"I've Been Through A Lot, but I've Been Blessed"
Agnes “Dorothy” Idella Jones Owens had 102 years of life and lived that life always looking for the blessing. Mrs. Owens was named after her father’s mother, Agnes Idella Arbuckle Jones, whose nickname was Dorothy, so she became Dorothy as well. She had many other names – sister, mother, aunt, cousin, niece, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother. When she became a great-grandmother she told her family, “They can just all call me GG”, and that was how so many knew her best – as GG.
As she approached her late 90’s Owens said, “Don’t nobody know what all I’ve been through. People laugh at me and my memory; I don’t know why they don’t remember as good as I do! I do know that I have been blessed.” Owens was born in Bolivar and was the oldest surviving child of a family of nine children; her family would also include a number of step-brothers and sisters as well. “Mama and Papa had big families, and then they created their own big family.”
What started as a sprained ankle when she was young was further injured when she picked up two younger sisters to get them out of the path of a run-away mule. The ankle was not immediately seen by a doctor, and after surgery, she walked on crutches for over seven years until a teacher, Katie Clark, was able to help her get appropriate surgery to repair the old injury. Even then, the ankle would plague her off and on for the remainder of her life.
Although she enjoyed school and was a good student, she left school in 7th grade. “I was going to Pine Grove School in Bolivar when I had to quit going. Mrs. Ila Wells was my teacher then. I was able to go see her later on when we were both in our 90s.” Once she left school she took care of her younger siblings.
Age did not deter her love of learning and at age 20, she re-entered the 7th grade, determined to finish school, attending Booker T. Washington School in Memphis. “I was older than all of my classmates,” Owens remembered, “I went through the 11th grade but had to quit when Papa died so I could help Mama with my younger ones (siblings)”. At age 92, her grandchildren arranged for Booker T. Washington High School to present Owens her long-awaited diploma. “They put a video of it on Facebook, it went viral, and I was all over the world then!”
Owens learned sewing at an early age from her grandmother and later took a class at Bolivar Industrial School from Mrs. Miller. “She actually let me help her teach the sewing class. I sewed clothes and liked to make quilts and other things.” Owens would sew many things over the years for family and friends and won awards for her quilt-making; she made most of her own patterns as well.
She and her husband Curtis, known as “Kirk” had twin girls, Curtistine and Charlene. The marriage was difficult, and Owens and the twins moved back to Bolivar to live with her mother. Living in Hardeman County again provided the twins with many opportunities to be around cousins, aunts, and uncles. Owens found work at a dry cleaner and later started cooking for the Tilman and Nelms families and would work them for over 17 years. The families all remained close with Owens over the years, even after health issues forced her to stop working for them.
After moving to Jackson, Tennessee, Owens always had a house full of family. “The house wasn’t big, but we always piled in there, especially when we had birthday parties for the kids”. Many members of her family stayed with her at different times over the years, and Owens was always glad to help others when she could.
Owens followed news and politics for many years. It was not unusual for family members or friends to receive calls or messages from her late at night, to discuss local and world news. “You never knew when she might call or what the topic might be,” said her daughter Curtistine Gatlin, “those calls were always interesting!
You also learned to answer her first call because she would keep calling you until you did. Her first question was always ‘What are you doing?’ One of my daughters would tell her ‘sleeping’, to which Owens would reply, ‘Ok, well, let me tell you about…’.” Owens said she had seen Presidents from Warren G. Harding to Donald Trump, in addition to living through segregation. Her favorite was President Barack Obama; “I am glad I lived to see him become President. Now he was good!”
In her early 90s Owens said the tables turned and her children and grandchildren began taking care of her.
After a short stay at a retirement community, she decided to move back to a house and had her niece Tasha Cross, who was a CNA, and Gatlin to help care for her. Grandchildren and other family members made frequent visits to spend time with their beloved GG.
Family members also gave her opportunities to travel to visit family members across the country, and she enjoyed visits with friends she had made during her life. “I got to see the beach and the ocean and enjoyed picking up seashells along the shore. That was a good trip and something I didn’t know I would ever get to do.”
The family had always celebrated her birthday but starting with her 80th birthday and going forward the parties got bigger each year. “Lavender was her favorite color and so we began trying to incorporate that into all of her parties. She loved getting dressed up and finding just the right dress or hat for her parties too.” Parties began to have themes such as “Dorothy Through the Decades” and “Giving Her Flowers”. “She really loved those themed parties and made sure everyone knew what to do and to wear!” Gatlin said.
Owens said, “Don’t nobody know what all I been through, but I thank the Lord, I have been blessed. I told my granddaughter, Summer Owens, that I figured I should write a book, and she said, ‘let’s do it’.” The resulting book was titled, “Look Who Done Come Up the Slip”. The name came from a phrase by a younger sister who, as a child, was trying to say she had “slipped up” on Owens, but said, “look who got the slip”. The phrase stuck and became a family story and joke for many years.
Family members, friends, and adopted family members all say they were certainly blessed by Owens and her approach to life – through good and bad times – over her 102 years of living. “She always talked about how blessed she was,” Gatlin said, “but we all were definitely blessed by her and the example of the life she
lived.”