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Dorothy Copus Brush Helen Lane's forecasts forever sunny Helen Lane became known far and wide across
this country for her skill in reading nature's signs signs
that helped her predict future weather. As the Crab Orchard correspondent
for the Chronicle she wrote in her column of Sept. 17,
1959, that, from natural signs, it would be a hard winter. On Feb. 12, 1960, the heaviest snowfall of
many years began and went on and on until the final count was
60 inches. Her accurate prediction for that winter brought her
to national attention, and her forecasts were mentioned year
after year in many publications and on the radio. She continued that column with this remembrance.
"Some 65 to 70 years ago winters were
so severe here on the Plateau that it froze chickens and hogs
to death, the guineas fell from tall hickory trees, their breath
frozen into ice at the ends of their bills. "My grandmother, Nancy Tollett Sherrill,
remarked to Grandfather, 'Well, Jesse, your fogs failed this
year. It never did come that snow for the last fog.' He hastily
replied, 'Well, it isn't too late.' "And sure enough it did come, freezing
my father's corn and barley which had been plowed twice and was
knee high; the cattle came bawling up to the milking gap with
their backs covered with snow. One field of corn and barley that
was at the foot of huge trees was protected from this late snowstorm
and suckered out at the ground. The rest had to be plowed up
and replanted. "I have heard my daddy tell this tale
many times. I still enjoy watching for the signs that he and
many generations before him depended on. They relied on things
of nature because they didn't live in an age of 'push buttons'
as we do now." How strange that I had just found that column
as I was researching 1960 for the "Looking Back" feature.
As I read the articles about her death, each one included her
final prediction, and I thought of her remembering her grandfather's
strong belief in nature's signs. Just six days before her death, Helen roused
as a thunder and lightning storm passed. To her daughter she
said, "Count three months from today and expect a freeze.
Write it down." Just as her grandfather held the fogs responsible
for the late snow in May 1897, no one on the Plateau will be
surprised if May 11, 2000 brings a freeze. |