Lucille Hester Atkinson says she has been cooking "since she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the stove," and throughout her life, baking-especially baking cakes-has provided her a great deal of satisfaction.

Her cakes have won her a measure of fame around the Clarkton community where she has lived for more than 60 years. Many of the cakes she bakes these days go to bake sales or raffles to benefit various causes around the community.

A native of Georgia, Mrs. Lucille, as she is known around Clarkton, was born into a family of 10 children, only three of whom lived to adulthood. One of the three, a brother, died at age 31 as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. That left only herself and a sister, who now lives in Houston, Texas, remaining.

She says she began cooking by the time she was seven years old.

"I had to stand on an apple box to cook and wash dishes," she said. "We cooked on an old wood stove, and it seemed to cook everything good. We raised most everything we ate in the garden and only had to buy a few things, like sugar, coffee and tea, from the store. I was raised on a farm and I learned to cook country style."

"Every morning before going to school and after returning in the afternoon, I had to milk seven cows," she said. "My mother sold butter to people around the community so milking the cows to get the milk to make the butter was a part of life for me.

"She gave the milk away," Mrs. Lucille added, smiling.

Atkinson says she met her first husband, the late Bill Hester, a Clarkton native, when he had gone down to Georgia to visit.

Though he was only in Georgia briefly, he began to write to her when he returned to Clarkton.

"We kept corresponding, and then we married in 1942," she said. "It was during the war (World War II) and he was in service at the time, so I went with him to some of the places he was stationed. But other than that, I've lived right here in Clarkton since we married."

Ten years after Hester died in 1979, Mrs. Lucille, married another Clarkton-area resident, Wilbur Atkinson. She says, with a twinkle in her eye, that her cooking had played a role in winning over "Wilbur's heart." She said it occurred shortly after she began seeing him.

"One day we were out riding, when told me he had to find out if I could cook, and that if I could, he would throw away his little black book," Atkinson said. "Later on, shortly after I had cooked for him one day, we went out for a ride. He turned to me and said, 'Well, goodbye little black book.'

"I looked over at him and asked him what he meant," she said, smiling. "He said, 'I told you if you could cook, I'd throw away the little black book, so I'm throwing it away.'"

Wilbur Atkinson died in 1999.

Mrs. Lucille worked in public jobs around Clarkton until she retired at age 65. She first worked at Trico Plumbing and Electric, then at Johnson Cotton Company, and finally at Mt. Vernon Mills (predecessor of Harriet & Henderson) for the last 17 years.

But throughout all her years in public jobs, cooking and sewing continued to be a very important part of her life, she says.

"I used to sew all my children's clothes, but I don't sew anymore," she explained. "But I still love to bake cakes-a lot of different kinds of cakes.

"I've always baked for church functions, when there were fundraisers, or when someone passed away in the church, or for other events in the community," she said. "I make all kinds of cakes, depending on what the event calls for. But my favorites are red velvet, German chocolate, and various kinds of pound cakes."

Just a couple of days before she was interviewed, Mrs. Lucille had baked cakes for two different fundraisers in Clarkton-one for a church activity and another to be auctioned at a Clarkton Relay For Life Team event.

Mrs. Lucille has two grown daughters-Marcille Bass of Bladenboro, a teacher at Clarkton School of Discovery, and Claudia Hester, who lives in Clarkton and works for Southeastern Regional Mental Health. She also has two grandchildren.

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