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Community News

Potts Camp News
Dale Hollingsworth

Gurley family celebrated fourth of July and honored family members on their birthdays

It was reported last week that Jimmy Armstrong had undergone surgery. We received a call from his mother, Ann Boren Armstrong who said that due to complications with the donor kidney/pancreas, he did not have the surgery as scheduled. He will have the transplant as soon as possible. Continue to pray for Jimmy and his family.

Jordan and Colton Muraco, grandchildren of Mitch and Jeanette Stone, are visiting for a while this month. On Wednesday they enjoyed a trip to Chuck E Cheese in Tupelo. Joining them for a day of fun were cousins Madisyn and Landon Cobbs and Rylee Farr, along with their grandmother, Jeanette Stone, great-aunt Mary Minor, and great-aunt Jean Gurley (grandmother of Madisyn and Landon).

The Gurley family celebrated a late Fourth of July as well as birthday celebrations for Deanna Rowland Knight and Thomas Passons on Saturday, July 9, at the home of Bill and Sue Rowland. A large number of family members and friends attended. Deanna and her children, Sarah Grace, Caleb and Tyler of Florida are vacationing at the home of her parents this week. Thomas is the son of Leland and Cindy Hart Passons and the grandson of Jimmie and Margaret Hart.

Late birthday wishes go to Abby Farr, who celebrated her 16th birthday on July 5; to Kylie Gurley (July 8); and to Luke Gurley (July 10).

Birthday wishes are also extended to Joan Gurley (July 16), Keri Murphy Beasley (July 17), Taylor Poole (July 19), and, Emily Stone (July 22).

Molly and William Byers and family of Big Sandy, Tenn., came to visit her brother, David and Betty Greer and others (my daughter) over the weekend and attend the Baptist church services and dinner. Molly grew up there. She was a child when her mother died. We love Molly.

We send our love and sympathy to the family of Booker Farr in his recent death over the weekend. Services were in Macedonia Church; burial was in Cornersville Cemetery.

God’s Promise

God did not promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, or sun without rain. But God did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears and a light for the way, and for all who believe in His kingdom above, He answers their faith with everlasting love.

On Sunday afternoon, July 3, my daughter, Betty Greer, and I enjoyed a phone call to my son, Danny Hollingsworth, president of Piedmont College in Georgia.

Danny and his family will be unable to attend the Hollingsworth reunion, held at the home of Bob and Tula Hollingsworth in Monroe County near Aberdeen, because graduation day will be held by Danny at Piedmont College that day. We hope Danny, Elizabeth and three sons will be able to visit us sometime before long.

We were saddened by the death of Herman H. Hill of Aberdeen, age 87, on July 3. He was the widower of my late sister, Ann Potts Hill. He leaves three children, Belinda Russell of New Albany, Karen Williams of Andover, Kan., and Charles Hill of Pearl, also many grandchildren.

Services and military service honors were held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at E.E. Picker Funeral Home in Amory.

My late sister, Ann Potts Hill, was 10 years younger than I am. Herman was a good husband and dad and a good brother-in-law.

A second birthday party was held for pretty little 5-year-old Anna Rose Work in the home of other relatives. Attending were Cathy McCallum, her grandparents Connie and Andy Work; her uncle Timothy; her dad, Lindsay Work; Betty Fincher and others. They served ice cream and homemade cupcakes with candles on them. She received many gifts. Anna Rose Work’s mom is remarried and has another child.

School has changed since I was a child! We had chapel programs once a week; a local pastor from one of our churches would come and speak to us and we sang hymns and prayed. The coach who kept early study hall would read us a few Scriptures from the Bible. We sang a hymn and he would pray. Now it is against the law! Other laws have changed. They need to put God back in schools and in public places like the courthouse.

Memories and History

Two of our town’s first leaders were Dr. F.P. Boatner, who served two terms in the State Senate, and A.Q. Greer, the town’s first banker. At one time, late in the afternoon, you would see a line of wagons drawn by horses with barrels in them near the railroad tracks, where there was a deep overflowing well. They would fill the barrels with water for the night. They even had a trough for the horses to drink from.

In 1915, Dr. Boatner and Mr. Greer were instrumental in getting our town changed from a village to a town, so the town of Potts Camp could borrow money to put down our first deep well and pipe water to our homes.

In 1910, my grandfather, James Alexander Potts, bought a lot on Front St. and built a two-story “Potts house” and they moved to town. The house has been bricked and still stands. My house is also over 100 years old.

The Potts family (my dad’s) grew up in the country near old Macedonia area until 1910. The old house and church are gone but the cemetery still stands with many of our ancestors buried there.

My uncle Sal (Saloman) Potts preached his first sermon in old Macedonia Church and my aunt Vasti Spencer played the organ by ear then. (Daddy would take me with him there many times.)

Mother couldn’t take all the little children younger than me; I remember it well. The late Pearl Johnson, a relative, took me there also and my late brother, Rev. Lindy Potts, buried many people there from Potts Camp.

Our town was the first one this size to have running water piped to our homes and also concrete sidewalks.

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