Blog no. 17

Marie S. Head was born on December 13, 1913, in Marshall County, TN to Berry Benoyd “B.B.” Head and Elizabeth Pearl Duncan. She had one sister, and her name was Gertrude “Gertie” B. (Head) Smith. Marie’s father B.B. Head was a merchant for a grocery store in Spring Hill, TN.

On February 10, 1932, Marie married John Davis Nellums. They had 2 daughters. Their names were Elizabeth Joan (Nellums) Dean and Judy Faye (Nellums) Usery. The family lived at a home on Main Street in Spring Hill, TN next to the home of Mattie Laura Harris, now the Fainting Goat Coffee Shop. John Davis Nellums, in 1960, married Imogene Cooke.

Starting in the mid to late 1930’s all the way to about the mid 1980’s, Marie owned and operated a beauty shop in Spring Hill, TN. One of the buildings she used for her beauty shop was the Spring Hill, TN bank building, which was destroyed during the January 11, 1963 tornado that came through the small town. One of the other locations her beauty shop moved to is next to the present-day Jimmy’s Dry Cleaners building on Main Street in Spring Hill, TN.

Marie was a great friend of the Spring Hill Public Library and one of the Friends of the Spring Hill Library Book Committee Co-Chairman in the early 2000’s. This group published a book called Spring Hill Everybody Has A Story.

Sadly, on her 96th birthday, December 13, 2009, Marie died. She was buried in the mausoleum at the Spring Hill Memorial Park in Spring Hill, TN. Since her death, the home/beauty shop of Marie and her family has been torn down, but her memory still lives on in stories other long time Spring Hill, TN citizens have to tell about her.

Special thanks to my friend, Naomi Derryberry, for helping me with the information on Marie’s beauty shop and the photo.