BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you love all things unique, cool, and unusual, this one's for you. A one-of-a-kind event is about to take place involving someone who is truly a one-of-a-kind in Tennessee.
There's a woman who people are proud to say is a resident of Bell Buckle; Margaret Britton Vaughn.
She drops in to Bell Buckle Cafe to see Hillary Parker.
"Oh, I love Maggi!" Parker said behind the cash register.
Vaughn's been shopping for decades from Billy Phillips at the Phillips General Store.
"'Honey, you got anything new?'" Phillips said, re-enacting a visit from Vaughn. "Well, Maggi, I'm an antique shop. I don't have anything new! 'Well, you know what I mean! I need something with mermaids on it!'"
There's something people here are very proud of about Vaughn.
"Poet laureate of Tennessee!" Parker said.
"She wrote songs with Loretta Lynn, with Conway Twitty," Phillips continued.
At Bell Buckle's Bethaney Hall on Friday and Saturday, many things of Vaughn's are in a living estate sale.
There are oyster Christmas ornaments, a crab art piece created by stained glass and bottle tops, and a mix of pieces on canvas.
"Shirley, where does Maggi get it all?" I asked Shirley Hall, Vaughn's longtime caretaker.
"From Florida to Buffalo, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and just local!" she answered.
"It's any kind of folk art," Phillips added. "I think that's because that's who she is. She is unique and different from everybody else."
Vaughn likes something that has a story to it. One poster was signed to her by artist in the psychedelic movement Peter Max.
"That's Herb Williams," Hall said, pointing to a picture hanging at the sale. "He did a self-portrait for Maggi. He has art all over the world, even in the White House."
There are many things on display, though this is actually Vaughn's second living estate sale following the first in 2023.
I wasn't able to catch up with Vaughn on Thursday. However, I asked her at the sale three years ago why she was selling all these things collected over her life.
"If I buy it, I love it," Vaughn began, speaking in 2023. "It's hard to let go of sometimes, but I'm having this big ole sale. When I'm dead and gone, they won't know what to do with everything."
Some of the reason for the pride Bell Buckle feels in Vaughn is this. Her poetry addresses what's beautiful in the world, it takes on prejudices, and it sometimes puts into words the human experience.
"My personal favorite out of all Maggi has written is Is That You, Mama?" Phillips said. "It's talking about when mama's gone. I can't even talk about it now. I'm about to tear up. What you do when life goes on without your mama?"
If it's stories that Vaughn loves about the things she buys, then how about this? All of these things here in the sale have this story; they were once owned by Margaret Britton Vaughn.
"There is only one Maggi on this entire planet," Phillips said. "She is the most outrageous, wonderful, kind, and a little bit nutty, friend I've ever had."
The living estate sale will be held on Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18. It will run from 9 am to 6 pm both days. It will be held at Bethany Hall at 27 Railroad Square in Bell Buckle, TN.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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