Photos by Duay O'Neil
Birthday honoree Tilda Webb with two of her great-great-grandchildren: Ellie Owens, 12, and Daniel Shelton, 4.

WILTON SPRINGS-Dozens of family members and friends paid tribute to Tilda Webb on Sunday at a party in her honor at Webb Baptist Church. The occasion marked the well-known Cosby resident's 100th birthday.
Born March 19, 1909, in a log house in Trail Hollow, an Upper Cosby community, she is the only surviving child of the late William Joel Jenkins and his wife, the former Ida Gilliland.
Christened Matilda at birth in honor of her ancestor, Matilda (Sisk) Jenkins, she was the fifth of nine Jenkins children, the others being Lilla Mae (Jenkins) Williamson, Thomas Oscar Jenkins, Bartlett "Bart" Jenkins, Carrie (Jenkins) [Sutton] Brown, Jesse Jenkins, Louvada (Jenkins) [Ball] [Smith] Warden, James "Jimmy" Jenkins, and Addie (Jenkins) Costner. Her full name quickly became shortened to "Tilda."
Early in her life, the family moved to Bluffton, a community alongside the Pigeon River, where her father operated a water-powered mill. "He ground corn and also sawed lumber," she recalls.
It was at Bluffton's one-room school that she began her education. Among her teachers was the late Miss Bernice Brooks, who also lived to be 100.
She enjoyed the community spelldowns and recalls the time the late Gay Valentine told her how to spell "rendezvous." Many years later she named her youngest son after Valentine.
Her dad worked with Valentine's father, Rodolph Valentine, and also with Ben Caton in the thriving lumber industry which turned nearby Hartford into a boomtown.
In 1920, shortly after her mother died, Tilda and Wilma Evans walked from Bluffton to Hartford to attend revival services at Pigeon Valley Baptist Church. "We made professions of faith," she remembers, "and were baptized in the Pigeon River. My mother's half-sister, Aunt Jane Johnson, was there and she tied my dress for me before I entered the water. Rev. Pat Davis was the preacher"
Her mother's death occurred when Tilda was 11, ended her school days and thrust her into an early adulthood. "My mother called us together shortly before she died," says Tilda, "and told us how she wanted us to live and act. And I've always tried to do that."
Helping the young girl-mother was neighbor Addie Evans. "She was married to Jesse Evans," says Tilda, "and would get books in town which she would let me borrow and read."
For many years Tilda believed that tuberculosis, known by many of the older generation as "consumption," caused her mother's death, but more recently she has wondered if the family's close proximity to the polluted Pigeon River didn't have something to do with the family's loss.
"There were several deaths in our community close together," says Tilda. "My mother, the Brown girls, a Henderson girl, and a Dorsey girl. That many right in that little community at about the same time seems odd."
Staying at home to help care for the youngest siblings, Tilda didn't return to the classroom until she was 65. After accompanying first a granddaughter and then a cousin to Adult Education classes, she accepted the teacher's invitation to join the class herself. "She wanted me to enter college," says Tilda, "but I didn't do that."
From her childhood, she has always had a deep interest in her community's families and their histories. "We played in the Evans Cemetery," she laughs, "and in a nearby older graveyard. My father always said it was where some of the 'old Jenkinses were buried."
Her memory of her dad's statement was proven true recently when one of her closest friends, Beth Freeman, and others worked to clean off the burying ground and found a piece of a tombstone with the name "Jenkins" on it.
As a young adult, Tilda moved to Newport to work in the old knitting mill which operated in a building just north of Jabo's Pharmacy, on property now part of ConAgra's plant.
"Mattie McGaha and I boarded together at Mrs. McMahan's (Iliff's grandmother)," she says. "Mattie, who later married Gray Sparks, worked in a store, and I worked at the mill."
Later Tilda's brother Bart came home from South Carolina for a visit and convinced her to return to the Palmetto State with him to work in the knitting mills there.
"I was dating Irvin Williams, and he took me to Cosby to see my sister Carrie, before we left," a visit that would change the course of the pretty brunette's life forever.
"Carrie was married to Bart Sutton," laughs Tilda, "and his cousin was there."
Bart's cousin was Dewey, better known as "Zack," Webb, a son of Luther and Margaret. "He had a car," she says, "and started taking me places."
Eventually Tilda's other boyfriends became history as the couple's courtship intensified. "He finally cried and begged me to marry him," says Tilda, which she did on June 8, 1928. Uncle Joe Costner married us. Zack's brother Alvin and my brother Jesse were witnesses."
The couple celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in 2003 with a huge party. Zack died a few years ago.
The newlyweds moved into a "big, old house" in Do Well Hollow, an area now encompassed by Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Zack's granddaddy, Jack Sutton, owned the house.
Later the Webbs moved to another home where they remained until 1932 when they were displaced by the coming national park.
By this time Zack and Tilda's family had increased by three with babies Reva Dean, Ida Ruth, and Larry having joined the group.
"I don't remember how much the government paid us," she says, "but I do remember Zack saying it wasn't enough."
The year was 1932. As America sank deeper and deeper into economic woes brought on by the Great Depression, Zack brought the couple's money to Newport and deposited it in the bank. Later it failed and the couple found themselves without land and money both.
"We had a good place in Do Well Hollow," she said. "Zack's grandpa had left it to him and his mother. It was a good producing farm and had a log house with a kitchen."
Zack borrowed money from Elmer Denton and he and Tilda bought a farm in Guntertown, an area just a short distance from the Park. It was here that their youngest child, son Gay, was born.
"Later Zack and Ben Barnes went together and bought part of the Lillard place here in Wilton Springs," Tilda added. "After that Ben swapped his part of this place for our property in Guntertown."
Tilda now heads a five-generation family, completed by eleven grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.
Sunday's party found nearly every member of the honoree's family in attendance, along with two surviving sisters-in-law, Geneva (Webb) Ball and Marjorie (Templin) Webb.
Two other special guests were Tilda's nephew Wintford Sutton, and his son, Bob Sutton, who traveled from their respective homes in Hatboro, PA and Louisville, KY for the event.
Her fondness for birthday cards was recognized by the guests, who filled a large, crystal bowl with beautiful greetings.
One hundred American Beauty roses, a gift from Webb Baptist Church, highlighted a table filled with family photos, including the first picture taken of Tilda, when she was 13 years old.
Members of the bluegrass band Eastern Mountain Time, composed of Keith and Dori McKinney, David and Amy Pitts, and Maureen Smith, provided music.
Looking not a day over 65, the guest of honor was pretty as a picture in a spring green pantsuit complemented by a pearl necklace which had belonged to her granddaughter, the late Penny (Sutton) Bible.
As she greeted her well-wishers by name, she smiled the afternoon away for the hundreds of photos taken to record the special occasion.
With excellent eyesight, hearing, and memory, she enjoys talking family history with friends and family and always looks forward to her Saturday morning trips to Sheila Sapp's beauty shop for her weekly "do."
"I don't know why I've been blessed to live this long," says Tilda. "No one in my family ever reached this level. But I'm grateful."