Blog no. 50

Bessie Walker Parham was born on September 22, 1924, in the Santa Fe, Maury County, TN area, to Frank Walker Parham and Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Kelley. She had 5 siblings, and their names were Leola Parham Shouse Beard, Mary Evelyn Parham, Marion Kelley Parham, Ruth Ellen “Dolly” Parham, and Farris Parham. Growing up, Bessie Walker was very close to her older sister, Leola. 

When Bessie Walker was younger, they moved to Spring Hill, TN, where the family became well-loved in the community. For many years, the Parham family was and continues to be one of the many infamous and beloved families of Spring Hill, TN’s history. Though, before moving, Bessie Walker went through all years of school and graduated from high school at the Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, TN. 

Bessie Walker was a woman of many important jobs. Not long after 1942, Bessie Walker, after working at a shirt factory in Columbia, TN, answered an ad in the newspaper saying the government needed women to work in the War Department in Washington, D.C.. Not long after, she was given a job to work for the IRS in Washington, D.C.. Her most notable job and accomplishment though was one that changed the world’s history all together. In January of 1945, Bessie Walker answered another ad saying that women were needed for the Manhattan Project and only said to report to Knoxville, TN. She and a friend, Sue Moss, took a bus to Knoxville, TN where they had to get onto an unmarked bus to get to the secret place the government needed them to go. Nobody told Bessie Walker and Sue where they were going though, but they eventually found out they were in a place called Oak Ridge, TN. Bessie Walker’s job during the Manhattan Project was to watch and report what she saw on the gauges for the uranium in the laboratory. Because of Bessie Walker’s work and the many other people that worked on the Manhattan Project, they were able to create the Atomic Bomb which ended the war in Japan. Along with being in the United States Government, she was in the Tennessee State Government as a civilian for a short time, was a teacher’s aide at the Spring Hill High School in Spring Hill, TN, and was a Census Taker of Maury County, TN in 1980-1990. 

On September 3, 1948, in Spring Hill, TN, Bessie Walker married William Harold Hatfield. They had two daughters. Their names were Kathryn Sheryl “Sheryl” Hatfield and Marilyn Kay (Hatfield) Bryant. After the war had ended, Bessie Walker met William on the bus leaving Oak Ridge, TN. They talked for a while and exchanged addresses. They sent each other letters back and forth while William was in Japan for post war operations and Bessie Walker was home. Bessie Walker and William were the first people at the time to be married at the Spring Hill United Methodist Church’s parsonage that stood across the road from the Spring Hill Memorial Park Funeral Home on Main Street in Spring Hill, TN that is now the DeBerry Insurance Agency building.

While William was stationed in Germany after the war, in the 1960’s, Bessie Walker and their two daughters would await the weekends that he could get away and they could travel as a family. The Hatfield family would borrow a tent and travel all around Europe, especially Denmark. Bessie Walker and her family were in Europe so long that she even decided to study for her German driver’s license because she was an independent person and found it difficult to rely on others to drive her around. For many years, her and her family would travel to many different countries and states, ending up with Bessie Walker having been to 48 of the 50 states including Alaska three times.

Once William retired from the army, Bessie Walker’s father, Frank Parham, being the builder and carpenter he was, built a home for the family at 2509 Depot Street in Spring Hill, TN. Bessie Walker lived in that home for 53 years of her life.

Sadly, on May 6, 2022, in Spring Hill, Maury County, TN, Bessie Walker died. She was buried with her husband, parents, and siblings at the Spring Hill Memorial Park cemetery in Spring Hill, Maury County, Tennessee. Bessie Walker lived a long life of 97 years and lived all those years full of happiness, travel, no fear of death, the love of her family, and relied on her faith to get through the hard times.