County resident approaching 100th birthday
Milltown – In April of 1924, Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Company merged to form Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM); Simon & Shuster published their first crossword puzzle; J. Edgar Hoover was appointed the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and in Columbus, Ga, a daughter was born to Jack Dillard and Bertha Odom Stratton.
They named her Vera.
On April 10, Vera Stratton Rogers Perkins Mullis will celebrate her 100th birthday. Her family plans to celebrate with her on Sunday, April 14. The party will be held at her home on Claude Rogers Road, beginning at noon.
All family and friends are invited to drop by and wish her a happy birthday.
When asked her secret to a long life, she joked, “Have lots of husbands and change them often.”
She then seriously replied, “The secret to a long-blessed life is to daily walk with God and go praying for everything from your family to the state of our country.”
Starting point
Vera was born the fourth of 10 children, during the Prohibition years.
Unfortunately, soon after her birth, her father – a moonshiner – was shot while running from the law and became disabled.
The Stratton’s settled in Robbinsville around 1928 and lived in the East Buffalo Community in a one-room house. Vera attended school at East Buffalo until she completed the sixth grade. She went to school in Robbinsville to continue her education until she was in the ninth grade.
Stratton spent her younger days working in the garden, washing out diapers in the creek for her younger siblings, cooking and fishing in Santeetlah Lake. She was also responsible for caring for her older sister Barbara (Bobbie) who was born blind and unable to walk. Vera cared for her sister until she died at age 15 and was buried in Lone Oak Cemetery.
At 19, Stratton traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., to attend beauty school. It was her first time on public transportation. She boarded the bus at Tapoco with $10 to pay for her schoolbook when she got there and had no idea where she would spend the night once she arrived.
Fortunately, she had overheard some of the passengers on the bus talking about the DM Rose Lumber Company, and the opportunity for room and board for anyone who would stay there and do the cooking, laundry, and cleaning at the lumber mills. She became a boarder at the lumberyard, attended beauty school, and supported herself at the mill for the next six months.
Once she completed her education, she returned to Robbinsville and opened her first beauty shop on Main Street.
Life of change
After World War II, she married Delmas Rogers, who had served in the Naval Airforce and received the Distinguished Flying Cross – which is the highest award for heroism and extraordinary aerial achievements. After his time in the service, he owned and operated a mechanic shop at the bottom of Main Street. The couple lived in town and raised two sons, Daniel Edward “Eddie” Rogers and Lawrence Raymond Rogers. They began building a home on Claude Rogers Road.
In January of 1958, Delmas and his brother-in-law Warren Humes drowned while ice skating on Santeetlah Lake. Vera found herself widowed, with two young sons who were aged 7 and 3 at the time.
It was a trying time in Stratton’s life, but she worked hard to provide for her sons and give them the best life she could.
She remarried in 1959 to Clay Perkins, who was a local businessman owning and operating Perkins Market – which was located where the Boars Nest Bargain Barn sits today. They continued to operate the store and Vera had a beauty shop in the back. They built a house and a 10-room hotel with five apartments beside Perkins Market. The Perkins finished construction on the home on Claude Rogers Road and sold it.
After divorcing Perkins, Vera and her son Larry moved to Georgia. Eddie went to Cullowhee to attend Western Carolina University.
Sadly, the hotel/apartment buildings built in Robbinsville burned after she had moved to Georgia. Her parents were now in Georgia and were renting out their home as a bed and breakfast to businessmen. Vera bought a home and began to rent rooms to help pay for it.
One of the gentlemen who was renting from her parents caught her eye. Richard Mullis eventually moved from her parent’s home to Vera’s home, and the two dated for the next year before she finally grew impatient and informed him that they would be married – and they were.
She and Richard built a home in Thunderbird in the late 1970s and later sold it in the 1980s. They purchased the property she had previously owned where the Boars Net Bargain Barn sits today and built an addition to the building for rental property. They also opened a restaurant, but it didn’t take Vera long to realize that a restaurant was too much work and she sold it.
From the late 1970s until the mid 1990s, the Mullis’ lived and worked in Atlanta. She started an interior design business and made custom window treatments for clients, as well as selling wallpaper and designer fabrics. She also helped her daughter-in-law open a store in Robbinsville, Linda’s Interiors.
The business was sold in the mid-1990s, and Mullis retired at 73.
100 years later
After retirement, Vera and Richard spent their summers in Robbinsville and their winters in Florida. Her son Larry passed away suddenly from a heart attack in 2008. He was buried in the Old Mother Cemetery beside his father Delmas and his grandfather Claude Rogers. Vera’s beloved husband Richard passed away in 2014.
While her life has not always been an easy one, she has always made the best of it. She still lives at home close to her son Eddie on Claude Rogers Road.
Raised in a different time, Vera still refuses to leave home before her make-up has been applied and her hair has been styled.
She is still able to do many things for herself and is an inspiration to all who know her.