Editor’s note: Each year, the Brown County Democrat celebrates some aspect of Brown County history in our Founders Day section. This year we’re writing about residents who are about 80 or older, who have incredible stories to share and who define “Brown County character” in some way or another. If you have a suggestion for a person to feature in the next Founders Day issue, send it to [email protected] or call us at 812-988-2221.
Not many people have a breakfast special named after them. One of those people is Lloyd Sisson, who has spent virtually all of his near 90 years in Brown County.
That special is “The Uncle Lloyd” at Heavenly Biscuit in Nashville: A half-order of biscuits and gravy with fried potatoes.
Lloyd was born on Dec. 10 in 1933, at home in Trafalgar.
His father, Virgil Sisson, was born in Brown County, and when Lloyd was about a year old, his family moved to back to the area.
Their family was big: Lloyd was one of 17 children, the seventh from the top. He has one older sister still living, who’s in Tennessee.
He and his 16 siblings grew up on Oak Ridge Road, living off the land. His wife and parents are buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery.
He was told his family’s home on Oak Ridge Road was once a school, that it was moved half a mile or so up the road.
“We didn’t really live on a farm,” he said.
“But we would have big gardens, always had cows for milk, chickens and we’d usually butcher a couple of big hogs.”
Lloyd remembers growing up without electricity at home.
It was a lot of work, living off the land, he said. His job was to fill the wood box with cut wood. His mother cooked on a wood stove.
Lloyd had to make sure there was enough until the next evening, then he would cut some more.
They didn’t have much timber on their property, but were blessed by a neighbor, he said, who would allow the Sissons to cut on his side of the fence.
He remembers cutting his neighbor’s lawn with a motorless mower.
Lloyd went to Helmsburg School, where he graduated in 1952.
Lloyd served in the U.S. Army for two years, in the reserves. He was in Germany close to 18 months, after the Korean War.
“They didn’t need me, so I didn’t have to serve my time,” he said. “That’s why when they talk about veterans, I don’t think much about it (for myself).”
His oldest brother was a soldier in World War II and was injured when disarming a mine. He lost a bit of sight in one eye.
After the military, Lloyd worked in construction for a little while. He then got a job at Cummins in 1955.
He worked on the gear line, rod line — “several different jobs,” he said.
“It was a good job.”
He and Donna Steininger met at the Nashville Church of the Nazarene, where they were married in April of 1959, in a ceremony officiated by her father, local preacher and artist Dwight Steininger. She died in 2015.
They had four sons and one daughter.
Lloyd has seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
After they married, the young Sissons lived in Columbus for a bit, but then moved to a house on Old State Road 46, in one of the small homes just east of the Brown County Fairgrounds.
Sisson said some of those houses were moved from Camp Atterbury.
He worked at Cummins for almost 37 years. He just started his 30th year of retirement.
After retiring, he still kept busy. He mowed lawns for several years, including Greenlawn Cemetery.
In his spare time, he makes bird feeders and small bluebird houses that can be bought at BP in Nashville.
“Sparrows like them too, but mainly they’re made for bluebirds,” he said. “Hard to tell the sparrows they ain’t supposed to be in there.”
He said that even though Brown County has changed in different ways over the years, one of the ways it’s changed for the better is the roads — he remembers when most were gravel.
Moving on the roads in those days, they would pack up a wagon that was hitched to a mule and travel the gravel roads.
In nearly 90 years, Lloyd said that his family and faith in God have been most important to him.
As far as lessons he’s learned in that time, Lloyd said that what sticks out to him is the value of being a good neighbor.
“Treat other people like you’d like to be treated yourself. Be a good neighbor. Then you can have good neighbors, hopefully.”
Lloyd Sisson
Age: 88
Place of birth: Trafalgar
Spouse: Donna Sisson (Steininger), passed away in 2015.
Children: Janet, Gary, Don, Roger and Thomas (both passed away)
Parents: Virgil and Nellie Sisson
Siblings: Chelsea, Marjorie, Alvin, Catherine, Emma, Mary, Phyllis, Virginia, Lester, Helen, Harry, Carolyn, Marolyn, Robert, Rebecca, Thurl and Thelma
