Melvin Spain Sr. and Willodean Rogers first met in Nashville after he returned from World War II. Little did they know, they’d both grown up just miles apart in Carroll County. More than 70 years later, their son, Melvin Spain Jr., found their senior portraits inside the Huntingdon Historical Museum.
The discovery happened almost by chance. Melvin Jr., who lives in Franklin, was visiting the museum during the Heritage Festival on Saturday, September 27, when he browsed the wall of graduating class portraits.
Tucked among the black-and-white photographs, he recognized the faces of his parents as teenagers.
“This is my mother,” he said, pointing to a formal senior portrait of Willodean Rogers, Class of 1941. A few frames away is his father, Melvin Sr., who graduated from Huntingdon High School in 1932.
Mother’s History
Melvin Jr.’s mother, Willodean Rogers, grew up in the Rosser community, where her family’s roots stretch back generations.
She spent much of her childhood on the Rogers family farm, which, according to Melvin Jr., has been in the family since around 1845.
As a girl, she sometimes stayed with her grandparents near Beaver Creek and walked across what is now Highway 70 to attend a small elementary school that once stood near the community’s cotton gin and general store.
Willodean graduated from Huntingdon High School in 1941 as salutatorian of her class. Shortly after graduation, she moved to Nashville, where she lived at a girls’ home and worked at Nabisco.
She had no idea that a fellow Carroll Countian who would one day become her husband was also beginning a new chapter of his life not far away.
Father’s History
Melvin Spain Sr. grew up near Hickory Flat Methodist Church in Cedar Grove.
He graduated from Huntingdon High School in 1932 as valedictorian of his class.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Melvin Sr. enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. in 1942. He was stationed at Hickam Field in Hawaii and later at a base in the Cook Islands.
Melvin Jr. recalled a story his father told him about baseball legend Joe DiMaggio visiting the base to play with a military team.
When the war ended, Melvin Sr. returned to Tennessee and settled in Nashville, where fate brought him and Willodean together.
Marriage and Family Legacy
After the war, Melvin Sr. and Willodean met in Nashville through the woman who managed the girls’ home where Willodean stayed.
The couple married at McKendree Methodist Church in Nashville in January 1951, where they remained lifelong members.
Melvin Sr. built his career at the Tennessee Farmers Co-op in LaVergne, working in the business office where he helped develop pricing formulas based on commodity costs.
Willodean dedicated herself to raising their two children, Melvin Jr. and Linda.
Though they built their lives in Middle Tennessee, their roots in Carroll County never faded.
Melvin Jr. and his sister grew up visiting Carroll County often, spending time with grandparents and extended family.
He remembers riding the Greyhound bus from Nashville to Huntingdon as a child, exploring stores and restaurants on Court Square, and visiting the cotton gin in Rosser.
Melvin Jr. still visits his mother’s childhood home quite often to this day.
The Huntingdon Historical Museum is full of stories just like Melvin Sr. and Willodean’s, both well-known and untold. Their portraits are just one example of the many personal histories preserved inside the museum, waiting to be found. Each discovery adds another piece to Carroll County’s history and heritage.
