He wanted a date with her. She worked at the Acme Drug Store soda fountain, made old fashioned cherry Cokes and the best chocolate float in town. Downtown Harriman was a busy place in the mid 1950's. He worked at the A&P Store a block away and also repaired Whizzer Motorbikes. He went by everyday for lunch to see her. For the chocolate floats, of course.
Jim had been in the Army in Italy and worked on the earliest punch card computer system. He had turned down a job offer from some small computer company in St. Louis named IBM to return home to his family. And Gloria.
Gloria was polite, but told him she wouldn't date anyone who didn't go to church with her. So, Jim did. He not only went, but joined South Harriman Baptist Church. It was Summer 1955.
Gloria had just recently moved to Harriman from West Tennessee. She knew no one, but was invited by two other teenagers to join the youth choir in church. She loved the friends she made and the songs they sang. Jim joined the choir, too, and they quickly became a couple making friends with other couples.
They would be married in the same church in October. Their new friends, Earl and Emma Ruth Duff were at the small wedding in the sanctuary.
The couples in the church began enjoying the vacations and trips to the beach in large caravans of cars. Children, cook outs, beaches, roller coasters and practical jokes all were apart of their world in the 60's and 70's.
Jim would become a deacon and trustee in the 60's and serve his church for nearly fifty years. He was the chairman of two separate pastoral search committees, a building committee and choir member until his health intervened. Even with his service to the church, he would still pay for any copies he made in the church office for any business he handled for the church. That's just the way he was.
They saw revivals that overflowed the sanctuary, a steeple blow off the sanctuary in a storm, a beloved pastor die the day before Thanksgiving, and musicals, musicians, and singing that filled the air. They saw an Easter 1975 service with over thirty five people come to the altar to make a spiritual commitment.
They also saw deaths, disagreements, divorces, and departures. Those are a part of church life, too.
Jim began working for Swan's Bakery selling Sunbeam Bread in 1960. Over the next thirty five years he went from an extra man to a bakery leading sales supervisor for an area from Athens, TN to Whitley City, Kentucky. He managed men, sales, merchants and the occasional crook with the same core belief - "Be Fair, Firm and Frank." He caught one thief simply because his bread truck’s gas mileage dropped over a few weeks. Numbers never escaped him.
When a man would ask Jim for a job, he would tell him the interviews are at 4 AM at the local warehouse. That's when he went to work and was the best time to meet. It tended to weed out a lot of weaker applicants.
Jim was well known around Harriman. He was known as a pool shark (preferred snooker), knowledgeable mechanic, founding member of Walden Ridge Antique Car Club and a loving but firm father. He had a temper, but Gloria tamed that quite a bit. Redheads can be that way, sometimes.
His two sons knew that if they got in any trouble, it would get to Jim before they got home. And that was before cell phones.
Jim and Gloria had opportunities to move away from their church and Harriman, spending one brief year in Sevierville in the 60's along with a few other offers. They never left, though. He stayed with the same company. They stayed with the same church.
Nearly sixty years from the day he joined, Jim was recognized by his church for his years of service. Weak and frail, but still with a razor sharp mind, he spoke to the church thanking them for the honor and the love and friendship. The hymns sung were his favorites (including "How Great Thou Art"). Both his sons played the piano during the service.
His funeral was less than two months later - in the sanctuary of the church he had been a member for sixty years. Gloria, who had been the one responsible for getting him there, stood for nearly three hours greeting the friends she and Jim had made. It was an incredible outpouring of love and support.
His good friend, Earl, who had been at his wedding, now attended his funeral. Six decades of good memories and trips didn't soften the pain of losing an old friend.
James Edward Littleton died on June 26, 2015 after battling a chronic illness that perplexed physicians from Knoxville to Vanderbilt. He never lost his ability to think, and he spent his last day talking with an old friend, Marvin, on his porch. Marvin recalled he said goodbye in a different way when he left.
His loyalty to church, career, friends and especially family never wavered. You knew where you stood with him, and you knew what he expected of himself and others.
That's how it is, and was, for that generation. They connected, loved, and supported each other without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, internet and cell phones. They spent time together, enjoyed sitting around campfires, played cards on Saturday night and laughed.
Their limited connections connected deeply while our scores of connections connect superficially.
Drivers pulled over, as is still the custom in Roane County, for his funeral procession. One man mowing stopped his mower and took off his hat as the hearse rolled by. The Chief of Police, another old friend of Jim's, led the column the entire way.
My Dad was laid to rest in a cemetery surrounded by the graves of members of his church. He had an extraordinary ability to apply common sense to his intelligence. He could persist when others would quit. He had a strong sense of right and wrong.
But above all, he loved his family and friends with loyalty and devotion. His testimony of work, words, will and worship is an example for his sons and grandchildren, but also of the nature of that generation.
His wisdom and knowledge, even for repairing a lawn mower over the phone with me, will be deeply missed. His memory and his legacy will continue to challenge me every day that I have remaining. I never wanted to disappoint him. That - will never change.
Eric J. Littleton, M.D. (@DrEricLittleton) is a Family Physician in Sevierville, TN. His office is in the UT Regional Health Center Sevierville at 1130 Middle Creek Road. Send comments or questions to askdrlittleton@gmail.com
