WILLIAM LOUIS PRUITT
AND
LUCY CLOTEENE MORGAN

Bobbie Jo Pruitt
Billie Lou Pruitt
William Henry Pruitt
Betty Sue Pruitt

Bill married Lucy Cloteene Morgan (she was called Toad) around 1942 and they moved to Clinton, Tennessee about the time Oak Ridge (The Secret City, where Atomic Power was being developed) was first being built.   In 1944, Bill went to Kings Mill, Ohio and worked at Remington Arms Company, leaving Cloteene in Clinton.   In 1945 they bought land in the Medford community.   There they built a two room house to live in until thier home was finished on the same property.   Being that Bill was working away from home for a while, it took some time for the home to be built.   He built the family home entirely on his own.   Whatever came up that he didn't know how to do, he bought a book on the subject and taught himself the trade.   This is how he got the house wired.   They took 2 children to raise and then late in life, 2 children were born to them.

Tillman Grubbs
Billie Sue Pruitt
Teresa Marlene Pruitt
Terri Machele Pruitt

Bill worked for the Maintance Department for the Anderson County Board of Education.   He retired in 1968.   Bill was a wonderful carpenter and could build or fix anything.   If he couldn't find a part to fix something, he made the part.   Everyone in the neighborhood that needed something knew they could rely on Bill either having what they needed or he could make it for them.

He built the first cabins that were built at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee.   He went to Middle Tennessee and tore down the cabins and brought them back, reconstructing them back to the orginal look.   He made his own mud to go between each log.  I can remember going to work with him and mixing the mud.   He also built Lamb's Inn Restaurant and Motel in Lake City, Tennessee and the cabins at The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tennessee.   When the church we attended in Medford outgrew their building, he helped to tear down the old building and build the new Clinch River Baptist Church. There are many, many homes around this area that he built.  He traveled many different places building.  I can remember going to Corbin, Kentucky with him when he built a motel there.

He loved children and was always building something for us to play on.   He hand dug and concreted a swimming pool in our yard. He built a merry-go-round out of a car axle (yes, out of a car axle!) and water pipes with swings attached running this by a gasoline motor. Now you can understand one of the reasons that you could always find the neighborhood children in our yard!

He died on December 31, 1972 at the age of 70 of a heart attack. His body was brought to the home which he had built about 25 years earlier for viewing.   Funeral services were held at the Clinch River Baptist Church with Rev. George Delozier officiating.   Cox Funeral Home in Lake City, Tennessee was in charge of arrangements. He was laid to rest in Leach Cemetery in Lake City, Tennessee in Anderson County on January 3rd, a cold snowy day.   The day that Bill was buried would have been Bill & Cloteene's 30th Aniversary.

COST

Home: $4,000.00
Car: $500.00
Milk: $.28
Gas: $.05
Postage Stamp: $.02
Average Income: $681.00
President: Theodore Roosevelt

Lucy Cloteene Morgan

Cloteene was born in Gray's Knob, Harlan County, Kentucky on November 24, 1918 to John S. Morgan and Susan Ann Short.   The family lived in Gray's Knob, which is about 4 miles east of Harlan, Kentucky most of Cloteene's life until she married Bill.   When Bill's first wife died, one of his children was still at home.   Cloteene and Bill brought her to Tennessee with them.   They lived in Clinton, Tennessee for several months.   Then they bought land in the Medford Community and built a two room home to live in until the home was built.   Bill built the home on the land located along 25W in the Medford Community.   Bill and Cloteene was always told that they would have no children of their own.   So you can imagine the surprise when Cloteene became pregnant at the age of 39.   Two years later, a second daughter was born.

Cloteene had TB when she was around twenty.   She was 39 years old when she had her first child.   I think she was sick from that day forward.   Later in life, she was told she had Emphazema.   Almost six years to the day that Bill died, Cloteene passed away at the Oak Ridge Hospital in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (Anderson County).   She was 60 years old.   Her body was also brought back to the family home for viewing.   Funeral services were held at Cox Funeral Home in Lake City, Tennessee with Preacher Clines officiating.   She was laid to rest beside Bill in the Leach Cemetery at Lake City, Tennessee.

Come meet Lucy Cloteene Morgan's Parents:John Singleton Morgan and Susan Ann Short.

November 24 1918 Time Capsule

COST

Home: $4,821.00
Car: $500.00
Milk: $.55
Gas: $.08
Postage Stamp: $.03
Average Income: $1,144.00
President: Woodrow Wilson

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