Mary Louise (Ms. Mary) Hudson Gore
Mary was born at home in Alcolu, Clarendon County, SC, on 19 Sep 1931, and was delivered by her father's hunting buddy for $5, so her father and his friend could hurry and go hunting that day. She was born the 4th out of 6 children. Her parents were Johnnie and Nita Tennant Hudson. Her grandparents were Bill and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, and Jim and Mamie Thigpen Tennant. She left Clarendon County behind and lived in different areas of SC and NC, and finally settled in Florence, near a lot of her relatives.
Mary had many jobs over the years. She was a cashier at Winn Dixie for a summer or two. She became a receptionist at McLeod's Infirmary in Florence, SC for several years. She worked at the 7-Up Plant as a secretary in Tarboro, NC, for 5 years. She was a tobacco stringer in Florence for quite a few years. She also dispatched for and drove Yellow Cabs for years in Florence. She eventually settled into the newspaper field, working for 30 years at the Florence Morning News and News Journal newspapers in Florence in the production department as head typesetter. She finally retired when she was about 70 years old. She loved to work in her yard, visit the local diner where her friends would meet, and also go dancing every Sunday night at the VFW, which she did for over 10 years, until her health started slowing her down.
She moved from Florence, SC, to her son, David's, home in Taylors, SC, near Greenville, SC, a few years before she died, so she could get specialized medical care. She fought and won her 5 year battle against ovarian cancer, and kept her type 1 diabetes under control for over 30 years, but eventually succumbed to pneumonia and passed away on 20 May 2008.
She was brought back home to her beloved Mars Bluff (a community east of Florence, SC) to be laid to rest beside her dear nephew, Gene Hudson. She had always said it just didn't rain right for her lovely trees, and flower and vegetable gardens anywhere else. She loved being outdoors and enjoyed living the country life. She also loved to crochet and sew, and had a life-long love for playing pianos. Her pet dog, Buddy, a Jack Russell Terrier, lived with her for 17 years, and then Little Bit, part dachshund and chihuahua, who guarded her driveway and would chase away the 2 giant Saint Bernards that the neighbors owned, lived with her for over 8 years.
Mary's husband, Bob, passed away on 2 Jan 1985. They left behind 6 children (Mitzi Marie, Robert Lee Jr., Jill Elizabeth, John Curtis, David Marshall, and Mark Emory), 22 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren at the time of her passing, with more coming in the future. (Note: Her second-born son, John Curtis, passed away in his sleep on 3 May 2009, at the age of 42, almost a year after she passed away at the age of 76.) Mary was also married less than a year to Gordon Odell Hill from Clarendon County, SC, before her 17-year marriage to Bob (the father of her 6 children), and then was married less than a year to Lewis Dixon afterwards, and his whereabouts are unknown. No children were born during these brief marriages.
She is missed and loved very much by her surviving children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brother, Charles Franklin "Smokey" Hudson, of Florence, SC, and sister, Ruth Annette Bodie of Garden City, SC.
Mary is buried in a small cemetery called Thompson Cemetery, in Mars Bluff, SC, just outside of Florence, SC, on Chinaberry Rd., a mile away as the crow flies from where she lived for over 25 years.
The following passage was written by Mary after visiting with her brother, Carl Eugene "Gene" Hudson, in 2001, while he was in the hospital trying to recover from an illness that he eventually couldn't defeat. Mary sent this information, with some of her personal quips and notations, that she had researched and gathered together periodically over the years, through an email message to her daughter, Jill, four days before she passed away on 20 May 2008. (I have taken the editorial liberty of putting all of the dates in uniform fashion and added punctuations, here and there.)
*************
Written Starting in Oct 2003 by Mary H. Gore
"A few family things I have..."
My father, John Ira "Johnnie", was born to William "Bill" and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, in Lamar, Darlington, South Carolina on 30 May 1898. His parents were in a car accident when he was about 10 years old and before his mother died, she asked her brother, Arthur Stevens (or Stephens), and his wife, Modena "Dena", to raise him for her. The 4 children were raised in different homes. John had 2 brothers, Elijah Lee and Harry and a sister, Gertrude, who married Henry Amerson.
Nita was born Weltha Onita Tennant to James Ezra "Jim" and Mary Elizabeth "Mamie" Thigpen Tennant in the Paxville/Alcolu area of Clarendon County, SC, on 5 Oct 1903. She had 5 sisters, Ethel, Milva, Helen, Placida and Lucille. She also had one brother, Franklin.
Johnny and Nita were parents of 6 children, James Clayton (Clayton), born 16 Mar 1922, Carl Eugene (Gene), born 27 Sep 1924, John Leroy (John), born 8 Aug 1927, Mary Louise (Mary), born 19 Sep 1931, Ruth Annette (Ruth), born 24 Sep 1933 and Charles Franklin (Smokey), born on 1 Sep 1935.
*************
I spent some time with my brother Gene while he was recuperating in the hospital. It was a time of remembrance of a very happy childhood.
I grew up as a child of "the great depression." I was born in 1931, the fourth of six children, in Clarendon County, SC. By the time I came along, things had gotten pretty tough. We lived in the country, and only got to go to town maybe once a week or so if we were lucky. Our "bathroom" was an outhouse, sometimes with one hole and sometimes with two. There was always a Sears catalogue to be used as toilet tissue.
It was a very big thing when my grandfather, Jim Tennant, got in his old Model A or Model T and started for town. All the kids wanted to go. My grandfather was a bit of a character. According to reports, he enjoyed his spirits. He had a very big heart. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when he would pick up a stranger on the road and bring him home to spend the night in the "Slip Rat" room (a kind of utility room). The person was well fed and had a warm place to sleep for a little while. My brother remembers once when grandpa brought a man home who had burlap bags wrapped around his feet to protect them from the cold. He said all my mother's sisters were afraid of the man because they thought he may have put pepper in the bags so the bloodhounds couldn't track him. Another man he brought home, my grandmother fixed him a big meal and when it was time to eat, the man asked if there was swine meat in the meal. When told that there was, he said he couldn't eat it because of his religion. They finally got him to eat peas.
From what I am able to gather, my grandparents were pretty well off before the depression. They were farmers. Of course, farming has never been easy for anyone. We had plenty to eat. There was always a garden with lots of fresh vegetables and the pigs to butcher, which was shared with the neighborhood. And for something special - the men and boys would go hunting and get rabbits, squirrels and especially birds. Now, there is some good eating.
School in those early years of mine was not a chore, it was a privilege. You had to walk, sometimes a couple of miles to get there, then the classrooms mostly included multiple grades. Some had the first through the sixth grade. You didn't go to school to act up, you went to learn. My first grade in school was shared with a second grade class. My brother tells a tale of us going to school barefooted in winter time. I was in the first grade and he came up behind me and saw my footprints in the frost. He said my feet had turned red from the cold. He picked me up, put me on his back and put my feet in his pockets and took me to school. There was a real closeness in the family then. You had to be close to survive, I suppose. Everyone looked after each other.
My second year of school began in Lamar, where my father had grown up. He had a logging business. The logs were pulled from the swamps by teams of mules and the workers moved to where the trees were available. Lamar had a little better school system. There was only one class to a room. About the only thing I remember about that was that my teacher was named Ms. Long and she was a tiny, short lady.
I don't remember feeling underprivileged. We didn't have the radio or television or even the telephone, to tell us how things should be. We used kerosene lamps as our light source, and a wood heater to heat with.
The things I remember are mostly good things. Being able to follow after my three big brothers, sometimes, when they would let me, the cousins who came to play with us, the general feeling of well-being. I think someone forgot to tell us that we were poor. I remember my dad giving me a quarter to go to the movies and get a drink and popcorn. And if he was standing around in town talking to some of his friends, I could go and pull on his sleeve and he would sometimes give me another nickel.
Our main source of entertainment was playing in the woods and swimming in the creeks, streams, rivers - anywhere we could find water. We had two mixed breed dogs, Bingo and Jerry, who were our constant companions. We weren't afraid of snakes or anything when they were around. They would kill a snake in a minute. I shudder now to think of the things we did when they were around. I remember one day, my younger brother and sister and I were in the woods and there were several snakes, but the dogs got them.
At Lamar, we lived a mile or two from our Aunt Gertrude and her husband Uncle Henry Amerson. They had a radio - and sometimes late on Saturday afternoons, we would all walk down to their house and listen to the Grand Ole Opry.
We moved to Kingstree when I was in the 6th grade. Our father went to work at a lumber mill and we stayed there longer than anywhere else. Our father had a part of his foot cut off in an accident at the Lumber mill and with some of the compensation he got, he bought me a second hand piano. I was in hog heaven! Brother Gene helped pay for some piano lessons for me. I graduated from Kingstree High School in 1951.
These are the good times of my childhood. How I wish they were here again.
****************
Mary never changed her last name to Dixon. She married Robert Lee Gore in 1957, and had 6 children by him, and although they divorced, she never changed her name from Gore. She was married to a Dixon for less than a year many years ago, and she never changed her name on her SS card or on her driver's license. So, she always went by Ms. Gore.
Mary was born at home in Alcolu, Clarendon County, SC, on 19 Sep 1931, and was delivered by her father's hunting buddy for $5, so her father and his friend could hurry and go hunting that day. She was born the 4th out of 6 children. Her parents were Johnnie and Nita Tennant Hudson. Her grandparents were Bill and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, and Jim and Mamie Thigpen Tennant. She left Clarendon County behind and lived in different areas of SC and NC, and finally settled in Florence, near a lot of her relatives.
Mary had many jobs over the years. She was a cashier at Winn Dixie for a summer or two. She became a receptionist at McLeod's Infirmary in Florence, SC for several years. She worked at the 7-Up Plant as a secretary in Tarboro, NC, for 5 years. She was a tobacco stringer in Florence for quite a few years. She also dispatched for and drove Yellow Cabs for years in Florence. She eventually settled into the newspaper field, working for 30 years at the Florence Morning News and News Journal newspapers in Florence in the production department as head typesetter. She finally retired when she was about 70 years old. She loved to work in her yard, visit the local diner where her friends would meet, and also go dancing every Sunday night at the VFW, which she did for over 10 years, until her health started slowing her down.
She moved from Florence, SC, to her son, David's, home in Taylors, SC, near Greenville, SC, a few years before she died, so she could get specialized medical care. She fought and won her 5 year battle against ovarian cancer, and kept her type 1 diabetes under control for over 30 years, but eventually succumbed to pneumonia and passed away on 20 May 2008.
She was brought back home to her beloved Mars Bluff (a community east of Florence, SC) to be laid to rest beside her dear nephew, Gene Hudson. She had always said it just didn't rain right for her lovely trees, and flower and vegetable gardens anywhere else. She loved being outdoors and enjoyed living the country life. She also loved to crochet and sew, and had a life-long love for playing pianos. Her pet dog, Buddy, a Jack Russell Terrier, lived with her for 17 years, and then Little Bit, part dachshund and chihuahua, who guarded her driveway and would chase away the 2 giant Saint Bernards that the neighbors owned, lived with her for over 8 years.
Mary's husband, Bob, passed away on 2 Jan 1985. They left behind 6 children (Mitzi Marie, Robert Lee Jr., Jill Elizabeth, John Curtis, David Marshall, and Mark Emory), 22 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren at the time of her passing, with more coming in the future. (Note: Her second-born son, John Curtis, passed away in his sleep on 3 May 2009, at the age of 42, almost a year after she passed away at the age of 76.) Mary was also married less than a year to Gordon Odell Hill from Clarendon County, SC, before her 17-year marriage to Bob (the father of her 6 children), and then was married less than a year to Lewis Dixon afterwards, and his whereabouts are unknown. No children were born during these brief marriages.
She is missed and loved very much by her surviving children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brother, Charles Franklin "Smokey" Hudson, of Florence, SC, and sister, Ruth Annette Bodie of Garden City, SC.
Mary is buried in a small cemetery called Thompson Cemetery, in Mars Bluff, SC, just outside of Florence, SC, on Chinaberry Rd., a mile away as the crow flies from where she lived for over 25 years.
The following passage was written by Mary after visiting with her brother, Carl Eugene "Gene" Hudson, in 2001, while he was in the hospital trying to recover from an illness that he eventually couldn't defeat. Mary sent this information, with some of her personal quips and notations, that she had researched and gathered together periodically over the years, through an email message to her daughter, Jill, four days before she passed away on 20 May 2008. (I have taken the editorial liberty of putting all of the dates in uniform fashion and added punctuations, here and there.)
*************
Written Starting in Oct 2003 by Mary H. Gore
"A few family things I have..."
My father, John Ira "Johnnie", was born to William "Bill" and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, in Lamar, Darlington, South Carolina on 30 May 1898. His parents were in a car accident when he was about 10 years old and before his mother died, she asked her brother, Arthur Stevens (or Stephens), and his wife, Modena "Dena", to raise him for her. The 4 children were raised in different homes. John had 2 brothers, Elijah Lee and Harry and a sister, Gertrude, who married Henry Amerson.
Nita was born Weltha Onita Tennant to James Ezra "Jim" and Mary Elizabeth "Mamie" Thigpen Tennant in the Paxville/Alcolu area of Clarendon County, SC, on 5 Oct 1903. She had 5 sisters, Ethel, Milva, Helen, Placida and Lucille. She also had one brother, Franklin.
Johnny and Nita were parents of 6 children, James Clayton (Clayton), born 16 Mar 1922, Carl Eugene (Gene), born 27 Sep 1924, John Leroy (John), born 8 Aug 1927, Mary Louise (Mary), born 19 Sep 1931, Ruth Annette (Ruth), born 24 Sep 1933 and Charles Franklin (Smokey), born on 1 Sep 1935.
*************
I spent some time with my brother Gene while he was recuperating in the hospital. It was a time of remembrance of a very happy childhood.
I grew up as a child of "the great depression." I was born in 1931, the fourth of six children, in Clarendon County, SC. By the time I came along, things had gotten pretty tough. We lived in the country, and only got to go to town maybe once a week or so if we were lucky. Our "bathroom" was an outhouse, sometimes with one hole and sometimes with two. There was always a Sears catalogue to be used as toilet tissue.
It was a very big thing when my grandfather, Jim Tennant, got in his old Model A or Model T and started for town. All the kids wanted to go. My grandfather was a bit of a character. According to reports, he enjoyed his spirits. He had a very big heart. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when he would pick up a stranger on the road and bring him home to spend the night in the "Slip Rat" room (a kind of utility room). The person was well fed and had a warm place to sleep for a little while. My brother remembers once when grandpa brought a man home who had burlap bags wrapped around his feet to protect them from the cold. He said all my mother's sisters were afraid of the man because they thought he may have put pepper in the bags so the bloodhounds couldn't track him. Another man he brought home, my grandmother fixed him a big meal and when it was time to eat, the man asked if there was swine meat in the meal. When told that there was, he said he couldn't eat it because of his religion. They finally got him to eat peas.
From what I am able to gather, my grandparents were pretty well off before the depression. They were farmers. Of course, farming has never been easy for anyone. We had plenty to eat. There was always a garden with lots of fresh vegetables and the pigs to butcher, which was shared with the neighborhood. And for something special - the men and boys would go hunting and get rabbits, squirrels and especially birds. Now, there is some good eating.
School in those early years of mine was not a chore, it was a privilege. You had to walk, sometimes a couple of miles to get there, then the classrooms mostly included multiple grades. Some had the first through the sixth grade. You didn't go to school to act up, you went to learn. My first grade in school was shared with a second grade class. My brother tells a tale of us going to school barefooted in winter time. I was in the first grade and he came up behind me and saw my footprints in the frost. He said my feet had turned red from the cold. He picked me up, put me on his back and put my feet in his pockets and took me to school. There was a real closeness in the family then. You had to be close to survive, I suppose. Everyone looked after each other.
My second year of school began in Lamar, where my father had grown up. He had a logging business. The logs were pulled from the swamps by teams of mules and the workers moved to where the trees were available. Lamar had a little better school system. There was only one class to a room. About the only thing I remember about that was that my teacher was named Ms. Long and she was a tiny, short lady.
I don't remember feeling underprivileged. We didn't have the radio or television or even the telephone, to tell us how things should be. We used kerosene lamps as our light source, and a wood heater to heat with.
The things I remember are mostly good things. Being able to follow after my three big brothers, sometimes, when they would let me, the cousins who came to play with us, the general feeling of well-being. I think someone forgot to tell us that we were poor. I remember my dad giving me a quarter to go to the movies and get a drink and popcorn. And if he was standing around in town talking to some of his friends, I could go and pull on his sleeve and he would sometimes give me another nickel.
Our main source of entertainment was playing in the woods and swimming in the creeks, streams, rivers - anywhere we could find water. We had two mixed breed dogs, Bingo and Jerry, who were our constant companions. We weren't afraid of snakes or anything when they were around. They would kill a snake in a minute. I shudder now to think of the things we did when they were around. I remember one day, my younger brother and sister and I were in the woods and there were several snakes, but the dogs got them.
At Lamar, we lived a mile or two from our Aunt Gertrude and her husband Uncle Henry Amerson. They had a radio - and sometimes late on Saturday afternoons, we would all walk down to their house and listen to the Grand Ole Opry.
We moved to Kingstree when I was in the 6th grade. Our father went to work at a lumber mill and we stayed there longer than anywhere else. Our father had a part of his foot cut off in an accident at the Lumber mill and with some of the compensation he got, he bought me a second hand piano. I was in hog heaven! Brother Gene helped pay for some piano lessons for me. I graduated from Kingstree High School in 1951.
These are the good times of my childhood. How I wish they were here again.
****************
Mary never changed her last name to Dixon. She married Robert Lee Gore in 1957, and had 6 children by him, and although they divorced, she never changed her name from Gore. She was married to a Dixon for less than a year many years ago, and she never changed her name on her SS card or on her driver's license. So, she always went by Ms. Gore.
Mary Louise (Ms. Mary) Hudson Gore
Mary was born at home in Alcolu, Clarendon County, SC, on 19 Sep 1931, and was delivered by her father's hunting buddy for $5, so her father and his friend could hurry and go hunting that day. She was born the 4th out of 6 children. Her parents were Johnnie and Nita Tennant Hudson. Her grandparents were Bill and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, and Jim and Mamie Thigpen Tennant. She left Clarendon County behind and lived in different areas of SC and NC, and finally settled in Florence, near a lot of her relatives.
Mary had many jobs over the years. She was a cashier at Winn Dixie for a summer or two. She became a receptionist at McLeod's Infirmary in Florence, SC for several years. She worked at the 7-Up Plant as a secretary in Tarboro, NC, for 5 years. She was a tobacco stringer in Florence for quite a few years. She also dispatched for and drove Yellow Cabs for years in Florence. She eventually settled into the newspaper field, working for 30 years at the Florence Morning News and News Journal newspapers in Florence in the production department as head typesetter. She finally retired when she was about 70 years old. She loved to work in her yard, visit the local diner where her friends would meet, and also go dancing every Sunday night at the VFW, which she did for over 10 years, until her health started slowing her down.
She moved from Florence, SC, to her son, David's, home in Taylors, SC, near Greenville, SC, a few years before she died, so she could get specialized medical care. She fought and won her 5 year battle against ovarian cancer, and kept her type 1 diabetes under control for over 30 years, but eventually succumbed to pneumonia and passed away on 20 May 2008.
She was brought back home to her beloved Mars Bluff (a community east of Florence, SC) to be laid to rest beside her dear nephew, Gene Hudson. She had always said it just didn't rain right for her lovely trees, and flower and vegetable gardens anywhere else. She loved being outdoors and enjoyed living the country life. She also loved to crochet and sew, and had a life-long love for playing pianos. Her pet dog, Buddy, a Jack Russell Terrier, lived with her for 17 years, and then Little Bit, part dachshund and chihuahua, who guarded her driveway and would chase away the 2 giant Saint Bernards that the neighbors owned, lived with her for over 8 years.
Mary's husband, Bob, passed away on 2 Jan 1985. They left behind 6 children (Mitzi Marie, Robert Lee Jr., Jill Elizabeth, John Curtis, David Marshall, and Mark Emory), 22 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren at the time of her passing, with more coming in the future. (Note: Her second-born son, John Curtis, passed away in his sleep on 3 May 2009, at the age of 42, almost a year after she passed away at the age of 76.) Mary was also married less than a year to Gordon Odell Hill from Clarendon County, SC, before her 17-year marriage to Bob (the father of her 6 children), and then was married less than a year to Lewis Dixon afterwards, and his whereabouts are unknown. No children were born during these brief marriages.
She is missed and loved very much by her surviving children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brother, Charles Franklin "Smokey" Hudson, of Florence, SC, and sister, Ruth Annette Bodie of Garden City, SC.
Mary is buried in a small cemetery called Thompson Cemetery, in Mars Bluff, SC, just outside of Florence, SC, on Chinaberry Rd., a mile away as the crow flies from where she lived for over 25 years.
The following passage was written by Mary after visiting with her brother, Carl Eugene "Gene" Hudson, in 2001, while he was in the hospital trying to recover from an illness that he eventually couldn't defeat. Mary sent this information, with some of her personal quips and notations, that she had researched and gathered together periodically over the years, through an email message to her daughter, Jill, four days before she passed away on 20 May 2008. (I have taken the editorial liberty of putting all of the dates in uniform fashion and added punctuations, here and there.)
*************
Written Starting in Oct 2003 by Mary H. Gore
"A few family things I have..."
My father, John Ira "Johnnie", was born to William "Bill" and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, in Lamar, Darlington, South Carolina on 30 May 1898. His parents were in a car accident when he was about 10 years old and before his mother died, she asked her brother, Arthur Stevens (or Stephens), and his wife, Modena "Dena", to raise him for her. The 4 children were raised in different homes. John had 2 brothers, Elijah Lee and Harry and a sister, Gertrude, who married Henry Amerson.
Nita was born Weltha Onita Tennant to James Ezra "Jim" and Mary Elizabeth "Mamie" Thigpen Tennant in the Paxville/Alcolu area of Clarendon County, SC, on 5 Oct 1903. She had 5 sisters, Ethel, Milva, Helen, Placida and Lucille. She also had one brother, Franklin.
Johnny and Nita were parents of 6 children, James Clayton (Clayton), born 16 Mar 1922, Carl Eugene (Gene), born 27 Sep 1924, John Leroy (John), born 8 Aug 1927, Mary Louise (Mary), born 19 Sep 1931, Ruth Annette (Ruth), born 24 Sep 1933 and Charles Franklin (Smokey), born on 1 Sep 1935.
*************
I spent some time with my brother Gene while he was recuperating in the hospital. It was a time of remembrance of a very happy childhood.
I grew up as a child of "the great depression." I was born in 1931, the fourth of six children, in Clarendon County, SC. By the time I came along, things had gotten pretty tough. We lived in the country, and only got to go to town maybe once a week or so if we were lucky. Our "bathroom" was an outhouse, sometimes with one hole and sometimes with two. There was always a Sears catalogue to be used as toilet tissue.
It was a very big thing when my grandfather, Jim Tennant, got in his old Model A or Model T and started for town. All the kids wanted to go. My grandfather was a bit of a character. According to reports, he enjoyed his spirits. He had a very big heart. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when he would pick up a stranger on the road and bring him home to spend the night in the "Slip Rat" room (a kind of utility room). The person was well fed and had a warm place to sleep for a little while. My brother remembers once when grandpa brought a man home who had burlap bags wrapped around his feet to protect them from the cold. He said all my mother's sisters were afraid of the man because they thought he may have put pepper in the bags so the bloodhounds couldn't track him. Another man he brought home, my grandmother fixed him a big meal and when it was time to eat, the man asked if there was swine meat in the meal. When told that there was, he said he couldn't eat it because of his religion. They finally got him to eat peas.
From what I am able to gather, my grandparents were pretty well off before the depression. They were farmers. Of course, farming has never been easy for anyone. We had plenty to eat. There was always a garden with lots of fresh vegetables and the pigs to butcher, which was shared with the neighborhood. And for something special - the men and boys would go hunting and get rabbits, squirrels and especially birds. Now, there is some good eating.
School in those early years of mine was not a chore, it was a privilege. You had to walk, sometimes a couple of miles to get there, then the classrooms mostly included multiple grades. Some had the first through the sixth grade. You didn't go to school to act up, you went to learn. My first grade in school was shared with a second grade class. My brother tells a tale of us going to school barefooted in winter time. I was in the first grade and he came up behind me and saw my footprints in the frost. He said my feet had turned red from the cold. He picked me up, put me on his back and put my feet in his pockets and took me to school. There was a real closeness in the family then. You had to be close to survive, I suppose. Everyone looked after each other.
My second year of school began in Lamar, where my father had grown up. He had a logging business. The logs were pulled from the swamps by teams of mules and the workers moved to where the trees were available. Lamar had a little better school system. There was only one class to a room. About the only thing I remember about that was that my teacher was named Ms. Long and she was a tiny, short lady.
I don't remember feeling underprivileged. We didn't have the radio or television or even the telephone, to tell us how things should be. We used kerosene lamps as our light source, and a wood heater to heat with.
The things I remember are mostly good things. Being able to follow after my three big brothers, sometimes, when they would let me, the cousins who came to play with us, the general feeling of well-being. I think someone forgot to tell us that we were poor. I remember my dad giving me a quarter to go to the movies and get a drink and popcorn. And if he was standing around in town talking to some of his friends, I could go and pull on his sleeve and he would sometimes give me another nickel.
Our main source of entertainment was playing in the woods and swimming in the creeks, streams, rivers - anywhere we could find water. We had two mixed breed dogs, Bingo and Jerry, who were our constant companions. We weren't afraid of snakes or anything when they were around. They would kill a snake in a minute. I shudder now to think of the things we did when they were around. I remember one day, my younger brother and sister and I were in the woods and there were several snakes, but the dogs got them.
At Lamar, we lived a mile or two from our Aunt Gertrude and her husband Uncle Henry Amerson. They had a radio - and sometimes late on Saturday afternoons, we would all walk down to their house and listen to the Grand Ole Opry.
We moved to Kingstree when I was in the 6th grade. Our father went to work at a lumber mill and we stayed there longer than anywhere else. Our father had a part of his foot cut off in an accident at the Lumber mill and with some of the compensation he got, he bought me a second hand piano. I was in hog heaven! Brother Gene helped pay for some piano lessons for me. I graduated from Kingstree High School in 1951.
These are the good times of my childhood. How I wish they were here again.
****************
Mary never changed her last name to Dixon. She married Robert Lee Gore in 1957, and had 6 children by him, and although they divorced, she never changed her name from Gore. She was married to a Dixon for less than a year many years ago, and she never changed her name on her SS card or on her driver's license. So, she always went by Ms. Gore.
Mary was born at home in Alcolu, Clarendon County, SC, on 19 Sep 1931, and was delivered by her father's hunting buddy for $5, so her father and his friend could hurry and go hunting that day. She was born the 4th out of 6 children. Her parents were Johnnie and Nita Tennant Hudson. Her grandparents were Bill and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, and Jim and Mamie Thigpen Tennant. She left Clarendon County behind and lived in different areas of SC and NC, and finally settled in Florence, near a lot of her relatives.
Mary had many jobs over the years. She was a cashier at Winn Dixie for a summer or two. She became a receptionist at McLeod's Infirmary in Florence, SC for several years. She worked at the 7-Up Plant as a secretary in Tarboro, NC, for 5 years. She was a tobacco stringer in Florence for quite a few years. She also dispatched for and drove Yellow Cabs for years in Florence. She eventually settled into the newspaper field, working for 30 years at the Florence Morning News and News Journal newspapers in Florence in the production department as head typesetter. She finally retired when she was about 70 years old. She loved to work in her yard, visit the local diner where her friends would meet, and also go dancing every Sunday night at the VFW, which she did for over 10 years, until her health started slowing her down.
She moved from Florence, SC, to her son, David's, home in Taylors, SC, near Greenville, SC, a few years before she died, so she could get specialized medical care. She fought and won her 5 year battle against ovarian cancer, and kept her type 1 diabetes under control for over 30 years, but eventually succumbed to pneumonia and passed away on 20 May 2008.
She was brought back home to her beloved Mars Bluff (a community east of Florence, SC) to be laid to rest beside her dear nephew, Gene Hudson. She had always said it just didn't rain right for her lovely trees, and flower and vegetable gardens anywhere else. She loved being outdoors and enjoyed living the country life. She also loved to crochet and sew, and had a life-long love for playing pianos. Her pet dog, Buddy, a Jack Russell Terrier, lived with her for 17 years, and then Little Bit, part dachshund and chihuahua, who guarded her driveway and would chase away the 2 giant Saint Bernards that the neighbors owned, lived with her for over 8 years.
Mary's husband, Bob, passed away on 2 Jan 1985. They left behind 6 children (Mitzi Marie, Robert Lee Jr., Jill Elizabeth, John Curtis, David Marshall, and Mark Emory), 22 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren at the time of her passing, with more coming in the future. (Note: Her second-born son, John Curtis, passed away in his sleep on 3 May 2009, at the age of 42, almost a year after she passed away at the age of 76.) Mary was also married less than a year to Gordon Odell Hill from Clarendon County, SC, before her 17-year marriage to Bob (the father of her 6 children), and then was married less than a year to Lewis Dixon afterwards, and his whereabouts are unknown. No children were born during these brief marriages.
She is missed and loved very much by her surviving children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brother, Charles Franklin "Smokey" Hudson, of Florence, SC, and sister, Ruth Annette Bodie of Garden City, SC.
Mary is buried in a small cemetery called Thompson Cemetery, in Mars Bluff, SC, just outside of Florence, SC, on Chinaberry Rd., a mile away as the crow flies from where she lived for over 25 years.
The following passage was written by Mary after visiting with her brother, Carl Eugene "Gene" Hudson, in 2001, while he was in the hospital trying to recover from an illness that he eventually couldn't defeat. Mary sent this information, with some of her personal quips and notations, that she had researched and gathered together periodically over the years, through an email message to her daughter, Jill, four days before she passed away on 20 May 2008. (I have taken the editorial liberty of putting all of the dates in uniform fashion and added punctuations, here and there.)
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Written Starting in Oct 2003 by Mary H. Gore
"A few family things I have..."
My father, John Ira "Johnnie", was born to William "Bill" and Suzannah Stephens Hudson, in Lamar, Darlington, South Carolina on 30 May 1898. His parents were in a car accident when he was about 10 years old and before his mother died, she asked her brother, Arthur Stevens (or Stephens), and his wife, Modena "Dena", to raise him for her. The 4 children were raised in different homes. John had 2 brothers, Elijah Lee and Harry and a sister, Gertrude, who married Henry Amerson.
Nita was born Weltha Onita Tennant to James Ezra "Jim" and Mary Elizabeth "Mamie" Thigpen Tennant in the Paxville/Alcolu area of Clarendon County, SC, on 5 Oct 1903. She had 5 sisters, Ethel, Milva, Helen, Placida and Lucille. She also had one brother, Franklin.
Johnny and Nita were parents of 6 children, James Clayton (Clayton), born 16 Mar 1922, Carl Eugene (Gene), born 27 Sep 1924, John Leroy (John), born 8 Aug 1927, Mary Louise (Mary), born 19 Sep 1931, Ruth Annette (Ruth), born 24 Sep 1933 and Charles Franklin (Smokey), born on 1 Sep 1935.
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I spent some time with my brother Gene while he was recuperating in the hospital. It was a time of remembrance of a very happy childhood.
I grew up as a child of "the great depression." I was born in 1931, the fourth of six children, in Clarendon County, SC. By the time I came along, things had gotten pretty tough. We lived in the country, and only got to go to town maybe once a week or so if we were lucky. Our "bathroom" was an outhouse, sometimes with one hole and sometimes with two. There was always a Sears catalogue to be used as toilet tissue.
It was a very big thing when my grandfather, Jim Tennant, got in his old Model A or Model T and started for town. All the kids wanted to go. My grandfather was a bit of a character. According to reports, he enjoyed his spirits. He had a very big heart. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when he would pick up a stranger on the road and bring him home to spend the night in the "Slip Rat" room (a kind of utility room). The person was well fed and had a warm place to sleep for a little while. My brother remembers once when grandpa brought a man home who had burlap bags wrapped around his feet to protect them from the cold. He said all my mother's sisters were afraid of the man because they thought he may have put pepper in the bags so the bloodhounds couldn't track him. Another man he brought home, my grandmother fixed him a big meal and when it was time to eat, the man asked if there was swine meat in the meal. When told that there was, he said he couldn't eat it because of his religion. They finally got him to eat peas.
From what I am able to gather, my grandparents were pretty well off before the depression. They were farmers. Of course, farming has never been easy for anyone. We had plenty to eat. There was always a garden with lots of fresh vegetables and the pigs to butcher, which was shared with the neighborhood. And for something special - the men and boys would go hunting and get rabbits, squirrels and especially birds. Now, there is some good eating.
School in those early years of mine was not a chore, it was a privilege. You had to walk, sometimes a couple of miles to get there, then the classrooms mostly included multiple grades. Some had the first through the sixth grade. You didn't go to school to act up, you went to learn. My first grade in school was shared with a second grade class. My brother tells a tale of us going to school barefooted in winter time. I was in the first grade and he came up behind me and saw my footprints in the frost. He said my feet had turned red from the cold. He picked me up, put me on his back and put my feet in his pockets and took me to school. There was a real closeness in the family then. You had to be close to survive, I suppose. Everyone looked after each other.
My second year of school began in Lamar, where my father had grown up. He had a logging business. The logs were pulled from the swamps by teams of mules and the workers moved to where the trees were available. Lamar had a little better school system. There was only one class to a room. About the only thing I remember about that was that my teacher was named Ms. Long and she was a tiny, short lady.
I don't remember feeling underprivileged. We didn't have the radio or television or even the telephone, to tell us how things should be. We used kerosene lamps as our light source, and a wood heater to heat with.
The things I remember are mostly good things. Being able to follow after my three big brothers, sometimes, when they would let me, the cousins who came to play with us, the general feeling of well-being. I think someone forgot to tell us that we were poor. I remember my dad giving me a quarter to go to the movies and get a drink and popcorn. And if he was standing around in town talking to some of his friends, I could go and pull on his sleeve and he would sometimes give me another nickel.
Our main source of entertainment was playing in the woods and swimming in the creeks, streams, rivers - anywhere we could find water. We had two mixed breed dogs, Bingo and Jerry, who were our constant companions. We weren't afraid of snakes or anything when they were around. They would kill a snake in a minute. I shudder now to think of the things we did when they were around. I remember one day, my younger brother and sister and I were in the woods and there were several snakes, but the dogs got them.
At Lamar, we lived a mile or two from our Aunt Gertrude and her husband Uncle Henry Amerson. They had a radio - and sometimes late on Saturday afternoons, we would all walk down to their house and listen to the Grand Ole Opry.
We moved to Kingstree when I was in the 6th grade. Our father went to work at a lumber mill and we stayed there longer than anywhere else. Our father had a part of his foot cut off in an accident at the Lumber mill and with some of the compensation he got, he bought me a second hand piano. I was in hog heaven! Brother Gene helped pay for some piano lessons for me. I graduated from Kingstree High School in 1951.
These are the good times of my childhood. How I wish they were here again.
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Mary never changed her last name to Dixon. She married Robert Lee Gore in 1957, and had 6 children by him, and although they divorced, she never changed her name from Gore. She was married to a Dixon for less than a year many years ago, and she never changed her name on her SS card or on her driver's license. So, she always went by Ms. Gore.
Gravesite Details
Mary is buried next to her nephew, John Eugene "Gene" Hudson, son of her oldest brother, Clayton and Marion McKeag Hudson.
