Photo stirs up memories of school
By Tom Watson
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Here's the email of Sue Moody that identified the school picture from a recent issue.
"Hi, I'm Sue Moody, was Sue Yates, was born on Oct 26, 1947 in Ashes Creek in the grand dad Robert Lunsford's home, which would be on the bottom of the Taylorsville Lake now.
The picture that appeared on Sept. 21, 2005 in The Spencer Magnet, I'm 99 percent sure is of Wakefield schoolhouse about 53 or so years ago. My sister started school a year before me and I'm sure that is her on the right side with blonde hair and bangs looking down, with white blouse. Her name is Elaine Yates, now Elaine Snyder. I started the next year. We looked almost like twins back then.
I had to stay on the farm the year that my sister started school with my Uncle Ernest Hammack and help him on the farm. Or, I guess you might call it he had to babysit me, but I did help him all year with the farm.
My Aunt Clivie and Uncle Earnest were helping raise both of us to help my mom out. I was only four then and I wanted to go to school so badly. I started Wakefield at five-years-old. The girl with glasses in front of my sister is, I think is Elaine Herndon. They were good buddies.
The girl on the first seat on the other side was Freda Donavan, I think. The teacher was either Mrs. Walker or Mrs. Blakeman. Both wonderful teachers. I loved those first four or five years of school at Wakefield. I always loved school.
Then they closed it and we went to Taylorsville a year or so and then on to Louisville to live and go to school at Butler High School, talk about a shock in size of schools.
I have been a pretty successful realty/broker for over 35 years, and I also teach real estate investment class several times a year at Ford Motor Company. I think listening to all the other classes, I learned so much faster.
When my mother, Lillian Lunsford Yates Cundiff was able to purchase a home in Louisville and we moved from Spencer County, I was in advanced classes at Butler High School. Lots of good people went to Wakefield. I miss those days.
Bill Nicholls, a Cheatham descendant, says some of my dates in the Cheatham article were wrong and he also was a bit mystified about some names.
Most of that was copied over at Suzie (originally) Curtsinger's house in Mount Washington. As I understand it, she married a Cheatham who was not from Bill's line and to make things a bit more confusing, named one of her sons Thad Cheatham.
Here's Bill's email and the items with which he takes issue:
€ Thad Cheatham died on August 19, 1949, (not in 1942).
€ The article had three John Cheatham's listed in the death section. John McCann Cheatham died on October 30, 1941. See listing below.
€ The article had two Lizzie Cheatham's listed in the death section. Mary Elizabeth Cheatham died on July 18, 1969.
€ Unless you have confirmed otherwise, I do not believe Thad was Commonwealth's Attorney. You are right Bill, he wasn't.
Here's a listing of ten of Thad and Lizzie Cheatham's children, with their date of death: Lynn - Feb. 16, 1986; Billie - Nov. 30, 1978; Valarie Mae - March 13, 1992; Nell - Feb 4, 1980; Thad Jr., - March 10, 1981; Katherine Ellen - March 22, 1991; John McCann - Oct. 30, 1941; Samuel Louis - May 31, 1994; Dorothy Lee - Feb. 9, 1983 and Lillian Christine Belle - Jan. 23, 2000.
Bill adds the names of the three surviving children of Thad and Lizzie Cheatham: Elizabeth Lorraine; Wanda and Kenneth Halstead.
See Cheatham was Leader in Community for additional information.
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