Billie Hope Webb

Billie Hope Stinnett Webb, age 87, passed away peacefully on July 5, 2017 at her home in Townsend with her loved ones at her side. Preceded in death by her husband Melvin O. Webb, Parents W.M. and Blanche Shelton Stinnett, Sisters Ruth Phillips and Verl Breazeale of Townsend, Brother Lamar Stinnett of Maryville. She was the last of her and her husband's family's "Greatest Generation". She had seen World War II through the eyes of a child of the Great Depression and a teen living through times of great want and sacrifice. This gave her the empathy she showed so many. She is survived by her four children: Judith Webb of Cosby, Annette (Harvey) Caylor of Maryville, David Webb of Maryville and Ruth (Tony) Webb of Townsend. She also leaves behind six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and this August she would have welcomed her first great-great-grandchild. Something she long desired to see. Born just a few hundred yards from the home where she spent her later years, she grew up playing in the mountains, valleys and streams of the Blackmash Hollow - the place she called home until moving into Townsend when her father began working for the lumber industry. He later bought a small group of cabins and a restaurant to serve early tourists coming to the tiny mountain town. Willie (W.M) came out of present day Tremont (part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park) where his Parents, Raish and Annie Stinnett and his Grandparents, Ben and Millie Stinnett farmed. Billie's Maternal Great-grandfather was Will Metcalf, a Cherokee Indian who owned and cultivated the area that is now Metcalf Bottoms near where Blanche attended Little Greenbrier School. Blanche's Mother was Mahalia Jane Metcalf, wife to Andrew Shelton. Billie's uncle, Jim Shelton was a photographer whose pictures of the lumber industry are held in National Park Archives along with family photos and stories. Uncle Jim was also the man who married Caroline Walker, the only of the famous Walker Sisters to marry and have children. From Tremont to White Oak Flats the Stinnett and Shelton names are big part of National Park history. Billie's family meant everything to her and her East Tennessee roots ran deep. It was hard to get her to leave. All that changed one day in 1947 when a tall, dark haired young man came into her Father's restaurant in Townsend and saw her behind the counter. Melvin Webb was visiting town with a friend who had known Billie since childhood. "Stanley, I'm going to marry that girl!", he said as they left. Good to his word, after dating for two weeks and writing to each other for three months, they married in December of 1947. As a young couple they moved to Alabama with his parents. A year and a half later their first child was born in the nearest clinic in a small town near Tupelo, Mississippi. Soon, with jobs scarce, they moved their young family to Illinois where they lived for many years. There Billie gave birth to three more children. In the early '60s they returned to Tennessee so that her husband could go into the Military full time instead of just as a Reservist. With that she became a Military wife, often on her own working and raising her children as he spent 31years of active duty with the U.S. Navy. But her children will tell anyone that she always made time for school events, to help with homework and life's harder lessons, and to show the love she gave them and all others she took within her circle. The family will receive friends from 5:00 until 7:00 PM at Smith West Chapel. Funeral service will be at 7:00 PM. Interment will be at 11:00 AM, Saturday, July 8, 2017at Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery. Smith Funeral & Cremation Service, Maryville, 865-983-1000, www.SmithFuneralandCremation.com. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Billie Hope Webb please visit our Sympathy Store.