Juanita "Polly" Hamilton

Juanita Belle Walker Hamilton – born March 25, 1927 to Julie Knight Walker and Benjamin Raymond Walker, sister to Jo and Ralph, mother to Vicki and JoAnnie, grandmother to Jennie, Jessica, Owen, and Wallis and great-grandmother to Walker, Avarie, and Everett passed away on the morning on February 19, 2022.

Our mother, Juanita Belle Walker Hamilton: a little flower on the Knight and Walker family tree. The Knights and the Walkers – they are two fiercely independent and outspoken families with roots running deep through Sevier and Blount Counties. The Knight sisters, it appeared, held court over all family matters, both important and trivial. True to nature, soon after the birth of their new niece, Aunts Lucy, Cecil, Ruth, Bertha, and Elsie quickly gave their pronouncement regarding the choice of name given the new baby. Oral history has it they told the new mother, Julie, that if she could not have found a better name than Juanita Belle, she should just have named her Polly. So, Polly it was. Her given name, Juanita Belle was a tribute to Mom’s paternal aunt, Belle Walker Everett. Belle Everett was something of a legend of a woman. After the death of her husband in World War I, Aunt Belle lived until 100, mostly alone, in a cabin in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. With only a hand pump supplying water, she epitomized the

family’s self-reliance, love of the mountains, love of nature, and love of storytelling. Juanita Belle Walker Hamilton remained true to her roots and lived up to her name.

Like her father before her, Mother was a born storyteller. Throughout our childhood, Papaw Ben delighted his grandchildren with story after story, many of them recounting adventures in the Cades Cove area of what became the Smoky Mountain National Park. After Papaw’s death, Mom picked right up where he left off. Whether telling of lightning striking Papaw’s mules on Gregory Bald or Papaw stretching out so John McCauley, his Cades Cove hunting buddy, could guesstimate the size of a coffin he was called on to make, she could repeat each story word for word. And she did. Many times. Oral history was alive and well in our family.

For almost her entire life, Mom has been a member of Stock Creek Baptist Church where she taught Sunday School and used her creative talents to glorify God. She was steadfast in her Christian beliefs and anxious to reunite with Daddy and her family.

Mom had no lack of interests. She could sew like a professional. Oh, how she loved French seams. Over the years, she has made numerous wedding dresses, cheerleading outfits, Halloween costumes, quilts, and even tents. There isn’t a craft that she hasn’t tried. Crocheting, knitting, painting, woodworking, winemaking, flower-arranging, ceramics. Name it. She’s tried it. The past few years, adult coloring (aka” my painting”) fulfilled her creative whim. She always needed to be busy.

Mom had an opinion on every subject and never hesitated to share it. Daddy’s nickname for her was hornet. If she saw someone, anyone, mistreated, she never hesitated to unleash. She was not one to sit idly by. She had a big heart and no tolerance for narrow-minded, selfish, lazy people. She was a helper and a giver.

Likewise, she loved animals… all animals. Her backyard birdfeeders, visited by an array of birds, squirrels, rabbits, and an occasional skunk or raccoon, were a delight to her. A few years back, one pesky squirrel grew quite selfish and “wouldn’t share.” She marched right outside, grabbed him by the tail and gave him a “free flight across the fence.” When a raccoon got himself on her bad side, she got a trap and pretty soon managed to catch him. But then she “felt sorry for him and let him go.” She once raised a baby robin by hand, every day digging worms to feed him (or her). Eventually, she took “him” to the garden and taught “him” to fend for itself. “If you’re going to eat, you got to work.” Her favorite animal was a dog. Her beloved Abby, a long-haired mini dachshund was her faithful and fierce buddy (even though she was a DNF at the Ice Bears Wiener Dog Race).

Mom and Dad loved camping and fishing. It was a good day when she caught her limit of trout before Daddy. She loved gardening. It was a good year when she had the first ripe tomato, and together they were able to grow enough produce to share with everyone on their street. Likewise, she loved flower-gardening and has passed that love down to each of her descendants. Her daughters know the wrath of letting weeds grow among her flowers or planting some new variety she did not like. Mom and Dad also shared a passion for sports. For a long time, they attended basketball games. Up until the time of her passing, Mom could and would offer commentary on what went wrong, why they “got beat.” She was a sideline coach, to be sure. Mom almost made it to her 95th. She would say: It’s hard telling what they will be having me do on my birthday. She didn’t like big parties. But she sure liked to “do.” The camel safari at 80 and the zip lining at 85 were her favorites.

One of mom’s favorite stories was telling about her elementary school classroom collecting pennies and nickels for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. She recalled in detail the time President Roosevelt came right down Chapman Highway on his way to dedicate the park. Thus, in lieu of flowers, please support the Great Smoky Mountain National Park or your local animal shelter.

Mom was preceded in death by her parents, sister, brother, and husband, James Gerval Hamilton. Left to tell her story are daughters Vicki and Jim Andrews, Joannie and Grant Tharp, Jennie Andrews and Ryan Chaniott, Jessica and Bentley Brackett, Owen and Maggie Tharp, Wallis and Josh Woodward, as well as great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends.

Mom was known all over south Knoxville for her delicious banana pudding. Someone once told her they could eat a bathtub of her pudding. So, she bought ceramic bathtubs and distributed her pudding in style. She was also known for her extensive, very extensive, snowman collection, which her daughters unpacked and repacked every Christmas. In honor of Mom, please stop by Mom’s house at 1522 Graybrook Drive, Knoxville, TN 37920, anytime on Friday afternoon, February 25th between the hours of 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. to share a cup of banana pudding and select a snowman. That would make Mom happy.

The family will gather at East Tennessee Veteran’s Cemetery on John Sevier Highway on Monday, February 28th at 8:15am for a graveside service with the Reverend Monty Walton officiating.

We will so miss this virtuous, talented woman, but we celebrate her long life, her sense of humor, and her dedication to her family and community. We also offer gratitude to her caregiver of many years, Mary Cash.

Fond memories and condolences may be left at www.berryfuneralhome.com.