- Date Of Birth: September 30, 1939
- Date Of Death: August 19, 2021
- State: Colorado
On September 30, 1939 Carol Francis, the first child of Bennie and Marie Thigpen, was born in Telfair Hospital Savannah while living in a very small shrimping town of Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt, like many other small towns of the era, was a place where everyone knew everybody (and their business).
Bennie was the oldest of five boys who lived in Isle of Hope, had many odd jobs including moving Moonshine Stills. His father did friends “favors” moving them to improve the likelihood of not being found. He also delivered ice and newspapers. Bennies father “Pop was also caretaker of the Wormsloe plantation, which afforded Bennie the opportunity of additional employment in the dairy. Here we must apologize to some customers who may, or may not, be missing cream.
Bennie was in the Air Force and Georgia Air National Gard as an aircraft mechanic posted at Hunter Field with rank of Master Sergeant.
Marie, a country girl from Cullman, Alabama met Bennie during a motorcycle ride. The initial attraction, according to Marie, was “he had nice boots”.
During their marriage and with close ties to the military, Marie saw a need and decided to open a restaurant to feed military boys a home cooked meal “because it was the right thing to do”
As Carol grew, she belonged to the Rainbow Girls, and was elected to the queen’s court in the the Thunderbolt centennial on March 6, 1956.
In 1957 she was part of a group from Savannah High School that made the last senior trip to Cuba.
In 1962 she married Vann Earl Hettinger, a native of St. Cloud, Florida who had been assigned to Savannah by IBM. The move by IBM set a significant pattern for the rest of her life.
Following the wedding Carol went to work for NCR until the branch manager of IBM objected based upon “conflict of interest” and insisted that she quit her job.
In 1963, Carol found her true calling, that of a wonderful mother, with the birth of Sabrina Lynn at the same hospital as Carol. Two years later, after being relocated by IBM to Columbia, South Carolina, Curt was born.
In 1967 IBM moved the family to Westchester County, New York, over the objection of Carol. She finally agreed because she was promised that she would only have to live “up there” for two years. Carol settled in Wilton, Connecticut, which was fortunate because it enabled Vann to change through many jobs without having to move the family.
She found a home which was “only” twice as expensive as planned. It was the least expensive house available.
Then four years later, the family found a modern home in West Redding, Connecticut overlooking a lovely pond, nestled in the woods.
Sabrina belonged to a Girl Scout troop that decided to take a trip to England. This trip, conceived while only in the Cadettes, was planned to be made years later as Senior Girl Scouts.
Fifteen years later, in 1982 after the longest two years in history, IBM moved the family to Raleigh, NC. Once again Carol easily made very close life long friends with Betsy, Bea, Helen, Linda and Skip.
When returning to the South, Carol bought a very large home with a wonderful screened in porch. But Vann spent a great deal of time going back and forth to New York. After a while, at the end of a full week of Vann being in New York, when she got the call that he was returning on schedule on the late flight, she said “Honey, I have sold the house”….and she did. And moved into a town house.
Investing in the stock market became a very active activity during this time.
Soon, Carol had the chance to spend a couple years living in London, while Vann traveled around. Carol claimed that she lived overseas for a couple years and Vann was there for a couple months.
Returning to Raleigh for the duration of Vann’s career with IBM, she once again enjoyed the apartment and her neighbors. After retirement, time was spent looking for a good place to build a new home, traveling around the south east coast of georgia and the Carolinas. Then Sabrina, living in Colorado, called to say that she was pregnant. Immediately Carol decided to move to Colorado and Vann agreed to follow….with no two year limit…smile
Expansions, corrections, and other “tales” welcome on this web site.
