By Donna Traywick
Mt. Olivet News
I miss you guys when I take a little break. The week doesn’t seem right when I don’t
hear from you. I hope your Mother’s Day was a beautiful event. Mine was!
LaDonna and Greg are usually busy at Black Jack and Alex is very busy at Grey’s
Creek in Hernando. The plan was for me to call her when I got home from Mt. Olivet,
and we were to have lunch at her house. I was so shocked when they walked in at Mt.
Olivet.
We had delicious food as well as fantastic reminiscing of course, when Alex is down, so
is Delta Midnight (River) and Mississippi (Willow) Girl are always here also. LaDonna’s
Christmas gift from Alex Magnolia (Maggie Mae) always enjoys having friends.
Have you heard of a humming bird feeder with a camera? It is so unique. When a
humming bird comes to the feeder it takes a very close up picture. Alex gave LaDonna
one for Mother’s Day.
I am so proud of Riley Kate Durham who was a winner in a recent archery competition.
Riley Kate is the daughter of Diamond and Hunter Durham. She is granddaughter of
Michael and Amber Browning and great great granddaughter of Patsy and Larry
Browning all of Mt. Olivet.
Those three little sisters, Riley Kate, Elaina and Salem are so busy in all kinds of
activities from archery lessons to showing cows to helping, really helping, Poppy
(granddaddy Micheal) with farm chores.
Mt. Olivet recently had the sad, but impressive, military funeral of Dwight Arbuckle.
Dwight grew up and went to school in Oxford. His father-in law, Tony Martin, sister-in-
law Jennifer Allen and brother-in-law Jeff Allen all go to Mt. Olivet Church. He came and
sang specials and led the choir on several occasions. That rich baritone voice was
impressive. He loved Mt. Olivet the few times that he sang here and requested that his
funeral be held at Mt. Olivet.
I lost my dear and special friend, Brucie Howell Newcomb recently. We grew up our
whole life not over ten miles from each other. She was the daughter of Evie Jim and

Cliff Howell. She had an older sister Marcella (Marcie) who was the friend of my sister
Ruby. They graduated from Batesville High School (before it became South Panola).
The first wedding I ever played for was for Brucie and Hurston Newcomb. It was on
September 4, 1955. That date seemed to be burned on my brain. I can’t even
remember what I played except “Here comes the Bride”.
It was a sweet little country wedding in the old Mt. Olivet Church. Like my wedding in
1962, there was no air conditioning. We were used to it and we made comfortable with
hand held fans from Dickins Funeral Home. Brucie was a true southern lady, from the
way she talked to everything she did. Not to mention her southern cooking!
Since the construction of the convenience store at the Hwy 6 and 315 intersection,
people are beginning to pick-up interest in the graves that are on the site. Each owner
of the property took good care and also mowed around it.
Bro. Doug Pepper leased the property for many years. He seemed to have gathered
more information about it than any other. He speculated the date was about 1830.
There are two small tombstones on the site. Sherry Anderson gave him a device that
locates if ground has been disturbed. Bro. Doug thinks there are three more. These two
need cleaning off badly, then we might see names better. Bro. Doug said it was not any
local names.
Ponder this: If you’re just holding on by a thread, be sure that it’s on the hem of Jesus’
garment.
Get in touch with Donna at donnatraywickmusic@gmail.com