Brunette: The Sixties I

In the late 1950s my Mom would start elementary school - beginning with kindergarten taught and organized by Mrs. Rita Grace Ridley and housed at the local school. Trisha would be in Junior High and before they knew it the 1960s were upon them. It would be in the sixties that Trisha would graduate high school in 1965 and go to Western Kentucky University to attend college. Mom would host slumber parties and Nannie and Decola would still enjoy the life between business and Frankfort. In 1967 Louis B. Nunn would be elected Governor of the Commonwealth, Decola had been a large supporter of Nunn so during this period he became the go to man for patronage jobs in the region including and surrounding Dawson Springs. This made the trips to Frankfort more frequent and important even still.

Unfortunately, it was also in 1967 that Chesley, Decola's father would suffer a fatal heart attack. It was on a Sunday afternoon at Aunt Agnes and Uncle Chester's farm, where the family had enjoyed a Sunday afternoon dinner and had retired to the lawn when Chesley had a heart attack; he was seventy years old. Chesley had lived a very successful life, but a success that did not come without a great deal of hard work. The business that he had worked to create had thrived during the last few decades and most if not all of the people who knew him respected him as a good businessman and a even better man. Aunt Agnes, the youngest sister of Orvy, Chesley's widow, had worked as Chesley's secretary at the mines for many years. She wrote a poem about the day he died, among many poems that she authored. Chesley's death came as a shock to the family, as he and Orvy were in the process of having a new home built a few blocks down the street from their current residence of Keigan Street. The new home would be located on the corner of Keigan and Locusts Street and today it acts as the current Methodist Church Parsonage. Both of the homes that Chesley and Orvy lived in on Keigan Street are still standing. I am told that Orvy would have rather stayed in the home that they had made together but the sale had already been made to longtime family friends, Elliot and CoLene Cluck, grocers and neighbors.

Chesley was a member of the Board of Directors of the Dawson Springs Comerical Bank, he was the founder of the Chesley Franklin Coal Company, and co-owner of the Decola Franklin Coal Company, as well as another mine that had just been re-opened. He was a devoted husband and father and was missed by his large family and many friends. Over the last years of his life he enjoyed working with both his son and his daughter Wetona on business ventures. He had employed many members of his family, as well as his extended family. He had looked after his mother, his younger brother Edward, also known as Uncle Ed, his sister-in-law Tilathy, among others. It was also during this time in his life that he and his son attended two Republican National Conventions, spent time on the Florida coast where he and Orvy had purchased a summer home, he made many Saturday trips to Hopkinsville with the family for dinner, and on some days could be found sitting outside the Standard Station discussing the day's news, or having breakfast at one of the local restaurants with his son Decola. Fortunately, he also made time to sit for a snap shot in his living room during these years with his grandchildren. A photo that would become one of my Mother's prized possessions. In the photo Chesley is sitting in a chair in the living room at the house on the corner of Keigan and Franklin Streets, the fireplace can be seen and on a round occasional table a noticeable sign of the times is a starched doily with waves like the ocean. Flanked around him from side to side and on his lap were Trisha, Mom, as well as Wetona's three boys Dale, Lynn and Reed Harrell. Chesley was buried at Old Petersburg Cemetery just beyond the church in Mannington, Kentucky where he and Orvy had both grown up. Buried beside him was their first born son Madison, who had died as an infant.

Over the years I have heard Nannie often speak of Chesley fondly, she had a great deal of respect for him as did many members of the family and the community. Fondly enough the most frequent of those stories was about the day that he came into Mr. Kavanaugh's Grocery store and told her that he had a son that he would like for her to meet. That introduction would change her young life as do so many introductions that follow with love, marriage and starting a family. It's hard to say if fate had a hand in that or if they would have met regardless…I like to think it did. What can certainly be determined is that Chesley had good taste in beauty and in character.

During this time in the country President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, the Civil Rights Movement would begin, only to be followed by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the Civil Rights Movement and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, former Attorney General and brother of slain President JFK. The war in Vietnam would begin and the first voyage to the Moon would become a success. All of these events I am sure were watched conscientiously on the television and read about in the newspapers in the den on Hospital Road. Just like for any other American family, the 1960s would have its moments for the Franklin's.