Bena Mae Seivers

Bena Mae Seivers

Bena Mae Seivers

April 30, 1927-July 14, 2016

By Steve Seivers

My Mom,

Brought to us as Bena Mae Estep, one of 13 siblings of Hobert and Elizabeth Estep and raised in Corbin, Kentucky. Her family was brought to Clinton, Tennessee for the Manhattan Project in 1943.

She went to Clinton High School where one of her classmates sent her picture to his friend, Raymond Seivers who was serving in the Army. Although he had not met Bena Mae, Raymond carried her picture in his wallet throughout England, France and Germany. From Omaha Beach to the Battle of the Bulge her picture was with him.

After the w ar, Bena Mae saw Raymond on the street and the first thing that she thought was that he was going to be her future husband. Serendipity, they were married and moved to a flat top on Iona Circle in Oak Ridge in 1952.

After moving back to Clinton, Bena Mae was active in politics. She took Albert Gore Sr. on a tour of Anderson County during his first run for the Senate. She took him to the courthouse and the Andersonville General Store. After all, she would say, no one should be elected Senator from Tennessee without a visit to the Andersonville General Store.

She worked at the courthouse as the Administrative Assistant to the Sheriff keeping active in liberal politics for many years.

David McCoy and her brother, Don Estep encouraged her to write articles for their newspapers and 25 years ago, her career as a writer began. She wrote weekly and monthly articles for several publications. In print, she had a gentle sense of humor with an eye for nostalgia. In person, her sense of humor was not always that gentle. Her column, Simple Pleasures and her book of the same name gave her an outlet to comment on things that she found interesting and to tell stories that she found amusing.

She was born a God fearing Baptist but later became a God loving Methodist. She loved the people in the Methodist Church in Clinton and it became her home away from home for many years.

She left this world peacefully from complications of her leukemia.

She leaves her son Steve and his wife, Kathy and grandson Sam, We loved her so much and will miss her company.

Visitation will be held Wednesday, July 20th from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Holley-Gamble Funeral Home in Clinton, Tn.