A Life Lived: If Ellen Hughes’s shoes could talk, what stories they could tell

Published 10:07 am Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Martina Boone, an award-winning author, wrote: It doesn’t matter how great your shoes are if you don’t accomplish anything in them.

Ellen Hoss Hughes, who died just a couple months shy of her 91st birthday, knew what working shoes were. Life had not been easy for the mother of four, whose husband died several years ago leaving her with a home to manage and children still to raise.

“My mother knew what hard times were. Her father was killed when she was only two – during the Depression-era. Her mother raised a family of ten children. I’ve heard my mother share how she and her sibling would pick blackberries to sell to buy things they needed. Her mother canned vegetables from the garden and sold them to the school system for much-needed money. My mother worked hard all her life, but she never complained. For the most part, she was a happy person and a thankful person – thankful that God had provided. She had been a widow for almost 50 years,” said Ellen’s son, Danny Hughes.

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Ellen died July 30 at the Waters of Roan Highlands Nursing Center, Roan Mountain, where she had resided for the past five years. Ellen had always lived in the Roan Mountain Community. She was born and raised at Shell Creek, but after her marriage to Lawrence Hughes, moved to Crabtree, where she raised her family of three boys and one girl.

She was a working mother. She worked at Tri-State Container Corp. for a number of years and later worked at Kennametal in Johnson City for another 16 to 18 years before retiring. In addition to working outside the home, she grew a large garden each summer and canned lots and lots of vegetables. “She fed us out of the garden and from what she preserved,” said Danny.

He especially remembers his mother’s shuck beans, which she cooked with a large piece of tenderloin. “The entire family loved them,” said Danny.

Ellen grew “greasy” beans each summer in her garden to dry for the shuck beans. Once they were dry, she would string for keeping until they were ready to cook.

“I remember when I was just a boy, she and my father raised a couple of hogs each year and had chickens,’ Danny shared.

He said his mother also enjoyed baking, and baked a lot of cakes for church events.

Ellen was a long-time member of Cove Creek Presbyterian Church. “She enjoyed her church and church family. My mother read her Bible daily. She not only read it, but lived it, and shared it with others. She was a person of faith,” Danny shared.

Ellen, in addition to growing vegetables, also enjoyed growing flowers, especially dahlias and irises. “She had all kinds of dahlias and irises. If she heard of a new variety, she got one and added it to her garden,” Danny said.

His mother also enjoyed making quilts and knitted some. “She had probably made 30 to 50 quilts,” Danny said.

Ellen collected dolls, which Danny attributed to her perhaps liking dolls when she was younger but not having any.

“Over and above everything, but her love for her children, Mom enjoyed animals. She loved cats and dogs, and had a bunch of them. Mom always had a tender heart for stray dogs and cats and would take them in, feed them, and care for them. I remember one time she picked up a couple of little stray dogs wandering along the railroad tracks in Johnson City near where she worked, brought them home, and cared for them,” said Danny.

He described his mother as someone who lived a simple life, lived in the shadows, and didn’t like attention. “She was not used to having a lot of material things. Her home was modest. She had a car which she drove until she was in her 80s. I can only imagine how hard it was for her when she was growing up and later, when she had her own family. She had great faith and always felt blessed,” Danny said of his mother.

For Ellen Hoss Hughes, her shoes, for the most part, were working shoes, but they were shoes that if they could talk would tell a lot of stories – stories about her past, her children, of a young girl in love, moments when she cried, when she laughed, when she prayed, etc.

For sure, Ellen Hughes accomplished a lot in the shoes she wore.