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4. Hattie Jenkins: A Missionary of the Gospel
- University of Arkansas Press
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CHAPTER 4 Hattie Jenkins A Missionary of the Gospel She is quite old, eighty-six, and she lives alone, an elderly widow; but her age is the only thing old about Hattie Jenkins. She is a tall woman, still erect, wears wire spectacles on an only slightly wrinkled face with high forehead and cheekbones. When she begins to speak, her age vanishes, so alert, curious, and full of life are her remarks and train of thought. She speaks with a cultured accent, a preacher's daughter with a high-pitched voice. She is never tentative in what she says and her thoughts reflect the security of her knowledge. Like the person, her house is neat but unadorned. The Bible, "my best friend and companion," showing the patina of constant use, rests on the table by her easy chair. With only one surviving child, a daughter who lives out of state, she has no other close relatives, but she is nonetheless a busy, involved woman, close to friends and church. In fact, I first met Miss Hattie when we were both visitors at the Johnson home. She had joined vigorously into an already heated discussion of child rearing and had the last word: Our children are being cheated today. They don't know what discipline is. They don't have to do anything. Not answerable for anything. But we were raised to get up and get out. And they're not strong in Jesus the way we were. Lord, how I remember the joy of getting ready to go to church. Not just on Sunday, I mean almost everyday. In 33 those days you didn't have to go inside to hear the praying! It came pourin' out the windows and through the doors. We couldn't wait to get to church, got in a trot to the door. And it wasn't just for show the way it is now, see and be seen. Yes, we ironed and ironed on that one white dress, put lard on our shoes to make 'em shine. But we were there in Jesus, praising His name and learning His lessons. Hattie Jenkins' thorough religious education is central to her character and speech. Largely self-taught with only a grammar school education, she was always eager to engage in Biblical discussions or disputations for, "The Bible says we're supposed to keep Jesus first in our minds and hearts." Miss Hattie came to Calion as a young bride almost sixty years ago. She married Henry Jenkins, a lumber stacker from the nearby sawmill town of Wesson. They were married for fifty-six years before his death, had two daughters, only one still living, alongwith six grandchildren, all of whom live in Texarkana. For most of us there is a natural tendency in old age to become more withdrawn, to cling to family and familiar things, and let the rest go by. In Calion the retired and aged are, as a group, inveterate porch sitters, watching the trucks roll by to and from the mill, waving or nodding to the town as they frequently wheel and walk past. Increasingly detached from the world around them, the old folks take their ease after a life of hard physical labor, letting their present immobility announce to the world that they are getting a long-deserved rest. But while a majority ofthe town's elders quietly vegetate, Miss Hattie can be seen in the cool of the morning briskly walking the streets on her daily round of visitations to the shut-ins. "I have my mission. Jesus says to help those that can't help themselves , and I still have many old friends in Calion that can't get about much anymore. Jesus walked everywhere doin' good; He didn't ride, you know." Miss Hattie, like so many of her age, has warm memories from the Great Depression in this little community. She remembers the united efforts of the local churches to care for the needy and the organized group activities to raise money, like picking blackberries and selling them along the highway. In reflecting on the passing parade of years in the same little town she is more concerned about the declining influence of the Church, the Word, and the Christian spirit: People today are as easy as popcorn. They tell you one thing and do another. They follow the crowd no matter where it carries them. They're doin' everything but the right thing. Jesus says that...