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Articles
1992 - Mrs. Bartlett Remembered by John M. Jones, Jr.
Mrs. Bartlett Remembered
A Staunch Guardian of the Johnson Legacy
By John M. Jones Jr. - Editor, The Greeneville Sun
Originally published in The Greeneville Sun on August 3, 1992
Several Greenevillians who knew the late Mrs. Margaret Johnson Patterson Bartlett long and well praised her this weekend as a staunch guardian of the Andrew Johnson legacy and remembered her warmly for personal qualities that also made her a valued friend.
Mrs. Bartlett, who died Saturday afternoon at the age of 88, was a great-granddaughter of the 17th President and had been his closest living direct descendant.
Along with her late mother, she had played a crucial role in the establishment in 1942 of the Andrew Johnson National Monument, now the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.
Harry Roberts
Local historian Harry Roberts was a close friend of Mrs. Bartlett who worked with her in sorting through a four-generation accumulation of Johnson and Patterson papers and memorabilia.
He emphasized the importance of her decision to provide materials for an Andrew Johnson Library and Museum at Tusculum College.
She decided to make the major contribution of materials, he said, even though she "was bitterly disappointed that her great-grandfather was not more appreciated here."
Roberts said that he "especially enjoyed her rich and unique sense of humor.
"While she could be very emphatic about things that mattered to her," he recalled, "she was always very decorous and ever a cultured lady of grace. She had a very delicate sense of manners and propriety.
"She liked to emphasize the fact that, once her mind was made up, she didn't change it very often. 'I'm like Andy,' she would say."
He added, "With her passing, Greeneville loses not only its most historic personage but a delightful and unique citizen.
"Individuals of her background and makeup appear all too infrequently. We shall not again see her likes!"
Richard Doughty
Greeneville historian Richard Doughty, a lifelong friend who said his family and Mrs. Bartlett's had been friends and associates for five generations, stated he felt the community owed her and her late grandmother "a great debt of gratitude."
"I think that Margaret and her mother, Mrs. Patterson, are owed a great debt of gratitude by the people of Greeneville and Greene County because they devoted their lives tot keeping Andrew Johnson and his legend alive," Doughty said.
"They were instrumental in getting the federal government to insure that the Johnson Homestead would remain the property of the people of the United States in perpetuity.
"Margaret was very generous toward the community and her church, and was a gracious hostess particularly where children's parties were concerned. I went to some of the loveliest children's parties there when I was growing up...
"In serving as hostess at both the Tailor Shop and the Homestead, Mrs. Bartlett gave to countless thousands an insight into the life and personality of Andrew Johnson that few historical shrines can afford to their visitors."
Doughty noted that, when Andrew Johnson first came to Greeneville in 1826, he worked briefly for Robert Maloney, Doughty's great-great-grandfather, before establishing his own tailoring shop.
At the time, Doughty said, Maloney was the only tailor in Greeneville, according to the late Tennessee historian O.P. Temple.
When Johnson married Eliza McCardle in 1827, Maloney was one of two people who signed his marriage bond, another sign of the closeness of the relationship between the two Greeneville tailors.
Park Superintendent
Mark Corey, superintendent of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, said the National Park Service is saddened by the passing of Mrs. Bartlett.
Corey, who has become superintendent within the past few months, noted that he had not been privileged to have known Mrs. Bartlett personally.
He added, however, that he has been informed that she was a great lady, both personally and as a valued employee of the Park. She worked for the Park for almost 35 years.
He noted that she and her mother were also instrumental in the actual establishment of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.
Hugh Lawing
Hugh Lawing, retired since 1984 as historian of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site knew Mrs. Bartlett well through their association on the National Park Service staff.
Lawing joined the local Historic Site in 1957 and worked with Mrs. Bartlett in that capacity until she retired as hostess of the JOhnson Homestead in 1974.
"I worked with Mrs. Bartlett as park historian at the site, as her immediate supervisor for around 20 years," he said.
"Of course, we were not only coworkers, but we were friends.
"She was very, very effective with the public. She could get those children right in her hands, so to speak.
"She always liked to say that, if you could get the attention of the children, you've got the parents.
"...She would tell her whole lineage, and then she would tell them that when they went through the house, if they saw anything they wanted to ask a question about, she would be glad to answer it - and that, if she didn't know the answer, she would be glad to make them up one!
"She had a wonderful sense of humor and could be delightfully witty.
"And of course, she was a dedicated employee.
"I will remember her affectionately as 'Mrs. B' and will treasure the good relationship which we enjoyed as coworkers, striving to perpetuate the memory of her great-grandfather, Andrew Johnson."
Elaine Clark
Elaine Clark, now museum specialist and the senior member of the National Historic Site staff in terms of years served with the local site, worked directly with Mrs. Bartlett for more than a decade.
They worked together from January 1962, when Mr.s Clark joined the staff, until Mrs. Bartlett's retirement in 1974, and had remained friends since then.
Mrs. Clark explained that, for a number of those years, she and Mrs. Bartlett alternated the duty of hostess at the Johnson Homestead.
"She was a lovely lady to work with and have as a friend," Mrs. Clark said. "I will always treasure the years I worked with her.
"Hugh Lawing and I and Mrs. Bartlett went to Harper's Ferry Center, a National Park Service Conservation Center, in 1979 so that she could record some of her memories, and that trip will always be special to me.
"She loved working at the Andrew Johnson Homestead during the years she worked there."
Dr. Robert Knott
Dr. Robert E. Knott, president of Tusculum College, paid tribute to Mrs. Bartlett for her contributions toward the establishment of an Andrew Johnson Library and Museum at the college.
"In and through her desire to honor and perpetuate the memory of Andrew Johnson," Dr. Knott sad in a statement released this morning, "Margaret Johnson Patterson Bartlett served Greeneville and its citizens with distinction.
"Her vision of and act to create a library at Tusculum College dedicated to preserving a record of President Andrew Johnson's contributions to the nation and region are gifts of immeasurable value to Greeneville.
"Thanks to Mrs. Bartlett and Ralph Phinney's dedication to her cause, their dream of an educational library and museum in Andrew Johnson's hometown to transmit word of his unique leadership will soon become a reality.
"Through her work, we citizens of Greeneville today will be constantly reminded of the important lessons to be learned from our city's meritorious past and come increasingly to treasure our promising future."
Mayor, County Executive
Greeneville Mayor G. Thomas Love also paid tribute to her.
"She was a real fine person who will really be missed here in Greeneville," he said.
"It is...a terrible loss...She has made an outstanding contribution to the Town of Greeneville."
Efforts this morning to reach Greene County Executive Alan Broyles were unsuccessful.
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