_Presley Ward OLIPHANT _+
| (1809 - 1880)
_Benjamin Millard OLIPHANT _|
| (1856 - 1942) m 1877 |
| |_Mary Leanne FITZHUGH __
| (1825 - ....)
_Thomas Mayberry OLIPHANT _|
| (1878 - 1969) m 1905 |
| | _Lewis M. RICHARDSON ___+
| | | (1829 - 1862) m 1853
| |_Mary Elizabeth RICHARDSON _|
| (1858 - 1943) m 1877 |
| |_Annie TIDWELL _________
| (1836 - 1901) m 1853
|
|--Ward Hassell OLIPHANT
| (1910 - 1986)
| _Joseph H. CHESTER _____
| | (1825 - 1900) m 1844
| _John M. CHESTER ___________|
| | (1845 - ....) m 1865 |
| | |_Mary WHITE ____________
| | (1824 - 1880) m 1844
|_Lillie Mable CHESTER _____|
(1888 - 1979) m 1905 |
| ________________________
| |
|_Susan M. __________________|
(1849 - ....) m 1865 |
|________________________
[464]
He was known as Ward in the business world, Hassell to friends and family, and "Grandaddy" to his ten grandchildren. Once the children were born, nearly everyone referred to Elba as "Honey".
Grandaddy was born in the area of Burns in Dickson County, Tennessee. By the time he was nine years old, his family had moved to Nashville. In 1930 at the age of 19, he was working as a laborer on the railroad and living in his parents' home.
In 1931, he and Elba Hewgley met. They were married on May 16, of 1936, at the Central Church of Christ in Nashville by T.W. McMillin. They became parents about a year and a half later when their first child, Ivie, was born October 8, 1937.
The Oliphants were able to buy their first home in West Nashville in 1939, the same year that Hassell went to work with the McCann Steel Company. The next year, they had to spend four months in Memphis away from home. With the start of World War II, there would be more time away from home; in 1942 Grandaddy, Honey, and their son Ivie moved to Charleston, SC, and lived in a trailer while Grandaddy worked at the Pittsburg Metalurgical Company. The family moved back home to Nashville and bought a home in Inglewood in 1943, during which time their daughter Diane was born. They returned to Charleston the next year in July of 1944, where Grandaddy resumed working for the Pittsburg Metalurgical Company. They were separated for about a month, and there are a number of letters that Grandaddy wrote to Honey during this time, as they struggled with being separated and with what to do with the house in Nashville and how to get the family to South Carolina so they could be together.
After the war ended, the family moved back to Nashville, renting homes in Madison and Nashville until 1949. Lana was born on September 30th, and the family bought the home on Dellway Drive. The family lived here for the rest of Grandaddy's life, with Honey moving from this home to Memphis in 1999, almost exactly fifty years later.
The next twenty years saw each of the children grow up and marry, with Ivie marrying in 1958, Diane in 1962, and Lana in 1969. That same year, Grandaddy took a traveling job with Weld Tooling Corporation. Never content to be apart, Honey and Grandaddy traveled together as he worked. Year after year brought more grandchildren, with the tenth and last being born in 1981, the same year that Grandaddy retired. The couple bought a trailer - a little bigger and nicer than what they had lived in in Charleston in 1942 - and spent much of their time in retirement traveling to their children's homes across the country and visiting with them.
In May of 1986, Honey and Grandaddy celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Grandaddy had evidently known for a short time that something was wrong with his health, but had been keeping it secret till the anniversary celebration took place. It turned out that what was wrong was that he had lung cancer. He had been a smoker for years and years, though he had given up cigarettes a few years before and taken up pipe smoking as an alternative. The cancer claimed his life a few short months later, on September 18th. He was buried on September 20th at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Garden of Gethsemane section, on Dickerson Rd in Nashville, TN.
He was a man who deeply loved his family - he had a deep love for his wife, children, grandchildren, and the rest of his family. After marrying Honey, he also became in many ways the man of the house for his mother-in-law, Vergil Hewgley, and her daughters that lived with her. His niece Joyce remarked that he was in many ways a father to her and her sister. He was a man of humor, quick to quote a funny poem that he had learned as a child. He had a beautiful, deep bass voice, from the time that he was known as "Curly", playing a ukelele and singing with his brother as the "Harmony Twins" as a young man, to singing along with the radio in the kitchen or at church later in life. He was a man of deep convictions and strong opinions, firmly dedicated to Republican party political causes.
Obituary:
OLIPHANT, Ward Hassell -
September 18, 1986. Survived by wife, Elba Oliphant; daughters, Mrs. Diane Scott, Mrs. Lana Stewart; son, Ivie Ward Oliphant; ten grandchildren; sisters, Mrs. Betty Colquette, Anna Shockley; brother T. Willard Oliphant. Remains are at Eastland Funeral Home, where services will be conducted Saturday at 2 p.m. with Bro. Harry Middleton officiating. Interment Forest Lawn Cemetery.
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Oliphant Family History
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U.S. Census - 1920
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Oliphant Family History
© 2005 John Scott , 305 Murphy Court , Macon , GA 31216 , jsscott@tennesseeheritage.com. Permission is granted to copy portions of this document for personal use only. May not be published in paper form, electronically, or by any other means without permission.