BY BYRON ELAM

PHOTOS BY CARI GRIFFITH

FEATURED IN VOL 7, ISSUE 2: Legacy

Margaret Savage and Helen Porter’s friendship has withstood the test of time.

Margaret (97) and Helen (98) met when they were in the 1st Grade, which would have made the year approximately 1928. They have been friends for over 90 years! They met on the playground of South Jackson Elementary School. Margaret was new to the school and Helen invited Margaret to play with her. “We have been together ever since,” Margaret said.

South Jackson School was located on Tanyard & Church Streets in an old Jackson community called “South Town.” It was a historic African-American community, filled with businesses, homes, schools, and churches — nearly all of which were demolished and paved over in the late 1960s by a project labeled “Urban Renewal.” South Town existed where the Criminal Justice Complex and South Highland Avenue are now.

Helen and Margaret graduated Merry High School together in 1941. Helen went on to a fruitful career in the public school system as a cafeteria worker and crossing guard. Margaret graduated from Lane College in 1945 and spent 40 plus years as a public school teacher, spending most of her career at the now closed Washington-Douglass Elementary School. For a number of years, Margaret and Helen worked together at Washington-Douglass, Helen as a crossing guard and Margaret as a teacher. “It was a wonderful place to work. We had wonderful children there,” Helen recounts.

Margaret and her husband, Isaiah Savage, opened a once popular restaurant, Savage’s Grill, after he returned from service in World War II. Helen often worked with and helped Mr. Savage at the restaurant. Helen’s husband, Otis Porter, was charged with servicing and collecting the money from the vending machines at Savage’s Grill. “Our husbands were friends too,” said Margaret. Mr. Savage was also deeply involved in politics. Helen would cook and cater meals for his many political events.

They have been best friends and have supported one another throughout all that nearly 100 years of life inevitably brings— the joys and the sorrows. Together they have experienced the many joys of life: weddings, raising children, anniversaries, graduations, birthdays, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and now great-great grandchildren. They have also been each other’s source of strength and solace through the many sorrows of life— the loss of parents and most of their friends. Both of their husbands died on the same day, one year apart. Mr. Porter died March 10, 1980. Mr. Savage died March 10, 1981.

“I don’t know what I would do without Margaret,” said Helen. “And I don’t know what I would do without Helen,” responded Margaret.

Not many days pass by without Helen and Margaret talking on the phone. Helen spends most of her Sundays and all of the holidays at Margaret’s house, which she and her husband purchased in 1968 as a result of Urban Renewal. Both are members of Historic First Baptist Church, where Margaret began playing the piano as a teenager and Helen sang in the choir.

Helen Porter and Margaret Savage are a lesson of love, commitment, and longevity. Throughout their almost 100 years of living and all that they have witnessed and endured, they have been by each other’s side —celebrating, comforting, supporting, laughing, cooking, mourning, and worshipping together. And they have no plans on stopping anytime soon.

EDWARD BYRON ELAM is a New Jersey native, who returned to his Jackson, Tennessee roots in 2014. He is a Union University graduate. His loves include politics, social justice, genealogy and his son, Edward Langston Elam.

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