KILGOROUND

“Back then she was known as Dollie, but, now the young’uns, know her as Mamie,” said Louise Jackson. “And it's always been about the children. She was – and still is – the driving force behind the children in our family and friends’ families receiving a proper education.”

Dollie Lollie was born in Kilgore on Kennedy Road near the Star Bailey Community. The youngest of five children of the Jones family, her father, taught in a one-room school house in Troup. Growing, up, Dollie attended schools in both areas and at the beginning of every school term, it was Dollie that gave the welcoming address to the students for the “Professor”.

As a teacher, Professor Jones was required to stay at the school during the week in a room provided for him. During the weekend, he went home to check on the children.

“All of the children had chores to do, but most of the work fell upon Dollie,” said Louise. One time, she got mad at having to do all of the work and she hid way up under the house. When the professor came home he looked and looked for her and when he finally found her, he let the others know very quickly he had better not ever find out she was doing the chores by herself again. Professor's word counted and for years afterward, Dollie laughed about how that one time of hiding worked well for her.

Dollie quit school in the tenth grade and later, at age 18, married Jake Lollie, a farmer and a sawmill worker. They started their family and Claude, Henry, Freddie and Louise were born. “Dollie took care of the home and raised cows, hogs, turkeys and the children,” said Louise.

“When the oil boom came in, 9 wells were drilled on Kennedy Road and one of them was close to the family home,” she said. “Although not wealthy, the inheritance of oil field royalties helped the family have a little more than some of the other families in the area. Mother took it upon herself to help the children, and no child left our home without something in their hands.

“One time, the school gave fifty Rhode Island Red chickens to three 4-H girls and I was one of the girls. Right after we got them, it came a hard storm and mother made us get up and help her gather those baby chickens. We brought them in to the house and they all looked so bad, we thought they would die. Mother put one teaspoon of Watkins liniment in their drinking water and the next morning the chickens were springing up and dancing around everywhere. We never lost a one of them and I ended up winning the prize from the school,” said Louise.

“Mother also gave the children strict orders not to go near the oil wells, but one day when mother was away from the house, the youngest brother decided to climb one. When she got home the oldest brother told where the other one was and she grabbed a switch and off she went to the well. With the switch hid behind her back, she coaxed him down. ‘Come on down, baby, you can do it,’ she said over and over. When he got to the ground she let him have it good with that switch and no other child dared to climb the wells again.”

Still desiring her own high school diploma, Dolly encouraged all of the children to do well in school. She would place dollar bills in their hands for good grades and promised them a twenty-dollar bill upon graduation from high school and another twenty when they graduated from college. She would always say, “Remember now, I'm the woman with that twenty just waiting for you.”

“It worked,” said Louise. “We have every profession in our family but a lawyer and we probably have a friend's child that has become one. She enticed them and encouraged them and loved them all the way.”

Last year, on Dollie's 95th birthday, her children presented her with a high school diploma and a certificate of hard knocks. Along with that came a congratulatory letter from Governor Rick Perry. Today, Dollie believes turn-about is fair play and insists when she receives a card from someone “there had better be something in it, even if it is a dollar bill.”

The children still listen and we're quite sure the Watkins liniment is near by.

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CELEBRATING birthdays today are Scott Smith, Jo Ann Muncy, Angie Wood, Cindy Duncan, Yolanda Howard, Clemmie Lewis, Kevin Roach, Jessica Evonne Hooks, Heather Ross and Charles “Buster” Sanders.

MARRIED on this date in history were Kenneth and Kathryn Hudgins

LINDA BALLARD