Clint and Lona Hayes: Lawrenceburg, Tennessee: 1947 - 1965
By 1947, Clint’s arthritis had gotten so bad, he could no longer work on the farm. By this time, his son, Leon, was grown and married. He and his wife, Georgie, moved into the farmhouse. The rest of the children were grown and on their own, too, except for 15-year-old Kathy and 8-year-old Gary. Clint and Lona moved to Lawrenceburg with their two youngest children. They lived in a rented place for a while until Dutch found a nice home on Mahr Avenue which he bought for them. Lona, with her expertise in meal preparation, had already been working for several years at the Lawrenceburg Hospital as a dietitian. Clint got a job working in a little grocery store near the town square. Kathy and Gary finished their education in Lawrenceburg. After high school, Gary joined the service and went to Germany. At around that same time, in 1957, Clint and Lona’s daughter Dell came to live with them. Dell was going through a divorce and her daughter, Pam, had just been born. They lived there for three years until Dell remarriage in 1960. Clint and Lona had already lost two children . . . a baby stillborn and, of course, Terry. On August 22, 1964, tragedy struck again. Leon was killed in a car crash on Buffalo Road. Clint was in the hospital in Lawrenceburg and Leon had been to see him. Leon’s 17-year-old son, Ronnie, had planned on going to the hospital with his dad, but at the last minute decided to stay home with his mom who had recently had a stroke. Leon was almost back home when a drunk driver came speeding around a curve on the wrong side on the road. Leon was killed instantly, leaving his wife Georgie, and his son Ronnie.
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