James Clayton Moody: Growing Up In Avery County, NC. 1933-53

On March 21, 1933, James Clayton Moody, known to the family in his childhood years as Jimmy and Jim as a young adult, was born at Grace Hospital in Banner Elk, NC.

Grace Hospital in Banner Elk, NC.

The small mountain village was located high in the Blue Ridge Mountains bordering the Tennessee state line with Roan Mountain.

Elk Park Location

Jimmy was the first and only child born to Lucy Moody. Like her son, she was also an Avery County native and was born at Grace Hospital in Banner Elk, NC. She grew up living with her parents, Tom and Julia Moody, who resided in Elk Park, NC. The thirteen-year-old mother suffered complications during childbirth and had to remain in the hospital for three months after her baby's birth. The newborn-healthy boy went home with grandparents Tom and Julia Moody.  

Lucy left, and her friend Mae Davis in 1935.

                                  

Jimmy’s father, John Blevins of Johnson City, TN. became deceased before he saw his son’s birth.

John Blevens of Johnson City, TN.

Tom Moody, known to family, friends, and neighbors as “Poppy” or “Poppy Tom,” migrated to Western North Carolina from the Alberta, Canada area.

Tom Moody

 

Julia (Blackburn) Moody originated from nearby Wilkesboro, NC. area.

Julia (Blackburn) Moody

The exact date Poppy Tom and Julia Moody moved to Elk Park, NC is unknown, but it was before their daughter Lucy was born in 1920. Both children Lucy and Broadway lived in Elk Park until their death. Lucy’s son, Jim, lived in Elk Park until 1954 until moving to Johnson City, TN. to work. He lived in Elk Park again in 1985 until the early 1990s. Once he reached the doctoring years he moved back to Johnson City and lived until he died in 2018. Great grandson, James Michael, maintains the Moody homeplace to this day. Four generations of the Moody family have lived in Elk Park for 105-plus years.

 

Tom and Julia Moody.

Due to Lucy’s lingering hospital stay, young age, inability to provide a stable home; and the passing of Jimmy’s father John Blevins before his birth, the newborn was taken in by his grandparents on his mother’s side.

Unknown and Lucy Moody.

This is what Elk Park looked like in 1933 when James Clayton was born. The photographer is standing with their back toward the east and Newland, NC., and facing west toward Roan Mountain, TN. The narrow-gauge steam locomotive was officially known as the No. 12 and was built in 1917 by Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works. 

Elk Park 1933

It was initially built for the North Carolina Railroad when the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad (ET & WNC) began operations in Johnson City, TN. In 1919, the railroad company expanded its tracks to Boone, NC. The steam engine was quickly nicknamed “Tweetsie” by local mountaineers who became familiar with the shrill “tweet” of the train’s whistles.

Tweetsie Railroad

This is a beautiful winter painting by Don Iverson of Elk Park around the 1930s. Don used a local photo as a guide and inspiration.

Don Iverson

James Clayton Moody, approximately one-year-old, in 1934.

James Clayton Moody

Grandfather Poppy Tom Moody and James Clayton Moody. approximately age two, 1935.

Poppy Tom Moody and James Clayton Moody

 

Work crews began construction on the Blue Ridge Parkway on September 11, 1935, near Cumberland Knob, NC. although the National Parkway was not officially established until June 30, 1936. The road is known for its scenic beauty and is America’s longest linear park, which runs for 469 miles through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, The Parkway was designed to link the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina.

Blue Ridge Parkway

Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway construction was done by private contractors. Still, a variety of New Deal public works programs were also employed, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The massive project was finally completed in Avery County with the construction of the Lynn Cove Viaduct in 1987 at the cost of 10 million dollars.

Blue Ridge Parkway

Oscar and three-year-old James Clayton Moody in 1936.

Oscar and James Clayton Moody

Jim grew up from 1938 onward living with his grandparents in a job-provided house beside the one-story Elk Park Elementary School. The rock structure was built between 1935 and 1938. It was one of eight structures funded by the WPA, a federal relief agency in Avery County. Poppy Tom Moody became the first custodian of Elk Park School when it opened in 1938. Enic Potter became the second school custodian after his retirement.

Elk Park Elementary School

James Clayton Moody, approximately five years old, in 1938.

James Clayton Moody

This family pic was taken approximately in 1939 when Jim was around six. Back row is mother Lucy Moody, grandmother Julia Moody, uncle Broadway Moody, seated in a chair is grandfather Poppy Tom Moody, and to his right is James Clayton Moody.

Lucy, Julia, Broadway, Tom, and Jim

This early 1940s Elk Park picture is taken with the photographer standing with their back to the west toward Roan Mountain, TN., and facing east toward Newland, NC. 

Elk Park early 1940s.

Jim Moody, in a solo picture, when he was approximately seven years old in 1940.

James Clayton Moody

Jim Moody, in a solo picture, when he was approximately eight years old in 1941.

James Clayton Moody

 

This November 1942 picture of Elk Park was taken with the photographer’s back to the west toward Roan Mountain, TN. The photographer is facing east towards Newland, NC. The road crossing the tracks to the right and running uphill, known as Winters Street today, leads to the future Moody homeplace, purchased after Popy Tom retired from the school system and moved off school property. 

Elk Park 1942

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Jim Moody, in a solo picture, when he was approximately ten years old in 1943. 

James Clayton Moody

Jim Moody, in a solo picture, when he is approximately eleven years old in 1944.

James Clayton Moody

 

This is what Elk Park looked like while Jim was growing up around 1945 at age twelve. This train magazine cover features a view of the photographer standing with their back to the east towards Newland, NC., and facing west towards Roan Mountain, TN.

The Blue Ridge StemWinder

This is a close-up view of the train depot in Elk Park. As a twelve-year-old and above boy, Jim hung out here.

Elk Park Depot

Jim Moody around age thirteen in 1946. A big scout taking care of little scouts.

James Clayton Moody

This is the Grist Mill in Elk Park. As a boy, Jim would carry garden products from his Hump Mountain home there to have them milled. He then carried the milled products back home.

Elk Park Grist Mill

At around thirteen Jim worked part-time for Brinkley’s Hardware. To begin with, Jim helped unload boxcars and stored the newly arrived merchandise in the Brinkley storage unit. This is an older pic taken before Jim’s day.

A.P. Brinkley

Jim Moody with his family around age fourteen in 1947.

James Clayton Moody and family.

As he grew older Jim's job at Brinkley's expanded to help deliver ordered supplies to job sites, or people’s homes.

Brinkley's Delivery Truck

 

Jim attended worship at the Elk Park Christian Church as well as all the other local places of faith.

Elk Park Christian Church

As a boy Jim and his friends rode their bicycles down to Elk River Falls to go swimming, as local kids still do today. 

Elk River Falls

This is a pic of a 1940s Elk Park winter. Jim used to love to dig snow tunnels as a kid.

Elk Park, NC.

This end-of-1940s Elk Park picture is taken with the photographer standing with their back to the west toward Roan Mountain, TN., and facing east toward Newland, NC. The road turning right just off of Main Street going uphill and crossing the railroad tracks is Winters Street. After Poppy Tom retired from the School System he purchased property at the top of that street. He and his wife Julia lived there until their death, leaving the homestead to their children Broadway and Lucy Moody. 

Elk Park late 1940s

Jim met and married his first wife Ester. 

Ester and James Clayton Moody

Jim got his first motorcycle while living in Elk Park. To his best recollection, at age seventy-nine, it was a 1947 Indian Chief. That is how he came up with his Ghost Riders motorcycle club nickname “Chief."

Jim's first motorcycle.

James Clayton Moody, mother Lucy Gray (Moody) Franklin, stepfather Bead Franklin, and step-sister Phyllis Franklin.

Jim, Lucy, Bead, and Phyllis.

James Clayton Moody with step-sister Phyllis Franklin.

James Clayton Moody and Phyllis Franklin.

Jim with an unidentified Elk Park friend.

James Clayton Moody and friend.

Jim met and married his second wife Helen Marie Shell from Roan Mountain, TN. Eventually, the couple had two children together. James Michael Moody was born August 13, 1954, in Johnson City, TN., and Debra Faye Moody was born September 25, 1955, in Banner Elk, NC.

James Clayton Moody and Helen Marie (Shell) Moody

Around 1953 the Avery County job market had completely dried up. No substantial work could be found anywhere. That was bad news for Jim and Helen because she was pregnant with her and Jim’s first child. Desperate to find him and his family members employment Bead Franklin temporally relocated his family to his hometown of Canton, OH. This is a pic of Jim and a buddy he friended at work. After a few months in Ohio, the Franklin family returned to Avery County. 

Work buddy and James Clayton Moody in Canton, OH.

Soon after his return from Canton in the middle of 1954, Jim got a job at Honey Crust Bakery in Johnson City, TN. He and his second wife, Helen, relocated there where he worked for twenty-eight years.

James Clayton Moody

About The Author

James Michael Moody, AKA Toker, was born in Johnson City, TN. on  August 13, 1954. He is the firstborn and oldest child of James Clayton Moody. Besides being father and son, the two were best friends as adults, and continuously spent time together for over sixty-five years. Both rode together in the same local motorcycle club, Ghost Riders, for over forty-five years. They were inseparable from the time James Michael was born until the day James Clayton passed.

Toker also manages a personal blog titled, Ghost Rider Toker, which shares stories about his 50 + years of riding with the Ghost Riders Motorcycle Club of Avery Co. NC. (1972-75) and Washington Co. TN. (1976-2010) Avery Co. NC.(2011- Still going.)

James Michael Moody is also the author of the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, and Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022. Swordsman On Unium is going through the publishing process now.