Balford Duggan grew up attending Walden’s Creek United Methodist Church near his family home on Little Valley Road. Many of those who attended Walden’s Creek were related to him, so he was not having much luck finding a girl his age to date. On a Sunday night in 1933 he was persuaded by some friends to attend an evening service at New Era Baptist Church where he was told there were some attractive, eligible young women. During the service, a young lady caught his eye. Her name was Alice Flynn, and someone introduced them after the benediction. On June 25, 1933, Balford and Alice were married by the county judge while sitting in his 1926 Model T Ford.
Harley Balford Duggan was born on Jan. 22, 1909. He was the youngest of eleven children of George Calvin Duggan and Diana Benson Duggan. His siblings were: Ida (Lawson), Mattie (McGill), Lula (Andes), Pearl (Fox), Byrd (Sutton), John, William “Bill”. Oscar, Claude, and Vola (Helton). When he was 2, his father and grandfather built the house where he would reside for most of his life. He grew up hunting, fishing, and working on the family farm.
Employment was hard to find during the Great Depression. Balford looked for work until he finally hired as a contractor for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to help build U.S. 441 between Gatlinburg to Newfound Gap. After the highway was completed, Balford went to work ALCOA aluminum plant in 1937, and worked there throughout World War ll. In 1946, he returned to his father’s farm to help care for his father who was living alone after his mother died. He and Alice managed the farm and raised their son, Carroll on the farm where they lived the rest of their lives.
In addition to his farming duties, Balford began working as a carpenter for Fred Huskey and later Earl Huskey building the first chalets on Gatlinburg’s Ski Mountain. They also built houses and hotels throughout Sevier and adjoining counties. His last public job was assisting Bob Kirby wire a church. During the years he maintained a nine-to-five job, Balford not only ran the farm, he also made time for hunting, fishing, and sharpening saws for people.
In his spare time, Balford loved to restore old cars. He was extremely proud of a 1964 Chevy that he restored, telling anyone who would listen about it.
He celebrated his 21st birthday in January 1930 and voted for the first time in the county general election the following August. For the rest of his life, he never missed an opportunity to vote in local, state or national elections. But he was never loyal to just one political party. “I voted for the man,” he said. Balford cast his last ballot in 2010, eighty years after voting the first time.
In the 1990s, Bill Landry, who hosted the popular “Heartland Series” on Knoxville’s WBIR-TV found out about Balford and Alice’s wedding. With their permission, Laundry staged the simple wedding ceremony of the young couple sitting in the front seat of the blushing grooms 1926 Model T Ford while the presiding judge stood beside the car.
Later in life he became interested in growing heirloom tomatoes and particularly pumpkins, which he started growing from seeds handed down from his Irish ancestors. Several magazines and heirloom seed catalogs featured Balford’s pumpkin seeds, and they became so well-known he was sending pumpkin seeds all over the United States and as far away as Japan.
Balford reached the century mark on Jan. 22, 2009. On Sunday January 26, family and friends gathered at Walden’s Creek United Methodist Church to celebrate his 100th birthday. His granddaughter, Rhonda Entrekin, traveled all the way from Fort Worth, Texas to surprise him on for his birthday.
At the celebration, a reporter asked him if he had any secret to making it to 100. He told her that he didn’t really have any secret, but his son offered one theory. “He ate everything they grew out of his own garden,” said Carroll Duggan. “My mother was in her 80s when she died 11 years ago.
Balford Duggan’s long life ended on Dec. 7, 2010. He was less than two months shy of 102. He was buried beside his wife at Smoky Mountain Memory Gardens.
Carroll McMahan is the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce Historian and serves as the Sevier County Historian.
