100 years: A century; 5200 weeks; 36,525 days. That’s about how long it’s been since Mamie Everlena (Venzant) Smith was born on the Kitchen Farm in Union County, Mississippi.
When I arrive at Ms. Everlena’s home to chat with her about how some of those days were spent, her oldest son C.L. greets me as I drive up and leads the way to his mother. She is beautifully dressed and smiling as she greets me in her living room. Her daughter Alma joins us, and C. L. decides against joining the hen party. We three ‘hens’ immediately begin sharing a bit about ourselves to get acquainted. It is a very easy conversation. Everlena is an attractive, bright, witty lady who easily catches and holds one’s attention. As we talk about her many years in Pleasant Hill, she carries the conversation, requiring only an occasional assist from her daughter.
Family and childhood
Everlena was born on September 27, 1924 at her home on the Kitchen Farm, Rt. 3, Union County, MS. The area, generally known as the Pleasant Hill Community, is where she has spent her entire life.
Rose Venzant, Everlena’s sister.
Her parents, Albert and Luralee (Tyson) Venzant were hard working sharecroppers who raised their four children Robert, Everlena, Rose and James Allen in Pleasant Hill. Though all four children lived to attain a respectable old age, Everlena is the undisputed champion of them all.
Everlena’s older brother Robert.
As children, ‘Evie’ and her younger sister Rose played together on the land around their three room home. A favorite pastime was spending hours playing with their dolls in their two playhouses. The playhouses were two large trees, imaginatively named Sally and Vivian.
When Everlena was eleven, her mother died as a result of diabetes, a relatively common event in the 1930s. As also often happened back then, Luralee’s four children were separated when their mother died, each one going to live with a different relative. Everlena continued living in the Pleasant Hill community with her mother’s sister, her Aunt Estamina.
Everlena and her “baby brother” James Allen.
Years later, when Albert remarried, the siblings were reunited, living with their father and stepmother. This was the beginning of something that would become a lifelong part of Everlena’s life – taking care of someone who needed her. In addition to helping look after the other children, she became became like a second mother to her younger brother, James Allen. Until his passing, he lovingly referred to himself as “Muah’s oldest child.”
Schooling and working
Everlena enjoyed going to school. She attended the Jameson Road Church School and the Beaver Dam Church School. She liked being with the other children and especially loved participating in the concerts and plays they produced at the church school. It’s easy to believe that Everlena liked plays, because, even after all these years, she looks very much like she would be at home on a stage, or in front of a camera. After completing the eighth grade at Beaver Dam, Everlena says she “didn’t want to go to the big ‘town school’ in New Albany. So I decided to go through the eighth grade again.”
After her second trip through the eighth grade, Everlena called an end to her formal education. She went to New Albany and found work at the Wells Hotel and Boarding House. Her first job was making beds. She worked from 7:00 in the morning until late in the evening. In her spare time Everlena waited tables in the restaurant. Later, she took jobs housekeeping in private homes. “I had a long list of jobs,” she says, “but I never had a job in a factory.”
Five Generations: marriage, family and care-taking
At age 22 Everlena married Jeffie Smith, who was 34 years old. Jeffie and Everlena were married in Everlena’s father’s home, and set up housekeeping not too far from his home. Like Evelena‘s father and many other men in the community, Jeffie was a hard working sharecropper. They had nine children: Naomi, C.L., Norris, Albert, Alma, Gloria, Jeffie, Jr., Robert and Judy. Everlena says, “Now, with a husband and nine children, sometime I wanted to cuss! Life was hard, but I made it by the Grace of God.”
“We taught our children good manners, to say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘yes, ma’am’ and and to take care of family. Our children were raised to work for whatever things they wanted, and not be lazy. One of my sons even built his own church. He laid the foundation and built a beautiful church building. He and his members have built a very successful church out on Bratton Road.
This is just one example of the many reasons why Everlena is so proud of being “Muah” to the four generations of family she considers to be her legacy to the Pleasant Hill Community. She loves them and appreciates the fact that they live and work in the community that she has loved for so many years.
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When asked what her large family did for fun “back in the day” when they found the time, Everlena replied, “There wasn’t much entertainment available in those days. On Friday or Saturday nights we enjoyed getting together with neighbors and friends. We’d have a fish fry at our house or at a neighbor’s house. Sometimes Jeffie would go out with the men, and the women would stay at home with the children. We all looked forward to going to the county fair every year over at the fair grounds.”
During their years together Jeffie and Everlena moved their family many times, sometimes “pretty far back into the woods,” but they were always in the general area of the Pleasant Hill Community. At one time they lived in a “dog-trot” house, where they had one side and Jeffie’s mother lived in the other side. When her mother-in-law became ill, Everlena slept on a pallet near her bed s0 she could give her the medication she needed through the night. This was the classic Everlena. ‘Muah” has taken care of many people during her lifetime – her father, sisters, brothers, good friends and others who just needed some help.
Even in a place known as Pleasant Hill, difficult times and hard choices were often a part of Everlena’s every day life. As her brothers and sister grew older, they married and moved away to work and raise their families, but Everlena continued to live in the Pleasant Hill area.
“At times, when I was younger, I sometimes felt that most everybody had a better life than I did,” Everlena readily admits. “There was always hard work, and sometimes life was difficult.” But Everlena stayed the course she had chosen- she was a wife, a mother, a caretaker. She was, and still is, a true follower of her Lord’s commandment to “love one another.”
Jeffie Smith, Everlena’s husband of 57 years.
“As I got older, looking back, I realized that I’ve actually had a blessed life. While we didn’t always have everything we wanted, we did always manage to have everything we really needed. There was always food on the table, and family and friends to love and share it with.”
Everlena’s oldest daughter Naomi died in 2003, but the rest of Muah’s children all live in the New Albany area with their families. When Jeffie died in 2004, he and Everlena had been married for 57 years.
Alma says, “Muah has so many grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren that she’s not always sure how many there actually are.” There are “around” 52 grandchildren and great grandchildren, and a number of great great grandchildren. Everlena is now part of five generations living in the New Albany and Pleasant Hill community.
“It’s not a perfect, family,” Everlena says, “because nobody is perfect. “But it’s a large and loving family. It’s a blessing to me to get up every day, because I enjoy my family and my neighbors and my friends.”
“We came from a poor family and didn’t have much, but the Lord has sure been good to us.”
The Present and the Future
These days, a typical day begins for Muah about nine or ten in the morning. “I get washed up and my son fixes breakfast and cleans up the kitchen. Sometimes I fix breakfast. We both like to sleep late. After breakfast, the phone usually starts to ring, and sometimes it will ring nearly all day. But its usually nobody but Medicare folks or maybe somebody just trying to get some money, and I just hang that phone up. I watch my daytime stories on the TV, and the noonday news. Then my game shows come on, and after that I cook dinner. I’m usually up until about 10 o’clock or ten-thirty watching the late night news. After that, it’s bedtime and I’m headed to bed.”
Everlena in her kitchen.
Muah still loves cooking, canning and baking for her family, church and friends. Her specialty is her Banana Pineapple cake, which is a “must have’ when the family gets together for special occasions. She even makes her own wine of plums and blackberries “to help my appetite,” she says with a smile. “Jeffie used to make wine. I guess that’s how I learned to do it. I have two sons who are Bishops. I think they’re maybe not too happy about the wine, but they let me alone about it,” she says with another smile.
Alma chimes in, “Yes, it’s true. Muah has some health issues, but her doctor says to ‘leave her alone and let her eat what she wants and keep on doing whatever she’s been doing’, because it certainly seems to be working for her!”
Everlena and her granddaughter Tanya discussing the 100 years’ story.
It’s obvious that Everlena lifestyle is a good one for her. It’s doubtful that many people would guess she is just days away from being 100 years of age. She enjoys recounting her life, as one memory connects to another and one tale brings another one to mind. The words and gestures flow as if from a script. She is a natural-born performer.
All that aside, Evelena chose to live a quiet life filled with working, loving and serving her God, her family and her community as only she could. Some days that was not an easy life. She even admits there’s been times she’s gotten angry. “But I could hold my peace, and I realized that you can’t always treat everyone exactly the same. I learned who I could deal with and I learned to recognize the ones I just had to learn to roll with.”
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Muah’s personal “signature” has always been to say “I love you” to everyone she meets, whether she knows them or not, and to follow that up with a big hug.
“But now, these days, you have to be careful who you hug,” she says regretfully. “I still tell them I love them, but I make sure if they’re OK with the hugging!”
We’re pretty sure that Everlena will keep loving folks and hugging most of them for as long as she is able.
Ms. Everlena answers the questions all 100-year-olds must answer
What is the secret to your long, healthy, life?
“Well, I’ve loved and served the Lord. I’ve always tried to treat others as I hoped that they would treat me…and I’ve never worked a single day in a factory!”
What are your plans and wishes for the future?
“I plan to do everything I can do to live to be at least 114 years old, and I think I can.”
“I will continue to feel blessed just to be here every day, to be ‘in my right mind’ and able to deal with the shallow waters and the deep waters of life.”
“My wish is that everyone could learn to meet others with a smile or a hand shake.”
Happy Birthday, Mamie Everlena, (Muah) Smith!
Everlena’s family will host a 100th birthday celebration for her at 4 PM on Saturday, September 21, 2024. The community is cordially invited to attend. Several family members will be traveling from other states to honor Everlena on this special occasion. The party will be at the New Albany Boys and Girls Club at 507 Oak Street, in New Albany, Mississippi.
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