Washburn to Celebrate 100th Birthday

McKENZIE — Wayford Otis Washburn, Sr. of McKenzie, is celebrating his 100th birthday on July 21, 2025. He is one of the few World War II veterans remaining in Carroll County. His military service was in post-conflict (Yokahoma), Japan.

The centurion was born in Henderson County on July 21, 1925 to Vester and Dovie Ardell Ross Washburn. He was the second born of seven children - Fred, who died at age 99 in January 2023; Leo, who died at age 2 in July 1932; James Lloyd Washburn, who died at age 57 in February 1985; Arlene Washburn Davis, who is the lone surviving sibling; Billy Washburn, who died at age 85 in October 2020; and Helen Louise Washburn Moore, who died at age 87 in January 2025.

The family grew up as children of a sharecropper. They moved from Henderson County in 1938, first moving to a farm, where Lakeside Retirement Community Center now stands and prior to the construction of Carroll Lake, built in 1949-1950.

The family moved to Tennessee Street to the Bateman farm in 1947 and farmed the land around the now McKenzie Elementary School.

In 1947, the family moved and worked the farm of Eulas Pickler, where the family milked cows and farmed the 147 acres in Henry County off Ben Smith Road (Cole Street) McKenzie. The family later purchased the farm using James Washburn’s GI Bill money.

Wayford O. Washburn, Sr., is a lifelong farmer, who owned farms on Como Road in McKenzie and Hinkledale Road in McKenzie. Still today, he manages his cattle on the Hinkledale Road farm.

He is known to many former students at McKenzie Schools as their school bus driver, a job he performed each morning and afternoon for many years. His son, Wayford O. Washburn, Jr., was his substitute driver. Wayford, Sr. also served as an elected constable.

Wayford, Sr. married his first wife, Alice Marie Kirksey Washburn in 1947. They had one son, Wayford, Jr., born in 1949.

Prior to his marriage, Wayford Sr. joined the Army on April 16, 1946, and served in Japan as part of the American Occupational Forces. He was assigned to a transportation unit and received a World War II Victory Medal upon his honorable discharge.

He and his younger brother, James Lloyd Washburn, both served in Japan at the same time. James was enlisted on June 7, 1946, in the Army/Air Force and served in Yamato, Japan. He was listed on his Honorable Discharge document as a light truck driver. James enlisted in the inaugural class of Tennessee National Guardsmen in the McKenzie unit.

There is a lone photograph of the two brothers together in Japan. That photo was made in 1946.

When interviewed about his military service, Wayford, Sr. said he worked with the Japanese men who were very respectful to him. “They liked me,” said Wayford. During the recent interview, he could recall scant details about his military service, but remembered he received an early discharge from service because his dad was injured on the farm when a team of mules or horses broke loose, fracturing his dad’s bones, rendering him unable to work. During World War II and the post-conflict occupation of Japan and in Europe, many young men left the farms to serve their country. The Washburns were two from the same family, serving in the military.