Jerry and Linda Butler

Margaret Vera Elizabeth Davidson on May 22, 1935.

Lois, Vera, and son Johnnie were victims of the 1937 devastating flood of the Mississippi River and tributaries in the low bottom areas West of Dyersburg, Tennessee, in which they lost all of their belongings, forcing them to return to the "Midway Farm" between Dyersburg and Newbern at a place called "Fort Hudson." They worked as farmers and hired hands along with his sister Grace and her husband Jake Morris for a man named "Hoff." The late thirties were extremely harsh to their families with Grace losing her Jake to a sudden illness in 1938 or 39. In 1941, Lois, Vera, and three boys moved into Dyersburg where he worked for the Dyersburg Ice and Coal Company all during World War II years, except for several months in a Gary, Indiana steel mill in 1941. He returned to Dyersburg in late 1941, fully intending to enlist in the Navy to serve his country. However, because of bad teeth, and some behind the scenes collaborating between the ice company and the draft board, his service was limited to a trip to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia for an induction physical. He always regretted not being able to serve, and this trip served as an outlet to rationalize and produced numerous tales of his and other young men's experiences while being examined. These experiences were still fresh on his mind when he died March 21, 1989.

On January 30, 1946, the family moved to a place called "Promised Land" about two miles South of Blytheville, Arkansas where he worked as sharecropper and a handyman for the landowner named "Babe Little." After three crops, the family moved back to Dyersburg in late 1948, where he once again worked at the ice company, this time as foreman of the #2 plant in "Rawls Edition." His work in this position ended in July 1951 when he went to Gary, Indiana to work in a steel mill until March 1952. He then worked as engineer and general foreman with the Home Ice Company in Savannah, Tennessee until November 1954, when he, Vera, Jim, Wayne, and Diane, moved to Cooter, Missouri as sharecroppers.

(Johnnie was in the Navy during this period.) This tour ended in November 1956, when the family moved to Selmer, Tennessee, where he managed the Selmer Ice Company. This employment ended in 1959 when the company was sold and he was essentially unemployed for over one year. In 1961, the family moved back to Savannah, where he became operator/manager of the Savannah Ice Company, until his retirement in the mid-1970's. This period of employment produced greater income than any of his earlier jobs and allowed the family to finally purchase a permanent home in 1968.

Lois was a person whose word was his bond. He was a stern, yet loving husband and father. He was, for the most part, a no nonsense type of individual, yet could enjoy a good joke or prank. He could spin yarns with the best storytellers. He would be termed an "unskilled Laborer" in today's labor market. Although his background was farm life, with only an eighth grade education, complicated by the hard 1930's depression years, he applied himself and with practical experience, became an accomplished refrigeration engineer. He could repair or re-construct all types of electrical tools / machinery as well as perform other trades such as carpentry and masonry. It was a shame that he did not have the opportunity for high school or college.

His adult life was filled with near misses at total success because of his desire to avoid conflict in his work situations. The numerous moves previously mentioned were nearly always precipitated by needless bickering and jealousy of other people with apparently less character. Just as his early teenage and early adult years were filled with heartache, due to the untimely loss of his father, and his brother, Herbert, and the long illness and death of his mother, his latter years were mostly sad and filled with illness, especially after the death of his second son, Jim (The General) Tucker. He never seemed to recover from the effects of Jim's death, subsequently suffered from a stroke and emphysema, and slowly wasted away. However, God's Holy Spirit revealed the Lord, Jesus Christ to him in "Glorious Salvation" in 1983. In death, all the tragedies of his life were swept away in a service which was more like a revival than a funeral service. We were all blessed.

Margaret Vera Elizabeth Davidson Tucker was born June 26, 1915. She was a faithful wife to Lois, sublimating her will to his during all of their life's travels. She was the epitome of courage surviving all the lean years, performing her homemaking and childrearing responsibilities and generating character in her four children. She suffered a massive and paralyzing stroke to the right side of her brain on July 1, 1991 and was bedridden in hospitals and nursing homes until her death January 27, 1994. She is missed by all.

Johnnie Tucker 6/12/94

source: Diane Tucker Bellis, Johnnie R. Tucker