Granny Wildcat!

 

Grace Watkins in the 1941 Buccaneer yearbook, published for students of "State Teachers College" – Johnson City, Tennessee

 Grace Watkins - 44 Years Teaching 4th Graders Penmanship 

In the classroom she was Miss Watkins. 

But outside, on the playground, behind her back, 

she was Granny Wildcat.

Grace Watkins spent her career teaching fourth grade at Lincoln School and running the summer program at Borden Mill Park.

But the thing many of her students and colleagues remember is the way she taught Handwriting: with a song.

Owen Allgood can still sing that song: “Up and down and up and down, swing it round and round, toward the Peggy Ann.”

The Peggy Ann was a coffee shop on East Center, next to Armour Drug and almost due north of Lincoln. Miss Watkins was using a local landmark to help her students learn the way to make ovals. “And also teaching you to stay between the lines,” says Owen.

Anna Dickison remembers as a young teacher asking Miss Watkins to help her students. “She did a handwriting lesson for my fourth graders once and, as I remember, she made up the song as she went along, ‘Up and down, up and down, round and round to the Church Circle.” (Church Circle would be west from Lincoln so Mrs. Dickison’s room faced a different direction.)

That song may seem silly today but it worked. That and a lot of practice. At least it worked for Owen. “I won a little writing certificate because of her.”

Then there was the other side of Grace Watkins, the Granny Wildcat side. (Some remember the nickname a bit differently: as Granny Hellcat!)

That was the Grace Watkins who ruled the playground. With an iron hand.

From 1953 Kingsport Times

Owen says, “She made sure everybody on the playground participated. One day I decided I didn’t want to.” When Granny Wildcat spotted him standing by himself, she meted out her own punishment. “She made me play with the girls.”

Anna says Granny Wildcat loved the playground. “She would be at Lincoln school way before 7 a.m.  She volunteered to make softball game assignments.  In those days, we had an hour for lunch; the first 30 minutes were in the cafeteria and then outside on the diamond for a softball game. The kids loved that. She would fix out the schedule like a tournament bracket - Dickison vs., Hawk, Hodge vs. Underwood. We were eliminated until there was a room grand champion. She was always the referee and none of the kids argued with her. My son, Dennis Dickison, who was a student in Miss Hawk’s room, still talks about their room championship.”

The playground was her summer home, too. She ran the recreation program at Borden Mill Park. Again, with an iron hand. At the time of the 2004 Borden Park reunion, Wilma Maness Davis told me how Granny Wildcat ran the park. “In the mornings we'd have to carry out the swings, set up the tennis court, get everything set up. If you didn't carry something out, you couldn't play.'”

Enos Lord had an even more telling story. “One time Miss Watkins went after this boy - I can't remember his name - but he went up a tree. He wouldn't come down. So she went across the street and got an axe and started chopping the tree down.”

But there was a third side to Miss Watkins, a soft side.

Anna says, “Claude Wright, my husband’s uncle, had Miss Watkins and decided her bark was worse than her bite.”

Owen agrees. “She gave me more confidence in myself than any other teacher I had. She had about as big an influence on me as anybody. I ended up teaching school for 32 years because of her.”

He still remembers her admonition: “’Be proud of yourself. I don’t care if the King of England came through that door, I’d be myself.’ I kept looking for the King to come through the door.”

Her influence went beyond students to include other teachers. Anna says, “I was a new and young teacher and Miss Watkins helped mold me as a teacher.  She didn’t have to come teach my class penmanship, but did it during her own planning time.”

After her retirement Grace Watkins was still living up to her nickname, still making noise…and news. Owen remembers reading about her in the Times-News. “She took a trip around the world on one dress. They lost her luggage so she kept washing it out every day. That was a big story in the paper.”

 

From 1948 Kingsport Times

Here is that story from July 25, 1965:

By BASIL RICE

Times-News Staff Writer

With only the clothes on her back, Miss Grace Watkins, left New York in a jet airliner for a vacation in Europe, Asia and Africa.

When Miss Watkins left her home at 1201 Wateree St. she had plenty of luggage filled with plenty of clothes. So did her companion, Miss Anna Barkley of Limestone.

On a bus to New York to meet the other member of the trio, Mrs. Ben Taylor of 446 W. Sullivan St., the two school teachers were told they had to change buses in Washington, D. C.

"That's when the trouble began," Miss Watkins said. "All because of a bus driver, who was first, too quiet and then, too reassuring, I had to wear the tackiest dress I owned on a trip abroad."

Because they were the only through passengers on the bus, the driver instructed them to transfer to a bus next to the one they were on. "How about our luggage?" Miss Watkins asked. 'Now, don't you girls worry about a thing,' she said he replied. "You go in the restaurant, eat a good breakfast, and I'll see that your luggage is transferred to the other bus.""

Arriving in New York, they waited around the bus station, anxiously checking the baggage room whenever a bus from any place south of the city rolled in.

By this time, the two women were ready - very willing, in fact to unload each arriving bus themselves and look for their missing luggage. They were getting frantic.

"Then we realized we had something else to worry about - it was almost time for our plane to leave," Miss Watkins recalled. "If we missed this plane we wouldn't get to see 11 countries and we would lose all the money we had paid for the tour.

"There were no rebates except in case of sickness. Of course, we were both a little sick about then. It was probably a good thing the bus driver didn't show up. We'd probably have thrown him in a baggage department and detoured the bus by way of Alaska.'

Finally, with only enough time to get to the airport by taxi, the two women, still minus their luggage and wearing the same dresses they had worn since leaving Kingsport, left the bus station and went to the waiting jet.

There, they met Mrs. Taylor, who had made the trip to New York by air, rather than by bus. "I guess my luggage would have been gone, too," the former truant officer sighed, "had I traveled with them."

The plight of the two women soon became known to other women on the tour and assistance was offered. Miss Barkley bought a dress in Rome, when the plane stopped for some 10 minutes and another in Beirut, Lebanon.

Meanwhile, two of the women had loaned clothing to Miss Watkins and she made this do during the entire 21 days. She did miss the four pairs of shoes she had in the missing luggage, however.

But once the plane landed in Europe, then took off for the Middle East and the wonderous sights there, the two school teachers almost forgot - but not quite -  their missing luggage.

"There were so many places to go and things to see," Mrs. Taylor recalled, "that it was hard for them to remember their luggage."

In the Holy Land, they visited the Mount of Olives, Place of Ascension, Garden of Gethsemane, Mount Zion, Chamber of the Last Supper and other biblical places. They also attended an early morning service on the Sea of Galilee.

They visited the pyramids in Egypt; the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Basilica of St. Peter, Coliseum, and Forum in Rome; Tomb of Napoleon, Arch of Triumph, Louvre Museum and Eiffel Tower in Paris.

They saw the colorful changing of the guards, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle and other wonderful sights in and around London.

But not once did two of the party see something they wanted to see very much - several pieces of missing luggage.

"Just name any place in the Holy Land and we were there," said Miss Watkins, telling of the trip from the comfort of her cool front porch. Every now and then she would stop and look down the street.

The missing luggage hasn't been delivered yet.

 

 

From 1956 Kingsport Times

 

Grace Watkins was born in 1896 in Rogersville and died in Kingsport, her adopted hometown, in 1982.

In the early twenties she lived at 589 Sevier. In 1927 she moved to 1201 Wateree, catty-corner from the front door of Dobyns Bennett and at the entrance to White City (her address was often listed in the newspaper as White City). That was where she was living when she died 55 years later.

She started teaching at Lincoln School at least as early as 1921. That was the first time the newspaper listed her as being hired for a teaching assignment. But a 1953 Times-News photo identified her as teaching 30 years, meaning she started in 1923. She retired from Lincoln School after the 1962-1963 school year. Her obituary said she had taught in Kingsport city schools 44 years, which would mean she started in 1918. In other words I can’t say for sure when she first taught in town.

 

From 1953 Kingsport Times

In the early thirties, each teacher in the school system wrote a brief weekly report for the Kingsport Times. Here is Miss Watkins submission for April 6, 1930, an early indication of her interest in penmanship:

4B-Grace V. Watkins

We have been real busy this week with our monthly tests. The grades in each subject showed a marked improvement over last month.

We worked on The American Handwriting Scale Friday and we all like it much better than the Graves Scale we have been using.