The Routons Of Henry County, TN

Notes by Clara Routon Hart, Niece (2008)


Vera Poe Routon was born September 24, 1889, daughter of Quincy Everett Routon and Laura William Bowden Routon.  Her mother, Laura, was a school teacher. 

Vera started to school in a little school that was in walking distance from her home.  She graduated from Grove High School as valedictorian in 1909 and took classes in Memphis in 1912 and other universities including Berea, Kentucky where she learned to weave 
and make baskets.  She had a big loom at home and did some weaving into the late 50’s.  She took piano lessons and liked classical music.  
She learned to paint with oils from Aunt Pearl (Pearl Sanders Routon, wife of Stephen James Routon, Sr.). 

Vera’s first teaching  job was in a teacher school in Whitlock, Tennessee, a small town in northeast Henry County, Tennessee.  She taught with a young woman whose last name was Paschall.  As time went on they lost touch, but as fate would have it, they wound up in the same hospital room in Henry County General Hospital when Aunt Vera broke her hip in 1967. 

Vera taught school in Pinson, Tennessee in 1916 and  at Union University in Jackson in 1928, 1932, and 1939.  In 1935 Vera taught at Chickasaw  College in Pontotoc, Mississippi. 

 During World War II at Camp Tyson at Routon, Tennessee, Vera was a bookkeeper at the P.X.  She spoke and taught Spanish and used to read us stories from a Spanish reader. 

As the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Quincy Everett 
and Laura Routon grew up, Aunt Vera made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grapefruit and orange peel candies, brown bread, 
and sliced apples.  All made her way.  

Dale Routon, my brother, and I grew up with this school teacher and took her for granted as did my daughters.  Vera crocheted and could knit and tat.  She liked to read, work crossword puzzles, and raise flowers. 


Clara Routon Hart