Center Ridge woman celebrates 100th birthday
CENTER RIDGE — Dozens gathered in Center Ridge for a two-day celebration of Classie O. Hawkins’ 100th birthday, with a cookout Nov. 16 at Hawkins’ home and a praise and worship celebration Nov. 17 at Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church.
Born the third of six children to Dock Lee and Myrtis Morris Clinkscale on Nov. 17, 1919, Classie Clinkscale Hawkins has been a lifelong resident of Center Ridge. As a girl, she attended Mount
Zion United Methodist Church and the Friendship and Union Special schools, two of three area schools that formerly enslaved African Americans founded after migrating to northeast Conway County following emancipation.
In 1936, Classie married Tolly Bishop “T.B.” Hawkins. Shortly after they wed, the couple became members of Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church, which Classie still attends today. The couple raised 11 children — six girls and five boys — and operated a dairy farm until T.B. Hawkins’ death in 2001.
In her younger days, Classie Hawkins delivered speeches from memory at church services. She maintains that practice today, reciting poems and rhymes she has learned over the years, expecting her listeners to join in or share their own.
At Sweet Home Church on her 100th birthday, Hawkins recited two poems, including one that she learned in the third grade: “Great, Wide, Beautiful, Wonderful World,” by English writer William Brighty Rands.