When Hulda Elizabeth Smith was born on February 15, 1918, in Lincoln, Tennessee, her father, John, was 27, and her mother, Sarah, was 28. One can only speculate, but she was likely named after her two grandmothers, Mahulda Casandra Ward (John Edgar’s mother) and Nancy Elizabeth “Bettie” Walker (Sallie’s mother).

Hulda was the first daughter to go on to higher education after high school. She would be the first of 4 sisters to enroll into the Baroness Erlanger School of Nursing in Chattanooga in about 1937. She completed her training in 1940, and stayed on working in Chattanooga as a nurse. In 1941, the Chattanooga City Directory lists her as a supervising nurse at Erlanger.

On February 15, 1942 she married Charles Henry Carbine. Their first and only child, Charlotte Oline, was born that October.

Henry was drafted into the Army in 1943 and deployed first to Europe, then to the Pacific for WWII. This proved to be somewhat fortuitous. Back in Mulberry, Hulda’s father, John Edgar, had become sick over the last 2 years, as a consequence of alcohol, smoking and obesity. His kidney function began to be affected, and he became bedridden in early 1943. Her mother, Sallie, had no income, and still had 4 children at home (Doug, Joe, Barbara and John Paul). With John sick and not working, and Sallie having to stay at home and care for him and the children, there was no income, so Sallie could not afford to have John hospitalized. With Henry Carbine’s deployment, Hulda put her nursing career on hold, took Charlotte and moved back to Mulberry to help her mother care for her father and the children.

Hulda’s father passed away in November, 1943. Three 3 weeks after his passing, her mother and children had to move out of the home that had rented when the owner sold it to someone else. A nephew of Sallie’s offered them an abandoned small 3 room house on his farm, 4 miles out of town. It had no electricity or running water, and was heated by a wood stove. Hulda stayed on with them to help during this difficult transition and time in their lives.

John Paul, Hulda’s youngest sibling, left an 18 page memoir of his time growing up in Mulberry. 8 years old at the time, he recalls this time in detail. He specifically writes that Hulda took the 4 young kids aside, telling them that their relative had done them an exceptional favor, allowing them to move into this house rent-free. She told them that they were to do all they could to help out on the farm to re-pay him for his kindness. John Paul recalls he and Joe shucking corn and working in the barn. He said that although they tried to refuse payment, their uncle always paid them something for the work they did.

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John Paul wrote that Henry Carbine returned from the war in 1944 [NB – records show him being sent from San Francisco to Honolulu in early 1945]. Hulda moved back to Chattanooga after his return.

Sallie’s older children (Jared, Charlie , Gladys, Hulda, and Estelle) worked hard to save to get the family and younger children back on their feet. In late 1944, the purchased the Cecil Johnson home in Mulberry. Known as “the-house-on-the-hill,” it sits on the highest point in Mulberry. A house with electricity, running water and a telephone! All were certainly ecstatic with the purchase!

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Charlotte married Jack Wilson of Rossville, Georgia on February 15, 1963. They had a daughter on _____, Cynthia Estelle Wilson. She visited Granny Smith, allowing for a picture of 4 generations of Smith women!

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Hulda died on April 15, 1980, in Ringgold, Georgia, at the age of 62.