy, Sara Marie, Beasley (also called “Buddy” or “Bud”), Paschal (“Tykie”), James Dryden (“Jimmy” or “Beau”), and Linda Gail. Bud divides them into three groups of three kids each: the Depression Era, the Fifties Era and the Boomers Era. Therein lies the tale.

Bud tells all—the good, the bad, the hilarious, the sad. He tells about the night his father, who worked as a butcher, was ordered to leave the family home after his alcoholism had led to abuse of his wife and family—and the fact that they never saw him again. Bud reveals how when his father died someone asked if Bud’s mother (who had never divorced him through all those absent years) and children would pay for the funeral; you can imagine what the answer to that question was.

Food assistance was available for those in need at the time and “we could have used all that free stuff, but there was not a chance in a million that my mother would have signed up or stood in the line for the hand out,” Bud insists. Each child did his part to help out with the family fortunes while their mother had a full time job just taking care of nine children. She made meals with potatoes, pinto beans, powdered milk, bread and canned tomatoes—and a whole chicken when funds were available.

“Where most people would look into an empty pantry and see nothing but a half bag of rice, a few raisins and some corn meal, Mama pictured rice pudding and hot corn cakes.