TENNIS ANYONE?

FAMILYGRAM

JOPLIN TORNADO UPENDS LIFE

In the late afternoon on May 22, 2011, Marilyn (Martin) Tennis not only found her surroundings in shambles but her life as well in the aftermath of the historic Joplin Tornado (NOTE: Joplin has had many of them but this one was big enough to be called THE Joplin Tornado). "I was renting in the upstairs of a house on 22nd and Kentucky," she said. "That area was soon referred to as 'Ground Zero' by the media. I came out OK, but some possessions blew away." Marilyn found refuge at the home of John and Linda Carver in the Carver Hill region of neighboring Galena, Kan. After seeing her life was not returning to normal any time soon, jobwise and economically, she realized her limited displacement possibilites and accepted son Thad's offer to join him and wife Carrol Ann at their home in Greenbrier, Ark., until the situation improved to return. Her older sister Barbara in Joplin was doing fine, according to Marilyn, and another sister, Donna, lives in Baxter Springs and was unaffected by the devasting twister. Escaping the annual arrival of the whirling monsters is a near impossibility. There are, however, other dangers presented by Mother Nature as well. On February 27, 2011, a 4.7 earthquake hit just outside of Greenbrier. The quake was felt in several adjacent states, and as far away as Iowa.

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Marilyn married Phillip George Tennis. George died August 25, 2003, at age 57.  

VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU...

Brenton Thad Tennis and wife Carrol Ann are members of the Springhill Baptist Church in Greenbrier, Ark., where they also serve on various church committees.

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TENNIS TWOSOME VISITS GRAND OLE OPRY IN 2002

Marilyn (Martin) Tennis informed me that her and hubby George would be coming to Music City to attend a Grand Ole Opry show, back in 2002. I met them at their motel near the Nashville International Airport (George drove his big Caddy) and I brought Marilyn my binoculars as she had requested so she could zone in on Vince Gill that evening. Marlyn surprised me by giving me an old baseball Mickey Mantle had signed for me in 1955 at his home in Commerce, Okla., one that her dad, Noah, had kept for me. George told me about how he and schoolmate J.E. Lewman had once attended a professional baseball players' tryout together. I drove them around the next day and showed them the old Twitty City in Hendersonville, Tootsies, Bluebird Cafe, Hillsboro Village, The Ryman, and my old bar hangout, the Idle Hour on Music Row. Fun, but short time for the three of us.

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