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Cocke County’s Del Rio is a beautiful and scenic community of around 2,300 citizens setting against the Cherokee National Forest and nearly 10 miles out of Newport.

Once the territory of the Cherokees, the area was first settled by English speakers in the early 1780s. A fairly isolated area, the old Appalachian Mountain speech style was common until recent times. One of the main early livelihoods of the area would be logging, along with farming and small businesses.

Up a narrow valley from Del Rio is Max Patch, a natural bald among the forested Appalachian Mountains. Several claims of fame to the Del Rio area were the setting for the book and TV series “Christy,” by Catherine Marshall. Your writer would enjoy a small part in that series. A beloved citizen of the area would be Etta “Granny” Nichols, 1897-1994. Granny served as a midwife for the area and would birth more than 2,000 children. Her charge would be from $2 to $15 per delivery, with no charge often being made for poor women. Another noted Del Rio (Slab Town section) native would be Academy Award nominee singer and actress Grace Moore.

Doloris Stokely Temple was born in 1947 in a cabin alongside the French Broad River. Young Doloris was delivered by midwife Etta “Granny” Nichols. She would be among Jess and Verlie Fox Stokely’s three sons and eight daughters, with Granny delivering all the children except for a pair of twins who were born at the Newport hospital. Granny lived about two miles from the Stokely family and was where a younger Doloris would often visit Granny and sometimes help her out.

With timber being having early been an important product of the area, her grandfather had operated a sawmill and her father would first provide for his family as a logger by cutting timber into logs and cordwood. He would later buy a family home at Dry Fork where tobacco would be a principal crop.

Doloris would begin school at Dry Fork, when after the fourth grade her mother would find it necessary to keep Doloris at home to help care for the younger children. With the ending of her formal education, Doloris would continue to read a lot. Marriage would take Doloris away from her home place and she would soon find herself with three children that included Jessie, Marcelle and David.

With not enough money coming in to support and feed her young family, Doloris would take a job at the nearby Bennington Pine Company. The job paid $2 an hour, which was a blessing to Doloris who told that she was treated well at her job. Finding that building solid wood home furnishings was a fit to her abilities, she excelled at the job and soon found herself moving around to the other departments, where she began learning more skills.

“My boss was talking to my mother and told her that I was sharp,” Doloris told. “I could set up complicated machines and was called when something went wrong. When I would take a pattern from a machine that I’d set up, the manager would always tell others that my work was always precise.” After a considerable time at the Bennington Company, new technology and supervision would come in, leaving Doloris to move on to a new job.

Finding it necessary to get out of her first marriage, Doloris would spend her off time at home with her family and to avoid gossip. A year would pass until a friend convinced her to attend one of the Hillbilly’s Saturday musical gatherings in Del Rio. Having been founded by Paul Simpson, Hillbilly’s would become a popular gathering spot for area folks to enjoy the live music of talented musicians, and would become a good opportunity for Doloris to enjoy some personal time.

Plywood boards would be laid out for dancers. A naturally talented dancer, Doloris would dance as well sing along with some of the groups that would be performing. She would become a regular Saturday night attendee until Hillbilly’s finally closed down.

During that time Doloris would remarry and have son Anthony, who has now gone on to a very successful business life. After having learned the woodworking trade, Doloris decided to start her own business. That would involve a building and later a larger building and she would be soon be producing her own products with her own high standard of quality. Her specialty would be solid oak or maple furnishings. Doloris loves the beautiful natural grain in the wood and would cringe when a buyer would paint over the natural patterns. Her business would soon be growing.

With her business now stable and with her home which she had helped build, Delores was missing the weekend Hillbilly gatherings and the people and decided to open a new location for a similar musical entertainment venue. An empty century-old former garage on the outskirts of Newport then owned by Ryan Lumber Company was located. Jess Parton had earlier established a flea market across from the garage. That would lead to Doloris along with her husband George and son Jessie going to work.

The fuel oil and grease which covered floors was cleaned and Jessie used his carpentry skills to build a stage and change the atmosphere into a comfortable music hall. Her former brother-in-law Don had kept all the photos of early performers along with other furnishings from the original Hillbilly’s and passed them on for the new music hall.

For the weekly Saturday evening shows, Doloris and her husband George have a list of performers of various musical styles that appear on a rotating basis. Several of those acts would include the rock band Long Shot, the Hartsells of Stone Mountain who perform country and gospel music, the bluegrass Foggy Memory Boys, Dennis Crawford and his daughter, along with music vets Donnie Coldiron and Aaron Trent. Doloris insists on keeping the events family-friendly and alcohol-free so that children can also attend. A full kitchen is available where son Jessie, also an accomplished cook, can provide refreshments.

“The music barn is a little world where people can enjoy being together and I intend to keep it going until I fall over. We’re only closed when the weather is bad”, the feisty 79-years-young Doloris would end.

Unfortunately, after this story was posted, Deloris called to tell that she had just lost her factory to fire. The determined woman is already considering rebuilding her company on a smaller scale.