Frances Mangum was a fascinating character. She grew up dirt poor, raised three kids by herself, worked for Peerless Woolen Mills for 40 years, and became a local celebrity as she demonstrated hand tufting at historic Prater’s Mill.
Artist Routh Cline found Mangum, who died at age 93 on Monday, so fascinating she painted a portrait of Mangum tufting bedspreads on the porch of Prater’s Mill. Throngs of people enjoyed talking to her and taking her picture. She appeared in newspaper articles and was on television with Marcia Kling in Chattanooga.
Cheryl Wykoff, a volunteer at Prater’s Mill, is to be thanked for collecting so much on Mangum. Through Wykoff’s efforts, Mangum’s childhood handwork was displayed in the Folklife Resource Center at the McKissick Museum in Columbia, S.C.
This is Mangum’s story of the little tufted piece she completed as a child:
“When I was growing up, we were so poor we didn’t have furniture. When I was about 12, somebody gave me a little trunk to put my clothes in. I was so proud of the trunk I hand-tufted a trunk lid cover for it.
“To show you how hard it was to come up with material, I made it on a feed sack. Daddy would buy feed in cloth bags. He’d try to buy them with the same pattern. We’d take turns getting the bags to make a dress. I never did make my dress. I’ve still got the bags.
“My family tufted spreads at home. When I got old enough to work, I could have taken lessons in Cohutta on how to do bedspreads on a machine. Instead, I got a job at Peerless Woolen Mills so I never worked in carpet.”
Frances Daley Mangum was born April 1, 1919, in Walker County. She was the daughter of Phillip Riley Daley and Lula Belle Roberts Daley. Her father fought in the Spanish-American War. After the war he came to Fort Oglethorpe where he helped design the drainage system for the fort.
Mangum married Lewis Duane Wallace and they had three children: Jerry Duane, Elliot Lavone and Jacqueline. They divorced when the children were young. Later, she married Hurbert O. Mangum.
There will be a memorial service for Frances Mangum on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Harvest Fellowship Church in Ringgold.
Local News
Related Photos
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In this photo taken sometime during the 1990s, Frances Mangum is pictured in a Prater’s Mill publicity mailout tufting a bedspread in advance of a weekend fair at the mill. Judy Alderman of the Prater’s Mill Foundation said “Miss Frankie” never liked the photo because the cape she wore was made by a machine — not hand tufted. (Contributed photo)
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Frances Mangum
Discussion
June 29, 2012
Frances Mangum, early tufter, dies at 93
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