Sixty Years Together

Late in the summer of 1943, Mary Lynn Montgomery and William Carl Butler, Jr. decided to spend their life together.  Having met in 1942 at Keeton Springs United Methodist Church, their dates consisted of attending church and enjoying other community events with friends.  Carl and Mary were married on November 28, 1943 in Corinth, Mississippi.

In May of 1944, Carl was invited to come to Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia for a physical.  He was soon called to meet at the Decaturville court house to board a Greyhound bus with other young men headed for Camp Shelby, Mississippi where he was sworn in to the Army.

Carl completed his basic training at Sheppard Field Air Force Base in Wichita, Texas.  Moving next to Madison, Wisconsin, Carl attended radio school and was trained in radio repair and transmitter equipment.  During this time, Mary Lynn took her first train ride to spend time with her husband.  While Carl continued his training in Scott Field, Mary Lynn returned to her job at Salant and Salant, a men’s shirt factory in Parsons, Tennessee.

Returning to Sheppard Field to await assignment, Carl and Mary were able to spend some time together during the Spring of 1945.  They will always remember the death of President Roosevelt during this time and how uncertain the future seemed.

Later, Carl was shipped out to Bangor, Maine where he worked air, ground, and on approach aircraft.  Mary returned to Tennessee, where she may have been lonely, but not alone, because so many other wives shared her experience.  Her three brothers were also serving their country.

July of 1945 found Carl on his way to Presque Isle, Maine serving as a radio operator.  Eventually, he was stationed at Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada where he helped maintain radio parts supply for shipment to other stations. Life on base in Labrador was quite a change from that in Tennessee.  Fifty mile per hour winds were not uncommon.  Temperatures were 40 to 50 degrees below zero.  With these conditions, it was customary to tie a rope from the barracks to the mess hall so soldiers could find their way in the deep snow drifts.  In 1946, after a year of duty in Labrador, Carl headed to Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, where he was discharged.  He boarded a train for home and was met there  with much excitement by family and friends.

In 1946, Carl and Mary purchased the farm they continue to live on today, located on the Crawford School road.  With the births of their two sons, Jerry and Larry, and daughter Betty, their family was complete.  They built their home, a brick ranch style house in 1959-60, doing much of the work themselves.

Carl worked for Kaddis Mfg. Co. for 31 years before retiring in 1990 as maintenance superintendent.    He is especially proud that they were able to send all three children to college, each having earned a B.S. in engineering.  Jerry, is Vice President, Technology for Proxim Corporation, a leader in wireless networking equipment;  Jerry and his wife Linda live in Gainesville, Georgia.  Their son Sam recently completed his Bachlor’s degree at Hamphsire College in Massachusetts and is pursuing further graduate work.  Larry, a mechanical process engineer with more than 30 years in the aluminum industry, is currently with Norandal, USA in Huntingdon, Tennessee; Larry and his wife Viki live in the Cotton Grove community of Madison County.  Their daughter Angie teaches in the Milan school system, and their son Daniel is a student at Jackson State Community College.   Betty Butler Maness, has worked in the environmental field with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for 18 years and is married to Geary Maness.  Betty and Geary live on Crawford School Rd.

With the birth of her first child, Mary Lynn became a “work at home mom”. Her days were filled cooking, canning, baking, gardening, sewing clothes for her family and creating beautiful handmade quilts.   Mary’s reputation for baking is reflected in the number of blue ribbons she has earned from the Decatur County Fair, where her apple pie has won first place more times than we can count.

 Best Wishes, Mary Lynn and Carl as you begin your 60th year together!

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