News, Citizen Profile, Marie Jackson Tiller, LaSalle Parish, La. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Submitted by: Craig Franklin of The Jena Times, Jena, LaSalle Parish, La. Citizen Profile - Marie Jackson Tiller Wednesday, September 27, 2000, page 4B A Times-Signal Feature "Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute This lady passes the time by swinging and crocheting For over 50 years this week's Citizen Profile has lived in the same location. Everyone in her neighborhood knows Mrs. Marie Jackson Tiller, and is very familiar with her smiling face and waving hand as she watches traffic go by from the swing on her front porch. She was born September 21, 1917, the youngest of ten children to William and Beulah Roberts Jackson in Aimwell. Her father was a farmer and her mother had a full-time job keeping track of all the children. As a child, Mrs. Tiller remembers waking up every morning to the sound of a train passing by. That's right, a train in the hills of Aimwell. She recalls that during those years, trains traveled all over the parish, even through the community of Aimwell. They were mostly used to haul timber and other materials from the rich forest hills. She started school at the old Aimwell School, which went until the sixth grade. She then continued school at Manifest and went until the ninth grade. Although she wanted to go further in school, two separate tragedies in her life prevented any more advancement than the ninth grade. When Mrs. Tiller was six years old, her mother passed away, leaving her to be raised by her older brothers and sisters and their father. When she was 13 years old and in the ninth grade, her father passed away, leaving her to finish being raised by one of her sisters who was already grown and out of the house. "Back then, times were a lot worse than they are today," Mrs. Tiller said. "People talk about the country being in a depression but they don't know what a depression is. "She remembers when her father was living, he worked long and hard in the fields on his farm just trying to make enough for the family to live on. "He was a hard worker," she said. "In fact, Dad was in the field working when he had a stroke." Mrs. Tiller says the world was a different place back during those times, remembering that everything had to be done by hand if it was to get done. She also remembers going to church at Aimwell Baptist Church, and remembers two of the old-time preachers who traveled the circuit preaching a various churches. "We only had church once a month," Mrs. Tiller said. "I remember Bro. Leroy Brooks, Kerford Brooks daddy and Monroe Enterkin as two of the preachers. "Other than church and school, there wasn't many places to go according to Mrs. Tiller. "Oh, us kids we'd roam the woods, hunt wild plums, swing on vines for fun, but mostly we stayed at home and worked," she said. "We had things we had to do around the house, just like everybody did back then." When Mrs. Tiller was 16 years old, in 1933, she married a man by the name of Warren Tiller. They lived together in Aimwell for a short time, but soon moved to the community of Sandy Lake on the other side of Manifest. There, in a small house, four children, two boys and two girls, were born into the world. Mrs. Tiller remembers that their next door neighbor was a mid-wife, so there wasn't any need of going to a doctor for anything, including giving birth. "I had all four of my children born at home by the mid-wife," she said. "In fact, I didn't see a doctor until I was 50 years old. There wasn't any need to, she did all my doctoring." When she did finally have to go to a doctor at the age of 50, she said she had a hard time convincing the nurse that she didn't have any medical records. "They kept wanting to know where was my records and I kept telling them that I didn't have any," she said. "They finally believed me." In 1945, her husband of 12 years left her and Mrs. Tiller had to take on the task of raising her four children by herself. Later that same year, a flood struck the Sandy Lake area. The flood was so intense, that Mrs. Tiller says she might would have drowned in it had it not been for the help of her brother-in-laws. "The high water came in fast into our home," she recalled. "It was some three or four feet high in our home. If it hadn't been for some good brother-in- laws, I might have drowned." Soon after the great flood, Mrs. Tiller and her children moved into the home of her sister and her family back in the hills of Aimwell. They would stay with them for some three years, until she moved to the "city" of Jena. "George King's daddy had four acres of land for sale for $350 by East Jena Baptist Church," she said. "Somehow, and I don't even remember how I got the money, I bought the land in 1947 and moved into our house on the land in 1948." The original house that the Tillers moved into was actually the old kitchen of her parents homeplace. It was nothing more than a small wood frame house, with just one room. "I raised my children in a home with four walls and a roof until they got grown to go to work," she said. "When my oldest son went to work, he bought some lumber and made a petition in the home so the boys could be separated from the girls. Up until that time we'd all slept in the same room, and everybody slept with their clothes on. Talk about privacy - nobody had it back then." During the time she was raising her children, she was eligible for welfare, which she said she partook of simply to help her and her children survive. Along with welfare, Mrs. Tiller continuously raised a garden, which the family ate from, and they also had a milk cow, which provided enough milk for her family and others as well. When she first moved to Jena, she had to pack water from a neighbors house because they did not have a water well. It wasn't too long though, that a water well was dug in her backyard, which supplied water for all the necessities of life. Along with all of this, she would do what she could to help earn much needed money for her family."As a single mother, back then I had to ask for help and there were some very nice people that did help me," Mrs. Tiller said. "But I also worked to make money too. Before the kids got grown, I'd walk miles and wash for people - by hand. One of those person's was Doc Eubanks' grandfather." After her last two children graduated from high school in 1960, Mrs. Tiller was faced with the reality that she was no longer eligible for welfare. So, being the fighter that she is and no stranger to hard work, she took a job at a local restaurant to earn money. "It was either 'root hog or die', so I started rooting and went to work at the A&W Root Beer Stand, where Mitch's is now located," she said. "The special was five hamburgers for $1 and of course, those famous frozen mugs of root beer. Little children under five go them free." She would work at the root beer stand for 18 years, finally retiring in 1978. In 1994, Mrs. Tiller would watch in amazement as her sons and grandsons worked for weeks cutting down large trees in her yard, and then mill them to be used to build a new home for her. The new house would be better insulated, more room, and safer, but it was still a sad occasion when the decision was made to tear down the old home she'd raised her family in most of their lives. "This is a much better house than my old one, but I still had to leave when they tore my other house down," she said. "I couldn't bear to watch it get torn down - so many memories were in that house." Mrs. Tiller says that she truly feels that the Lord has had His hand on her, especially living in Jena with so many good people. Her one piece of advice is to trust in the Lord. "There is no other way but to trust in the Lord and live for the Lord," she said. "If you do, He will see you through." Mrs. Tiller speaks from experience and from a personal relationship with the Lord. "I was saved and baptized in 1937 at Lake Lilly Baptist Church back when we lived at Sandy Lake," she said. "When I moved to Jena in 1948, I joined East Jena Baptist Church where I've been a member ever since." When she first joined East Jena Baptist Church, the church was nothing more than a white building. The church now consists of several buildings, including a brand new sanctuary along with a family life center. "I worked as the janitor for a long time and even lead singing every once and a while," she said. "There are some good people in that church." Mrs. Tiller doesn't get to attend church services like she'd like too, due to her being crippled. Some five years ago, she was at home and broke her left leg. She knew something was wrong, but decided to wait before going to a doctor to see if it would get better. By the time she did make it to the doctor, the broken bones had healed themselves, crooked, and thus her inability to walk normally. "When I broke it, it really didn't hurt," she said. "It just popped. But because I waited too long it healed up wrong." Mrs. Tiller has three main hobbies that she loves to do. The first is simply sitting on her porch and watching all of the life around her. "I love to sit out on my porch and wave at the people," she said. "I also enjoy watching the birds and squirrels eat in my yard. Nature is such a delight to watch." Her second and third hobbies are done while sitting out on her porch. They include crocheting and sewing and talking on the telephone. "I love to crotchet and sew," she said. "When I get upset and nervous, I get out my crotchet and start crocheting. So you tell all those people out there that are on those nerve pills to go and get them a crotchet needle and start crocheting and they won't need those pills anymore." And Mrs. Tiller loves to talk on the phone. Many of her family and friends call her everyday, and the phone conversations last a long time. She says it's a way of keeping up with everyone and everything, since she is unable to get out to check on everyone and know what's going on. "I have a great family and some wonderful friends," she said. "Even though I live by myself, I'm constantly checked on and looked after, sometimes by people I didn't even know about." She remembered one weekend when she decided to go out of town to visit family, and she thought she'd told everyone that she would be gone. "Johnnie Phillips always came by and would wave, but I really didn't know that he was looking out for me like he was until this particular weekend," she said. "Well, when he came by and I wasn't on my porch like I usually was, and when he looked in my mail box and seen I hadn't gotten my mail, he got worried and started searching for me - he alarmed the whole community until he found out I'd gone out of town." Mrs. Tiller says that only in Jena are there people who care for one another like Johnnie and so many others. "The Lord has looked out for me all my life and I'm very thankful for that," she said. "You know, I've had a good life and I don't think I'd go back and change a thing," she said. "I have my funeral arranged and paid for - although I'm not ready to use it just yet. But I am just waiting on the Lord to say 'Come on home.'" So the next time you drive by East Jena Baptist Church, past the LADD center and Shirley's Beauty Shop (from Hwy. 459), look to your left and you'll see Mrs. Marie Tiller on her front porch - just a swinging - and ready to smile and give you a wave. She is truly one of Jena's finest residents, living here for some 50 years, transplanted from Aimwell, but now proud to call Jena her home. This week, we salute Mrs. Tiller as our Citizen Profile, for her courage and faithfulness throughout the years and her ever present smile and friendly wave. (Caption under photo) "When I get upset and nervous, I get out my crochet and start crocheting," says this week's Citizen Profile, Mrs. Marie Tiller. "So you tell all those people out there that are on those nerve pills to go and get them a crochet needle and start crocheting and they won't need those pills any more." She is shown above doing what she enjoys best, swinging on her front porch waving at traffic going by. (See Story.)