Senior is ‘too wild to be tamed’

HEMINGWAY - Ozie Tanner was the seventh child born in a family of 14 children, ten boys and four girls to parents John Wesley and Tessie Powell Tanner. He was born March 3, 1918 during World War I and was six months old when the war ended. There are only two siblings who survive, Ozie and Donnie, who was Number 13 in the family. At 90 years of age he is still too wild to be tamed!

Ozie lives in the Muddy Creek section near Hemingway with his wife of 64 years, the former Doris Perry, who is 85 years old, on property that belonged to his parents. He was schooled at Muddy Creek for seven years, went to Hemingway High School for one year and to Johnsonville for three months, he said.

Ozie said, “I retired from school, didn’t get much education,” but he has done well any way.

He farmed the family property until he went to Charleston in 1942 where he worked at the asbestos plant for a year, transferring to the shipyard, from which he retired in 1970. He lived in Charleston four years during the war, then came home to farm and do carpenter work. Tiring of the farm, he went back to the shipyard in 1951 and worked continuously until 1970, a total of 23 years.

His son-in-law, Larry Hanna, said Ozie had help with his shipyard work…one “chaw” of Beech Nut Chewing Tobacco in the morning and a fresh one after lunch. “It kept his mind focused”, Hanna said.

Following retirement, he did carpentry work (but no more farming), where he built several houses on the Tanner family property. He said, “Fifteen years ago I retired for good!”

Since his retirement on Feb. 22, 1970, he has had the opportunity to attend Sunday school and church services, something he couldn’t participate in while he worked shift work in Charleston. He hasn’t missed a Sunday since, and values his medals for 39 years of perfect attendance highly. He used to serve on some church boards, but has given that over to younger people.

He and Doris had known each other all along, having grown up in the same neighborhood, but hadn’t dated much. She went to Charleston to visit an aunt, they got together, decided to get married, found a judge and signed the papers, just that simple.

But, Ozie is a simple man, no fuss. He and Doris don’t argue, they both agree, and that may account for their long good and happy marriage.

They have three children, two boys and a girl, five grandchildren and one great grandchild, all of whom live in the area.

He quit deer hunting in ’83 because he thought he was ‘too old’ to be climbing trees. He has done a lot of fishing in his retirement, though, going morning and afternoon. He fished fresh water some and also the ponds of friends and family. “When I fished individually owned ponds, I would clean the fish and give them to the pond’s owner,” he said.

Nowadays, he does his jigsaw puzzles in addition to helping at the senior center.  He said, “I have to have something to do with my hands. I can’t sit idle.”

Someone gave him his first puzzle and that got him started. His family gives him some from time to time and his daughter picks up some at yard sales. He says most times those from yard sales are complete, and those that aren’t only miss two or three pieces, contrary to what one would think.

He is an asset to the senior center, where he and Doris have been going each weekday for about four years. He fixes the iced tea for lunch, puts the cartons of milk and the bread in the serving windows, helps in the kitchen with clean-up duty and last but not least, hauls off the garbage each day in his ’93 Chevrolet pickup. They also join the seniors at Burger King for Bingo each 2nd and 4th Monday at 2 p.m. and 1st. and 3rd. Wednesdays at 9 a.m.

To say Ozie is a simple man and a homebody does not diminish his quality of life and contributions to his family, friends and the community. He is such a homebody; he hasn’t been out of the state of S.C. but twice in his life. He was sort of tricked into going to Conway and on over to this side of North Carolina once. While at the shipyard, he went about 500 miles out to sea in a test of a submarine.

To say the least, at 9l years of age Ozie Tanner is truly “a man about town”, or home, that is.