A western Kentucky woman is turning 100 years old and is sharing her memories of life in the region. Evelyn George Wilson, who turned 100 on Dec. 30, and her late husband, Tommy J. Wilson, a former Carlisle County judge-executive, had 11 children, eight of whom are still living. She is referred to as “G-mama” by her grandchildren and has kept a diary since the 1950s.
A couple of decades ago, she published her first book, a 1,000 page novel titled “This Is My Story This Is My Song” about her life. She said, “I’ve typed 1000 pages and written my life story so that was quite a job to do.”
She has stories from the Great Depression, growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, living on a farm as a child, and flying for the first time to England, Ireland and Las Vegas.
In a WKMS News interview with Wilson, she said one of her earliest memories was of her father.
“Seeing my dad go get on the horse —and I was about 5 years old I think —once a week,” Wilson said. We lived about 30 miles from Mayfield. He would get on that horse and take the horse to Mayfield. I remember him very well getting on that horse and riding away.”
One of her favorite memories is the first time seeing an automobile in person.
“We lived out in the country, and everybody would call on the phone and say, ‘well now the new car is coming by any time,’” she said. “Everybody would get out and come down and wait for that one car to come by, so that was an occasion to see the first car.”
Wilson and her stories are featured on a Youtube channel. She has also been advocating for restaurants to serve sugar-free desserts and refers to her efforts as a “Gmama Campaign.”
“It should be a law that every restaurant in the United States have sugar-free desserts because about one person out of I’d say every three people can’t have sugar,” she said.
Throughout her years, Wilson said she is able to look back on her life without regrets. She said her favorite years were “when I was raising my children.”
Wilson said if she could give advice to her younger self, it would be to “enjoy each day as it comes, each day, no matter what.”
