Last week, I thought I had finished telling the story of Technical Sergeant George Cleveland Agee, Jr. but after an enjoyable Sunday afternoon conversation with Mr. Ralph Haden, I realized there was more that needed to be shared. Mr. Haden spoke with such fondness of George Jr.’s parents—George Cleveland Agee, Sr. and his wife, Eula Gay Hylton—that I felt their story deserved a column of its own.
George Cleveland Agee, Sr. was born on August 4, 1891, to John Tazewell Agee and Ruth Lillian Nolen of Floyd County. His father was a dry goods merchant and postmaster of the Monday Post Office, and George grew up in a bustling household as one of eight children.
In time, George Sr. married Miss Eula Gay Hylton, the daughter of William James Hylton and Mary Lucinda Wood of Woolwine. Like her husband, Eula came from a large family, being one of nine children.
Together, George and Eula built their home within sight of the Bob White Covered Bridge. There, they raised their three children: George Cleveland Jr., Shirley May, and John Garland Agee.
When Ralph Haden’s family moved from Belcher Mountain to the Bob White Bridge community, Ralph was only four years old. He remembers his neighbor, Mr. Agee, as “the best fellow you’d ever want to be around.”
Ralph recalled that when his family first put up an electric fence, Mr. Agee generously invited them to hook it into his own power box—saving them the expense of buying one. For years, their fence ran off the Agee’s electricity.
As he grew older, Ralph often helped Mr. Agee trim trees, plant corn, and cut hay. The going wage at the time was $1 an hour for a man and 50 cents for a boy. One day, after Ralph had worked especially hard in the hayfield, Mr. Agee paid him the full dollar rate, saying: “If you do a man’s work, you get a man’s pay.” Ralph never forgot the pride that moment gave him.
He also fondly remembered Saturday nights spent at the Agee home, watching television with young Garland Agee. “There was always plenty of cake to eat,” Ralph said with a smile, “and the Agees were the finest family you would ever want to know.”
As a young man in the 1920s, George Sr. suffered an illness—possibly rheumatoid arthritis or polio—that left him unable to use his left leg. But he never let it slow him down. He drove his 1953 Chevrolet truck with his right foot, letting his left rest on the running board, and he ingeniously rigged blocks to the clutch and brake so he could still manage the pedals.
Resourceful and determined, he even modified what neighbors called a “doodlebug,” which he used to mow hay by attaching it to a horse-drawn mowing machine.
His grandson, Steven Agee, remembered how his grandfather cut hair for neighbors in the springhouse. The lower floor, cooled by fresh spring water, stored milk in a concrete trough. Upstairs, warmed by a potbelly stove, stood a barber chair and cobbler’s bench—making the springhouse not just practical but a gathering place.
The Agee family also ran a small dairy, hand-milking four or five cows daily. Eula churned butter and made cottage cheese, which she sold in their little store. That store also doubled as the Bob White Post Office, where George faithfully served as postmaster. Alongside her many duties at home and on the farm, Eula also taught in the one-room schoolhouse just across the road.
Steven Agee recalled that both his grandparents were deeply devoted members of Smith River Church of the Brethren, where George Sr. and his father, John T. Agee, each served as treasurer and deacon.
Ronnie Haley, the son of Shirley May Agee Haley and first cousin of Steven, added his own memories:
“Grandpa injured his back lifting a sack of feed; he overcame stomach cancer; and he drove that old ’53 Chevrolet with the door chained shut and his left foot resting on the running board. When Steve and I spent summers on the farm in the 1960s, there were four cows, one of which Grandpa gave us as a newborn calf. We helped milk, worked in two gardens, got up hay, picked apples, gathered eggs, plucked chickens, repaired fences—whatever needed to be done. The only place we were forbidden was near Grandpa’s bee hives! Looking back, those summers with our grandparents were some of the most memorable years of my life. Grandma kept selling butter, eggs, and even fatback after Grandpa passed, and she insisted we be in Sunday School every Sunday morning. She always said the only work allowed on Sundays was milking the cows. Steve and I both learned so many life lessons from them.”
Together, George and Eula created not just a household but a true community hub—where kindness, faith, and generosity were constants. Their children and grandchildren grew up in a home where neighbors were treated like family, and where perseverance was always paired with hospitality.
The memories shared by Ralph Haden, Steven Agee, and Ronnie Haley paint a vivid portrait of two remarkable people whose love and strength shaped their family and community. Their story, woven into the legacy of their son’s heroism, reminds us that behind every soldier’s sacrifice is a family whose character, faith, and goodness shine just as brightly.
For questions, comments, or ideas, you may contact Woody at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626.
