Freestone County, Texas
Births



The Fairfield Recorder newspaper
Thursday, September 7, 2006

Keeps busy playing 42, making rugs . . .
Kirvin woman enjoys 94 active years

She calls herself “the oldest woman in Kirvin, living in the oldest house in 
Kirvin,” but a visit with Sarah Nettle does not seem to be with a 94-year-old.

Mrs. Nettle was presented with 94 red roses at a family birthday celebration, 
held August 29.

Mrs. Nettle was born August 29, 1912 to Ellie and Will Goolsby a mile and a 
half from Caney Baptist Church in what was then known as the community of 
Israel. She attended Burleson schools, and married Batchelor Nettle in 1931. 
They had twin boys two years later, Doug and Don, followed ten years later by a 
daughter, Evenda.

She and the family traveled with her husband, who worked in the oil busines, 
until one year when the children had to change schools ten times.

In 1948, the house the family lived in burned to the ground, and “we bought 
this old hull and went to work on it,” she says. “It was built in 1905 for the 
man who ran the cotton gin. It was built even before the post office was.”

“When Kirvin was first built, the cotton gin was the first thing that went up, 
because they were having to haul cotton to Corsicana,” she says.

She held several jobs over the years, the first with Barker Cleaners, the 
second with Williford Insurance and the third with Awalt Wholesale, from which 
she retired at age 72.

“I figured if I wanted to get any traveling done, it was time to get going,” 
she says.

She enjoys her eight grandchildren -- Laurie, Brad, Susie, John, Sarah, Tammy, 
Justin and Angie -- and says it may not be long before she is a great-
grandmother.

Quilting has always been a favorite hobby, and she figures she has made 
hundreds of them over the years.

Her mother taught her to quilt, and she remembers having slumber parties that 
turned into quilting bees.

“She wound up taking a lot of the stitches out, I reckon,” she says.

There are probably not many homes in Kirvin that don’t have something in them 
that she hand-crafted.

Today, she has focused her attention on hooked rugs and afghans, and has 
enjoyed playing 42 every second and fourth Tuesday for the past 23 years.

The 42-playing group of friends has 16 members that meet and bring lunch.

Diagnosed one year ago with leukemia — her doctor told her a jealous lover 
would kill her before the disease did -- she hasn’t let it slow her down much.

“I can’t get going before 9 0’clock, but I don’t take a nap,” she says. “My 
hands won’t let me. I have to get busy doing something.”

“You know, the old saying is, you haven’t lived until you have married, raised 
a son and dug a well,” she muses,  “and I’ve done all three. But I still have 
plenty to keep me busy.”