b. September 28, 1925m. June 9, 1948, Martha Janice Threadgill,
pm. Malesus Methodist Church, Jackson, Tenn.
Elton Watlington was the seventh son born to U. A. and Jennie S. Watlington. Born in the little box house beside the Mill Road (now Watlington Rd.), Elton was born on his sister Evelyn's birthdate and as an eight year old it is said that she took special care of this little one. Despite careful attention the dangers of farm life once put his life in danger. As a toddler he got too close to the plowed field where Ulrich was harrowing the field with a four horse team and as the toddler edged into their path--old Daisy, the brood mare, was on his side. As she noted his presence she toppled him over but stopped abruptly and caused the whole team to stop to keep from dragging him under. It is said that from that time on Daisy had a special place in Ulrich's estimation and he honored her into a long life with the family.
Starting to Sunday School at five and Malesus public school at six years of age, Elton attended the 3rd thru 5th grades of school at Adee public school, Parkburg Road, in south Madison County, where his older sister, Clara Mai, was the teacher of a one-teacher school. Then as busing became more common and the Adee School was consolidated with Pinson and Malesus Schools, he returned to classes in Malesus where he continued through high school, graduating in 1943. During the summer of 1942 and 1943 Elton was permitted to work with Mr. Kirby McKnight in the J. B. Young school wood-work shop. This was a fine opportunity to get acquainted with work patterns other than farm work, and some new machines for fine cabinet making. At graduation from high school there were already six brothers and one brother-in-law in the Armed Services. He decided to take a farm deferment for a year helping the family on the farm.
The year on the farm was great but the economic results were nil. In 1943 we harvested a great crop of cotton, corn and hay but in 1944 the crops were not at all encouraging, due principally to a late wet Spring and very dry Summer. So by December the deferment was dropped and plans were made to go into service. One reason for this was the G.I. Bill had been passed already to help service men attend college after their time of service. Cotton might not send one to college, but service time would help. But underneath it all was the recognition that our small farm was not an efficient economic unit as we had not mechanized our operation and new machinery at the time was either not available or very expensive. Ulrich A. and Jennie had invested their money in education for the family instead of machinery.
After two years of training and service in the Army of Occupation in Japan, I was again in the farm home but looking to college studies to prepare for Christian ministry, and engaged to marry Janice Threadgill, my high school sweetheart and long time acquaintance. She was the daughter of John Grady Threadgill and his second wife, Katie Lou Latham. Mr. Threadgill was of Nebo, Henderson Co., Tenn. and Katie Lou was from Mifflin and Big Springs on the southeast side of the county.
My first job on returning home was to work with my brother Mack in improving his unfinished home nearby and in building a house for sister Clara Mai and Lloyd King. Our father had given each three acre lots at the east end of the farm on which to build. Cash was short and building supplies also, but we layed a foundation and started the building of a nine hundred sq. ft. house using fine rough oak timbers fresh from the sawmills of Mississippi that were so fresh from the forest that sap would spatter us as we drove the spike nails to hold them in place.
College was a wonderful new experience and I rejoiced in being home and in having the opportunity to study. I lived at home with my father and Aunt Mai, brother Joe and sister Betty. Then Joe married and moved out, and there were just the two children at home after Lloyd and Clara Mai moved to their new home across the road. But family was all around, and Janice was living only five miles away in Jackson.
After a year of this renewed life on the farm Janice and I started making our plans for marriage. With no money, marriage plans were simple, and her pastor, Rev. Wayne A. Lamb united us in marriage on June 9th, 1948 at the Malesus Methodist Church where we had attended Youth Fellowship together in other years. Our festivities were few but we went for a few days honeymoon in a car borrowed from brother Sam and Mary which concluded at a Youth Rally in First Methodist, Memphis, Tenn., at Annual Conference.
Our first year of marriage we lived in Jackson, Tenn., 227 1/2 Campbell St. (upstairs). This was near Lambuth College where she worked and I attended classes. Later in the year I journeyed twice a month on week-ends to Wickliffe, Ky., where I preached at Pleasant Hill Methodist Church. Our first born arrived in April, 1949, so that made it a very eventful year for us. Janice graduated from Lambuth College six weeks after Martha Kate was born, although her class work had been finished in the previous Autumn.
In June 1949 we moved to the real ``country parsonage'' at Brazil, Tenn., Gibson Co. where we joined what has been called ``the endless line of Splendor'' --a splendid succession of faithful Methodist ministers riding circuits around the world. From there we went in June 1951 to the Elroy, Wisconsin, Circuit (Juneau Co.) then on to Perú to a Spanish language ministry in a strange land that became home for us for the next twenty-three years. While in Wisconsin, Janice taught school at Camp Douglas High School the first school year but afterward was able to dedicate her time to the family, home, and local church work. Joe Thomas was born to us there June 1, 1953 and Mary Emma on April 18, 1955. Ten years later John Andrew was born to us while serving in Lima, Perú. This gave us a Tennessean, two Wisconsinites and one Peruvian. They have each blessed our marriage and our lives and continue in good health, giving us eight grandchildren, five girls and three boys.
Our major tasks in Perú were in administrative tasks, teaching and preaching. Most of our teaching was related to the preparation of leaders for our Methodist Church in Perú. Janice served as hostess and bookkeeper for the Wolfe Memorial Home and our Mission headquarters there. Elton was named Mission Treasurer and correspondent after one year on the field and again in 1962 after a furlough year. Half of the furlough year of 1961 was spent in further language training in San Jose, Costa Rica. Therefore, Elton and Janice worked in the World Division Office in Perú for nine years and Elton was for twelve years director of the principal training effort for Christian Ministry of Peruvian Methodists. Other tasks attempted, often simultaneously with these tasks were language and cultural studies, high school teaching, pastoring local congregations and the work of District Superintendent to small districts. Appointed in 1963 to be Superintendent I served four years, one year in the Sierra District and three years in the large Lima and Coastal District. Later I was elected a Superintendent of the newly independent Methodist Church of Perú for a two year period on the North Coastal District while serving as pastor in Trujillo.
Much of our administrative work was related to fund raising and correspondence with sponsors of our Methodist work in Perú. We developed a publication in English to help with this, called PERU CALLING, which was published occasionally from 1957 until 1971. While serving in Lima we were influential in starting new churches at Chancay and Peralvilla, Pueblo Nuevo in Chincha, and in El Ermitaño and Ciudad de Dios (now San Juanito). The small group in El Ermitaño, developed under the leadership of Rev. Pablo Mamani, has become the largest Methodist Church in Metropolitan Lima.
The four years in Trujillo were more directly dedicated to pastoral and evangelistic work. Building on the foundation of other pastors, we were able to extend the witness there to three new areas where small congregations were established, two of them continuing today as churches, Jerusalem and Florencia de Mora. We also had an active ministry in the Regional Penitentiary there with good results for two years. After the earthquake of May 1970 much of our time was spent in social ministries and in rebuilding the Trujillo Church. The center of the earthquake was in our church District so we were involved in all of the Methodist rebuilding projects there.
After three years back in the Memphis Conference for family reasons Janice and I went in August 1975 with son John Andrew to Perú and were assigned again to the leadership training program with our home in Huancayo in the high (10,680 ft.) mountain valley of Jauja. Janice was elected treasurer of the Methodist Church in Perú and therefore traveled to and from Lima a lot in her administrative tasks.
In Huancayo we had no regular classes or study program but promoted education in varied ways including the care of the library, weekend institutes, the writing and publishing of a church officers manual and a newsletter for leaders in that district. We were also in charge of the Methodist Hostel which served many visitors related to the Mission and School work. Janice and I both worked in the local Methodist Church. She helped especially in the Women's work and directed the choir for the church. I taught a Youth Sunday School class and helped with daily devotions in a class at the Methodist High School. Part of my task was in visiting local churches for teaching opportunities.
After celebrating Easter together with the local church in April 1978, we packed up for returning to ministry in the Memphis Conference, U.S.A. Though offered other mission assignments we elected to return to our home state to continue our ministry. Rev. James H. Holmes and the Conference Cabinet invited me to pastor Springdale Church in Memphis. Thus we terminated a ministry of twenty and one half years of work with our World Division, Board of Global Ministries. Because of our interim leave from the Board in the years 1972-75, these years of service were over the period of twenty-three years, from June 1955 until July 31, 1978.
Though not as exciting as our foreign service, the ministry in Memphis was a real challenge and greatly needed. The brokenness of mankind is just as evident at home as abroad if one has eyes to see it. Struggling with the alienation of youth from the Church and the racial pressures and prejudices of the third largest concentration of Afro-Americans in the U.S.A., Memphis is a mission field also. In nine years of pastoral service there we served Springdale two years, four years at Frayser Heights U.M.C. and two years at Grimes U.M.C. Our final task was to work with the Greenland-Davant U.M.C. in Whitehaven as it planned its merger with a sister church, the Longstreet U.M.C. The task was not simple because of deep emotions as one leaves a sanctuary and all its memories in order to help keep a strong witness in another location. The good decisions made by the congregation and fine reception given by the Longstreet people made us feel that this, too, was an effective and timely ministry in a hard situation.
In retirement we chose to stay in Memphis near Janice's only brother, L. Grady Threadgill, where our youngest daughter Mary was teaching school and starting her family. We chose to make our church home where they worshiped, the St. Luke's U.M.C. near the University of Memphis, a cultural center of the city. Janice continued to work part-time in bookkeeping with her brother's pharmacy and I accepted a part-time ministry for four years with the St. Luke's congregation. It has proved to be a good choice for us.
In retirement a major interest has been in researching and writing family and church history. The gift of a Macintosh computer has helped tremendously with these tasks. Taking part in the Commission on Archives and History of the Annual Conference has been a joy and the establishment of a Memphis Conference United Methodist Historical Society has been a major accomplishment of the 1992-96 quadrennium. Janice has done a great amount of the secretarial work in making these projects possible and we continue to work on them. Of course our priority work is related to our family, with grandparenting and health maintenance tasks requiring much of our time.