Glenna C. Huddleston

A true mountain girl, Glenna was born in Jellico, Tennessee, as the second oldest of twelve children, and one of the nine who survived into adulthood. Jellico is situated on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, nestled in the Cumberland Mountains. She went to school until sixth or seventh grade when her mother needed her to stay home and help with the younger children. Glenna loved to help her mother and would stand on a chair to cook and do the dishes. No matter what her mother did, she couldn't keep Glenna out of the kitchen!

Glenna loves to sing and had a remarkable voice from an early age. As a late teen, she was singing in church when a young man named Sherman happened to be standing outside. Enthralled by the sound of her voice, he exclaimed to a friend standing nearby, "I'm going to marry her!" Glenna and Sherman were married in 1940, and welcomed two sons, Don and Lonnie.

Don and Lonnie were born in a log cabin in Fonde, Kentucky, about twenty minutes from Glenna's own birthplace. Glenna would walk to a mountain-fed spring to draw water, and the family used coal oil lamps to light their home. The boys would gather coal and small scraps of wood to fuel the stove. Sherman was first a logger, using a mule to carry timber out of the woods to sell at the sawmills, and later a coal miner. Eventually the family moved down the mountain into the town itself, which they called "camp."

One day while out hunting, Sherman found a young piglet and brought it home in his coat pocket. The family cared for the pig, just like a pet, until along came the dreadful day when it was time to butcher the pig for its meat. The family also kept chickens and ducks and would keep the younglings in a crate behind the stove for warmth. In 1959, the family moved to Detroit to find work. Glenna's son, Don, remembers the drive took fourteen hours and he kept thinking how it couldn't possibly be much further. The family was also surprised that first winter when the snow came and stayed the entire season. They had seen snow in Kentucky, but it always melted the next day. In Detroit, Sherman found work with a carpet cleaning company, and Glenna took the first official job of her life at a factory sewing awnings for boats and semi-trucks. She really enjoyed working, and was never one to sit still, but eventually quit when Sherman became ill and needed care.

After Sherman passed, Glenna enjoyed being the neighborhood seamstress. Neighbors and friends would come from miles around to have her work on their clothes and linens. Until recently, she continued to live in her own home and her reputation as a great cook continued, as she would make dinner every Wednesday night and breakfast every Sunday morning. Her family came over as often as they could, and she always had things ready to go when they arrived, never accepting help from anyone. Glenna is an independent and social lady!