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Community News

Potts Camp News
Mary Minor

Fish fry to benefit Lorette Overall

We send our love and sympathy to the family of Johnny and Laverne Westmoreland in the loss of their granddaughter, Monica, of Olive Branch. She was laid to rest in the Temperance Hill Cemetery on Thursday.

Condolences are also sent to Judy Gurley and family in the loss of her grandmother, Mary Humphreys Wilkinson. Services were held Friday in Collierville, Tenn. Other family members from Potts Camp are the Glen Humphreys, Edgar Wilkinson, and Irene Howell families.

A benefit fish fry will be held for Lorette Overall at 6 p.m., Saturday, March 17 at the First Baptist Church in Potts Camp.

Prayer list: Jean Shaw Whaley who is recovering following hip surgery, Billy Wayne Allen, W.R. Gandy, Tammy Howell, Craig Gurley, Mary Jarrett, G.R. Thompson, Ann Miller, Talmadge and Marie Edwards, Shirley Dillard, Lorette Overall, Polly Pratt, and Betty Rose Jones.

Happy birthday to Melanie DeBerry Poole, Cindy Hart Passons, and Megan Wilson. A very big “thank you” to family and friends for making my recent birthday very special by calling, sending cards and posting messages on Facebook. I also celebrated a joint birthday meal with niece Sherry Colhoun whose birthday was March 3. Her daughters Elizabeth and Rebecca prepared the meal.

Mitch Stone sang at Ashland Baptist Church on Sunday night at their Wild Game Supper. He was invited by Jimmy and Lurline Kimery. Jeanette, Joan and I also attended.

Thank you to those who sent their special memories of Dale Potts Hollingsworth for this column. They will continue until all have been printed.

Thoughts

For better or worse, you and I are the ones Jesus depends on to tell the world how He lived and died on the cross to save us from our sins! Can He depend on us to strengthen the kingdom of God as He depended on those first disciples? Today’s Christians are all He has. Can He depend on us?

Memories of Dale Potts Hollingsworth, continued:

I lived next door to Mrs. Hollingsworth for 18 years and found her to be a true friend and a loving person. She loved her friends, her family, and most of all her Lord. She was a precious lady and will be missed by all.

Joyce Clayton

“Sure will miss stopping by and talking with Mrs. Dale and seeing her sitting on the porch, at times taking a little nap! David was her right hand man, and we will miss those 5 a.m. calls he got sometimes, but she knew he would be right there. She was a special lady and friend to us.”

Janis and David Alderson

“I remember during the ice storm, a tree fell on Miss Dale’s house. It tore the electrical service off her house and had to be repaired. I was fortunate enough to have a chain saw and helped get the tree off her house and cut it up. Miss Dale chronicled well the events of the ice storm and the hardships that many faced in those days. She was always faithful in her attendance to Potts Camp First United Methodist Church and its activities. She helped to support the activities of the Potts Camp Fire Department, the schools, and civic organizations as well as any cheerleader could in her faithfully written column for The South Reporter. She wasn’t just a chronicler of social happenings, yes, we knew when folks were visited and appreciated it; it was that she also kept us connected to the sacred past with memories of Potts Camp days that were rapidly fading away. She kept us grounded in ways that made us all feel we were part of something very special, a place that will always be dear to my heart. Thanks for the memories, Miss Dale.”

Love always, Rev. Ray N. Daniel, Jr., former pastor of the PC Charge

“Dale was lifelong friends with my mother, Margaret Alvis, and her twin sister, Mary. Through marriage they even shared an aunt and uncle. Her mother, Mae, was one of my grandmother’s best friends. Her son Jimmy was my classmate. I grew up knowing Dale, but she knew my family before I knew them. It wasn’t until after Aunt Mary and then Mama passed away that Dale and I discovered we shared a love of storytelling. It was through shared stories that we relived growing up in Potts Camp. Our age gap disappeared as we laughed over both Dale’s and my childhood adventures. Through stories, she introduced me to family that I had never known. The stories she told me were a gift that I treasure, a gift that I will pass along to my children and grandchildren, and they in turn, theirs.”

Sylvia Seymour Akin

“Dale was a long time and good friend to my mother, Clara Rose Jones, and visited her often during Clara’s last years in Potts Camp. Dale gave her a pillow that she made for her friends, and that pillow is in Bettye Rose’s nursing home room.”

Frances Jones Fitts

“I knew Mrs. Hollingsworth all of my life and grew up with her children. She was dedicated, a very humble person (didn’t want praise), loved the Lord, loved Potts Camp and the history of Potts Camp. She was loyal to the First United Methodist Church and raised a good family. I enjoyed the stories she would tell, one in particular of working out a deal with my mother, Mary Lester Cox. Mrs. Hollingsworth would fix my mother’s hair in exchange for piano lessons for her daughter. I will treasure her memory.”

Sonny Cox

“I remember the good rolls that Mrs. Dale Hollingsworth made in the cafeteria at Potts Camp School.”

Patrick Goode

“My wife and I extend heartfelt sympathy to the Hollingsworth family. Mrs. Hollingsworth was a dear friend. She developed a friendship with my mom and dad many years ago and it continued to my family as well. We visited in her home many times and she always welcomed us so warmly. She was always thanking us for checking on her in bad weather, and bringing a gift on special occasions. As a result of her pleasant personality, we always left from visiting with a smile, cheerfulness and thanksgiving. Her weekly column in The South Reporter was a delight to read, and she always included so many different folk, and made everyone seem important. Dale Hollingsworth was a delightful, precious lady, and will be greatly missed in our community and in our lives.”

Bishop Steve Wilson

“Dale Hollingsworth shared so much Christian love and all the interesting news all over the country to so many friends. I cannot describe how much she will be missed, but I think what a big welcome she received where she is today! God bless Dale and thanks for all the memories. She was loved by so many and was such a special friend.”

Joann Gholston Cox

“I remember how pleasant Mrs. Hollingsworth and Willie Stroud were while working in the lunchroom during our high school years. I also have appreciated The South Reporter and her Potts Camp News. It was instrumental in keeping me current on the news from home since I left the area around 48 years ago.”

Norris Boren

“Mrs. Dale. Faithful: faithful to her Lord, church, family and friends. What a heritage she left us in her writings in The South Reporter and her book! She was special to our family from way back. We will miss her.”

Betty Shaw

“When I was 3 years old, my dad was principal of Potts Camp School. When my parents attended basketball games and I didn’t want to go, I would stay with Mrs. Hollingsworth. Every time I visited, she recalled babysitting me. She always remembered to send me a birthday card. She also gave my family some of the lace-trimmed pillows she used to sew, and I had a pet cockatiel who loved to sit on those pillows.”

Emily Stone

Ruby Dale Hollingsworth was a truly Southern lady with a remarkable gift for chronicling not only her life, but also the town of Potts Camp and the surrounding areas. Mrs. Dale always had an open door (I mean that literally, as well). In her latter years, she may have been confined to her home physically, although you would occasionally see her soaking in the scenery on her front porch on a pretty day, but her life extended far beyond the walls of that original white, clapboard farmhouse in the middle of town. She spread the news through her columns, note writing (of which many I received), and her many phone discussions. I use discussions because if you spoke with her, you were more than likely going to be on the phone for a while. I think anyone could go by and strike up a conversation on those days when she sat in the swing or in that rocker on her front porch. Even the youngsters would find her stories of bygone days intriguing. My eighth graders at Potts Camp would beg to go to her house after reading her book, “Memories of Potts Camp on the Old Pontotoc Trail.” She might not know them, but if they had relatives from Potts Camp, she knew them, and it didn’t matter what color they were! I don’t think I ever visited her without her telling me something kind about someone in my family. She always told me how much she loved my grandmother, known simply as Sallye Ball, or how she had fond remembrances of my great-grandmother, Lela Reed. She would tell me that I was “sweet” like my mother, and would often go into the story of how my mom and her son, Jimmy, went to the fair together on an FFA trip in high school and had so much fun. I can truly say that she loved my three daughters, too. That love was reciprocated. Haven, the note-writer herself, couldn’t visit as often since she moved to Huntsville, Ala., but she kept in touch. Brook exchanged a story or two about her mission travels, photography, and family tales. Although Alana visited with the girls and me from time to time; she was often the cuisine carrier. Kerry and our Jack Russell terrier, Bubbie, enjoyed the drop-ins, as well. During a typical visit for me, Mrs. Dale would hand me the yellow notepad and tell me to write about the conversation we were having, such as who had attended the latest birthday party or where someone in the family had been. She considered everything “news” and she wanted it in her column. (Now you know the rest of the story of why my family and I were in it so often.) Yes, this distinguished mother, grandmother, historian, and friend will truly be missed. Yet, her story lives on through her family and the inscriptions she left behind. We love you, Mrs. Dale, and know you must be rejoicing in heaven!”

Lela Hale

Waterford News
Elmira Curry

Hamilton Chapel hosts special program Sunday

And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Gen. 32:24.

On Sunday, March 11, the 11 a.m. worship service was held with Pastor Andrew Fluker delivering the inspiring sermon at Greenfield Presbyterian. The title was “I won’t let go,” Gen. 32:24-29 and Cor. 1:16.

The 17th annual 100 Men in Black Program was held at Greenfield Presbyterian Church on Sunday, March 11, 3 p.m. It was wonderful. The theme was “So How Shall A Man Live?” - Matt. 4:4. The order of service was: devotion, Greenfield and visitors; prayer, Rev. Andrew Fluker; scripture, Bro. Ontario Fitts; selection, Greenfield Choir; introduction of emcee, Deacon Robert Curry; master of ceremony, Bro. Harvey Payne from New Hope MB Church; welcome, Bro. Devin Fluker; acceptance, from New Hope; selection, male chorus; occasion, Deacon Robert Curry; reading, Earnestine Hamilton; A&B selection, Mt. Olive Choir-Rev. Anthony Marion; offering and offering prayer; finance committee; selection, Jasper Mull, Harvey Payne, Marshall Raimey; and other dedicated to the late Elder Elcue Curry. The entire program was in memory of Elcue Curry. Tribute was given by Robert Jackson. Introduction of speaker was W. James Lyons; selection, Jones Grove male chorus; speaker, John Powell, Jones Grove; selection, male chorus; recognition of guests, Marquis Johnson; words of thanks, Deacon Jasper Mull; remarks, Pastor Lyons; and pulpit benediction, Rev. John Powell.

Our thanks is extended to the visiting churches and individuals who attend.

Hamilton Chapel CME Church will render the Blood of Jesus program on Sunday, March 18, 11 a.m. It is sponsored by the stewardess and Pastor Charles Dooley. Everyone is invited.

Our prayers go out to the sick and shut-ins, businessmen and to the nation.

God is a good God all the time.

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