(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights Dot Fortenberry, 80, of Columbia.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born in New Orleans on Oct. 11, 1936.
Q: Who were your parents?
A: My dad and mom were B.F. McKenzie and Mary Letha Welch McKenzie.
Q: What did your parents do for a living?
A: Daddy owned McKenzie Memorials and mother was a school teacher.
Q: Do you have any brothers or sisters?
A: I have one sister, Becky Kleinke.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I attended Columbia, first through twelfth-grade. I went to William Carey College for both of my degrees.
Q: What do you recall most from your childhood?
A: Going to sporting events with the family, family get togethers, going to musicals and things like that.
Q: Where have you lived?
A: We lived in New Orleans, Jackson, then we moved in with my grandparents on Mary Street until we built the house that I’m in now in 1941. We were Route 1, Box 2, two doors from the high school gym.
Q: Are you married?
A: I was married in 1964 and got a divorce in 1977.
Q: Do you have any children?
A: I have one daughter, Stephanie Brown, who is a secretary at First Baptist Daycare Kindergarten.
Q: Where do you attend church?
A: First Baptist Church.
Q: Where did you work?
A: In my teaching career, I started at Harrison Central, came to West Marion the second year it was a school, then I got married and moved to Sumrall. I taught in Louisiana, came to Columbia and taught for 20-something years. Then I went to Prentiss and taught there. I was Teacher of the Year in the state and I was on the board for Educational TV at one point in Jackson.
Q: Do you have any grandchildren?
A: I have one granddaughter, Tessa Brown, and she’s 10-years-old and goes to Columbia Academy. She’s the apple of my eye.
Q: Do you do a lot of traveling?
A: I have done some traveling. One particular place that stands out is we went to the Sun Bowl to see Mississippi State play and it snowed while we were out there in El Paso. I’ve been to the Bahamas and Mexico. I would like to go to the Holy Land to follow and see where Jesus and his disciples lived. I’d like to go to Fenway Park one time to see the green monster — I’m a Boston Red Sox fan big time — but probably will never get there.
Q: What inventions have you witnessed that intrigue you? Why?
A: Being 80 years old, a lot of technology has taken place in my lifetime. TVs, of course, cell phones, internet — all of those kinds of things. Television sticks out to me because it has improved so much from the time it was started to now. Color TV used to be the three basic colors and now it’s what it is.
Q: What keeps you busy these days?
A: When I retired the first time — I retired twice — they mentioned going to the Senior Olympics for ping pong. I said, ‘OK.’ In the Senior Olympics, you play in your age group in five-year increments. Then I saw they ping pong in the State Games about 10 years ago and I went up to the State Games, and there’s no age groups. It’s all women and girls that play together and all men and boys play together, they don’t divide them up by age. I got a gold medal then. The guy who is in charge of it this year called me and asked me to come play. I had to go find my paddle, so I went and I played and got the bronze medal. The people I played, the oldest were in their late 30s, and I got a bronze against them. I help people with their genealogy, run the basketball clock at West Marion, help some at East Marion with the book, church activities, helping with my granddaughter — I just stay busy. I also take camellias to a camellia show. My dad planted over 150 different types of camellias in our yard, so I brought them down to a camellia show years ago and a lot of them placed, so I do it every year now.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: My grandparents and parents. I’d talk to them about the way things are now, which they probably already know. I would like to just be with them.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: As a caring person. My students, I felt like they were mine and I even know some of the ones the first year that I taught, and that was back in 1958-59. I would just like to be remembered as a good Christian, caring person.
Q: What historical event sticks out to you the most during your lifetime?
A: During World War II, I was a child and you’d hear the sirens go off and everything had to go black because we were an escape route from New Orleans because of the river down there. Also, when I was teaching and John F. Kennedy was killed, a little boy who was in the cafeteria — there was a TV in the cafeteria and he was watching it — ran in and said the president has been shot here (pointing to his head) and here (pointing to his chest). Everybody was saying to him, ‘Oh, you’re not telling the truth,’ but it was the truth. Of course, the teacher explosion in space sticks out because I had gotten an application for that and I didn’t fill it out, but I still have the application at the house.
Q: What advice would you like to give people on staying healthy?
A: Basically, stick to the four food groups and don’t indulge all in one setting. Eat healthy, which I don’t.
— Joshua Campbell
Pictured Above: Dot Fortenberry enjoys helping families and friends discover their ancestors by researching their genealogy history. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
