Will Marcom Masters was born at and grew up in the area around Celina Tennessee. He was the son of Walter Grey Masters, a local judge, and Gypsy Ann Brown. He was one of ten siblings (most of whom turned out well) living in a large two-story wood frame farm house set in a valley along the old Livingston Road south of town.  Across the road was a small cave set into a steep cliff.  If you climbed the cliff to the top, on a good day you could see the reservoir lake created by Dale Hollow Dam in the distance. Local legend once held that Will sold homemade moonshine out of a car repair garage in his early years, but this cannot be confirmed at such a distant remove in time.  Will served in the Army, and at some point during this time he met Ruth Lucille Flake who had come to Dale Hollow Dam to serve as a nurse for the dam construction project.  They were subsequently married in Maine. He also ran unsuccessfully for local sheriff.  Will's father and mother are buried at Fitzgerald Cemetery, east of town just off the road to the dam. Will served in World War II, in the Army Air Corps.  He eventually decided to make a career of the US Air Force, rising to the rank of Technical Sergeant.  He spent time both in recruiting and supply, often making himself useful to officers, so it was said, through his ability to procure both what was needed and what was desired.  Will eventually departed from his family and went his own way at Ruth's request.  After retiring from the Air Force, Will worked for the Army as a civilian at Aberdeen in Maryland and then retired for good. Will had two additional wives, Ardell B. "Ardie", to whom he was married while in Maryland and Florida, and Margaret P., who provided hospice care during his final days.  A lifelong smoker, he died of cancer and emphysema in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is buried, having shared all his worldly assets with his final caretaker -- the latest of as many as six husbands, it is alleged, to have made such arrangements with said caretaker -- and none with his children or their mother.  At the end, one suspects that he was mourned by few with any degree of sincerity, and as he entered his earthen resting place perhaps the most accurate summary of his life is that the mother of his children raised three sons alone, each of whom went on to became successful professionals and to create intact, happy families. An extensive Masters Family genealogy is maintained by Jack Masters at JackMasters.net

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