Status updates from the past or how Grandmother beat Zuckerberg to the punch

I've just realized that my grandmother was way, way ahead of her time. Were she living today she'd be one of Facebook's biggest fans. Mark me with a little gobsmacked emoticon. She always seemed pretty Victorian to me. But no...

I was looking for articles about my grandfather for a short biographical sketch. While checking east Tennessee newspapers for baseball stories or clothing ads (found both) I found a clipping about my mother in the Kingsport News announcing her hiring as a science teacher at Rogersville High School. I knew she'd taught there briefly, always maintaining that even that brief stint had been punishment enough for the students.

Ever thorough, I decided to do a quick check to see if there were any other mentions of her. I should have known. She was, after all, from the same family that announced a 12 year old's birthday party in the local paper. Let it be clear that Mother was not sending out monthly press releases of her activities. That honor belonged to her mother, Iva Williams Sawyer.

I found this ...

And then the earth shaking news she spent Christmas at home...

Her students likely went into mourning...

I'm certain she was thrilled to have her bout with mono published...

Then there was this...

She was a jetsetter (prop setter more likely)..

And finally, this...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mother did not return to Rogersville in the fall and vanished from the pages of the Kingsport Times & Times News. I suspect, however, were I to review the Morristown papers she was featured there on a regular basis until she escaped to Washington, DC. Anonymity must have been bliss.

I ought, I'm sure, to be proud that Iva was so forward thinking. Privacy, shmivacy - the social network reigned supreme. Move over Zuckerberg. Iva was there first.



Sources:

Ancestry.com. The Kingsport Times (Kingsport, Tennessee) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.

Original data: The Kingsport Times. Kingsport, TN, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.

Ancestry.com. Kingsport Times News (Kingsport, Tennessee) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

Original data: Kingsport Times News. Kingsport, Tennessee, United States Of America. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.