Rocker returns to its origin

A rocking chair that was a part of Crump Place in the late 1940s has made its way back to Holly Springs.

Paula Porter of San Antonio, Texas, delivered the chair to Martin and Dawn Donnelly, the owners of Crump Place, on Tuesday, March 9.

Porter said the chair was a gift from Corrine Butler to her mother, Allie Gaddis, in approximately 1948.

Her parents rented space in Crump Place when her father, Paul Gaddis, was stationed in Holly Springs with the Mississippi Highway Patrol. He partnered with Jim Warren.

“My mother and Corrine became close friends during the time my parents lived in Crump Place,” Porter said.

Her sister Anne was born during that time. Anne Cross lives in Ripley and accompanied her on the recent visit to Holly Springs.

“My mother used to tell the story that when she, my dad and sister moved from Crump Place to Ripley, Corrine told Mother that she had to take that chair because she could never stand to look at it without my mother in it rocking the baby,” Porter said.

Since then, the chair has just kept on rocking babies.

“When Mother took the chair, it went first to her house and then to my grandmother’s house, where she rocked each of us,” Porter said.

“I inherited the chair and rocked my three girls in it, and then my oldest daughter rocked her son in it.” She said that even though the chair is still in very good condition, it is becoming quite fragile.

“It means so much to me to have the chair come full circle and return to its origin where it can be loved and appreciated by the Donnellys,” Porter said.

She made contact with the Donnellys by reaching out to Chelius Carter through Preserve Marshall County.

“She felt like the chair belonged back at our house, which we think is pretty cool,” Martin Donnelly said. “It is so nice of her to think about giving it to us.”

He said the chair will be displayed in the entryway to Crump Place with a ribbon around it. It will be retired from sitting and rocking.

“We will have a sign made to put above it that tells the story of the chair,” he said.

The Donnellys have owned Crump Place for almost five years.