BROWNSVILLE — Jean Wells Meredith Weldon, 81, of Brownsville, died at 4:20 p.m. Oct. 9, 2011, at a Bowling Green nursing home.

Love for Kyrock, 

By Alicia Carmichael, May 16, 2005

Woman shares memories of small Edmonson County camp through her writings

Monday, May 16, 2005

BROWNSVILLE 

     She was born in the Kentucky Rock Asphalt Co. camp at Kyrock in rural Edmonson County.

     Her father, Jess Wells, worked on the company railroad. Her mother, Dorsie Wells, was a housewife.

     I was a very happy child, said Jean Wells Meredith Weldon, 75, of Brownsville. There wasn’t much money around but we had a lot of fun because we invented our own play things and played on the rocks.

     Weldon loved life in the camp in Kyrock, where there were many young families with children her age.

     The houses were so close together in places you could almost walk from one porch onto another, she said. Maybe that’s why we had so much fun.

     Weldon went to kindergarten in the asphalt camps Blue Town Hill hotel. Then, she studied at Kyrock School.

     Christmas was her favorite time of year. Then, each child who was living in the camp, was given fruit, candy and gifts by Santa. For Weldon, it was a storybook life, except that her father was ill.

     Weldons dad developed heart trouble when she was young. But the people of Kyrock stood by to help him.

     There, everybody helped each other, Weldon said. They would have things like quiltings to help the family.

     When Weldon was 9, her dad moved his family to a farm just outside of the Kyrock camp.

     Weldon said she liked life on the farm. She could still go to her old school and see her old friends.

     At 11, however, tragedy struck. Weldons dad died, and she was grief stricken.     The loneliness and the things you’d like to ask him and talk about were the things that bothered her most about the death. But I had a good mother, Weldon said. She was a mother and father both.

     On the farm, Weldon, her siblings and her mom subsisted by raising their own food. Sometimes, Weldons mother would rent out part of their land to other farmers for extra cash. Luxuries were all but unheard of for Weldon. But she never thought about them. Everybody was poor, but we didn’t know it, she said.

     As a teenager, Weldon fell in love with Warren G. Meredith, who was four years her senior and whom she'd seen at Kyrock School ballgames.

     At 16, she was ready to marry. Her mother, however, thought she was too young. So did Harry St. George Tucker Carmichael, the head of the asphalt company and a friend of her late father.

     Mr. Carmichael was a very good man, Weldon said. He was always trying to help people. He offered to send me to nursing school. He thought I was too young to get married. But I didn’t listen. Instead, she and Meredith married. Now I know it was too young, she said. But I was happy until he died.

     In the early years, the Merediths lived with her mother. Later, they built a home on the family farm.

     Together, they had their only son, Gary D. Meredith, who lives in Sweeden in Edmonson County.

     For a while, Weldon was a stay-at-home mom.

     The first job I had was as a cook at Kyrock School. I worked there when my son started Kyrock School when he was 6.

     She stayed at the job for about two years.