Frankie J. Guinle

If you are reading this, it appears that I have expired. I hope I have gone to a better place with God. If not, well, I tried. I guess I had a pretty normal life.

I was the only child of Vernon Franklin James and Besse Rhea Thaxton James born on September 22, 1922 in my parents upstairs apartment on High Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. The delivery cost my parents a whopping $15. It was an entirely different era then. Hospitals were only for the gravely ill. Being a child of a Rock Island railroad conductor, I was able to travel a lot. It enabled me to go to all of the away football games of my Little Rock High School (Now LR Central) thus began my lifelong love affair with football. My first hero was Don Hutson and my last was Peyton Manning. There were a lot in between.

I began to further my education but a little ole object got in the way: World War 2. I went to work for the U.S. Army at a new supply depot opening during the military expansion. I worked for Major Kitzmiller, an Army pro who knew more cuss words than I ever knew existed. This was the dark days of early 1942 when the Japanese has us on the ropes. But it wasn’t long before Jimmy Doolittle changed all of that.

Next door was an Army Air Corps Glider program. A sassy young Lieutenant named David Patrick Guinle, from New Orleans, kept passing my desk with unheard of regularity. He finally got up the courage to ask me out on a date and two weeks later we were married. Of course there was a brouhaha about that with everyone predicting the marriage would not last. When David passed away in 2008, we had been married for 65 years, outlasting all of the naysayers. David’s desire to finish his education led us to Memphis and Southwest College (now Rhodes). I tried to go back to college as well but my children kept getting in the way. I had three sons, David Brian, Michael Patrick and Patrick Christian. Then came the crown jewel of the family, only daughter Dana Elizabeth.

Mike met and married Mary Lou Sweeney at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. They ultimately gave us three grandchildren: Daniel North (Hope Johnson), Nathan Franklin (Shelly Mcelwee) and only granddaughter, Tricia Elizabeth (Ryan Greer). These marvelous grandchildren in turn gave us another star in our crown: four great grandchildren. Isaiah who will someday shine on stage; Captain August Guinle who will one day lead his soccer team to bring the World Cup to America and Martha, that gorgeous redhead and Grayson who brings his beautiful Hispanic heritage to the family. And Dana married W. Brent Akin and gave us three more grandsons, the curly haired Spencer, world wide Evan and especially Chance. Chance is very special because he broke the Guinle “curse”. For more than 150 years there has only been one female in each generation. Lotsa males however. We had our Martha and thought she would be the only one for her generation. But God intervened and Chance gave us TWO great granddaughters: the miracle child, Lucy and the bubbly Riley. He also has a boy, strong Leo. Spencer married Heather Pritchett and gave us awesome Peyton Akin and another female, Parker Akin. Like a lot of families, Mike and Mary Lou divorced and Mike ultimately married Melissa Norvell, one of the kindest human beings alive. Dana and Brent divorced as well.

Because of the shake-up in Owens Illinois, the company David worked for for 27 years, he took early retirement at age 62. We travelled a lot in our motorhome. Every trip became longer and we dreaded coming home to Memphis. Finally we decided not to come home…so to speak. We sold our home, stored our belongings and hitched up the hatchback and took off for a whole year exploring North America. Well, a funny thing happened along the way. One year became two, then three and after that we stopped counting. When we finally had to come back home to Memphis it had been 11 years on the road and I loved every minute of it. We always came home for Christmas, weddings and just because. I still feel nostalgic when I see one of those big rigs go by pulling their car behind them. I hope they have as much enjoyment as David and I had.

We had to stop our gypsy life when David’s heart began to fail. Nowadays, I like to tell people that I was homeless for eleven years and watch their expression. It’s funny. Maybe I should have accomplished more in life that I did. I read these long obits and am amazed that they had time to breathe. But I am content with what God gave me. He made me an introvert which somehow limits many things. I always wondered why I didn’t like parties and large crowds. They drove me crazy. It was only late in life that I found out why. My only wish was that I had not been born and introvert. Life would have been more exciting. But you go with what God gives you, so I have no regrets. I happily play cards and games with small groups and do my quilting while watching TV. At an advanced age I became an internet jockey and an iPhone afficianado. Of course, I am not perfect in either but that is what grandchildren are for…to get you out of a mess.

All in all it has been a good life, ups and downs, of course but as a whole, good. I thank the Good Lord for my looooong life. As of this writing, I am 95 and kicking. In our melting pot America, I have no idea to who I should thank for these genes. There are ancestors who lived to be 100 in an era when there were no doctors or hospitals. Thank you, Lord for you gene distribution, however you do it.

So I will say fare well to all. But since I do not know where I am going, stay tuned.

Frankie J. Guinle

(9-27-1922 to 6-13-2020)