Haywood Home Demonstration Clubs Hold Annual Rally

DANCYVILLE, Tennessee. Officers of Haywood county's 16 home demonstration clubs, whose
38th annual rally was held here recently, are, from left:
front row; Miss Betty Williams, county Home Demonstration agent of Brownsville; Mrs.C. M. Summars and Mrs. 0. C. Christmas, retiring council vice president and president, respectively; Mrs. Louis Wilkerson, new council president; Mrs. J. C. Kirby, secretary;. Mrs. Louis Taylor, treasurer; Miss Lurline Jones, vice president; and Mrs. E. H. Burford, charter member of Spring Hill;
second row; Mrs. L.A. Stuart, Mrs. R. M. Reeves, Mrs. C. W. Harmon,Mrs. J. W. Buffalo, Mrs. Dave Stewart and Mrs. William Perry;
third row; Mrs. Delmos Davis, Mrs. Neal Norvil, Mrs. H. 0. Eason, Miss Elizabeth Sweet and
Mrs. Jonas Sternberger, Fourth row: Mrs. R. C. Akin, Mrs. Les Hardy, Mrs. Thomas Cozart,
Mrs. H. L. Levy, Mrs.. Will Chapman and Mrs. D. H. Beard.

Haywood H-D Clubs Hold Annual Rally
The Nashville Tennessean
Sunday Morning, Oct. 24, 1954
By: Gordon H. Turner
Staff Correspondent

DANCYVILLE, Tenn. In their annual all-day rally here recently, the ladies of Haywood county's 16 Home Demonstration clubs saw each other's accomplishments for the year, talked shop, lunched together, chose new council officers, and listened to me speak.
It was my first visit among Haywood homemakers and very pleasant. Except for one husband who ran by and yelled for me to tell his wife he had left their car for her and was going on to Brownsville. I was the only man around here. For once I was in a woman's world!

A pretty feature of this rally that I've not seen before was booths artistically arranged of all kinds of things made by members during the year. The metal and woodwork, needlecraft, paints, basketry, quilts, bedspreads, dresses, hats, purses, flower arrangements and countless household gadgets were beautiful and practical. Remarkably true sketches of real persons "dusted" on linen articles and then permanently "sealed in" were shown by East Brownsville club women and was the first such artistry I ever saw. What will the fairer sex bring up next!

Exhibits Lined Wall

These exhibits lined the walls of the school's pretty new auditorium and overflowed into classrooms and halls. It was well that the booths were not competing for they would have been difficult to judge. Others I had time to inspect were: Tibbs, Nut Bush and Dancyville.

A special exhibit of the home and community department of the Haywood county farm bureau had safety as its theme. Mrs. Vernon Booth and Mrs. E. H. Burford (department president and past – president) posed by the attractive setting for another picture.

Middle Tennessee is famous for its good cooks, but either the Haywood dames are just as skilled or some midstarters have moved down here. When the boxes, baskets and buckets of food were spread out on tables for buffet serving, the entire school stage was loaded!

To emphasize their culinary ability, Miss Betty Carol Williams (new Haywood home agent) and Mrs. J. W. Buffalo (East Brownsville club president) both very attractive, filled two plates for me, main dish items being: Baked ham, fried chicken, meat loaf, baby beef roast, candied apples, potato salad, lima and green beans, turnip greens, dressed eggs, hot rolls, corn light bread, angel food, devil' food, spice and pound cake and chocolate, chess and coconut pie!

Mrs. O. C. Christmas, county council president, invited me as their speaker of the day.

Christmas Motif

Though the season may have been rushed, it was certainly a Christmas motif when my hostess and I sat down together to discuss highlights of local extension work. Mrs. Christmas was married to her Christmas husband on Christmas day, 1930. They live in Holly Grove (near here) and their 19 – year – old son arrived six days early for their 1935 Christmas present!

These clubs began in the county in 1916 when Miss Bertha Corbitt was home agent. Present at our gathering and with whom I had interesting chats were two Haywood charter members: Mrs. E. H. Burford of Spring Hill club and Mrs. Aaron Sternberger of Brownsville, whose membership is now at Bradford. In the 38 years they have had a big part in the promotion of Home Demonstration club work. Now Haywood has 16 clubs with a total membership of 450 (with more Negroes than whites, Haywood County has Mrs. Maggie Moore as the Negro assistant home demonstration agent with 24 clubs to supervise.)

The rally's morning program opened with the call to order by Mrs. Christmas, followed by group singing led by Mrs. Millard Ross. Then before the "show of booths" Mrs. Fletcher Coppedge.

(Allen's Tabernacle club) did a devotional. The Spring Hill club was co-hostess with Dancyville for the day. Formalities were over by mid-afternoon. I remained longer, however, to talk with various ones, look over the school and village, and to hear local history highlights from Mrs. James H. Dancy, for whose husband's ancestors the town was named. I was pleasantly surprised also to see Mrs. Louis H. Stuart, the former Miss Christine Johnson, daughter of Editor and Mrs. Brice Thompson of Centerville. She and her farmer husband live now in his native community near here and she is an active clubber.