Back to the big little city after 60 years, but still married to the farm, the story of my Great-Grandfather Deck Henderson

My maternal great-grandfather, Dexter(Deck for short) Henderson, was born on Pine Creek deep in the mountains of western North Carolina in Jackson County on September 10, 1880, to William and Octavia Norton Henderson. Deck's father was a farmer. Vocationally, he followed in his father's footsteps. His paternal ancestors had immigrated to North Carolina in the 1700s from Scotland.

Recently, I discovered a March 13, 1954, newspaper article on my great-grandfather from the Anderson Intelligencer Newspaper in Anderson, South Carolina. It gave me some great insights into his life. If there's one person I knew a good bit about, it was him. My Great-Aunt Alma Henderson Keener and my father, when they were alive, told me much about my Great-grandfather and Great-grandmother Dessie Moss Henderson.

Deck and Dessie Henderson were still alive when I was a small child. They came to Highlands, NC, to live with my grandparents in their later years, and that's where they lived when I was born. Both of us were able to spend some time with me when I was a small child. My Great-Grandfather Deck died at 8:10 pm on Thursday, December 16, 1965, when I was one and a half years old. Just after Thanksgiving Day 1965, he began a two-week decline due to liver failure and advanced kidney disease. He had also been suffering from anemia and a hardening of the arteries(arteriosclerosis) for almost ten years prior. But he had a long life. He was 85 at his death. According to my dad, Deck was a quick-witted, jovial guy who, in almost all my pictures of him, I sense the joy and the fun he had in life. My dad was a goofball just like him.

Looking at these pictures passed on to me from various relatives, I can see Deck's personality and how he always smiled or goofed off. I'm sure that had he lived until I was an adult, we would have gotten along fabulously. We are cut from the same cloth.

Here's the article:

And some pictures of My Great-Grandfather, Deck Henderson.

Deck is in the middle, surrounded by his two brothers. Burney is left, and Eugene is on the right.

Deck and Dessie Moss Henderson, Pine Creek at the house, March 1964.

Some candid photos from my dad's collection:

My great-grandfather is on the far right in this picture. My dad is standing in the truck. He was nine years old when this was taken. His little brother Furman is right beside him. His older brother, R. L.(Robert Lee Jr.), is down front on the left. My grandmother is sitting in the middle of the car. My dad's twin sister, Faye, is right behind him, and the girl on the far right is my Aunt Alma. My dad's first cousin, Bernice, stands on the far left. My dad told me his Grandfather Deck was driving them, and wanted to stop to get some pictures near the North Carolina-Tennessee line at a tunnel there. So they did. The family was going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for a vacation. My dad told me this trip in the summer of 1939 was a lot of fun.

My great-grandfather, Deck Henderson, is on the left down front, and beside him is my great-grandmother, Dessie Moss Henderson. In the back row, left to right, are Alma Henderson Keener, Bill Henderson, and my grandmother, Myrtle Cora Henderson Reese.

This is a family picture of the Henderson Family taken in 1913 on Pine Creek in Jackson County, North Carolina.a

Here's my Great Aunt Alma's description and identification of everyone in the photo.

Below is the Deck and Dessie Henderson Family 1924

Back row l to r: Florence Henderson Calloway, Alma Henderson Keener, Myrtle Cora Henderson Reese(my grandmother), Front, Deck Henderson, Bill Henderson, Dessie Moss Henderson

Above, Far left, Deck and Dessie Henderson, middle, Alma and Claude Keener, far right,t Robert L Reese & wife Myrtle Cora Henderson Reese, and their youngest daughter my aunt Anne Reese(Wilson)

81st Birthday Party for My Great Grandfather, Deck Henderson, was at Pine Creek on September 10, 1961.

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Below is the house my grandmother grew up in—my great—grandparents' Deck and Dessie Henderson's home. It's on a ridge above Lake Glenville in Jackson County, North Carolina. The Lake was formed in the 1940s when the river was damned. My Grandmother Myrtle got the house after they passed away in the 1960s, but sold it. The house still stands today in 2025.