“I wish I had kept a diary. I could have written four or five books,” Maurice Wayne Carwile said of his life. Most of the fascinating stories he can tell comes from the decades he spent at the family barbershop. He is a fountain of local knowledge – you name it and he can probably tell you a story about it. His contributions to the community as a businessman, teacher, musician, and friend make him a Limestone Legend.

Wayne was born April 22, 1941, in Athens at Dr. A.D. Powers Hospital on North Jefferson Street. He grew up in Athens and one of his earliest memories is when he was just three years old. “We were living on South Houston Street and I recall the day Franklin D. Roosevelt died. I remember it well, our paperboy drove his bicycle up to the front porch. He stayed on his bicycle and leaned one foot on the porch, I can see it just as vivid as now. He said, ‘Franklin Roosevelt just died.’”

Later, Wayne’s family moved to Nashville when his father, who had barbered and been a police officer in Athens, got a job with the L&N Railroad.

“I suppose they had plans to stay there forever but dad was injured in a train accident. He was unable to go back to work with the railroad. We came back in 1945, just prior to the race riot in Athens in 1946,” Wayne said.

His father opened up a barbershop on North Marion Street and the next year, 1947, he moved across the street with his two barber chairs. Moving the chairs without a dolly is something Wayne remembers well.

He said, “They are heavy as lead. We drug the two chairs across the street with a broom. We picked up one side of the base and put a broom under there. I guided the broom and the grown-ups lifted the back up. It just slid across there just as pretty as you please.”

“Dad moved across the street where he and I both kept it open for 65 years and 9 months. I kept it open 20 years after he died more or less as a memorial to him because he had such an impact on the city. At one time, in my lifetime, he probably knew 90 percent of the people of Athens and Limestone County and could give you their pedigree. Phenomenal,” he said. “There is an old saying that says, ‘He who hath a trade, hath an estate.’”

When Wayne was young, he would go with his mother to the cotton patch. They would take flashlights to make sure they were already there when the light came. They ate lunch under the persimmon groves and stayed until they could no longer see the plants, using the flashlight again to see their way home. Soon, Wayne found a way out of picking cotton.

“I was about 10 years old and my dad promoted me at the barbershop. He gave me a job as a shoe shine boy. I made good money. One Christmas Eve, back then a lot of the people who grew up moved north to get jobs and they would come home at Christmas to visit family. They knew about my dad’s barbershop- it was a landmark. This particular Christmas Eve was on a Saturday. I knew that a lot of people would be coming home and I charged 15 cents for a shoe shine. I went home that night and I had $20 in my pocket. I had never seen $20 in all my life. All those folks coming home front up north were giving me tips. Waded in high cotton, boy,” he said.

Wayne graduated from Athens High School in 1959. He attended Athens College and attended day and night and was able to do so by working at the barbershop. He received a degree in business administration and taught at Tanner High School while continuing to work at the barbershop.

“The most famous person to ever come into the barbershop – George Wallace. He had given a speech that day up at the courthouse. We looked up and here he come with his two bodyguards and said, ‘I think I’ll get a shave today,’” Wayne recalled.

When they weren’t barbering, the Carwiles were likely playing music. Often they played music at the shop on the weekends.

Wayne’s grandfather was a fiddler from Giles County Tennessee and he made his own first fiddle. “He couldn’t afford a store-bought fiddle,” Wayne explained. “He made it out of a wagon wheel axle grease box. He cut a stick and made his own bow. Cut the hair out of the horse’s tail to string his own bow, He was that determined to play.”

“Man’s ingenuity, perseverance, diligence, and persistence has been the explanation for any success than man has had. Mediocrity – it never got anything done,” he said.

His mother had a family band and one of her older brothers helped teach the Delmore Brothers to play. They would all practice together until Wayne’s grandfather made them stop at night.

Wayne’s family history with the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention goes back many years before the famous contest was held annually on the campus of Athens State University. Wayne has served on the board for the convention and has been a judge many times. His son, Daniel, and wife, Amy Carwile, are famous for their fiddling talent. Daniel is a seven-time Old Time Fiddlers Champion.

Wayne’s wife of 44 years was the late Jan Carwile. They met at the Hatfield Roller Rink when Wayne offered his help after gum became stuck to her roller skate wheel. They dated for less than two months before deciding to marry. She taught kindergarten at First Baptist Church and worked for several doctors’ offices over the years. Their children are John Carwile, Laurie Carwile, Mary Woods and Daniel Carwile.

“I’ve lived by two scriptures in the Bible, Psalm 118:24 and Proverbs 25:11,” Wayne said with tears in his eyes. “‘This is the day the Lord hath made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.’ It also teaches us to number our days because we don’t know about tomorrow. Yesterday is gone forever. You can’t bring it back and you can’t manufacture tomorrow. ‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.’”