``There were eleven of us children,'' we would say. ``Three girls and eight boys.'' None of us had experienced the first born twin girls so they didn't enter into our common accounting. But we could count up and tell you the names of the boys--all of them, and could figure out the ages from our own age since all eleven of us were born two years apart on the odd years of the common calendar--1909 through 1929.
The girls were different. No doubt about who they were: there was Big Sister, Little Sister and Betty Juanita, the baby. Clara Mai was Big Sister, and fulfilled her role as leader of the clan as long as she lived. She was the oldest, the one in charge, the school teacher, the one who earned some money which she shared with the rest of us. After three sons another girl came--Little Sister. And as other sons were added, they, too, called her ``Little Sister.'' Five more sons were added to the two daughters before another girl came to join us. Since we already had a ``little sister,'' Betty Juanita had to be called by name.
After one year in college there was a teaching job at elementary school level, and began a life of teaching and ``family raising'' for her. Anything she had ``Big Sister'' shared with the family of siblings. The older son, Mack, was already working to help provide for the family and now she could help also. She not only shared her income but her knowledge and helped the younger ones believe they could learn also. After twelve years of helping to raise her siblings, she married C. Lloyd King in 1941 and made some plans for a family of her own. World War II interrupted everybody's plans and she again lived at home and shared her life and livelihood with us.
Evelyn Sophronia 
found lots of jobs for girls in our home. There were
babies to change, feed and entertain.
She became a little nurse to the smaller children. One of the phrases
we learned early and heard often was , ``take me, Little Sister, take
me.'' Freely translated it means ``pick me up and take care of me.''
She so often had a child in her arms that later back pains were
thought to have come from ``child care'' strains.
As Evelyn completed high school at Malesus the question arose about further studies and/or work outside the house and farm. Mrs. Florence Pacaud Patton, who was a life-long friend of Jennie Hammond, encouraged Evelyn to take a business course in Jackson, Tenn. for secretarial work, since Malesus High School had no business courses at that time. It was 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression so this could not be arranged for a time. As wartime opened opportunities, Evelyn followed this guidance and was able to be prepared for a career with Western Union Telegraph Co. This made it necessary for her to live near her work and to move to nearby towns where an operator was needed. Years later she worked beside her sister-in-law, Rachel Weir Watlington and met her future spouse as she worked beside his sister in the Jackson, Tenn. Western Union office.
She, too, shared generously with her family as she began to ``learn and earn.'' Some of the younger brothers depended on her for some help in getting through the high school studies. She also became an excellent cook as she shared the kitchen duties--in this she shared a talent of all the Watlington sisters. She was an avid reader of everything in the house, too.
Betty Juanita arrived in 1929, just before everyone discovered the economic reality of the Hoover years. By this time the older boys and girls were making life a bit easier for the family. And she was ``the baby'' not just for two years but ``forever.'' Before she was of school age Betty suffered pains in the side that might have been appendicitis but proved to need ``exploratory surgery'' that was drastic and frightening at that time. It was indeed ``life threatening'' and the cost of surgery and hospitalization were ``life threatening'' to the family also. A large cyst was removed from her abdomen and with good care she fully recovered.
Later Betty developed a type of eczema on her hands which really caused her a lot of pain until medical treatment brought it under control, when she was about 8 or 10 years old. About this time she had started piano lessons--where did that piano come from? Some type of skin eczema may run in the family as Grandpa Watlington needed help with this and Paul and Elton as well as Betty. Betty's was more violent and resembled more the problems of Grandpa Watlington.
Betty worked at her lessons in school and on the piano and got some preferential treatment in the family that a baby daughter might deserve among so many sons. As the time for college came she was expected to go to college and the resources of the family were united to make this possible. Because of military service, the U.S. Government helped make college possible for Elton and Joe C., and Betty joined them at Lambuth College in the fall of 1947 after completing studies at Malesus High School. She continued there and graduated with an elementary teacher's certification in 1951 and received her Masters Degree from Memphis State in 1976 in Special Education. In the meantime she had met and married Hubert Howard Williams, a veteran who studied at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. They made their home at Somerville, Brownsville and rural Jackson.
Clara Mai, Evelyn Sophronia and Betty Juanita were ``three Watlington Sisters'' and help enrich the lives of the ``Watlington Boys'' and many others in lives of self-giving service and witness.