The Hen House at Calfee Farms

By Ralphine Major

In high school, I knew her as Becky Turner—captain of the color guard in the Gibbs High School Marching Band and daughter of a Baptist minister.  By the time I caught up with her at “The Hen House at Calfee Farms”—44 years later—she was Becky Turner Calfee, wife of Ron, mother to three sons, and grandmother of eleven!  Besides raising a family on Calfee Farms, she had spent an entire career in the field of emergency medicine.  Becky was a Critical Care Paramedic.  For 21 years, she was the Health Science Continuing Education Coordinator at Roane State Community College, teaching life-saving skills to a new generation.  She also served on the Board of Directors for TEMESA for 10 years.

Becky certainly continued the legacy of an outstanding family of education.  Helen Calfee, Becky’s mother-in-law, was my Home Economics teacher.  Helen’s father was the long-time educator known as “Prof Loy” who served as Principal at Central High School and Gibbs High School.  In retirement, Becky found a new way of helping others to learn.  She and Ron built “The Hen House at Calfee Farms” which has served multiple purposes in the community—from selling antiques and crafts to teaching classes for teenagers and adults on how to cook and can.  Becky once told me, “I taught all three of our boys to cook!”  Youngsters could see a llama-shearing and little goats running playfully.  Since opening during Christmas 2014, “The Hen House at Calfee Farms” has been a magnet drawing people from all over the country.  (To be continued)