Let the good times roll
Ross Blevins, 94, keeps on bowling
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Ross Blevins, age 94, still bowls every Thursday night with the league he’s been a member of at the Clinton Community Center since 1978. Here, he’s on hand last Thursday night for his regular league session and his birthday party. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Two of the bowling partners of Ross Blevins, center, organized a birthday party for him last Thursday night during his regular league bowling night at the Clinton Community Center. They are Patsy Hammond, left, and Pam Miller. Blevins turned 94 on Wednesday (March 9). - G. Chambers Williams III
Ross Blevins turned 94 last Wednesday, but he had to wait until his regular weekly bowling night on Thursday to celebrate.
That’s when all of his friends in the Clinton Mixed Seniors League turned out to honor this man who has been bowling regularly with his friends for nearly three-quarters of a century, and has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.
Fellow league members and longtime friends Patsy Hammond and Pam Miller organized a birthday party for him in the Clinton Community Center bowling alley, with balloons, homemade chicken salad sandwiches, brownies, sugar cookies, peanut butter fudge and chocolate fudge.
There were even two numeral candles depicting “94” for Blevins to blow out, stuck into the middle of the pan of fresh-baked brownies. His friends spared him the challenge of trying to simultaneously blow out 94 single candles.
Blevins figures he’s been bowling in the Clinton league for about 50 years, and for the past 25 years, Hammond has been one of his partners in the lanes.
“He’s still as good a bowler as he’s always been,” she said. “Last August he and I won first place in a seniors bowling tournament in Nashville.”
Blevins, who was born and grew up in Johnson County, moved to a farm in East Clinton in 1956, where he still lives, although now all by himself.
“I’ve been by myself since 1994,” he said.
A nuclear physicist and meteorologist by trade, Blevins retired in 1988 from the Tennessee Valley Authority after 15 years with the agency. He also had worked 15 years for General Electric at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory site, and before that had a career as a National Weather Service meteorologist.
He holds a master’s degree in meteorology, and had completed most of the course work needed for a doctorate in nuclear physics, he said.
Blevins started bowling in 1947, and fell in love with the sport. “I’ve been in this Clinton league since 1978,” he said.
He still makes his home in Clinton because his two daughters, Teresa Johnston and Debbie Wright live close by, and his son, Rody, is not far away in Marysville, he said.
His health has been good except for a bout with prostate cancer 15 years ago, so he said he plans to keep on bowling so he has something to look forward to, he said.
“People have to have something to keep them going, even if it’s just horseshoes,” Blevins said.
His friends say they’re glad he’s still in the bowling league with them, because he still gives it all he can, and helps them be winners.
“He’s won three state tournaments,” Hammond said.
