General Notes

]'HEBE' DECKARD, MOTHER LEVESTA, NICEST PEOPLE
by Larry Incollingo
Folks in the southeastern corner of Monroe County and surrounding
neighborhood say Hebe Deckard is about one of the nicest men you'd ever
want to talk to.
He is.
He smiles, says, "By gum" speaks kindly of his neighbors and
entertains with " 'Bile the Cabbage Down," " Big Sandy River," and "
Black Mountain Rag," on a violin 100 or more years old that he bought for
eight dollars when eight dollars was hard to get.
Hebert Deckard is 65. He and his mother Levesta live in spacious
four-room home on Knob Creek, a recently scraped gravel road that runs
east from the Chapel Hill-Barlettsville Road in Polk Township on R.1
Heltonville.
Hebe, who has never married, says of being a bachelor. "You might say
what you'd call me is one,' and of the probability of marriage he; says
off-handedly, "you can't tell what a man'll do."
" I told him to go ahead and marry if he wants to, " Levesta says of
the eldest of her 12 children, "and to not let me stop him, but I'v told
him to be sure to get a cook and not some streetwalker."
The Deckard home is situated almost at the end of Knob Creek, more
than a mile from the Chapel Hill-Barlettsville Road. It is one of those
country homes whose warm welcome sign is a collection of old, no longer
used pieces of farm machinery, an old car, outbuildings and Green grass
that lead to an inviting front porch.
The living room is charming with walls brought to life by pictures and a
variety of hanging pieces including a "God Bless our Home" one, towel and
spread covered furniture, and a piano, all warmed by a barrel stove made
by Hebe.
Two large bedrooms, one furnished with cedar furniture, including a
storage chest, and a roomy kitchen cabinet with rounded storage bins make
up the rest of the house.
Levesta has added charm to charm by continuing the hanging decorations
throughout the other rooms.
She and Hebe have been living here for about 40 years. Until they
moved to this house , home was farther up the creek- a box-like house of
four rooms with two porches where Levesta gave birth to her 12 children.
Dr. Jasper Cain was called from Heltonville, eight miles away, and
with the aid of neighbor women delivered her babies.
" A few people had telephones and we'd send someone down to call him
and he'd come," she explained how the doctor was summoned. "I think,"
Levesta commented on hospital deliveries " if you've a doctor and some
old women around you'll do just as well at home."
Levesta is 80 years old today.
She grew up in a small community that disappeared in the development
of Hardin Ridge and Lake Monroe. As a girl of little more than 16 she
became the wife of Lee Deckard who died in 1962.
Recalling her childhood days, Levesta said. "There were six of us and
my mother died when I was two, and I had a younger sister who was seven.
My daddy, David Smith, Just set right under us kids and raised us all. He
run around and saw no women. He just farmed and stayed on the place. I
only know of three men in whole life ever did that _ George Eads and
Billy Kinser, and my daddy. They set right under their families and
raised them."
"I split spokes, cut down trees, peeled hickory bark, stacked hay, cut
cord wood, and did everything except plow," she  remembered. "then when
Hebe reached 12 years old he took my place."
She remembered how she would churn butter while holding a baby in her
lap. "I used to get 35 cents for butter, and I saved it all until I got
$16.95 and sent off to Minneapolis, Minnesota for that kitchen cabinet.
It's over 50 years old now,  like the stove, and it's still like new . My
daddy bought me that stove."
Memories of her father bring tears. "I thank my dad for raising me the
way he did. I sit here and get to thinking about that man and just cry,
he was so good to us. I never gave him any sass in my life, and I thank
God."
She