William M. "Bill" Talley
Bill was born on August 2, 1908, and passed on September 8, 1981. His wife was Gladys Haley Talley. Their children included Bettye Talley Andrews Richardson and Mary Sue "Susie" Talley Earley. He was born to Ferrie Ola and Carver Talley in the Bellwood Community. After attending Lebanon schools, he became a major livestock producer while also raising crops on the Old Rome Pike farm. At a time when the 2nd Army Maneuvers lived and trained across the Talley farm, Gladys drove supply trucks from Nashville to Lebanon’s Maneuvers headquarters at Cumberland University. Later, Bill Talley taught farming practices to soldiers and sailors returning from World War II service through the newly enacted GI Bill program. A partner in Wilson County Livestock Market for almost two decades, Talley was on the scene of a fire that destroyed the sale barn in 1954. That barn was located near the railroad tracks on South College Street. When Talley and partners needed to rebuild, the city wanted the barn way out of town on Highway 70. It was located on West Main Street, where the Goodwill store now sits. The city’s rationale was that Lebanon’s city limits would never reach that far. Talley was known for innovation and the introduction of new livestock to the revenue streams of Wilson County. Texas was known for its robust sheep ranches, giving Talley the idea of traveling to the Lone Star State to purchase some. Over the years, he shipped in thousands of sheep to provide replacement females and flock expansion for producers. As a result, Wilson County became the largest producer of sheep during the 1950’s & 60s, when Wilson County Livestock was the scene of large 4-H sheep shows. With a keen interest in beef cattle, Talley produced Herefords for many decades, adding to their dominance in the area. In the late 1950s, he bought Santa Gertrudis from the noted Winrock Farms in Arkansas. In the mid-1960s, he and Gladys moved to Palmetto, Florida, where he established Talley Ranch. He may have been far away, but that did not stop Talley’s influence on agriculture in Wilson County. While Talley sold his interest in the livestock market in 1963 to his son-in-law, Sam Andrews, he continued to trade livestock in Wilson County, shipping and receiving various breeds through the Lebanon sales. Co-owners of the market were Fisher Smith and Arnold Atwood. Talley never fell out of love with his Tennessee home, often saying, "I’d rather be dead in Wilson County than be alive anywhere else." As his health began to fail, he directed Gladys that if she could not take him back home for burial, to make sure he was in a mausoleum, far above ground, as he had seen so many graves flooded in Florida. He was entombed in a mausoleum until a decade ago, when his grandchildren had the idea to send Bill and Gladys back home to the Bellwood Cemetery, where many Talley ancestors are buried. During a 12-hour drive, grandson Jere Andrews brought them back in a U-Haul. He made sure to drive them around Lebanon’s Square and past their farm one last time.
