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For decades, the two were a dynamic duo, traveling to tournaments together and playing league ball. Bolles started as Coats\u2019 coach but later became her teammate. Then there were three. Coats\u2019 daughter, Shelby Bolles Wilson, followed in their footsteps. Betty laughed as she recalled overhearing a man telling his friends to look at the three generations of players all on base at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson and her family live in East Tennessee and were not able to make it to the game that day, but she spoke with love and gratitude during a phone interview as she recalled the impact her grandmother has had on her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur family would travel everywhere for softball games \u2014 even as far away as Myrtle Beach,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThe love of softball was passed down to my mother and was embedded in her genes. She became a coach herself. Even though she didn\u2019t have a child or a grandchild on a team, she would still coach, simply for the love of coaching. She was keeping up the legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bolles played well into her 70s before retiring from active play, but she never gave up the game. She coached and guided from the sidelines, and she was there, looking after Skylan, Wilson\u2019s daughter, when she was playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy daughter, her great-granddaughter, went on to play in Huntsville at Oakwood University on a full-ride college scholarship,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cUnfortunately, Skylan had to quit playing because she severely injured her shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a memento all three women hold dear \u2014 an old, yellowed Tempo monthly newsprint magazine published in August 1990 by Lakeway Publishers. Don Gill\u2019s story about Bolles\u2019 softball journey featured a photo of a young Wilson and Bolles, each holding a trophy. They were both chosen by their league as Fayetteville All-Stars for the 1990 summer games. Bolles was 58 years old at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI remember Ronny Boswell taking that picture,\u201d she said. Bolles named several people who helped her in some way during her softball days. Sadly, many of those people have left us. One in particular is former Lincoln County Mayor Peggy Groce McDaniel Bevels, who died in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeggy worked hard to get that field named in my honor,\u201d Bolles said. \u201cShe had to go to the governor\u2019s office in Nashville four times to get the name changed. She worked hard to get it done. She should be the one with a field named in her honor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolles told story after story about the colorful people she met while playing ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll never forget going to Monteagle to play in a tournament,\u201d she said. \u201cThey had a big field, and believe it or not, the players were wearing coveralls. These were corn-fed women. Every time they got up to bat, they knocked the ball over the fence. We should have just stayed home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there was the time she played another tough team in a tournament in Louisville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese were beer-drinking women, hard hitters, women who liked jumping in swimming pools,\u201d she said with a hint of mischief. \u201cOne of them hit the ball to me so hard that it took the glove right off my hand and into the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was also a field in Lawrenceburg where the players had to pass horses and buggies on the road to get to the field. The field was so bad that it had to be bush-hogged before they could play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolles\u2019 love of softball started when she joined her first team at age 10. By age 14, she had joined a league. The first field she ever played on was across from the old Lincoln County Jail \u2014 the former site of the Stone Bridge Motel, and the current site of the Patrick Rehab-Wellness Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The field that holds her most treasured memories is Howell Field, where she met her husband, Bill Bolles. The couple married in 1951 and raised four daughters \u2014 Betty, Gwyn, Kay, and Hilda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had three of the four become ball players,\u201d Marie said. \u201cKay became a fisherman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolles played in numerous leagues over the years \u2014 the industrial league in Shelbyville, the summer league in Fayetteville, and the fall league in Hazel Green. She also played on several tournament teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolles was recorded in the 1990 Tempo article as saying the only way to get her off the ballfield would be for her health to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI remember playing in my 70s in an industrial league. I was pitching, and a line drive came my way and took the skin off my arm,\u201d she said. \u201cMy husband told me I was going to get killed. That\u2019s when I decided it was time I had better stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to her granddaughter, Bolles has been dealing with quite a few health problems, including a stroke she had three years ago. She has vision problems now, but they don\u2019t stop her from enjoying life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s tough,\u201d Wilson said, \u201cvery tough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Coats and Wilson are very proud of Bolles. They claim her influence molded them into the women they are today, and they are thankful her love of softball was passed down to them. That love has built memories they will cherish forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany people boast about their riches and gold,\u201d Coats said. \u201cBut I am thankful for the memories in this old Tempo magazine. That\u2019s my treasure.\u201d GN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don Davidson Park is located at 1701 Wilson Parkway in Fayetteville. The field named in honor of Marie Bolles is Field 6, located in the back of the park.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On a cloudy day in late April, Marie Bolles sat on a wooden bench in a quiet dugout at Don Davidson Park. She stared out at the ballfield before her. There were no players and no spectators in the stands, but she could hear chatter from another field. She looked down at the well-worn softball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":26245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[69,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fayetteville","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/fayetteville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/2-1024x683.jpg\")
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