MY DAUGHTER-TAMI MICHELLE MARLAR WHITE-11-8-1968

Graduation Southaven High School    1986

Michelle's first birthday 11-8-1969

11-11-1969

Michelle and James     Smokey Mountains October, 2010

On a cold, rainy Friday morning in Memphis, Tennessee at Baptist Hospital my daughter Michelle was born. She was due on November 16 but decided to make her appearance with a bang.  I had a short  labor and she was born only four hours after I arrived at the hospital.  In those days there were no ultrasounds so you had no idea if you were having a boy or girl.  That was part of the excitement. We already had a daughter, Jan who was five and a half.  I thought Jim wanted a boy but secretly I really wanted another girl.  When she was born I thought he would be disappointed but he wasn't.  She was  always (and still is) his baby.
The next day around 11 AM I noticed that the TV was shaking on the wall and the building was shaking a little.  I thought it was just my imagination but to my surprise when Jim came in he told me Memphis had experienced an earthquake. Then on Monday when we went home it snowed all day.  So I guess she just wanted to make her presence known. :-)
We have been so blessed to have her in our lives. She is now married to a wonderful man and has two children. She works hard and is the one that we depend on to find out about our medical problems and be there to help us solve them.
Thank you Michelle for all that you have done for us.  We love you very much!

JIMMY WAYNE MARLAR AND BETTY JANE FELL 11-4-1961

Forty nine years ago today I married my best friend.  It was a rainy, Saturday in Iuka, MS. We had really just thought that we would go to a preacher's house and get married. But my sister in law had other ideas. My brother was attending school to be a preacher but could not marry us. He was attending the First Pentecostal Church in Iuka and his wife insisted that we have a small ceremony there with just a few friends and family members. We had no money, I actually borrowed a hundred dollars from the Credit Union were I worked. I was working at the shoe factory and Jim was working at the local newspaper, The Vidette. I made 75 cents an hour and Jim got a raise to 75 cents when we married. We had a small reception at the preacher's home and then left for a "short" honeymoon in Sheffield. Al.
We both had to be at work on Monday. When I went to work, the first thing they did was lay me off for lack of work. A great way to start a new marriage. No place to live, we stayed with his mother for 3 weeks, only one job, I was off for three weeks, but who cared. Not us we had each other and that was all we needed.
We have been through a lot in that 49 years. Both good and bad. Jim has been  in bad health for the past 25 years and has outlived almost everyone in his family except for one cousin. He has had a massive heart attack, two open heart surgeries, numerous stents and angiopasties, along with MRSA in a broken ankle, and is now fighting a return of melanoma cancer,  But the good has outweighed the bad. We have two daughters, two son in laws, 2 grandsons, 2 granddaughters, one grand son in law and 2 great grandsons. They all live close by and it makes for a happy, noisy life!
Even after all these years, he is still my best friend,

I love you Jimmy Wayne Marlar!!!!