SIBLINGS OF BRODIE FRANCIS CATES
I. MATTIE CATES MOORE
MATTIE CATES MOORE born 27 August 1891 and died 20 February 1970. She was daughter of FANNING AND ELLA CATES. She married WILLIAM THOMAS MOORE whom she later divorced but they were parents of a boy and girl before divorce.
Mattie was a housewife before the divorce but later went to Court and got custody of three granddaughters at the time , she went to work for the Postal Service from which she retired after about 20 years of service. She was always smiling and very sweet and one would never think she had a single problem. My Dad took her to the hospital when she died.
Aunt Mattie once visited us in Memphis and I complained that the boys could get by with things I could never have gotten by with. She just smiled and said “Rachel, we get more mellow when we get older.” She lived in a different town so I was not with her that much. I asked my Dad if I could go to see her one time and he said “you can go see Mattie anytime as long as her son is not there.” Her son was a teen ager.
II. GLEN OLA CATES (RANDOLPH)
GLEN CATES, born 28 February 1893 and died 6 November 1966. Aunt Glen was the matriarch of the Cates Family. She married ANDREW RANDOLPH 18 September 1911 but never had any children. She did raise a foster child, a boy by name of Billie Bell.
When my mother was so sick before she died, Aunt Glen was the one he called for help and the others did likewise when they had problems. Dad got too much to drink one time and his brother arrested him and put him in jail. Aunt Glen went up and bailed him out. A Cousin in WWII left all his business for her to take care of. When he was Missing in Action, she traced him to a Hospital in England through the Red Cross.
She taught my youngest Aunt, Oleve the Banking Business and also one of my cousins. She offered to teach me. When I was young and growing up, times were hard. I used to hear her talking about the “Bank Holiday” and had no idea what it meant. If I wanted something I knew Dad could not afford, I would ask Aunt Glen if she would go half with Dad. She would say “yes”. That was how I got my first wrist watch and she bought me a beautiful blue dress to go to the State Latin Tournment.
I was on the verge of engagement to a Sailor before my Religious Call and Aunt Glen made a special trip to Memphis. She said she approved him and then we broke up.
Aunt Glen went through a divorce when I was about 16 years old. She had had serious surgery and I would go by her house to see about her. She would be by herself. Her husband was drinking and going with another woman. Aunt Glen swore me to secrecy and said I was the only one she would let stay with her but I must not tell my father. She said her husband was scared to death of my Dad and would not dare to touch or hurt me in any way. So I would stay every night just telling Dad Aunt Glen needed help but never told him about Uncle Andrew. He usually came in about midnight and we could hear him but they were living in separate parts of the house. When the divorce came up in Court, I was the “Star Witness” as no one else knew what was happening. The attorney met with me first and told me the questions he would ask. He said “do not be afraid” and I wasn’t. The fear was her husband would contest the property arrangement and there were a few pieces of property involved. After the divorce, she went back to her maiden name.
Aunt Glen worked over 30 years as Vice President of a Bank and in her “Obituary” it mentioned she was fonding known as “Miss Glen.” After she retired, she did come and work with me a short time in the Accounting Office in the hospital at Chicago Heights, Ill. Dad used to do his banking where she worked and we all knew when we took things to the bank to give them to “Aunt Glen.”
III. MYRTLE MAMIE CATES COMPTON
MYRTLE MAMIE CATES was born 14 September 1896 in Alamo, Tennessee and died 28 October 1953 in Jackson, Tennessee. She married HENRY AUBREY COMPTON on 1 November 1919. Aunt Myrtle was a School Teacher in her young days but due to health problems she had to quit. She had one child, Henry Aubrey Compton, Jr., the same age as me. They first lived in Halls, then in Covington and she died in Jackson, TN.
This was the sister where my father stopped first on his way back from Texas. She always called me in my young days her little girl and made me cute little dresses. I usually spent two weeks after Christmas with her and some in the summertime. Aunt Myrtle kept me for a year after I was in the hospital and had my tonsils out when I was eleven years old. She lived in Covington, TN and we did not see her as often as some of the others.
Aunt Myrtle was very, very ill when I was about 12 years old and was in St. Joseph Hospital in Memphis. They informed my Dad and all his brother and sisters. He husband had pneumonia at home and they had to take her son in with appendecitis. Dad went right away and took me with him. I was scared to death of the Nuns and my cousin would tease me. They were especially kind to him as they knew the situation.
Aunt Myrtle lost her only son and child in his 20’s. She really never got over the grieving. When she died, she was sitting on the bed and just fell over dead with a heart attack.
She was somewhat like Aunt Glen in that she was somewhat of a quiet person and gave appearances of being very serious minded. She was very devoted to the Church of Christ and at the ttime I lived with them, her husband was the Song Leader.
IV. ALBERTA FAYE CATES BOYETTE
ALBERTA FAYE CATES was born 5 October 1906. at Alamo, Tennessee and died 29 March 1932. She married RALPH BOYETTE 6 July 1924.
I was seven years old when Aunt Faye died and had whooping cough and pneumonia and did not get to go to see her.
Aunt Faye was a beautiful woman with blonde hair and brown eyes. She had a congenital heart problem and had to take long walks. When I was a little girl, she used to take me with her. She was very religious and had the reputation of being one of the best Bible Scholars in the area. Aunt Faye was the one that sat me down after my stepmother sent me to Sun Beams at Baptist Church and asked me if I wanted to see my mother in Heaven and then told me I would not if I kept going to those Sunbeams. I was confused but she was a devout Church of Christ Member and they were strict. I can attest to that as I was formerly a member.
A cousin of my Dad died and the mother gave all her children away except the baby. I suppose she did not know how she could raise them. Aunt Faye went to his home when he died and brought his next to youngest home with her which was a little girl. Uncle Ralph really fell in love with her and asked Aunt Faye if they could keep her. They adopted Sue, this little girl. Sue had an attack of appendicitis when she was five years old and died. Aunt Faye never got over it. When I would go by her house, she was sitting on the front porch crying and I am sure, eventually grieved herself to death. At least that is what most members of the family thought.
V. MARGARET E. CATES
MARGARET E. CATES was born 3 February 1895 and died 10 October 10 1895. I have never heard anyone say anything about her except she died young.
VI. HATTIE FRANCES CATES
HATTIE FRANCES CATES died when born on 1 August 1904.
VII. TOLBERT WILLIAM CATES
TOLBERT (TOLLIE) WILLIAM CATES was born 4 October 1898 and died 28 October 1953. He married MARY WORRELL on 1 September 1919.
My Dad, Brodie Cates and Tolbert (Tollie) were very close being the only two boys of the Family. My grandmother Cates used to have a picture of the two together when young. Uncle Tollie had a basketball and Dad a rifle. Mama said she had it made because all Uncle Tollie studied was basketball and all Dad studied was hunting. Uncle Tollie played on the State Championship Team. He was very proud of that.
When my baby half sister was born, I was sent to Uncle Tollie’s. I can still see and hear them saying I had a baby sister named Ruth Elizabeth but she was born dead. There was a picture of me holding her and she was almost as big as me. It was all I could do to hold her on my lap.
. I remember one thing when we lived in Alamo and I was in the band. We played for everything including political rallies. Uncle Tollie was running for sheriff. When we reached the location for the rally, they did not have a speaker’s place so they asked Dad if they could use the back of his truck. He said “yes”. During the rally, they were saying all kinds of things about Uncle Tollie, like he accepted money from bootleggers I was furious. I was expecting Dad to start fighting someone but he was calm. I said something to Dad and he said that it was politics.
The next thing I remember is before WWII. Uncle Tollie lived in Bells as he worked in Milan Arsenal. I stayed with my grandmother Cates to finish my first seme and semester of 10th Grade. I got real sick and Mama did not know what to do nor did Aunt Donie, her sister who lived with her. So they called the theatre and had them stop the show and make an announcement that Dad should come. Uncle Tollie’s family were there too and took the boys with them. It turned out to be the measles after they called the doctor.
After school was out, I moved to Bells and started school. There was an urgent request for school children to help pick cotton as the WWII was threatening. So they rescheduled us at school starting school early and getting out at 12:30 PM. Uncle Tollie would pick us his kids and us to go pick cotton. Dad would come pick us up after he got home from work in Milan.
It was during this time that I got my only scolding from Uncle Tollie. He was always very good to me. A whole group had gone up to get their cotton sacks weighed but I did not think I was ready and did not go. But my sack really got heavy eventually and nobody was ready to be weighed. Finally, I got nerve enough to ask Uncle Tollie. Without hesitation or anything, he started toward the scales. I tried to get my sack on my shoulder and could not lift it. Uncle Tollie looked back and saw me. He started toward me to help me but really scolded me to never do that thing again and I should ask to weigh before my sack go that heavy. Of course, he was right.
During this time, Uncle Tollie and family were going to Jackson shopping and he asked me if I wanted to go with them. I was working for a coat but did not think I had enough money and I told him I could not go because I did not have enough money for my coat. I did not have one at all. He said I should go anyway and he would lend me whatever I needed and I could pay him back when I had made enough. I went and found a coat I could get at the cost of money I had.
We moved to Memphis and I later entered the Convent. There were many things that happened while I was in Memphis and after entering Convent. It would only be heresay if I told them.
Uncle Tollie was busy with law enforcement which he loved but then things happened and he went to the County Farm where he died. While he was so ill with cancer at County Farm, Jean told me he needed medicine and Dad went to Drug Store to get it and when Malcolm Cates filled it, he told Dad that it would be all Uncle Tollie would need for he would be gone by that time. Jean said Dad came back white as sheet as he told them. The County Home People really loved him and he loved them.
I will enclose his Obituary: From the Jackson Sun, August 13, 1962:
Tolbert W. Cates
Crockett County Farm Head To Be Buried Today
Tolbert “Tolly” William Cates, manager of Crockett County Farm, died Sunday night at 9 at his home after a brief illness. He was 63.
Mr Cates was born in Crockett County and was a former marshall of Bells. He had been a lifelong resident of Crockett County and had been in charge of the Crockett County Farm for more than a year. He was a member of the Church of Christ.
Services will be Tuesday afternoon at 3 at the Bells Church of Christ. Burial will be in the Alamo Cemetery under the direction of Ronk Funeral Home.
He leaves his wife, Mrs. Mary Worrell Cates; two sons, Frederick Cates and Fanning Cates of Alamo; two daughters, Mrs. Jean Morphis of Memphis and Mrs. Faye Kail of Bells; a brother, Brodie Cates of Alamo; three sisters, Mrs. Mattie Moore of Maury City, Miss Glen Cates of Alamo and Mrs. John Hugueley of Trenton, and six grandchildren.
JOHNNY OLEVE CATES HUGUELEY
JOHNNY OLEVE CATES was born 6 September 1913, the youngest child of TOLBERT FANNING CATES AND ELLA FAULKNER CATES in Alamo, Tennessee. Oleve married JOHN HUGUELEY (known fondly as Uncle Johnnie) on 16 December 1934 at Milan, Tennessee.
Oleve worked in Banks for thirty seven years and almost all of them were at Bank of Commerce, Trenton, Tennessee from which she retired as Vice President. At her funeral many people said she had helped them with loans. She was deeply loved by all and known by almost all people.
Another Cause to which she was very dedicated was the Trenton Chapter of Eastern Star. She was a State Officer and traveled many miles, especially after her retirement and helped the group in different ways. A Past President of the Eastern Star was a very dear friend of hers.
Oleve was also a Daughter of the American Revolution, a descendant of JOSHUA CATES, WILLIAM SHEARIN, WILLIAM COLCLOUGH, DRURY CHRISTIAN AND WILLIAM BALTHROP who have been proven in some service of the Revolutionary War. Oleve also served as Treasurer of the Trenton Chapter of DAR.
She was faithful to the Trenton Church of Christ until the end and attended Church even when she was not able. (She left me a Collection of Teapots which I gave in her Memory to the Church).
Oleve was especially close to me as she was the only sibling of my father at home when he brought me back from Texas after my mother died. She was more like a sister. She claims she wagged me around so much. But we also had our fights.
After my father died in 1976, she cooked Christmas Eve Meal for our Family for 25 years with the help of Rebecca Andrews. Dad had had her to his home after Mama died until circumstances prevented it. In many ways, she took Aunt Glen’s place as Matriarch of the Family. She kept up with everyone and kept the family together.
Oleve was very outgoing and cheerful and interested in everyone. She was often thought of or called “Mother” and “Mrs. Johnnie.” One thing she did was help bury the dead. I have heard her tell me of them in sympathy of these people. I am sure there are many other ways she helped people.
May she rest in Peace!
Rachel Louise Cates
(AKA Sister Mary Francis Cates)
(Niece and sister-like)
2001 – Sister Mary Francis Cates