Mary Jo Wimpey
By Deby Jo Ferguson
Staff Writer
Mary Jo Wimpey, 84, was born in Macon County, N.C. the daughter of Clifford and Birdie Dills. She is the fifth of eight children. With older brothers, Mary Jo considered herself a real tomboy when growing up. “Not long ago my brother Bernell said when I was young I worried them to death. I wanted to go and do everything they did. I remember that and it was true.”
The first time Mary’s family moved to Clay County she was 5 or 6 years old. “I had to wait until the next year to start school because of how my birthday fell, even though I passed everything they had on the entrance test.”
The next year she started at Elf School. “I walked about a mile to catch the school bus and loved every minute of it,” Wimpey said. “I also walked to church back then down on Ledfords Chapel Road. Even if I was young my mama let me walk to church because you didn’t worry about kids out walking like you do now,” Wimpey said.
“I don’t recall exactly when my love of God became so strong because I never remember not loving him. My mother said when I was about 2 years old my dad went to the cemetery every morning to pray and I always went with him. I figured my hearing him pray was a big influence in my love for God,” Mary added.
She begin teaching Sunday School at about 21 years old and continued teaching at Truett Baptist Church in many forms until her 60s.
There were many happy times Wimpey shared surrounding her childhood home. “One of the happiest times I remember is our playhouse that sat between our house and Eva Danielson’s. Carl Story’s children would come up and visit their grandmother Danielson during the holidays and summers and we would meet at the ‘top of the hill.’ That’s what we called our play house,” Wimpey said. She mentioned how they enjoyed going to the creek bank and gathering up all different colors of clay which they used to make things for the playhouse.
When her daddy came home on the weekends, there were family singings. “We would all get together and sing, that’s where I started singing harmony. Daddy taught me how and it was fun. I even wrote a little song or two all by myself. That was family time,” she added.
“Easter was always special. We would fix eggs either boiled, fried or other ways. Then we would have an eating contest as to who could eat the most eggs. I always planned on winning that contest every year, but never could out eat the others,” Wimpey said.
Christmas was a happy time in Wimpey’s life. “I remember getting a little sack of candy when I was younger and that was special to us. One year my brother got a bicycle and we all thought that was great. I was little so they told me not to ride it but of course I did and had a wreck on it. I didn’t get hurt bad and of course I was going to do what my brothers did,” Wimpey smiled.
“One year right before Christmas I went in the room none of us were supposed to go in and saw two little chairs. They were just the right size for me and my sister, so when we got those on Christmas morning I realized all the truth about Santa,” she said.
When Wimpey was in the fifth grade she attended Hayesville School and started going to Truett Baptist church where she is still a member. “I played basketball at Hayesville and was considered somewhat of a star player. I was the first female to receive the MVP in western North Carolina,” Wimpey said and explained that was back when western Carolina school athletics was a lot larger than today.
Eventually, Mary Jo married Howard Wimpey and they had three children, Diane, Benny and Judy.
Her future husband Howard saw her the first time while she was playing basketball. “Howard had came home to visit from the Navy and when he saw me the first time someone said he told his cousin he was going to date me. His cousin told him I was already dating someone else. Howard said, ‘Not only am I going to date her but I’m going to marry her too.’” Wimpey said with a grin.
The next year Howard got out of the Navy and started helping his cousin at a station in town, while she worked babysitting and at the local theatre owned by the Curtis family located in what is now the Tom Day Mall.
“I worked more than my parents wanted me to but my sisters were working and making money and I wanted to make money too so I started at 15 years old and I worked all through high school,” she said.
“I got to be friends with Jean Wimpey who later became my sister-in-law. She kept telling me about her brother-in-law Howard and what a good person he was and how she wanted me to get to know him. I didn’t think much about it at the time because I was dating someone else and like most young girls thought I loved every one I dated.”
As it turned out Jean did set up Mary and Howard to meet each other. “The first time we met I can’t say I fell in love right away, but he took me home a time or two. Then one day I was walking in town and saw Howard come walking around the station he was working at and my heart fell right then and there. It was such a beautiful thing, I had never felt anything like that before and he got me or I got him,” Wimpey said.
“Our first date was Christmas Eve and he got me “Evening in Paris,” a perfume and powder which smelled really nice. We had only been dating a month when he asked me to marry him, but I promised my mama I would finish high school first,” she said. Howard agreed to the terms of her accepting his proposal saying he would wait until she graduated but no longer. So the morning after her graduation at 10 a.m. Mary Jo and Howard married and began their life together.
Through the decades Mary Jo’s love and faith has carried her through the highs and lows that life sent her way including the death of her beloved husband. Through marriage, family and God she has experienced love that began in childhood and is flourishing in her golden years.