Curmanice B. Mayes

On March 25th, 2016, Curmania Belle Mayes, of Johnson, Arkansas, died peacefully at the Circle of Life Hospice in Springdale, Arkansas at the age of 95.

She was affectionately known as “Knee Knee” to her family. One of the nieces and nephews had wanted her to bounce them on her knee and declared “Knee knee!” The name stuck, with every niece and nephew having their own variation of how the nickname should be spelled.

Curmania Belle Mayes was born September 5th, 1920 on her family’s farm in Farmington, Arkansas. She was born to John Gable Mayes and Mable McKee Mayes. Curmania was the middle child of seven siblings. As many families living during the Depression era, Curmania and her family migrated to the West Coast. Their time was split between Phoenix, AZ and Stockton, CA. During the summer months until early fall, they would pick peaches and apricots on farms in the Stockton area. As the weather turned colder, they would return to Phoenix to work during the winter months, picking and cutting leaf and head lettuce. In the early 1940’s, the Mayes family resettled in Northwest Arkansas. Shortly after their return, the family purchased property in Johnson, Arkansas.

Curmania worked for Campbell Soup in both of the Fayetteville locations. She was an active member of the Campbell Soup bowling team and greatly enjoyed the company of her coworkers. Upon her retirement in 1985, she’d worked for the company for over 35 years.

Although Curmania never had children of her own, she was always a “mother hen” to her nieces and nephews. In reflection of her passing during the Easter holiday weekend, memories of Curmania’s famous Easter egg hunts on the farm come to mind. Her eggs were not only filled with candy but money as well. So it was not unusual to see the teenage and college age kids scrambling for eggs with the younger children.

If there was one word to sum up her personality, it would be fearless. She was strong willed and lived her life like there was nothing she wasn’t capable of doing. Even in her early 90’s, she could be found hooking up a brush hog to a tractor or on top of a chicken house nailing down sheet iron to the roof after a storm.

Curmania is preceded in death by her parents John and Mable Mayes of Johnson, her brother Frank Mayes of Prairie Grove, brother Roscoe Mayes of Johnson, sister Louise Mayes Albright of Phoenix, Arizona, sister Lela Mayes Neal of Fort Smith and brother Richard Mayes of Springdale.

She is survived by her sister Irene Mayes Nickell of Fayetteville and 9 nieces and nephews.

The visitation will be held at Moore’s Chapel on Friday, April 1, 2016 from 12:00 pm-1:30pm. A graveside service will be held at the Farmington Cemetery on Friday at 2:00 pm.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: The Circle of Life Hospice, 901 Jones Rd., Springdale, Arkansas 72762.