3524 Timberlake, Ann and Dave Hake 1972-?
Memories of Home
By Ann Hake, September 2009
We purchased this house in 1972 from Mary Elizabeth and Jack Witherspoon. It was advertised as 1,700 square feet of heated space. Mary Elizabeth and Jack built the house and moved in about 1948. They raised three sons here, John, David and Bill. They, too, loved T’Lake and reluctantly sold to move to Florida to care for Mary Elizabeth’s aging mother. After Mary Elizabeth’s Mother died, they purchased another house on Timberlake (3722) and returned to the neighborhood.
The first day we looked at 3524 we felt an affinity with the Witherspoons and knew we would buy it. They had a gentle family aura that appealed. We later joked that we had bought the house so we could look out the windows. We raised three children here: Laura, Eric and Elizabeth.
Jack Witherspoon was an electrical engineer and had done many projects which caught our eye. There was dark-room space in the unfinished lower floor and Dave, also a ‘projects’ man, has always enjoyed photography. Mary Elizabeth was a writer with many articles and two published novels to her credit (Somebody Speak for Katy by Dodd Mead in the 1950's, and The Morning Cool by Macmillan in the 1970's). Her gentle Quaker spirit and her prolific writings were especially inspiring since I had always been a closet journal keeper. Little did I then realize that the writing spirit at 3524 had also awakened the Witherspoon’s middle son, David, a musician and teacher. David became an author with five books and many publications in a variety of literary magazines.
There was a laundry chute and moveable walls in the upstairs. Mary Elizabeth showed us how a sick child could be given a special bunk in the hallway to isolate his germs! Jack had designed special accommodations for lighting and music. There was a greenhouse and shed with a heated planting bed nearby and a wildflower garden. As I remember, one of our kids set part of the shed on fire playing with matches… many years later that same child was in charge of a more controlled dismantling of the shed and greenhouse after an infestation of termites. When we moved in, the ceiling in the house was Ceilheat. In 1982 our living room ceiling fell at 4 am one morning and it and the kitchen ceiling were replaced. Quite a mess! Eric was in high school and got to stay home to help. The girls declared it discrimination and gender bias. Ceilheat was a popular heating method at the time and other homes in the neighborhood also had Ceilheat.
The Witherspoons built the existing swimming pool and liked to swim each day. They added a swimming pool when they bought their second house on T’Lake. Nannie Mills Moore was their employee and beloved by all on the street for 40 plus years. The Witherspoons at some point had added a room to the left of the original house as viewed from the street.
We moved to T’Lake in 1972 from a furnished rent house. We inherited some left behind furniture from the Witherspoons and we went to work. Over the next 30 years we refinished and changed partitions on the lower level, redid the bathrooms and all the utility space, redid the kitchen taking away part of the garage space, then later converted the garage to what we call our “morning room” because it offers the very best place to read during morning hours, added a carport and a woodworking shop. Gene Burr (Gene and Rosemary are longtime T’Lake Club members 3621 Maloney) helped over the years with designs for renovation including design of the wood shop which Dave loves. Dave continues to do photography and woodworking and I putter at writing and drawing.
Jane Ann Nielsen with a group of foreign visitors at
3524 in 2001.
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Dinner at Nancy Hook’s in 2001. (David and Mary Habercom, Jane Ann Nielsen, and Ann Hake)
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The spirit of Timberlake lives on in the people who are here now. We have a rich inheritance from the neighborly community which lived here before us. We remember with great fondness: Jane Ann and Alvin Nielsen (3605). Alvin was longtime professor and administrator at UT. UT’s Nielsen Physics Building is named after him. Incidentally, the physics building at Ohio State University is named after Alvin’s brother and the OSU chemistry building is named William Lloyd Evans, after Jane Ann’s father. I still think I can see Jane Ann, all 4 feet 9 inches of her, with broad brimmed straw hat, basket on her arm, delivering cookies, jelly and spirited advice. In later years, after Alvin’s death, Jane Ann helped us host many foreign visitors to the University. Some wrote to her and stayed connected.
Jane Ann, a history major in college and a member of the all-women's Shakespeare acting company recited passages from literature passionately. Jane Ann’s Mother, Mrs. Evans at 105, delighted us at her birthday gathering with a long recitation from Longfellow. Jane Ann had invited the neighbors in for the party complete with silver and fine linens.
I imagine now that Jane Ann’s favorite stuffed potatoes, a labor intensive dish, was served. I asked Margaret Wayne, Alvin and Jane Ann’s daughter, for some input and she said that she thought her Mother’s greatest non-family, non-university accomplishment would be her work in the League of Women Voters, particularly as a foot soldier in the work that led to Baker vs. Carr (one man/one vote reapportionment).
Anecdote: One time in the 90’s I was walking up the Bowmaster driveway (3601) and saw Jane Ann (in her 80’s) jumping up and down in her kitchen. I rushed back home to tell Dave that Jane Ann apparently had gotten a small exercise-type trampoline. We were quite alarmed and spoke to her soon after about the danger. We were all overcome with laughter when she explained that she had been watching the small TV in her kitchen and Ohio State (her alma mater) had just scored the winning touchdown.
Anecdote: Alvin Nielsen was a mentor to our daughter Laura, a molecular biologist now. An adult Laura accompanied us when we went to see Alvin late in his life and an orderly called him ‘Al’. I thought Laura was going to wrestle the guy to the floor.
The Nielsens (with Jane Ann’s 105 year old Mother Mrs. Evans at times supervising from a wheelchair), and even earlier Grandpa Bowmaster, had vegetable gardens in the space where Susan and John Keys have planted fruit trees. Jane and Alvin’s vegetables were bordered by brown eyed Susans which they shared with all. Roma and Wylie Bowmaster (3601) raised 5 children, Bob, Vieve, Birney, twins Don and Dave. Roma was our Timberlake parliamentarian, keeping us all in order. I remember the time she told me about the great pleasure it was to take a walk with Vieve, her mentally challenged adult daughter because Vieve noticed things the rest of us overlooked. The Bowmasters were instrumental in starting the Association for the Retarded of East Tennessee. Wylie heated with fire wood in the living room grate, often closing off the kitchen/dining and living room. When we had power outages (many in the old days for as long as a week) he brewed campfire stew and invited people in to sleep in their living room.
Oldsters have prospered on Timberlake. After an early retirement Roma and Wylie traveled the world. Their son Bob was a Delta pilot. They did thorough travelogues (she wrote, he photographed) for clubs and schools. The Bowmasters kept a guest book for their 60+ years of marriage and it was delightful reading with menus, at times recipes and many notes from guests. They lived into their early nineties. Estelle Johnson was a caregiver for Mrs. Nielsen, the Bowmasters and Mrs. Nancy Hook (3523). Kathy Hyland and Donna Kendrick have beautifully remodeled 3601 till it is just a hint of its former self. I’m guessing they rely on central heat and air.
Anecdote: One very snowy morning when Roma Bowmaster was in her 80’s she knocked at our door and asked me to go sledding on T’Lake. Well, I had not sledded since childhood, was absolutely petrified but couldn’t say ‘no’ to someone more than twenty years my senior. Great fun! The Banners (3317) had the perfect drive for sledding and teens and adventuresome adults gathered there on snowy nights. Roma didn’t ask me to try it. Thank Goodness!
Sledding with Roma and Wylie Bowmaster in 1984
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Nancy Hook and Jane Ann Nielsen helping me celebrate retirement in 2001… our children provided costumes:
1) caterpillar
2) cocoon
3) butterfly
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Mary Hale Hook, their daughter reminisced with me about T’Lake and she said that one of her warmest memories was snow days in the 60’s. Their place was a central gathering place for sledding hill in this section. Lots of kids here then: Bowmasters, Johnsons, Barbers, Ladds, Kestersons and Dempsters. Addison kept a field mower and bush hogged their hill regularly. All the kids rode down the bank and right into the Witherspoons yard. Roma Bowmaster made homemade donuts and served them warm with cocoa. It was a tight knit neighborhood. You could walk into anyone’s property and feel welcomed. Nancy, too, was a historian, active in the League and in Pittman Center politics, active in PTA, a volunteer at the library and active in promoting reading for children. Nancy, Mary Elizabeth, Jane Ann, Virginia were all in the League. First three were also historians.
Anecdote: Just a few years ago talking to our adult son long distance I held the phone out the door so he could hear the flute music floating from the former Hook, then Stierli house. He said, ‘no mother, that’s not a flute it’s piano coming from up there.’ He was remembering Mary Hook’s playing when she was young. Our daughter Elizabeth was one of her early pupils. Now Kristine [or Kris] Johnson, Smoky Mountains Park Ranger, and her sister Linnea Johnson live there. Their friendship with David Witherspoon and their connections to the park identified them as family returning.
Mary Ann Dempster Klein and baby Miranda
Next door at 3520 since 1961, Dick and dear Emily Dempster (children: Richard Jr., Charlie, Steven, Emily Fay, and Mary Ann) made us feel welcome to this neighborhood by inviting us in to play cards. Dick told me not to worry if Dave was at work and I had a crisis just give them a call. Reminded me of what Linnea Johnson told me about the Warrens’ granddaughter offering her help! Mary Ann Dempster and the Hake children played together for years. During our first week here Mary Ann, about 11, knocked on my front door and introduced herself. “Hello. I’m Mary Ann Dempster next door and I like to swim.” As many of you know, Mary Ann became a world class swimmer! Emily and I got together recently and reminisced about T’lake, the community we both like for its pleasant rhythm of separation and community, a peaceful place. She mentioned especially liking the Fall get-togethers. She remembered that Charlie, at 11, had broken his arm sledding on T’Lake. She said she saw the situation, strapped a board on his arm and took him to have it set. She remembered the Witherspoons as very cordial. Emily said, “They had us to dinner and we had them over. They moved to Florida and we went to see them in Panama City. The house they built there was also unique.”
Lalah & Hershal Macon at 3425 were wonderful people, practicing Quakers. Very sweet and gentle. They had a hoya plant draped round their front door which bloomed beautifully. I could not understand their patience with the waxey residue. They had walking trails and extensive wild flowers planted behind their house (as did the Robinsons). They moved to Atlanta probably in the late 80’s to be near adult children. Lalah sang me this song her mother had sung as she was walking to and working in the barnyard each morning at dawn. Such a sweet old-fashioned song I asked her to write the words down.
“Let your face be like the daybreak
when you pass your neighbor by
Let your heart rim o’er with music
Like the songster of the sky
Verse 2
Be a merry beam of sunshine
Be a lily pure and fair
Be a jewel bright and precious
Be a blessing everywhere
Verse 3
Let your thoughts be kind and tender
Toward the weak and erring ones
Shun the faintest breath of evil
Leave no deed of love undone.
Verse 4
Let your soul with truth be shining.
Talk with Jesus everyday.
Gather lambs into the kingdom
And he’ll bless you every day.”
Further up the road (3400) Mary and Murray Evans and their children, Karin, Mark and Tim became close friends, often sharing holidays and making music with us and Murray’s Mother, another Mrs. Evans. Mary and I routinely walked around the block thirty years ago. Mary was a close friend with an infectious merriment about her. (Murray Evans is an author and photographer. A fern specialist he wrote a definitive text book and the popular Ferns of the Smokies, published in 2005 by the Great Smoky Mountains Association, Gatlinburg. Mary was killed in an automobile wreck when she was 50. There are many of us who will always miss her. Mark who lives at 3400 now and I walked memory lane recently. He said he liked the feeling of community here and the safe and friendly place it was for growing up.
Anecdote: Mark remembered one Thanksgiving morning when he and Tim, about 11 and 8, knocked on Macons door to say hello. The Macons invited them in to chat and in conversing mentioned they were alone for Thanksgiving. No family was expected. The boys promptly invited them over to their house. The Macons politely declined but the boys went home and told Mary. She immediately called to formally invite the Macons and they said yes!
On the lane across from the Rennies’ the Barber clan ruled. Wes Barber was blind for a long period in his old age and Eric Hake enjoyed a friendship with him as he was growing up. His wife, Carol, was a writer. As I remember Carol published articles into her eighties. Carol would occasionally call our house and ask if our young son Eric would like to take Wes for a walk… then later we would see them, Wes’ hand on Eric’s shoulder, walking up the road at a fast clip. Wes designed some of the houses in the neighborhood (the Hooks and ours I think).
Anecdote: Homemakers were from scratch cooks in the old days and I heard Jane Ann, Virginia and others talk about cooking. They had a favorite cookie recipe from Joy of Cooking and referred to it by page number rather than name. ie ‘I made 689’s this morning’. If you want to look it up it’s Tortelettes. They are tasty.
Anecdote: Kevin Brott (3701) once drew with spray paint a huge sign across the T’lake roadway close to Maloney Road, “Kevin loves Melissa”. Someone painted over the sign with black paint and, a few days later, it reappeared to be painted out again. Kevin persisted in street art and in romance…he and Melissa married and now have four children!
Lana Frame’s (3725) children grew vegetables and sold them in a stand at the beginning of their drive. We got acquainted with Katherine and Jeffrey through their growing up years. Katherine works for the Nashville Zoo and I think that if she came here selling Christmas wrap Dave would still buy. Liz and Neal Peebles (3613) offered leadership, beautiful garden views with koi fish and hospitality over the years. Our Elizabeth did some babysitting for their Eleanor (now an opera singer) and their son Matt (a Doctor) and the Schaumbergs. One time Elizabeth Hake’s dog, Niko, got into the Peebles’ koi fish pond. Not a pretty story.
Through all our years we had T’Lake get togethers, in the beginning twice a year at someone’s house, and many clean ups. One year we were disappointed in the street cleanup turnout and then discovered that the Sadlers by themselveshad done from their house to the other end of the road! Who can forget Lana Frame’s bread pudding? And who can forget the leadership Nancy and John Rennie, Virginia and Kermit Duckett so often supplied our club!
Bob and Beryl Sadler (3516) walked the street, picking up sticks and inspiring us to beautify. Beryl is still at it…walking and working! Down in the bend (3612) were Virginia and Homer Johnson who raised 4 boys(Philip, who lived as Muni Natarajan, a monk for many years), Wesley (now known as Richard), Duncan and Jeffery). The Johnsons had pig roasts in the fall for Homer’s electrical engineering department and we all drooled. (Reminds me of the Rennies, the Hoskins and Marsha Finfer food we’ve enjoyed in past few years!) Homer Johnson jogged through chemo treatments and we all stood in awe of his valiant fight. Duncan Johnson was our first babysitter on T’lake. Our children were 5, 7 and 9 when we moved in. I bet Duncan remembers them.
Pat and Gordon Hunt (3420) were some great people! Gordon had a Scottish brogue and was on crutches because of polio early in life. He was a botanist and you could often see him standing in the azaleas along his bend in the road. He waxed eloquently over ‘yews’. Each time we planted them in this yard it was with a memory of the Hunts. I think they had five children. Pat was a peaceful talker, like Mary Elizabeth Witherspoon, and I remember enjoying. After Gordon died, Pat married Bill Martin. Pat lost her life in an auto accident at Montlake turning off on to Alcoa Hwy.
Anecdote: I often think of Gordon telling me about his youngest (I think) going back to college. In his words: “Ann…has slipped into the void again.”
Next door (3600) the Heslers were our first neighbors. Dr. Lex Hesler had the lone National Science Foundation ‘mushroom’ grant. This grant was competed annually and Dr. Hesler won annually from the time he retired as dean of UT College of Arts and Sciences at age 65 until he was 85. What an inspiration he was - doing more academic research after, than during the 40 years before retirement! Dave remembers seeing Dr. Hesler one day as they were both on their way across the street to get mail. Dave noticed that Dr. Hesler seemed upset and asked him if anything was wrong. Dr. Hesler replied that ‘some young whippersnapper from Harvard had won his NSF mushroom grant!’ He was 86 at the time. We have delightful memories of him and his instructive conversations with our children. (One time Eric told him about my azalea work and Dr. Hesler said, “Go home and tell your Mother that won’t work.” It was thrilling for Eric who was about 9.) During this period there were three botonists on the street, Gordon Hunt, Murray Evans and Lex Hesler.
Esther Hesler washed dishes at her front window and could tell us anything that was going on. In those days we didn’t need neighborhood watch. She always referred to her husband as Dr. Hesler. (The UT Hesler Biology Building is named after him.) Mary Elizabeth and Jack had such a close relationship with the Heslers they cared for Esther in their home during her last convalescence. The magnolia tree between the Pinkston and Hake lots was given the Heslers for a birthday by the Witherspoons. That house has been occupied I think by three different owners while we were here. Dorothy and Paul Pinkston who share flowers, gardening and health advice are our latest neighbors there and we feel so lucky to know them.
Can’t stop here without relating a memory of 3609. The Wallace Ladds (built), the Blass’ family (Roseann and her three children), Betsey and Stewart Worden and later Joann and Ed Schaumberg lived in 3609. Roseann was a single parent working on a Ph.D. After she sold the house an entrepreneurial couple (Hill) in two years renovated and made $40,000 profit. The Schaumberg’s bought it and initially rented to the Stewart Wordens. Betsy was a great artist and outstanding teacher with national reputation. Everyone who took an art class from her misses her.
The Schaumbergs with their five children were unforgettable neighbors, offering us all hospitality during their stay here. We watched as they transformed their house into a breathtaking complex of buildings and grounds. As Jane Ann explained, ‘orthopedic surgeons understand about structure!’ Ed Schaumberg was slow and caring and unpretentious. He sometimes stopped to talk so long one worried that surgery was beginning without him. He willingly made doctor-friend visits to Jane Ann’s in the middle of the night because she was elderly and frail. I was often surprised to see him lounging in Jane Ann’s hospital chair. I hear that Russell Schaumberg, though young, has already achieved some writing fame in the movie industry, given such an award his whole family went to New York for the ceremony.
I’ve left people out…there’ve been so many here in the past 37 years. Ooops can’t forget the recipe card parties we used to have for anyone moving in or deserving of a lift, the cookie swaps and the Christmas Eve caroling led by the Witherspoon boys. One time Dave Hake rolled a set of chimes along in a wagon!
The homemaker of all homemakers Sue (and Jim) Robinson (first house on left as you entered T’Lake) had great open houses for ballgames. Sue, a Home Demonstration Agent for the state, was an unbelievable cook and strictly scheduled her housekeeping chores. Our kids used to say I kept the garage door down because I didn’t want Sue to get a glimpse. Sue’s garage was spotless, painted white with only a trunk for essentials. You can easily guess why I was eager to eliminate our garage.
Oh Timberlake…how we love you. Our children are always eager to visit home.
