Newspaper, Profile of Willie Belle Whatley McKever, LaSalle Parish La.
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PatEzell@worldnet.att.net




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From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Wednesday, January 12, 2000,
Section B, Page 11 
Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be added
to the Archives. 
A Times-Signal Feature...."Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute 
Willie Belle Whatley McKever
Zenoria woman: "Remember me for my sense of humor"
"People call the old days the 'good old days'…but they're not. These are the
good old days we're living in right now," says this week's Citizen Profile
Willie Belle Whatley McKever. "Today we have everything imaginable and life is
much, much easier."
Born on January 20, 1906, in the Zenoria Community on Whatley Ridge, Mrs.
McKever will soon celebrate her 94th birthday. However, anyone that knows her
can tell you that she lives and acts nothing like her age.
"I'm like that 100 year old woman I saw on TV one time," she said, "I ain't
old, I've just been here a long time."
Mrs. McKever's story actually began in the 1700's when her ancestors
originally settled along Little Creek near the Eden Community.
"In 1700 two Whatley preachers came through on a wagon train. One was a
Methodist preacher, and the other was whatever the people were," recalled.
"When the wagon train stopped at Little Creek in Eden they said they had found
the Garden of Eden, because the fishing and hunting was so good. They then
broke from the wagon train and settled in that area."
Through the years, Whatleys would settle all along Little Creek, and
eventually make their way to the Zenoria Community where Mrs. McKever's
parents, Uriah Whatley and Ella Mae Simmons Whatley were living when she was
born. 
In all, ten children were born to Uriah and his wife, including Mrs. McKever.
Today, however, only Mrs. McKever is left out of all the children.
"Back in those days Zenoria was a big mill town and it stayed that way for a
long time," she said. "There were many people here and there was something
always going on."
All of the children attended Zenoria High School and Mrs. McKever finished the
eighth grade of the school. When she was around 18 years old in 1924, she
moved to her Grandpa Whatley's (Ed and Brazzie Whatley) place in Eden and
worked at their boarding house at the famous White Sulphur Springs. It was
Mrs. McKever's first job.
"People would come from all over, especially Alexandria, to drink and soak in
the sulphur water at the springs," she recounted. "You know, I never did like
the taste of that water and I never really seen that it helped anyone, but,
people would come and it was a good living.
Later in the 1920s, she took a job in Selma (a small community south of
Georgetown) at the Dunnam Hotel, which was owned by the Dunnams and operated
by, in her words, "a big old fat woman who we called Maw Dunnam." While there,
she cleaned rooms for the many guests that stayed there during that time.
During the last part of 1929, she up and moved to Monroe where she got a job
at the Morgan Lindsey's 5 & 10 cent Store, working the lunchroom counter.
While working the counter, she remembers that many people would come all
throughout the day eating or just drinking coffee. One man in particular, was
a regular at the counter and took a special interest in the young Whatley
girl.
"I don't remember how it happened, but we just began talking, and then we just
started dating, and the first thing you know we were married," she said.
The young man's name was Johnny McKever, and he was working in the oil field
industry there in Monroe. They were married on May 10, 1938.
They lived in Monroe for a while, until the war broke out and they moved to
Beaumont, Texas, where Mr. McKever worked on a ship building job.
"I loved my job at the lunch counter in Monroe and people told me that when I
left, they lost a lot of customers," she said. "When we moved to Beaumont, I
took a part-time job working at the lunchroom counter at the Morgan Lindsey
store there. It seemed that the bosses in Beaumont knew all about me, because
of my experience in Monroe."
In 1947, Mr. McKever took a job with the Cresent Drilling Company and they
moved back to the Zenoria Community. Today, she still lives in that same house
that her husband built for them back in the late 1940s.
"I've been here in this house for 53 years," she said. "You've heard of the
house that Jack built, well, this is the house that Johnny built. When I leave
Ebenezer Tap Road, I want to leave feet first. In other words, I want to live
here until I die.
In 1977 her husband of 39 years passed away, leaving Mrs. McKever alone on the
Whatley Ridge. For a short time immediately following his death, she lived
with her daughter, who at the time was living in Omaha, Nebraska. She lived
there for about four years but then decided it was time to move back to her
homeplace on the Ebenezer Tap Road.
Mrs. McKever has many wonderful memories of the days when she was growing up
at the Whatley homeplace.
"My mama was a really good person and my daddy was a good Christian man," she
said. "You never heard my mama or my daddy say anything bad about anyone, and
that is something that they taught us children."
"Every night before we would go to bed, daddy would read a chapter in the
Bible and we'd have prayer and then we'd go to bed," she said. "This happened
every night and every Sunday we'd be in church."
Mrs. McKever said that her mama had always been a Methodist, but living in
Zenoria there was only the Baptist church to attend. So, Mrs. McKever and the
rest of her brothers and sisters were raised Baptist. Mr. McKever was a
Catholic and so after the two were married, Mrs. McKever converted to the
Catholic faith. Today, she attends St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jena.
One of the things that she remembers her mother for was her wonderful sense of
humor.
"Mama always told us that laughter was the best medicine and she would always
tease us and make us laugh," Mrs. McKever said. "That's another thing I
learned from my mama, I love to laugh and have a good time."
Mrs. McKever recalled one story of her mother though, in which she was the
object of everyone's laughter instead of it being the other way around.
"One time my mother made some homemade wine," she said. "Every fall we'd go
pick grapes and mama would make wine. Now, before I go any further, I think
you ought to know that the Bible says that a little wine is good for you and
that is what she'd use it for. Well, while she was bottling the wine she
started tasting it as she went and before you knew it, well, mama got drunk."
"She went to the bedroom to go to bed and wouldn't you know it two ladies came
by that belong to the Black Socks" she said. "Now the Black Socks were ladies
that were real big in the church and they wore these black socks to
distinguish who they were. They came to visit my mother, but my sister
informed them that mama had a bad headache and had taken some aspirin and went
to bed. Us girls entertained them a while as mama was laid back there as drunk
as Cooter Brown. We didn't think they would ever leave but finally they did.
We laughed about that for many years."
Mrs. McKever also remembers that back in those days people just didn't have
much of anything.
"I remember the first car that I ever saw," she said. "I was about 14 years
old and me and some friends were playing on the road when we started hearing
the awfulest racket and here comes a Ford Roadster running down that gravel
road just about as fast as a dog.
She also remembers when there wasn't any bridges over Little River and ferry
boats were operated to bring people from one side to the other.
While working at the lunch counter in Monroe, Mrs. McKever remembers selling
banana splits for 15 cents, and was shocked recently when she looked in the
paper and saw they were selling for over $2.
"They were big things back then," she said. "I've sold many a banana split for
15 cents."
One of her greatest hobbies used to be walking through the country and hills
in Zenoria, just taking in the scenery. But in 1996, on one of her walking
expeditions, she took a terrible fall and injured herself so that she cannot
get around like she used to.
Also before the fall, she enjoyed mowing and working outside. Today, however,
she has to stay mainly inside and fills her time reading her Bible and working
crossword puzzles.
Just like her parents, Mrs. McKever never has anything bad to say about
anyone. She says that she will never condemn anyone for the lifestyle they
choose to live, because it is not her place to judge anyone.
"The Bible makes it very plain that we are not to judge anyone, that only God
is reserved to do that," she said. "You can live like you please - I won't let
it bother me one bit. If one of them got a notion and wanted to get out here
and run up and down the road naked as a jay bird, well, I wouldn't say a
thing. But I wouldn't watch either."
She remembers her mother telling her the story of someone asking her one time
why she kissed the cow. Her mother replied, "well, everyone to their own
notion."
"Why do people live the way they do, well, it's their own notion," she said.
"I don't judge, the Bible says, "Judge not lest ye be judged." I know they'll
get theirs on judgment day. If they don't live right and serve God they'll
spend eternity in a devil's hell. But it's not my place to judge them - God
will."
Mrs. McKever says that no matter what someone might think of her, they cannot
ever accuse her of being a hypocrite.
"I remember the old song we used to sing, "the devil wears a hypocrite shoe,
Glory Hallelujah, If you don't mind he'll slip it on you, Glory Hallelujah,"
she sang. "Well, I'm no hypocrite. I am what I am."
She is thankful for all her many friends and neighbors in the Zenoria
Community who stop by and check on her. As she says, "If it wasn't for my
neighbors, I'd be in a nursing home right now."
Mrs. McKever hopes to be remembered for her sense of humor, and her ability to
always laugh and be happy. She also says that people will probably remember
her for simply minding her own business.
"If I can't say something good about someone than I keep my trap shut," she
said. "We'd all probably be better off if that was done more often."
She also said that she really does love everyone and that there is no hate in
her heart anywhere for anyone.
"If a man says he loves God and hates his fellow man then the truth is not in
him," she said, quoting from the Bible.
When Mr. And Mrs. McKever first moved back to Zenoria in the late 1940s, they
began shopping at Aaron Caps store in Georgetown. Since then, Bill Budemer has
acquired the business, now known as Budemer's Grocery, and she continues to
shop there today.
She buys all of her groceries at Budemer's and refuses to go anywhere else.
"Bill always said that Woody (Simmons, Mrs. McKever's first cousin) and I were
his two best customers," she said.
Today, soon to be the age of 94, Mrs. McKever does not take any medication,
still lives by herself, and has only been in the hospital once in her life --
four years ago when she fell. 
Every night before she goes to sleep, she takes a little glass of wine and one
aspirin, along with reading her Bible and saying her prayers.
Mrs. McKever truly is a wonderful person with a great sense of humor which is
only appreciated with a visit in person. She enjoys that appreciation for life
that only a few really ever seem to find, and of course, she never says a
negative word.
It is for these reasons that we salute Mrs. Willie Belle McKever during her
birth month as our Citizen Profile.
"This was the best birthday present I could have," she said as she smiled,
"getting my story in the paper."