Jettie Mcwilliams

Born in Atauga, AL on May 5, 1928

Departed on August 17, 2019 and resided in Ashland City, Tennessee

Dr. Jettie Manning Crisp McWilliams, aged 91, died August 17, 2019, at Hillcrest Healthcare in Ashland City, TN.
Dr. McWilliams was born May 5, 1928, to Susie Culpepper and Fletcher Manning in Autauga county, Alabama. Her beloved husband Robert Alton Crisp, Jr., of Martin, Ky, the father of her four daughters, predeceased her in 1961. In 1968, she married Wiley Everett McWilliams of Lexington, Ky, a beloved stepfather to her daughters, predeceased her in 1972.
Dr. McWilliams is survived by her four daughters, Jane Rae Crisp (William Douglas O'Rear), Victoria Ann Crisp (Timothy Yeager), Kathryn Diane Crisp (David Kumatz), Yvonne Nell Crisp Jones (Robert Stephen Jones, Jr.), and by her six grandchildren, Robert Alton Crisp III (Audrey Love), Lauren Grey Yeager, Michael Timothy Yeager, Daniel Crisp Kumatz, Adam Crisp Kumatz, and Robert Stephen Jones, III (Trey).
Dr. McWilliams last resided in Ashland City, and before that, in Nashville and Cookeville in Tennessee, Flagstaff and Phoenix, Arizona, and Lexington, Kentucky.
This is what she said about herself for the book jacket of a small collection of her poetry, entitled Music in the Wind:
"Dr. McWilliams is a retired professor and psychologist from Northern Arizona University. She is the author of more than fifty articles in professional journals and several chapters in books and has given presentations on her research throughout the United States and in four foreign countries: Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Sidney, Australia; Kyoto, Japan; and Acapulco, Mexico. She has published short stores (fiction), and is an award-winning poet both nationally and internationally.
Jettie received an outstand alumnus award from Bluffton College Ohio, where she received her teaching certificate. She was a Haggin Fellow at the University of Kentucky as a graduate student. She taught high school English and speech five years before she began her university teaching career at Tennessee Technological University where she remained fifteen years before going to Northern Arizona University.
Dr. McWilliams' poetry is a reflection of a lifetime of rich experiences in teaching, writing, and traveling throughout the world. She now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, near her beloved family."
However this is just the beginning of the story.
Jettie, a middle child out of ten, with the help of her high school teachers, was able to leave home and go to college at around sixteen years of age with no financial help from home. She married for love. Tony, an excellent husband and father who died in an accident in 1961, left her with four young daughters. Jettie was teaching school in Ohio at this time. She applied for scholarships and fellowships and was able to complete her master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Kentucky all without family financial resources all the while supporting her family.
After graduation, she moved her family to Cookeville where she taught at Tennessee Tech, eventually becoming Chairperson of the Department of Educational Psychology.
While at Tennessee Tech, she was very active in the women's movement. She filed an EEOC lawsuit which resulted in women in the public college and university system getting equal pay to their male colleagues. She paid dearly for this gift to Tennessee women. But she was to go on to even higher professional achievements at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, chair of the Department of Psychology, and then Phoenix, Coordinator of the Off Campus Graduate School, an even larger graduate school than in Flagstaff.
Dr. Jettie educated thousands of counselors and educators in Tennessee and Arizona. She inspired her children to aspire. Kathy and Jane are attorneys, Vicki is a veterinarian and world class long distance running competitor, and Yvonne followed in her mother's footsteps in psychology, counseling, and education.
Jettie was an active member of the United Methodist Church as an educator and committee chairperson. Her current membership is with Bellevue United Methodist Church.
Visitation will be at Harpeth Hills Funeral Home on Wednesday, August 20, from 5:30 until 7:30.
The funeral will be at the Bellevue United Methodist Church on Thursday, August 21 at 11:00 AM with the family receiving visitors 1-hour prior.