Deloris Mae Dorris, who married Joseph Conrad Watlington, May 9, 1947, was the only daughter of Nathaniel Bradford Dorris and Blanche L. Spurlin of Hardeman Co., Tenn. The Dorris family had arrived in Hardeman County in 1845 from Robertson Co., Tenn., and settled in the Forest Hill community of east Hardeman Co. Bradford and Blanche returned to Toone, Tenn., for their retirement years.
Blanche L. Spurlin grew up in Bemis, Tenn., where she worked as a
young girl in the Bemis Cotton Mill prior to their marriage. Her
parents were John Neely Spurlin and Mary Ann Mayfield, who also
were from Hardeman Co. Her mother died when Blanche was only four
years old, ca. 1908, and her father remarried. She had two
half-brothers, J. M. and Wilford Spurlin and two half-sisters, Mrs. Jewell S.
Johnson of Hornsby, Tenn., and Mrs. Ruby Spurlin Talley of Bolivar, Tenn.
Bradford and Blanche lived in Detroit, Michigan several years
where he was employed in the automotive industry. Later they both
worked in a state hospital in Tiffin, Ohio. As they returned to
Tennessee they operated a service station on U.S. Highway 45
near Bemis. They also have a son Kenneth who married Ann Hampton
and worked many years at the Dupont Chemical Plant in Memphis.
Kenneth and Ann have one son and one daughter
.