As if to make a loop around someone's life it is very difficult to sweep in and out of the important moments and not leave anything out. Obviously it would be absurd to think an entire decade could be squeezed into one page. However, I must remind myself that I was not there so my memory is there only by direction and stories retold time and time again. I have to continue to keep myself on track but be mindful of the fact that I am only a visitor to these moments in time and that I really was never a part of them.
The late sixties would see an end of the coal mining business, the mines and equipment would be sold and retirement from this phase of the family's life would take place. Somewhere during this time period with both her children in school Nannie would join the working force again at Ottenhiemers, a sewing factory that had been in operation in Dawson Springs since the late 1940s, she worked in the shipping department. A phase in time that pant suits would come onto the scene Nannie would blend in nicely. Also during this period Nannie and Decola would embark on business ventures other than the mining business such as a men's clothing store called Dad's Duds. Dad's Duds would have a store located in Madisonville and in Hopkinsville - these venues would expand their group of friends as well as their time schedule. Earlier in this period Decola had opened a franchise called Gambles, and housed it in downtown Dawson Springs. Gambles was located on South Main Street. This was a building that during my childhood was the location of Rex Parker Insurance Company. My Uncle Joe Russell was hired to manage Gambles and he later took over the business until it closed in the latter part of the seventies.
Decola would also dabble in real estate during this period, buying, selling and renting properties in and around Dawson Springs. State Representative Fred Beshear, a former Dawson Springs resident and businessman had been instrumental in having two water sources dammed to create a lake that would later be named Lake Beshear in his honor. Lake Beshear was to be a huge benefit to the city of Dawson Springs in the eyes of the legislature and this proved to be true over the years. The benefits would be that the lake would create a permanent water source for the city, add to the fish and wildlife habitat of the region, create recreation such as boating, fishing, swimming and skiing, as well as real estate development. It did just that.
The early seventies would prove to be a very busy period of time. The house on Hospital Road would be sold to Joe and Auntie, Nannie, Decola and Mom would then move to a home on Kentucky Avenue that had been built by Decola's sister Wetona in the late fifties to early sixties. A modern and sprawling home, two levels, and equipped with a pool. Nannie still felt tender toward her home on Hospital Road but really never had to let it go since her brother and sister-in-law had purchased it. In later years the family has spent many happy occasions in the home on Hospital Road as Joe and Auntie's doors have always been open to us. Nonetheless, Mom would leave home to attend school and Nannie and Decola would then move to Dawson Village Apartments, which had been newly built, and later to another home on South Main Street.
In 1973 my Mom would graduate high school and attend Murray State University. In 1974 she would marry my Dad, Edward Eugene Storms II, the son of local business owners Edward E. and Billie Carter Storms. Gene and Billie as many referred to them, were known to me as Granny and Papaw. They owned and operated Storms Antiques in Dawson Springs for over twenty years after my grandfather's retirement from the United States Army. A June wedding would unite the two families for life - a union that exist today after thirty six years. Their wedding would be around the same time of the city's centennial celebration.
Later that year Decola's mother would succumb to cancer, she was seventy six. Orvy who had acted as the matriarch for the Franklin family for many years would pass the baton - a hard blow to the family. Orvy, a classy and beautiful lady would fade away with dignity leaving her family to mourn the loss of a faithful mother and grandmother. She would join her husband and infant child in Old Petersburg Cemetery. A woman who had left home in the late teens to marry her sweet heart Chesley, would make their house a home as they started their family. My Aunt Trisha often shares affectionate stories about Orvy with me after spending tons of time with her while she was growing up. One particular story she has shared with me involved her and a co-worker at Outwood State Hospital of which she was an administrator during the seventies years. As the story goes she and this co-worker were driving through Dawson Springs on their way to lunch when Orvy was making her way down the street toward the Commerical Bank. Orvy who had always been known for being impeccably dressed was now in her seventies. Gracefully adorning a fur and walking with a cane Trisha's co-worker asked: " I wonder who that beautiful elderly lady is?" My Aunt's response was: "That's my grandmother." And so her memory exists this way still.
As we all know there are endings and beginnings and these transitions come with great sadness as well as great joy. The loss of Orva Teague Franklin would be followed by the birth of Shannon Danielle Storms. The decision to be called Nannie would be made and practiced in the months following November 5, 1975, when my sister was born. The Franklin's first grandchild would charm them like no other gift and they would then become Nannie and Grandad. In pictures and in memories retold it is easy to see that Nannie and Grandad were not the only people that this little one wrapped around her tiny fingers. The family grew and with that growth came more love and this bouncing baby girl, as light as a feather and tiny as a minute would captivate this family in a way that it hadn't seen since the late forties and mid fifties when Trisha and my Mom were born. All smiles now.
Unfortunately, there were bad times too as there always are. My Grandfather drowned in mid June accessing his lake property on the No Outlet side of Lake Beshear in 1978. The front page of the Dawson Springs Progress published the story about the longtime local business man who had drowned in an accident at the lake. In this obituary and among all the successes of his life, his collegiate background, his service to his country, the many businesses that he had owned and operated, and his beloved daughters, was the name Brunette. A woman who had stood beside him for thirty two years, a widow of fifty two. She would learn to mourn a loss that she had not even begin to fathom. Decola Franklin would become to me a man that I never knew but always did. A face that I had seen a million times but never really saw. An important name in my grandmother's stories while we occupied her walnut twin bed set when spending nights at her house. The loss of my grandfather would be a huge loss to the family. My mother was twenty three, a young wife and young mother - Trisha, my aunt, also young and married and now living in Atlanta, was only thirty years old. As the family gathered and friends drew near to mourn the loss of a local fixture and good man, it is hard to know what thoughts were going through Nannie's mind. I am sure her thoughts led her back to forty six when it was just the two of them, back to the apartment on Ramsey Street and the home on South Main, and certainly back to Hospital Road. In her mind I doubt she ever stopped traveling those roads that they had traveled together - after all thirty two years is a long time.
On Father's Day, 1978, Decola Wayne Franklin was buried at Rosedale Cemetery. Just down the row from his Grandparent's T.R. and Salley Rachael Franklin, his Aunt and Uncle Johnnie and Tilathy and other members of the Franklin family; he was fifty seven.
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