Laura Neville Blair

of

Germantown, Tennessee

passed early Sunday morning June 16, 2019 from the earthly bonds, including the pain and suffering of poor health she endured for the last few years, to that heavenly reunion with loved ones gone before, in the complete love, peace, and serenity, of the eternal home prepared for her by her Savior Jesus Christ.

Laura grew up as the only child of Wade (Sonny) and Mary Ruth Lannom in Tiptonville, Tennessee next door to her maternal grandparents John and Laura Autry and several great aunts and their families whose homes were clustered around the home site of Laura Neville’s great grandmother Molly, in an area that became known as Owl city. Molly, a Cherokee woman, walked behind a covered wagon from Oklahoma to Tennessee pushing, pulling, dragging and sometimes carrying her young son John, as she followed her husband on his return to his birthplace. With much perseverance, hard work, cunningness, guts and yes, some luck they managed to turn a small land claim enhanced by periodic purchases of more land into a thriving farming business that was taken over by the young boy who had walked from Oklahoma, when his father died and became known as Mr. Johnny throughout the region, recognized as the best farmer around, loved and respected because his door was always open including a warm meal to any traveling wanderer, whether a hobo or a former political dignitary. A gargantuan man full of good cheer, compassionate, and generous all the time not just when the collection plate was passed on Sunday at Crockett’s Chapel, named in honor of the famous Tennessean Davy Crockett, where his family worshiped. Mr. Johnny was the definition of audacious to those who knew him or even just knew of him, not only because he drove his brand-new model A Ford up and down, over and around the fields following the row middles as he inspected his crops or the fact that he took regular trips to Hot Springs, Arkansas to take the famous hot water baths, that according to him, were the surefire cure for just about anything wrong with you or his well-known denouncement of intolerance for one’s race, culture, gender or color many times delivered as he faced down a masked gang of “Night Riders” reminding them that he was half Cherokee and they would have to ride over him to get to Mr. Johnny’s field hands and their families, a challenge not ever accepted.

It was this larger-than-life man who self- admittedly was wrapped around the little finger of his granddaughter, Laura Neville, that helped shape the woman she eventually became. Mr. Johnny and Mis Laura had a son, Joe, who migrated to the north upon his return from military service during World War II, and an older daughter, Mary Ruth, who had married a local boy, Sonny Lannom who worked at a shoe factory in Dyersburg. Sonny and Mary Ruth returned to Tiptonville where Sonny had several different jobs before accepting the tutelage of Mr. Johnny in the business of farming, working long, hard hours to earn the position of Topkick of the operation and eventually becoming Mr. Johnny’s partner and ultimately buying the whole operation. Sonny and Mary Ruth lived in town in a rented house where Laura Neville was born in 1940, until they built a home next door to Mr. Johnny and Miss Laura at Owl city and moved there in 1950. Mr. Johnny continued to dote on Laura Neville, taking her along on many of his daylong jaunts to inspect the planting, raising, and harvesting of the crops by the field hands who lived on the widespread farms with their families. These day trips would begin before dawn with a hearty breakfast, prepared by Mary Ruth, which consisted of biscuits, eggs and home cured ham for which Laura’s father had become famous using his method of a layering freshly butchered hams in huge wooden boxes, packed in salt never allowing the hams to touch one another and removing the hams from the boxes in about two weeks, hand dusting the salt from the hams before applying a thick layer of molasses and mustard paste with one or two secret ingredients, over the entire ham followed by encasing the ham in a cloth sack that had been drenched in the molasses paste, then tightly binding by crisscrossing jute twine before attaching them to wires hanging from the joists in the curing shed to complete the curing process.

The hogs were raised on the farm and in the fall when the weather turned cool, a necessity, since there were no large mechanical refrigerators available, the field hands from the far-flung farms would travel by mule drawn wagons with their whole families to Owl City each day for several days in a row, to participate in the first “Hog Killing” of the year, which was as much a social event as it was the job of harvesting and preserving a major portion of the coming year’s food supply and household supplies from the 50 to 100 hogs that would be slaughtered, skinned, and butchered. The hams, shoulders, tenderloins, pork chops and bacon would be cured and the fresh liver, kidneys, heart, brains, and “chitlins” would be given to the field hands and their families, who prized these as true delicacies. The carcasses would be placed in huge black iron pots full of boiling water from the huge bonfires burning beneath them to render the lard and make soap. “Cracklins” were made by frying small pieces of hide until they became crunchy, which were then used to season food but especially used by adding them to the cornbread mix which produced “ crackling bread” a crunchy textured cornbread rich in ham flavor.

Having finished breakfast, Mr. Johnny and Laura Neville would grab the sack that had their dinner perhaps a couple ham sandwiches or ham biscuits, maybe a cold baked sweet potato slathered in fresh churned butter, a piece of fruit, or a fried pie or piece of cake, and always, a stone jug of iced tea, wrapped in a feed sack with ice surrounding it and set in a half bushel bucket where it would stay cool until they stopped along their way usually around 11 or 11:30 in the shade of an oak tree or next to a hedgerow used as a wind block as they spread their food in the bed of the truck, sat on the tailgate swinging their feet as they ate, and continued their conversations in which her Poppa as Laura Neville called her grandfather would explain the true value of the land and how, when treated properly with respect, would serve them as long as they lived, including the dozens and dozens of families that worked the farms, that Mr. Johnny explained to Laura were part of the responsibility of ownership of the land. The level of compassion for others and desire to help others that grew within Laura as a result of the actions of her beloved Poppa that she witnessed so many times as well as his teaching by including Laura in wide-ranging conversations in which he Showed her, not just Told her, using day to day examples from their lives on how to make decisions and ultimately his insistence that she develop her strength of character to assume responsibility for making decisions especially the ones that turned out not as intended or more importantly the ones that proved to be wrong. Along with her parents continuous positive reinforcement of the lessons she was learning from Mr. Johnny, Laura eventually entered college seeking a degree in psychology that would enhance her ability and opportunity to help others.

After the short dinner break the day’s travel would resume with more inspections and assessments of activities on the farms and conversations focused on teaching or explanation of concepts, philosophy, personal responsibility and how to deal fairly in all circumstances, relying on her own instincts, strength of character, and decision-making ability as opposed to the whims of her peers.

One of the more subtle lessons Mr. Johnny conveyed to Laura Neville was to logistically plan the day’s routes so that at day’s end they would have traveled a somewhat circuitous path, ending close to home, usually timed for arrival just in time for supper, during which, Laura Neville would relay the things she’d seen, experienced and learned that day, but most importantly, at the prompting of her parents and grandparents, how she planned to use this new found knowledge.

In an effort to assure a well-rounded personality not prone to negative influence, capable of operating confidently in a wide range of circumstances, with self-confidence based on knowledge and experience not arrogance or prestige, Mr. Johnny undertook the training of Laura Neville in the art and sport, of shooting, hunting, and fishing, all disciplines of a similar nature which Laura Neville not only embraced but reached a level of competency that made her a successful guide on Reelfoot Lake for two or three years before leaving home to attend college.

Growing up in close association with her grandparents and parents as her basic family unit, receiving the unique style of teaching, training and mentoring used by her grandfather and grandmother and parents, established Laura’s unique perspective on life that continued throughout her life rendering a completely unselfish person who always loved to give rather than receive.

Laura Neville’s grandmother, whom she called Mom or Mama was a seamstress of great repute who was commissioned by a wide variety of clientele including some of Hollywood’s silent movie stars and New York stage actresses to create patterns, select fabrics and sew the exquisitely tailored garments for which she was so well known. Without specifically trying to teach but more by way of explanation to Laura Neville of how she used the principles and elements of design, her vast knowledge of the many varieties and characteristics of the natural fiber cloth including cotton, linen, wool, and silks combined with her extreme dexterity using her scissors, tape measure, needle, thread, thimble and sewing machine to create one-of-a-kind garments was thankfully infused into Laura Neville’s mind becoming the foundation on which Laura Neville founded and operated two successful businesses later in life.

As the beneficiary of such great love and attention and countless hours devoted by her parents and grandparents to help her learn how to utilize her God-given talents in aid to others and improve those talents as she learned how to help herself, always striving to learn more and accomplish more with a smile on her face and a song in her heart (because unfortunately she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket when singing aloud) was her responsibility. In this endeavor it was Laura Neville’s good fortune to have excellent teachers in school devoted to their students, who expected, motivated, and equipped their students to academically perform at a level much higher than generally hoped for, and so far ahead of average performance, it is hard to make a comparison. This culture complementing the expectations from her close family unit stayed with Laura Neville until she drew her last breath. In the final chapter of Laura’s childhood and adolescence before leaving home for college her close association with her grandfather continued to dominate her life, all-be-it from a distinctly different perspective.

Mr. Johnny her beloved Poppa who had done so much to help her be prepared to excel in life on her own terms not those imposed by others suffered a stroke leaving him totally paralyzed, bedridden, unable to talk or swallow food without assistance, his only means of communication: one eyeblink for yes or two blinks for no. Before leaving home for college Laura Neville would spend time each day with Mr. Johnny telling him of her day’s activity, her dreams and aspirations, allowing him to temporarily escape the awful prison in which he was confined.

Thanks to the intense preparation at home and in school, Laura was able to hit the ground running upon arrival at Memphis State. Although only 17 years old Laura was extraordinarily focused and comfortable making decisions because she had been taught the ”How” and “Why” of the process making it relatively simple whether applied to academics or non-academic issues. T he net result was a considerable amount of saved time that was efficiently spent allowing Laura to graduate with her B.S. in psychology sooner than expected.

From Memphis State Laura moved to Starkville, Mississippi to attend Mississippi State University, beginning her pursuit of a Masters degree in psychology. Quickly attaining that goal she immediately started work towards earning a PhD in psychology. Laura’s reputation as a hard-working, dependable, and somewhat of an “outside of the box” thinker, and practical applicator thanks in great part to her childhood and adolescent experience and training she received from her grandfather, Laura was an attractive candidate under consideration by the University to work in a new program being implemented at Mississippi State. The pilot program would consider applications from female students to attend Mississippi State the summer between their junior and senior years of high school in an honors program for which they would receive college credit when completed. The students would be under the direct supervision of a female MSU staff counselor who would live in the dorm with them being able to help them with any issues, academic or personal that might arise. With Laura’s personal experiences, her desire to help others, and her educational achievements to date she was eager to accept this new opportunity when it was offered. With that programs success and the public acknowledgment, that Laura’s participation was one of the main reasons for that success, her professional status was most positively impacted. Shortly thereafter, Laura was offered a staff position with the UT Medical Unit Student Affairs Department in Memphis. After much deliberation, Laura decided to temporarily suspend her pursuit of a PhD to accept the position, where she remained for a couple of years, as her reputation for efficiently and resourcefully developing unique solutions to problems occurring in dynamic circumstances became more widely known in her professional environment.

Over the next couple of years, Laura’s refinement of relying on her ”out of the box” thinking to fulfill her job responsibilities were very successful bringing professional recognition and further enhancing her reputation which led to a job offer outside of academia.

The job was centered around being an executive assistant to the president of a bank holding company in St. Louis Missouri. Laura’s rapid but thorough research of the company, its officers, and public records pertaining to their operations for the previous two years suggested that this new arena was the next big step in her career. Shortly after accepting the job at the bank holding company, Laura was attending her first staff meeting in which she listened and observed without comment until nearing it’s end, the president addressed her directly saying he would like to hear her thoughts on the subject they had been discussing , with a tentative plan of action for resolution of the problem, and a timeline to implement the plan if it were approved, on his desk by the end of the week. The president then asked Laura if she would be able to comply with his directive. Laura’s response was to state she was ready right then to comply but before getting into details she wanted to frame the issue differently by simply stating that they were trying to resolve what were actually nonbanking problems from their traditional perspective as bankers by redefining the problem to make it fit one of their preconceived prescriptions wasn’t going to be any more successful this time than their recent efforts. When the gunfire, of just- jerked necks popping subsided, Laura immediately launched into her presentation whose nexus was the research she made when deciding whether or not to accept the job offer. This event which we privately referred to as “the OK Corral staff meeting” was one of the defining moments in Laura’s life and certainly played a big role in her professional career thereafter.

Laura’s next big challenge occurred when she left the security of employment in a large organization to become a team member of a small private group of individuals- attorneys, CPAs, former corporate executives, psychologists, and others who contracted some or all of the services they provided on a job by job basis choosing from within their own ranks the best suited to fulfill their contractual obligations. For Laura the most exciting venture was a six week tour in Greece working with a team of seven to locate and interview management personnel for the Howard Johnson hotel chain.

When Laura returned from Greece it had been almost 10 years since I’d seen her and almost that long since we had talked. However when I called to engage her services for my business as an interview consultant, she readily accepted (I later learned at an extreme discount) and we resumed our friendship and association as though there had never been an interruption. Laura decided to resign from her consulting practice to concentrate on developing the concepts for two retail businesses, both inspired by memories and experiences, as a youngster, of her grandmother and the beautiful, creative, and impeccably constructed garments that Laura Neville had seen her produce. The results of her efforts was the founding and operating of two successful retail businesses, Paul Neville Interiors for 19 years and Designer Fabrics and Fashions for 17 years over the same time frame. I on the other hand began to restructure my business and engage more in consulting work with a less rigid schedule that allowed me to visit Memphis, well let me correct that to say visit Laura in Memphis eventually leading to the founding of my current business in which Laura assisted me from day one. Now almost 40 years later we were just beginning to settle into our latest roles- old married couple when disaster struck.

My Darling Laura,

My love for you will remain complete, constant, and unconditional, as I know yours is for me, in anticipation of the day we will walk hand-in-hand through the gardens of Heaven,

Forever Yours,

Steve

As per Laura’s wishes there will be a Life Celebration Gathering Saturday, August 3, 2019 from 2 PM until 4 PM for her friends and family to share special memories, make comments, and view the memorabilia that will be displayed in honor of her memory at one of her favorite places, the offices of our business that we designed and built 20 years ago which bears her touch more than any others: Landscape Creations 8735 Trinity Road Cordova, TN

In lieu of flowers, a donation to the Crockett’s Chapel Cemetery Fund 1130 Sunkist Road Tiptonville,TN would be a great honor to Laura