Fred and Cyntitha Phillips
My mother-in-law is about to turn a hundred years old and in the nursing home now. We're fortunate enough to have her life's story told by her to me when she was in her early nineties. Her memory was keen. I taped Minnie as I questioned her so I had her story in her words and added details. I self published her story for her large extended family so everyone would be able to have a reference book when questioned by grandchildren and great grandchildren. Even I have to go to Minnie's book and look up details. That's what happened when I brought home a framed and matted poem titled The Home In The Hollow Minnie had cut from a magazine or newspaper years ago. I've studied the poem and wondered what special place it was that Minnie connected the poem with. Finally, after going through the book, I had a duh moment. I've been in this family fifty six years and have been to the home in the hollow that Minnie felt was so special. Those of us who have been in the family half a century have all felt the same way, because each time we went to the home in the hollow the couple that lived there made us feel at home. Minnie probably couldn't phrase how she felt about place, and the poem did it for her. Now I am thrilled to be the keeper of the poem.
This couple, Fred and Cyntitha (pronounced Sin tith a) Phillips were Minnie's parents. Behind Fred and his beloved Tithe, down the hill from the house, is Dye Creek. This is the last farm they owned together and was called the Dye Place. The roads are winding red clay and before street signs everyone gave directions to travelers to go by whoever lived along the road at the time. Fred and Tithe lived on this place from 1948 until Fred died in 1981 and shortly there after Tithe moved to Thayer, Missouri. I imagine the family named Dye were the first to homestead that farm or at least lived there for so many years that no one living could remember the first owners. Therefore the creek was given their name and the Dye place name stuck from years of their living in that hollow. No need to change it to the name Phillips place. Others wouldn't know here the farm was by that name.
Harold knew his way around the area well since he started life there. We went so often that even I could find my way around. We'd get to a country driveway that headed north and one that headed south. The north one went to Minnie's sister Ethel and her husband Frandell Risner. The south driveway went to the Dye Place. The road had cattle guards on it to keep the cattle that grazed on grass and tree sprouts from getting out. Made for easier driving when we didn't have to get out to open and shut the barb wire fence gates. In no time, we made a bend and there was the meandering Dye Creek in the hollow and on the hill was Fred and Cyntitha's house with an open porch in front and one in back. The yard was fenced with a picket fence and yard gate. We drove through Dye Creek past the spring house that the cold spring water rushed through. In side that shed was milk, cream and butter chilling. In days gone by, that was the refrigerator. Fred and Tithe met us at the yard gate with greetings and hugs. The days there were spent eating Tithe's good cooking and resting under in the shade of the trees. Come dusk we listened to the crickets, frogs and whippoorwills. The very birds the poet was referring to.
Home In The Hollow
by Frank Dycus 1987
There's a home in the hollow with a bubbling stream.
Where I can lay down and dream and dream;
And I can go places I've never been.
And I can be old or a young child again,
A home in the hollow where peace lives on,
Where life can stand still with the breaking of the dawn.
There's a home in the hollow with tall, tall, trees,
Where wee creatures live way high in the leaves;
And each night they join on their porches to sing,
With the frogs and crickets by the ponds and the spring;
And all the nightbirds join in on the song,
And the home in the hollow feels like it belongs.
There is a home in the hollow where the morning sunrise
is a great breathless wonder to the beholder's eyes;
Where a child can grow happy, wiser, and strong.
And family ties can go on and on;
Where people can share in the joy they give,
At home in the hollow where the good people live.
I'd never heard of Frank Dycus so I looked him up. Here is his biography. He is best known an accomplished songwriter.
b. Marion Franklin Dycus, 5 December 1939, Hardmoney, Kentucky, USA. Dycus initially had no thoughts of pursuing a career as a songwriter. At school he was reckoned to be studious and was writing poems to his mother when he was 14. He relocated to California in 1955 and soon afterwards, he enlisted in the US Air Force. He learned to play guitar and with his friend, singer Don Gonsalez, formed a duo called Don And Frank. They attempted to be soundalike Everly Brothers and found regular bookings over two or three States sometimes opening for touring stars such as Jim Reeves and Buck Owens and for a time they were regulars on KPEG Spokane. After discharge in 1962, Dycus spent a short time in Nashville but failed to find work and eventually settled in Wichita, where he worked for Boeing in the aircraft industry and also hosted a radio show on KATE. In 1967, he returned to Nashville and worked as a songwriter in Pete Drake’s music publishing company. In 1970, Dycus formed his own company, Empher Music, in partnership with Larry Kingston and Roger Fox. They achieved several minor hits including Wynn Stewart’s Top 50 with ‘Paint Me A Rainbow’. In 1972, they sold their company to Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner and Dycus joined Parton’s Owpar Publishing. He also managed Parton and Wagoner’s Fireside Recording Studios. At Wagoner’s instigation, Dycus made some recordings of a skiffle nature as Lonesome Frank And The Kitchen Band, with Wagoner helping out with backing vocal on some tracks. In 1979, he worked in Sweden with Abba’s drummer and other local musicians before returning to the USA to record an album that gained Swedish release on Sonet Records. In 1981, George Strait gained his first two Billboard chart hits with Dycus’ songs namely ‘Unwound’ (number 6) and ‘Down And Out’ (number 16) and the following year Strait gained another number 6 hit with the Dycus song, ‘Marina Del Rey’. In 1987, Dycus, who had been in failing health for sometime, had heart bypass surgery and was inactive for more than two years. In 1990, after initially deciding to retire from the music business, he formed a new publishing company in Nashville and gained further success with George Jones’ recordings of ‘I Don’t Need Your Rocking Chair’ and ‘Walls Can Fall’, songs he co-wrote with Billy Yates.
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