The Little Red Chair & A White Oak Basket, too!

The Story of the Little Red Chair Getting a New Seat

When Christy was a little girl, Grandma Hitchcock got her a little red chair with a woven seat.   It was a favorite around the house for everyone’s growing up years.  As kids moved away the little red chair remained, and it has been stored in the nursery barn for 10 years or so.  The seat deteriorated long ago until nothing was left of it.  I have often looked at it and wondered where I could find someone to replace the seat.  I emailed some basket makers but they were not interested in such a small job.

One evening I was watching Tennessee Crossroads on PBS.  They were visiting with Willie McLerran (pronounced Mack  ler   anne) in Clay County near Celina, Tennessee.  Willie is 92 years old and still makes white oak baskets.  He starts by cutting the small white oak trees and takes the project all the way to a basket.  I was impressed with his “scrappiness” and thought I had found my man to fix the chair seat.

I located his phone number and address at switchboard.com and called him.  I asked if he would put a seat in a little chair for me.  He said he would and would do it with hickory bark.  He needed a one day notice so he could soak the bark overnight and make it pliable enough to work with.  He said it would only take him about an hour to do the project and that we could visit with him as he worked.

On Monday, October 29, 2012 Debby and I started to Celina.  The car wouldn’t start so we went in the truck.  Mapquest said it would take an hour and a half but the route through Livingston took much longer than that.  We finally arrived at Mr. McLerran’s and had a delightful visit with him and his wife.  We were amazed at his strength and dexterity as he quickly worked with the wet hickory bark.  It looked and felt and worked like leather.  Debby recorded his movements in photographs and they are part of the memories of the experience.  

I told him that I found him because of the TV coverage and asked him how it felt to be a TV star.  He said he had never seen the program but several of his neighbors had told him about it.  He said they always air it at church time so he never gets to see it.  But, he added, it sure had brought him a lot of basket sales.  He showed Debby his registry book where each customer records their name and address.  It was a book full of names from all over the country.  He said he had many more of these books in storage.

It was a good experience for us to meet Mr. and Mrs. McLerran.   As he skillfully worked, it was sweet to think of the little chair and the little girl who had first used it.  She was then, and is now, a wonderful daughter.  It is an honor to be her father.  

AND . . . Mr. McLerran had LOTS of white oak baskets for sale, so in between taking pictures and visiting with the McLerrans, I had plenty of time to pick one out to display at Little House.  I marveled at Mr. McLerran's work.  Many of the baskets were made within the last few years.  The one I chose was an egg basket completed in 2011.  Who knew that such skilled hands could still be so dexterous at the age of 92?