As many of you know, my Nanny passed away on Derrick's birthday, Saturday, April 25. For those of you who know me, you know how much I loved my Nanny. She was such a special part of my life as well as many others' lives. Here is the speech I am giving at her funeral service. I wanted to focus on her family and the fun memories we have together and to show what an incredible person she was. She will be sorely missed.
“Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.” ~Antoine Rivarol
Good afternoon. I am Ashley McKnatt Pennington, one of Maxine’s grandchildren and one of the hundreds of people who loved her. Thank you all for coming to celebrate her life with us. My family is sincerely thankful for the impact and part you played in her life. Today is not an easy day - we are saying goodbye to our beloved grandmother, mother, and friend. I want to talk to you about her life, her accomplishments, and her family.
Let’s go back to the 1930’s where Maxine grew up in the country in Galloway, TN to hardworking parents Ben & Mary McCulley. Chores had a whole different meaning back then – there were meals to be cooked from scratch, vegetables to be planted, watered, and harvested, and animals and family members to tend to. Nanny must have gotten her giving nature from her mother, who I have heard was always trying to shove money in her grandkids hands and pockets.
As she got older, she began dating her future husband, Leslie McKnatt. At one point they both worked at an ammunition factory…a pretty wild job for a lady in the 1940’s! They were married in 1943 and lived in Galloway for a few years. A short time later, they began a family, and proceeded to have 5 children – Leslie, Martha, Pat, Tommy, and David.
In 1965, Nanny & Pawpaw moved into the house we are all so familiar with on Hillmont. Our family still gathers there for every holiday celebration. The men typically watch sports in the living room, purses are deposited in the den, the women stay in the kitchen and talk, the kids know the toys and coloring books are in the front bedroom, and in the back is Nanny’s room which is off limits. But, back when the family moved there, Pat had the small bedroom, and 2 boys shared a room. These days it’s hard to imagine 5 people in the house and only 1 shower.
With 5 kids, and especially 3 boys, there is bound to be trouble. One of my favorite stories involves my dad bringing home a lizard in a brown paper lunch sack and leaving it on the carport while he went out to play. When he came back home, the bag and lizard were gone, but he didn’t think anything of it. Unbeknownst to Nanny, the lizard escaped in the house and had taken up residence in her hair – a beehive style at the time. Her and Pawpaw were at the mall the next day when she realized something wasn’t right – her head was itching uncontrollably and she could tell something was in there. A little digging, and lo and behold, the lizard was found.
When traveling one day, Tommy tried to roll down the window and instead opened the car door and fell out. He was only 3 or 4 at the time but when Nanny and Pawpaw went back, there he was unscratched on the side of the road. He was only worried about having lost one shoe – not having fallen out of the car.
Another story that I love is about her son, Leslie. He, being a typical teenager, had stolen his dad’s car from the sheriff’s department and when he was ready to return it realized that another car had taken the parking space. Another time, he had unhooked the odometer so his dad wouldn’t know he had taken it but couldn’t get it hooked back up properly. Knowing he was going to be in for some major trouble, he decided to stop by the Army enrollment office on the way home to take the sting out.
Don’t let the girls fool you – they weren’t angels either. Pat was a tomboy and always playing outside as long as she could before having to come in and help with chores and dinner. One day, when Martha and Pat were really young, they were playing outside and jumping off the porch. Pat told Martha that if she didn’t jump off the porch, she would push her, so when Martha didn’t jump, she was pushed by Pat and ended up with a broken collarbone.
We also heard stories about Martha locking everyone out of the house while she cleaned up and not letting them back in until right before Nanny was going to be home, so it would stay clean…she knew how to keep them all in line!
Another time, when Pawpaw was taking Nanny to work, all the kids thought it would be fun to jump on the bed. They were jumping and having a great time, until they saw their Daddy in the doorway, having returned without them hearing him. Lucky for Pat, she wasn’t jumping at the time, so when Pawpaw lined up the kids to get a spanking, she innocently said, you can whip me if you want, but I wasn’t doing anything wrong. As luck would have it, she was spared from that spanking!
As time passed, Nanny’s kids began to start families of their own. We all have lots of good stories involving Nanny’s house, but some of the family favorites are Shel taking her pacifier on a necklace to kindergarten, Mandy and Melanie getting caught drinking wine, Tom & Len setting fire to the neighbor’s yard and using spaghetti pots to try to put it out instead of using the water hose, me doing the yang-yang dance on the kitchen table, Bubba, Jennifer, and Elaine coming back from Arkansas with the most extreme Southern accents you’ve ever heard, Junior & Les wrestling all over the house, Valerie playing in a kitchen drawer, Lindsey always asking for cheese, and Elaine being so quiet she never got caught doing anything bad!
Nanny worked at Schering Plough for 38.5 years and retired near her 70th birthday. It took her kids poking and prodding her to finally retire and start enjoying her free time, but the idle days didn’t last long. Rather than sitting around the house and relaxing, she poured herself into service work at the Seniors Center, handing out commodities to those less fortunate and at her church, Jackson Avenue United Methodist, where she contributed in many ways. She often made coffee & cookies for between service snacks, made many cakes for Wednesday night dinners, and hosted Circle meetings at her house. She also volunteered her time to work at Kingsbury High School with special needs classes doing crafts, was involved in the United Way, and worked the Germantown Horse Show.
All of her family loved the predictability of holidays at Nanny’s – sauerkraut and weenies and black eyed peas on New Years Day, meatballs on Easter, ham & turkey on Thanksgiving, and the best homemade fudge and peanut butter balls at Christmas. Her boys also got special birthday desserts – Lemon Ice Box Pie for Tommy and Peanut Butter Cake for David. She always celebrated holidays by cooking all day and making sure every kid (even the picky ones) had something to eat.
We will always remember her love of gospel music, George Jones, Johnny Cash, and home made ice cream. She also loved angels, which is very apparent in almost every room of her house, and in her later years, she loved shopping, Wheel of Fortune, and her recliner.
She delighted in the accomplishments of her grandchildren and births of her 24 great-grandchildren. She enjoyed giving much more than receiving. She loved to talk to her kids and grandkids on the phone, to plan out exactly who would bring what to each function, and to be surrounded by her family.
We are saddened by the loss of such an integral part of each of our lives. Her phone number was one of the first each grandchild learned, and her cooking was unmatched to each of her kids. We’ll miss her smile, her spunk, and her sweet spirit. We’ll miss showering her with gifts for Mother’s Day, her birthday, and Christmas. She loved us all intensely and has taken a piece of each of our hearts with her to Heaven. Nanny, we couldn’t love you more than we do. Tell Pawpaw, Big Bubba, and Junior hello from all of us.
Let’s go back to the 1930’s where Maxine grew up in the country in Galloway, TN to hardworking parents Ben & Mary McCulley. Chores had a whole different meaning back then – there were meals to be cooked from scratch, vegetables to be planted, watered, and harvested, and animals and family members to tend to. Nanny must have gotten her giving nature from her mother, who I have heard was always trying to shove money in her grandkids hands and pockets.
As she got older, she began dating her future husband, Leslie McKnatt. At one point they both worked at an ammunition factory…a pretty wild job for a lady in the 1940’s! They were married in 1943 and lived in Galloway for a few years. A short time later, they began a family, and proceeded to have 5 children – Leslie, Martha, Pat, Tommy, and David.
In 1965, Nanny & Pawpaw moved into the house we are all so familiar with on Hillmont. Our family still gathers there for every holiday celebration. The men typically watch sports in the living room, purses are deposited in the den, the women stay in the kitchen and talk, the kids know the toys and coloring books are in the front bedroom, and in the back is Nanny’s room which is off limits. But, back when the family moved there, Pat had the small bedroom, and 2 boys shared a room. These days it’s hard to imagine 5 people in the house and only 1 shower.
With 5 kids, and especially 3 boys, there is bound to be trouble. One of my favorite stories involves my dad bringing home a lizard in a brown paper lunch sack and leaving it on the carport while he went out to play. When he came back home, the bag and lizard were gone, but he didn’t think anything of it. Unbeknownst to Nanny, the lizard escaped in the house and had taken up residence in her hair – a beehive style at the time. Her and Pawpaw were at the mall the next day when she realized something wasn’t right – her head was itching uncontrollably and she could tell something was in there. A little digging, and lo and behold, the lizard was found.
When traveling one day, Tommy tried to roll down the window and instead opened the car door and fell out. He was only 3 or 4 at the time but when Nanny and Pawpaw went back, there he was unscratched on the side of the road. He was only worried about having lost one shoe – not having fallen out of the car.
Another story that I love is about her son, Leslie. He, being a typical teenager, had stolen his dad’s car from the sheriff’s department and when he was ready to return it realized that another car had taken the parking space. Another time, he had unhooked the odometer so his dad wouldn’t know he had taken it but couldn’t get it hooked back up properly. Knowing he was going to be in for some major trouble, he decided to stop by the Army enrollment office on the way home to take the sting out.
Don’t let the girls fool you – they weren’t angels either. Pat was a tomboy and always playing outside as long as she could before having to come in and help with chores and dinner. One day, when Martha and Pat were really young, they were playing outside and jumping off the porch. Pat told Martha that if she didn’t jump off the porch, she would push her, so when Martha didn’t jump, she was pushed by Pat and ended up with a broken collarbone.
We also heard stories about Martha locking everyone out of the house while she cleaned up and not letting them back in until right before Nanny was going to be home, so it would stay clean…she knew how to keep them all in line!
Another time, when Pawpaw was taking Nanny to work, all the kids thought it would be fun to jump on the bed. They were jumping and having a great time, until they saw their Daddy in the doorway, having returned without them hearing him. Lucky for Pat, she wasn’t jumping at the time, so when Pawpaw lined up the kids to get a spanking, she innocently said, you can whip me if you want, but I wasn’t doing anything wrong. As luck would have it, she was spared from that spanking!
As time passed, Nanny’s kids began to start families of their own. We all have lots of good stories involving Nanny’s house, but some of the family favorites are Shel taking her pacifier on a necklace to kindergarten, Mandy and Melanie getting caught drinking wine, Tom & Len setting fire to the neighbor’s yard and using spaghetti pots to try to put it out instead of using the water hose, me doing the yang-yang dance on the kitchen table, Bubba, Jennifer, and Elaine coming back from Arkansas with the most extreme Southern accents you’ve ever heard, Junior & Les wrestling all over the house, Valerie playing in a kitchen drawer, Lindsey always asking for cheese, and Elaine being so quiet she never got caught doing anything bad!
Nanny worked at Schering Plough for 38.5 years and retired near her 70th birthday. It took her kids poking and prodding her to finally retire and start enjoying her free time, but the idle days didn’t last long. Rather than sitting around the house and relaxing, she poured herself into service work at the Seniors Center, handing out commodities to those less fortunate and at her church, Jackson Avenue United Methodist, where she contributed in many ways. She often made coffee & cookies for between service snacks, made many cakes for Wednesday night dinners, and hosted Circle meetings at her house. She also volunteered her time to work at Kingsbury High School with special needs classes doing crafts, was involved in the United Way, and worked the Germantown Horse Show.
All of her family loved the predictability of holidays at Nanny’s – sauerkraut and weenies and black eyed peas on New Years Day, meatballs on Easter, ham & turkey on Thanksgiving, and the best homemade fudge and peanut butter balls at Christmas. Her boys also got special birthday desserts – Lemon Ice Box Pie for Tommy and Peanut Butter Cake for David. She always celebrated holidays by cooking all day and making sure every kid (even the picky ones) had something to eat.
We will always remember her love of gospel music, George Jones, Johnny Cash, and home made ice cream. She also loved angels, which is very apparent in almost every room of her house, and in her later years, she loved shopping, Wheel of Fortune, and her recliner.
She delighted in the accomplishments of her grandchildren and births of her 24 great-grandchildren. She enjoyed giving much more than receiving. She loved to talk to her kids and grandkids on the phone, to plan out exactly who would bring what to each function, and to be surrounded by her family.
We are saddened by the loss of such an integral part of each of our lives. Her phone number was one of the first each grandchild learned, and her cooking was unmatched to each of her kids. We’ll miss her smile, her spunk, and her sweet spirit. We’ll miss showering her with gifts for Mother’s Day, her birthday, and Christmas. She loved us all intensely and has taken a piece of each of our hearts with her to Heaven. Nanny, we couldn’t love you more than we do. Tell Pawpaw, Big Bubba, and Junior hello from all of us.
