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Farming For A Better Future, page xiv
Ms. Carolyn Wilson
Ms. Wilson was born in Courtland, Alabama in Lawrence County. Her father William Miller served in World War II. He told his daughter that he was present at the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Upon returning home, he obtained a job with the TVA at a fertilizer plant. Mr. Miller worked at the plant for 40 years, becoming a supervisor. Her mother, Edna Stawart Miller, was born in 1916 in Birmingham, Alabama.
She went to school for cosmetology but ended up working for the Cooperative Extension Service for many years. Ms. Carolyn was the oldest of the siblings, born in 1949. Ms. Wilson's parents met in Town Creek in high school. She remembers her father always buying a new car, a luxury item at the time.
As a child, she and her siblings were close to their grandparents. Her paternal grandfather worked at Reynolds Metal Company in Muscle Shoals. Her grandmother, Lena Miller, attended Alabama A&M and became a teacher and principal. She instilled the importance of education in her children and grandchildren. The Miller children attended Rocky Hill School and would sometimes visit their maternal grandmother for summers in St. Louis, Missouri.
After graduating high school in 1968, Ms. Wilson attended Alabama A&M University where she worked in the cafeteria to make some money while earning a BS in Accounting and an MBA. She spent 30 years working for the Thiokol Corporation in Huntsville. Her brothers are quite accomplished as well. William “Bill” Miller was a nuclear engineer and Toby worked in the field of psychology. Ms. Wilson credits their father's intelligence for her siblings' success.
Col. James L. Walker
Colonel James Levon Walker knows his history. His family has been in Limestone County, Alabama and neighboring Lincoln County, Tennessee for generations. He can trace one of his grandfathers, Tom Lane, to the mid-1800s when Lane ran away from the Green Plantation in Dellrose, Tennessee to join the Union Army. As a Corporal in the 111th U.S. Colored Troops, Lane was captured at Sulfur
Spring in Limestone County - an important historical event for locals. Col. Walker's paternal great-grandparents were Mat and Emma Walker. While they were born into slavery in Limestone County, their son, Matt Walker (born 1872) acquired 60 acres of land in Dellrose, Tennessee when he was 27 years old. By 1918 he bought 160 acres of land in south Limestone County - what was called “Bland Place” on Route 2, now Nuclear Plant Road. On his farm he grew cotton and corn and raised cattle and pigs.
Col. Walker's father was James Alvin “Bunt” Walker (1910-1989). He inherited the farm when Matt Walker died in 1930. For 10 years he farmed soybeans, cotton, and corn and raised cattle, pigs, and chickens. By 1940, he was farming 200-300 acres of cotton and about 500 total acres of land. Bunt married Ms. Lizzie Mae in 1933. She oversaw the one thousand chickens on the Walker farm, but her calling and profession was as a school teacher. Ms. Lizzie was born in Poplar Creek, Alabama to Jonas and Zoria Belle Yarborough Farrar. When her parents divorced, she and her mother moved into her grandparents' (Hence and Governor Yarbrough) house. Ms. Lizzie's mother met a man named Wes Matthew and moved to south Limestone to sharecrop for Mat Walker. There
she met Bunt Walker, but before she married she obtained her higher education.
(Right) Ms. Lizzie Mae Walker, Col. Walker's Mother
Ms. Lizzie Mae attended Alabama A&M from 1923 to 1929. With her college education, she came back to Limestone County and started teaching in Mooresville at Living Water School. She taught grade school for 40 years, mostly in one-room, rural schoolhouses with six classes at a time. Ms. Lizzie Mae taught her own children in school and instilled in them a love of learning. Col. Walker graduated from Trinity High School in Athens. Throughout his life he has earned a bachelor's degree and four Master's degrees. He also credits his mother for his love of travel. His life has taken him to Paris, France, London, England, Rome, Italy, Seoul, Korea, Osaka, Japan, Nairobi, Kenya, Salisbury, Australia, and many more places.
Ms. Maureen Davis Cathey
Ms. Cathey was born in Madison County on what became Redstone Arsenal. Her parents were Parthenia and Connie Horton. The family lived on a farm they owned until Ms. Maureen was 11 years old. Her mother was a school teacher who taught for Madison County school system for 43 years. When the government purchased the land for the Arsenal, her parents moved to West Clinton Street in Huntsville where they - (4518)