Title: Mildred Sims Huff Memoirs

Date/Date Range :   1993

Extent: 0.1 linear feet

Abstract:

This collection contains a copy of the memoirs of Mildred Sims Huff of Sevierville, TN. Huff's memoirs, completed in December 1993, chronicle the story of her life and family.

Call number: MS-2538

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This collection belongs to the University of Tennessee Special Collections Library.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Mildred Sims Huff Memoirs, MS-2538. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of a single folder.

Mildred Sims Huff (born June 11, 1919) was the eighth of ten children. She had eight sisters and one brother. Huff attended high school in Sevierville and placed second in a Miss Sevierville beauty contest. Following the contest, Huff recalled, "One of the judges told me later if I had smiled I would have won. " As a result of her shyness, Huff was too afraid to borrow money to attend college. Instead, Huff took a job as a cashier in a restaurant in Knoxville. In Knoxville, Huff met her future husband Clint, an employee of the State Highway Patrol in the Driver's License Division, a divorcee, and father of a young son. After a courtship of more than a year, Clint and Mildred were married in Loudon, Tennessee on June 4, 1940. On Mildred's twenty-second birthday, June 11, 1941, she gave birth to her first child Phyllis. On April 7, 1942, Clint and Mildred moved their family to California, where Clint began to work for his brother Omer. Two years later, Huff returned to East Tennessee when Clint received his draft notice to report to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia for a physical prior to introduction to service in World War II. However, a ruptured blood vessel in Clint's eye prevented him from being accepted into the United States military. The Huff's returned to Knoxville where Clint resumed his job with the State Highway Patrol. Clint's job continued to make Mildred uneasy throughout her life. He faced death on two occasions during his police career when he was caught in the middle of a shoot out between police officers and moonshiners and when a suspect in the back of his patrol car came at him with a knife. According to Mildred, "I don't know why anyone would want to be a policeman. . . . A cop's wife is no bed of roses."

This collection contains a copy of the memoirs of Mildred Sims Huff. Huff's memoirs, completed in December 1993, chronicles the story of her life and family. Huff's memoirs traces her life in East Tennessee as a young girl to a woman of eighty-three years of age reminiscing on the happiness of her life, marriage, and family. Although Huff does not state how long she has worked on her memoirs, she notes that "I seemed to have been in a hurry and now I am relieved to get this completed. Time is precious at my age. To be finished with my memoirs is a perfect Christmas present for me. Now I can lay down and sleep at night without jumping up to make a note of something else that came to mind." She completed and signed the memoirs on December 17, 1993. Huff's memoirs is 177 pages in length and has been possibly copied to distribute among her family. This edition of Mildred's memoirs contains her signature on the first page with the inscription:

To Donnie,

The finishing touch on this beautiful book would not have been possible without my favorite son-in-law. I love you Donnie.

Huff signed the memoirs on December 25, 1994.

• Huff, Mildred Sims, 1919-.
• Sevierville (Tenn.) -- History.