Waylene (Polly) "Willie" Reavis

Waylene (Polly) “Miss Willie” Reavis, was born March 16, 1939 to William Wayne Polly and Myrtis Francis (White) Polly at the family farm known as the Holdren and then the Polly Place, 11 miles north of Richland off Route A in Camden County, Missouri. She was the second and last child born to Myrtis and Wayne and was supposed to be a boy, thus Waylene was named after her father Wayne. As she grew, she learned to work the farm with her daddy and he called her “man”. Perhaps this helped her to develop into an independent and entrepreneurial person. She loved her Daddy and could and would do anything he asked her to do to help him on the farm. She developed a life long love for animals and farming especially vegetable gardening and worked alongside the men in the field. As a preteen and teenager, she planted and worked a one acre strawberry patch and sold her crop in Richland to the local Warren’s Grocery as well as others in town. She put on Christ in baptism at an early age and attended services at Glover Chapel Church of Christ as a youth. She was a 1956 graduate of Richland High School and was active in school, traveling to all the basketball games as a member of the cheerleading squad. I discovered some of her old grade cards in an old box in her belongings while still a youngster in High School and learned that she was a straight E student until about the 7th or 8th grade. I asked her “What happened when you started to make some S’s and M’s, B’s and C’s? Was that when you discovered boys?” She just smiled and grinned. One of the young handsome boys she discovered was Rollin Jarrett. They courted during her Junior/Senior year and were wed in 1956. To their union was born one son, John Wayne “Johnny Wayne” Jarrett. They divorced a few years later and Waylene became a young single mother, raising John, with the help of her family, Mamaw, Papaw, and Auntie, and working at many different jobs always trying to better herself to support herself and her young son. A few years later, she met another handsome Italian man, John James “Jay” Ferrante and they married in June of 1960. Jay was in the United States Army and Waylene and Johnny accompanied him to Germany for a three-year tour of duty. There, Waylene worked at the Top Five NCO Club as a cocktail waitress and bartender. She and Johnny learned to speak German fluently and twist and shout to the tunes of Chubby Checkers. The family returned to Fort Leonard Wood, where Jay retired. Waylene went to Cosmetology School and opened her own beauty salons. First Ferrante’s Fashion Salon in St. Robert and then the Red Carpet Beauty Salon in west Waynesville. Eventually she and Jay owned and operated the Champlin Truck Stop Restaurant along with her mother and stepfather. Jay and Waylene divorced after 14 years of marriage and Waylene struck out on her Alaskan adventure where she owned and operated the Wilderness Inn Lodge and Fish Camp with Jack Mathis and later her own venture Tundra Willie’s, assisted by her husband Jack Reavis, of 19 years. Waylene became an avid fisher woman, snagging 40 – 50lb King Salmon in King Salmon, Alaska on the Naknek River. Waylene bought homes in Naples, Florida, Anchorage, Alaska and Herlong, California and finally in the Dixon area off Highway 28 where she and Jack, and her mother lived together in semi retirement until Myrtis’ death in 2004. It was then that Waylene’s own health began to decline. But she still raised gardens and canned vegetables and fruit with much help from Jack. She also raised beautiful flowers and shrubs again with help from Jack, John and Lisa Mills. She remained active in Church until her stroke in 2008 and attended services regularly at the Dixon Church of Christ where hers was a food ministry, cooking for fellowships, shut-ins and youth programs and activities. She loved gardening, games, and gift giving. Willie was quite a collector and loved lighthouses. She entertained often with the help of her family at the Reavis Ridge Ranch on Caldwell Lane. She will be sorely missed by those who survive her: her husband Jack of the home; her only child, son John and his wife Ann; granddaughter Jessicca Lee Moore and husband Marcus and grandson Clinton Joshua “Josh” Jarrett and his wife Lisa; her two great grandsons: Tyler Joshua Jarrett and Jonas Ray Moore whom she loved and adored; two step daughters: Sherry Wade and husband, John, and their daughter, Virginia Reavis “Revie”, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Teresa Warrings and husband, Carl, and their children, Jason, Samantha and Cody, of Lillington, North Carolina; as well as a host of other family and friends. Waylene was a caregiver for and was preceded in death by her father Wayne, beloved sister Nola Fay and her mother Myrtis. She passed rather calmly and peacefully after a morning bath at the home of her son John and his wife Ann at Highland Springs Lane, Dixon. Special thanks are expressed to her caregivers and friends who also became her family: Nina, Tina, Patsy, Annelisa, Kelly, Karen and Kresta; also her housekeeper Tracey Cooper and son Dalton...May God richly bless those who give care to others in need and comfort us, her family and friends, in their time of loss and need. Funeral services were held at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, October 23, 2011 in the Memorial Chapel of Richland with Rick Pitchford officiating. Loving memories were shared by "Miss Willie's" family John Wayne Jarrett, Kay Ann Jarrett, Joan "Princess" Bales, Jessicca Lee Moore and Linda Snobl. Music selections included "Unforgettable", "In the Garden" by Jenna Bilyeu Baker, "It Is Well With My Soul" and "On Eagle's Wings" both sung by the congregation. Serving as escorts were Clinton Jarrett, Carl Warrings, Keith Pritchard, Mike Neuman, Darrell Nickels and Terry Shultz. Serving as honorary escorts were Dickie Bales, Jesse Bilyeu, Matt Mills, Claude Farris Hickey, Marcus Moore, Jerry Snobl, Alfred Zeigenbein, Tom Lynch, Vic Lynch Rollin Jarrett and Allen Ellis. Burial followed in the Mt. View Cemetery near Richland, Missouri.

Waylene (Polly) "Willie" Reavis

March 16, 1939 - October 20, 2011