“Just One More Generation”

Photos and Profile by Kim Koon

Basket making was a necessity at one time. During the depression it was a major source of income for some Cannon County families. White oaks were harvested, split, whittled, scraped, and shaped into well-made, usable baskets. The finished products were loaded-up, taken to local retailers, and sold or traded for things these families could not make or raise themselves. Most of the baskets traded locally were sold to vendors who would head north with them. These beautiful pieces of handmade art were used daily in household tasks such as gathering eggs and garden vegetables. In the 1970’s basket making skills became more refined. When collectors of Americana and folk art started buying them up, their worth increased, and they started being used less and admired more on shelves. 

Sue Williams, 76, of Morrison, has been making baskets for more than 30 years. She is a master basket maker, award winner, and teacher. Several different local artisans taught her and were some of Cannon County’s finest. Included in these were Estell Youngblood and Grace Youngblood, who taught her early-on, but her true mentors were Gertie Youngblood and Mary Jane Prater. 

“Each thought that I had a talent for making baskets.”, Williams said. “Ms. Gertie asked me to study under her after my second year of classes and told me that I had basket making in my blood. Years later, I discovered that the Harrell side of my family made and sold baskets.”

Sue has won numerous awards including “Best of Show” at several juried basket making shows and fairs. “I received the South Arts Central Appalachian Folk and Traditional Master Artist Fellowship Award in 2019 and the Governor’s Folklife Heritage Award in 2019, but I am most honored to have received an Apprenticeship Award to be a master teacher for an apprentice for four consecutive years starting in 2016 for the state of Tennessee.” Her apprentices were Brenda Kucharski, Michelle Hennessee, Rhonda Brown, and Sue’s nephew, Brent Hewitt. Each one has become a master basket maker. She has also been featured in national basket magazines, has baskets in a museum, has them displayed at the Arts Center of Cannon County, and has them in places as far away as Australia. 

Sue still has her first basket, but she doesn’t know which one it is. “30 years ago, I didn’t sign or date any of my baskets and only started doing so years after I began.”, Williams said. She owns over 125 baskets, and she made over 100 of them. She has a basket she named “Gertie Sue”. Gertie Youngblood started the basket, and Sue finished it.  She also has a basket named “Big Bertha”. “Big Bertha” is a two-bushel basket that took Sue over 6 years to complete, working off and on. She used extremely thin weavers which is unusual for a basket of that size. The smallest one she makes is an egg basket that measures less than one inch and can be worn on a necklace. 

Sue is recognized as the only teacher remaining in the Middle Tennessee area, sharing her knowledge to preserve skills needed to carry-on this Cannon County tradition. She remembers to teach the simplest of details. She has instructed people as far away as New Jersey, Iowa, and Hawaii. 

“The most rewarding thing about teaching is seeing a student who has misgivings about making a basket gain confidence as the basket begins to take shape over a period of days. I do not see myself as an exceptional artist, but I do see myself as a master basket teacher.”, Williams says.

Cannon County baskets are almost always recognizable by the way they are tied together. Sue calls it the “Cannon County Tie”. “If a basket is tied this way at the handle, it more than likely has a Cannon County connection.” Sue describes “The Cannon County Tie” as an “X” with a loop on the handle. The “Appalachian Smile” is another characteristic that is special to Cannon County. This refers to the darker heartwood in a smile shape that has been incorporated into the design. 

There is a significant decline in the number of people with the skills and knowledge to make white oak baskets. There aren’t many artists left. Sue is concerned that basket making will die. “Why spend this much time making something when you can go to a job and earn so much more? Someone must take an interest in basket making that appreciates the art and wants to help carry the tradition to others.”, Williams said. 

Another factor contributing to the struggle of this primitive arts survival is the challenge of finding quality supplies. “Supplies are getting hard to find in Cannon County, so I source my materials from local mountain land. I have a supplier that I contract with each year. He is a third-generation basket maker.”, Williams said.

Every year Sue sets-up at the White Oak Craft Fair held at the Arts Center of Cannon County in Woodbury. She will be there again this year inside the building demonstrating basket making with her apprentices.  She will be teaching a basket making class there in the summer of 2023.

Gertie Youngblood took an interest in teaching Sue all that she knew. She saw a rare opportunity to mentor a young, eager apprentice so that this fading heritage skill that she loved would have a chance to be carried-on another generation. Youngblood saw potential, and Sue is doing exactly what Gertie wanted her to do; teach. Now, Sue wants the same thing. Finding another person who will teach is the most important thing to her. 

“I want to find that one student who will take the time to become a master basket maker and have the interest to teach others to carry the tradition of the “Cannon County Tie” forward just one more generation.”