Lucille Francis Witty -- One-room School House Teacher

 

Lucille Francis Witty

Edith Lucille Francis was born on October 23, 1922 in the Maple Grove community of Trigg County, Kentucky.  She was the only daughter of four children of Homer Ervin Francis and Lola Frances “Fanny” Bridges Francis. Her siblings were an unnamed infant, born and died in 1919, and two brothers, Garnett Edward Francis, born in 1920 and married Mabel Evelyn Tuggle and later married Eunice Wills Simmons and Lacy Rex Francis, born in 1927 and married Eva Marie Kennedy. Her parents were both natives of Trigg County and her father was a farmer and a carpenter.

Lucille grew up along with her brothers in the Maple Grove community.  All three of them attended the Maple Grove School which was one of the first one-room schools in Trigg County and was the same school that Lucille’s parents and grandparents attended. Records indicate that the school probably began in the 1820s when classes were first held in homes in the area.  The first actual school building at Maple Grove was a crude log cabin that was used until 1913 when a concrete block building was constructed. Some of the block building can still be seen standing today. Lucille went on to attend Trigg County High School in Cadiz where she graduated in 1940.  She attended Murray State College (now University) and after college she began her career as a teacher in Trigg County.

Lucille began her professional life as a school teacher in a one-room school house in the Siloam community of Trigg County. She also taught in upper and lower Donaldson Creek schools, as well as in Cerulean and at Cadiz Graded School.  Lucille liked to recall when she taught during the early days of World War II when she lined her ten or so students up in the shape of a “V” for Victory in keeping with the sentiment of the times. Consolidation of the schools in the 1950s eliminated the one-room schoolhouses and a way of life that Lucille recalled as bittersweet.

Lucille left her teaching career in 1949 and worked as a bookkeeper at the Trigg County Farmers Bank in Cadiz. After several years at the bank, she decided it was time to spend more time at home with her two young children.  Four years later she went back to work. This time she went to work for the State of Kentucky Division of Human Resources where she served as a social worker for the state for 24 years. In 1984 she put aside her professional hat and retired.

Lucille married Roy Vernon Witty on June 19, 1951 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Roy Vernon was born on February 26, 1913, in Trigg County, the son of Roy Albert Witty and Ruth Wood Witty. He was a veteran of World War II and a survivor of Pearl Harbor.  He worked in electrical repairs at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  Lucille and Roy Vernon had two children, Roy Winfield Witty, born in 1955 and married Laura Jean Kennedy and later married Jan Davis Cave and Millie Maeve Witty, born in 1956 and married Johnny Wayne Sholar and later married Michael Kay Robison.

Roy Vernon died at his home in Cadiz on August 13, 1991 at the age of 78.  He was buried in the Drury Bridges Cemetery in the Maple Grove community.  Lucille died on September 25, 2018 at an assisted living home in Cadiz at the age of 95.  She was buried in the Drury Bridges Cemetery next to her husband.

 

Lucille and Roy Vernon Witty tombstone

LINEAGE: (Edith Lucille Francis was the daughter of Homer Ervin and Lola Frances “Fanny” Bridges Francis and the granddaughter of John Trice and Maggie Dora Cunningham Bridges.  John Trice was the sixth child of Cullen T. and Martha Virginia Thomas Bridges.  Cullen was the twelfth child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges.  William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)