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Woods lives life to fullest By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer  | Photo by Sue Watson
Pictured
with Jamie Woods (second from right) are (from left) her son Robert,
retired county forester Eddie Pou and retired county agent Ronnie Jones. |
Jamie Woods of Holly Springs is a woman of many interests. From
Pontotoc County, the 11th child and last child of a farming family,
Woods started life simply and worked her way up. She had six brothers. In
high school, she joined the 4-H Club and won state competition that
allowed her to attend the National 4-H Club Congress in Chicago in
1939. All 4-H projects that won state were eligible for final judging
in Chicago. A photograph taken at the national
convention once hung above her kitchen counter. Hundreds of 4-H’ers
were lined up for a group photo. Woods donated the photo to the
Marshall County 4-H chapter and director Lemon Phelps. After
graduating from high school, Woods attended “the W” – a college
originally for women that now is co-ed and has been renamed the
Mississippi University for Women. Woods said
there were not many careers for women at the time – teaching being the
primary career. But home economics was a popular career for women who
went to “the W” at the time because there were other jobs besides
teaching home economics in high school. One of her twin sisters convinced her to study home economics because with it she could do more than teach. After
graduation, Woods worked at Corinth with the Mississippi University
Extension Office and led Alcorn and Tishomingo counties’ 4-H. Later she became 4-H agent and Home Extension agent in Marshall County. “I
worked with 4-H in the morning, women’s demonstration clubs in the
afternoon, and with women and men in community meetings at night,”
Woods said. In that day, a female could not work
with Extension if married, she said. Later during World War II, women
could be married but not be pregnant. Then the restrictions on women
were dropped. But she dropped the Extension first so she could have children.  | Photo by Sue Watson
Jamie Woods displays an old photo of her sons. |
Woods
knew Lessie Lee Davis, who worked with the 4-H Club for black youth,
and they were personal friends. Davis helped Woods prepare for her
wedding in Pontotoc. She married Luell Woods Jr., and together they had
two sons, Robert Woods and the late Charles Woods. Not
long after serving with the Marshall County Extension office, Woods was
asked to start the home economics department at the Holly Springs High
School. She had a teacher’s license and agreed to teach one class. The
second year she agreed to teach all day. But that ended her career as a
teacher. She said the classroom was too confining for her. She
started selling World Book Encyclopedias and was offered a district
sales job but it would have meant she would have to live on the
southern end of the state. So Woods went into the real estate business. “When I found out I could sell, I went into real estate – my real love,” Woods said. She was an independent real estate broker and worked the northern end of the state from Highway 82 northward. “I worked from 1960 in real estate until I couldn’t go,” she said. “I really loved that most – meeting people.” Woods’
parents farmed. Her father, James Russell Naugher, and mother, Lora Lee
King Naugher, were wonderful parents who lived long happy, productive
lives. Her mother was also featured in the local paper and she told the
reporter, “Hard work and having children won’t hurt anybody.” Woods
remembers milking six cows before school and again after school during
her years on their farm in Pontotoc County. She also served as water
boy and carried water to the field on horseback. Woods
developed the subdivision she lives in -- a 26-lot subdivision called
Oakview. She was contractor of a number of the houses built there,
including the one she lives in. She sold land on which Marshall Academy
was built. And her sons went into real estate buying up large tracts of
land and developing them. Woods still enjoys a game of bridge, loves music, and most of all she loves to watch Mississippi State beat Ole Miss. “I played football with the children in the yard,” she said. Woods raised her boys mostly by herself. “They were a great pleasure to me,” she said. “I wouldn’t take anything for being their mama.” She
still plays bridge with her friends who have gotten together over the
years. First she would play bridge at Linda’s Restaurant where eight to
10 tables would be set up on bridge night. She
also loves her church, First United Methodist Church in Holly Springs.
And she loves to play bridge with her partners in town – Frances
Buchanan, Pat Stubbs, Jean Anne Jones, Martha Jane Jones, Ethel Peters,
Nita Gilstrap, Martha Ruth Leonard, Hallie Chatham and Ann McClatchy. Having lived a full life, Woods has no regrets. She is happy, has a bubbly personality, and is non-pretentious. “I
never get lonely here,” she said. “If anybody ever told me I would sit
in this chair and be perfectly content, I would have said, ‘you’re
crazy as a Betsy bug,’ ” she said. “But the Lord has been good to me.” Mary Minor, who first knew Woods through the Extension office, is a close friend. “She’s the kind of person who never forgets a name,” Minor said. “She always loved 4-H – it was the love of her heart.” Ronnie
Jones, former Marshall County agent, knows Woods both as a part of the
Forestry Association, and as a personal friend of the whole Woods
family. “She’s a genuine person all the way
around,” he said. “She’s a very good business person with a sharp
pencil and she’s not bashful when it comes to her business. She’s
conscientious. “We went with her and Bob (Woods’
son) to Mississippi State ball games together. I was always proud to
have her a part of the Extension family and she was proud to be
associated with Mississippi State. “Miss Jamie, she’s number one.”
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