Murphy Reunion

We went to the Murphy reunion yesterday..Paul and Rose picked us up and David and Melissa went with us. We went the back way to Bears Crossing .....Chapman Highway to New Era Road. It was a pretty lodge with log cabin decor and lots of windows...Jo Ann was there with Charlie and their son Wayne and his two children. Wayne led the prayer before we ate..He's a Baptist preacher and his brother Larry is a Baptist preacher . Bill's son Warren was there. I had never met him, but I felt close to him because of Bill and Pat. I had been in their wedding..Pat was in my sorority at UT. Bill was a Methodist preacher. He was Jo Ann's brother.

Jo Ann's sister ,Sara Sue , was there from New York with her children from California and Spain She had two small grandchildren. Martha and her family came in late ..I didn't get to taste her kidney bean salad, because I was through eating when she got there.. Vickie and Sharon and Jonathan came with Ryan and Lauren. Jimmy Murphy was cooking the hamburgers . Dale, his wife, was there, and their son Darryl came in with his wife and three children .Darryl was one of my students in my library at West Hills .Elementary. He remembered me but he didn't know we were kin ...

I was impressed with the Murphy men..Yes they were getting bald, but they were handsome men and they were so warm and friendly like the Irish. Rose says the Irish Lads are like that.

Rose had all her genealogy papers with her and she was busy with people the whole time. They all gathered around her and helped her sort out the family names.

Cousin Bon didn't show up. I had talked to Nancy earlier and she had promised to try to come. I'll have to call him and tell him what he missed.

John (Martha's brother} had planned to come with his family from Florida but he called that he couldn't get away.

Sara said that she had been to see Mary Charles (Martha's sister in New York} and she had told Sara that she felt left out of the family. It was a sad story that still hurts me..Martha's Mother died right after she was born, and their father took Mary Charles and John to Florida ..He remarried , but they had a hard time, and Mary Charles told Sara that Mary , their stepmother ,had kicked them out of the house when they were 18. They had such a loving family in Seveirville, but they never knew it. Mamaw took Martha and raised her, and when she graduated from high school she came to Knoxville to live with us. She went to beauty school here and that's where she met Walter.

It was a wonderful time for me and I appreciated my family taking me and waiting around while I talked to everybody. They seemed to enjoy it too.