NEWPORT-One of Cocke County's oldest citizens has died.

Reba Frank Davis Williams, age 101, died at her Newport home on Tuesday following a brief illness. She would have celebrated her 102nd birthday on January 14.

Born in the Goodwater community of Cocke County, she was one of three children and the only daughter of William Lee Davis and his wife, the former Lelia Easterly, and proudly claimed her heritage as a descendant of many of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina's earliest pioneers.

As a child, she moved to Parrottsville, then a mere village with an unpaved roadway connecting it to Newport and Greeneville. Here she grew to maturity, attending local schools.

Because Parrottsville High School only offered three years' work, she finished her fourth year at Newport's Central High School (now Cocke County High School), graduating in 1928.

For more details, please see the Thursday edition of the Newport Plain Talk.