CityView Magazine

10 July 2021 United Methodist Church to help others in need or watching out for her sisters Eunice McNeill, who lived just around the corner in the little white house along Forsyth Street, and Louise Henrickson Morton, who lived across Raeford Road in the cul-de-sac at the end of Willborough Avenue. Life in the log house was a happy home. It's where John Wooten tried and usually failed to outwit his "Madame Queen" love of his life in nightly card games of bridge, but where Sudie Wooten was a master of the game with few peers. And where the Wooten girls admired their father and will tell you they were blessed with "an absolute perfect mother," who insisted on nothing less than the best of her daughters. "Most of all, she was always there for my sisters and me," Martha Goetz says. "She encouraged us to be independent and taught us cooking, sewing and other skills. We were always expected to do well in school. We always knew that she was there for us and gave us her unconditional love. But and vegetables were such a delight. e poundcakes and the pecan pies, too. A Gaping Hole in The Yard Not to forget the Olympic-sized swimming pool, either, and the day somewhere around 1954, when John Wooten needed dirt for a construction project, brought in a bulldozer, dug up the backyard and had Sudie Wooten in a tizzy because she worried those girls of hers might fall into the gaping pit. "Don't worry," John Wooten offered Sudie Wooten assurance. "at's going to be a swimming pool." And sure enough, it was. "It gave us lots of fun in the summer," Martha Goetz says. "I loved being able to swim into the evening hours." e Wooten sisters recall frolicking in the swimming pool and having cousins Sam Henrickson, Jimmy Henrickson, Nancy Henrickson and Barbara Candler McNeill there for July Fourth picnics from noon until dark, and to include homemade peach ice cream and watermelon. Bettie Wooten Downing remembers having friends Larry ompson, Jack ompson, Irene ompson, Frances Pritchard and Dianne Bennett there. A Poignant Moment Today, the old log house is home to His Outreach Worldwide ministry founded by Lynne Robertson O'Quinn, who welcomed Bettie Wooten Downing, Joan Wooten Nicholson and Martha Wooten Goetz to walk again through the home where they grew up. "It had sat vacant for quite some time when we moved in," O'Quinn says. "ere was a lot of repair and renovation for us to do. It is absolutely gorgeous now, very much a home, and the family is thrilled we are here to love it and cherish it. ere is a bench in the yard with a plaque on it honoring the Wootens. It's a very special place and is literally my second home. I know there are a lot of memories attached to this special place for many Fayetteville natives." For the Wooten sisters, the moment was poignant. ey see their daddy puttering around in the yard and the Dobermans following him along. ey see their mother in the kitchen. ey see a Christmas morning. The Wooten sisters, Joan, Bettie and Martha, recall frolicking in the swimming pool and having cousins Sam Henrickson, Jimmy Henrickson, Nancy Henrickson and Barbara Candler McNeill there for July Fourth picnics from noon until dark, and to include homemade peach ice cream and watermelon. she also never let us feel sorry for ourselves. Probably because of her difficult childhood, she expected us to solve problems, remain optimistic and always keep our chin up. She believed in focusing on others rather than on herself." She made their clothes, and the sisters still recall those Easter dresses in the colors of their choice. ey remember the homemade corsages of rosebuds by their mother's hand. And missing Sunday morning church services never was an option for Sudie Wooten's girls. "We were there every Sunday," Joan Nicholson recalls. e Wootens loved their church. When the sanctuary was renovated in the 1950s, their father, along with a few carpenters, designed and handcarved the new altar, chancel rail and pulpit. And how, oh how, the sisters say, their mother could cook, and those Sunday aernoon dinners of chicken and dumplings, roast beef, pork roast

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