Bridged to be named after Betty Hill

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

This bridge which spans Mountain Creek on Highland Road will be named Monday in memory of Betty Ann Grissom Hill. Hill’s children, Chad Hill and Betsy Hill McBride, can be seen playing near the bridge many years ago. (Photo provided)

The late Betty Ann Grissom Hill, who lived her entire life one-half mile from Mountain Creek on Highland Road, will have a bridge that spans the creek named in her memory during a ceremony to be held Monday.

Hill, who along with her husband, Donnie, owned and operated Chicken Chef, passed away in February. Assistant County Road Superintendent Levie Glenn said soon after her passing his office was approached by several people who thought naming the bridge near the family’s Highland Road home place would be a fitting memorial.

“We agreed, we thought it would be nice to do. She was well known in the community and well liked. She was a good person who helped a lot of people,” said Glenn.

The proposal was first brought before and approved by the County Commission’s Highway and Bridge Committee. It was later approved by the full commission.

Hill’s sister, Dema Sue Lee, said she and the rest of the family are pleased with the bridge naming. “Our entire family has lived there and she spent her entire life on that road, living in the house we grew up in. It’s very appropriate,” she said. She added that the part of the creek spanned by the bridge is where she, Hill and other family members used to swim during the summer months when they were children.

The naming ceremony, at which the new sign will be unveiled, will take place at the bridge on Highland Road at 9 a.m. Monday morning. All friends and family members are invited to attend. To get there from McMinnville, take Highway 56 North and turn right at Delores’ Market on Grizzle Road. Where the road dead-ends turn left on Bluff Springs Road. Highland Road is the second road on the left. The bridge to be named for Hill is approximately three miles from the turn and is the second bridge on Highland Road.