Former Standard Knitting Mill employees hold reunion

By Ken Lay

It was a time to see old friends, have a little food and talk about memories as the former workers at the Standard Knitting Mill held their annual employees reunion.

The 2023 reunion was hosted by the John T. O’Connor Senior Center in East Knoxville on Saturday, Aug. 5.

The mill opened in 1900 and manufactured underwear, sweatshirts and sweatpants for many of the top department stores of the time, including, J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward and Sears.

“The mill shut down in 1990 and we’ve had reunions since we’ve closed,” said former employee Harold Finley, who served as the Director of Purchasing. “We had a 3,600-square-foot factory and we made men’s underwear.

“And later on, we branched out and started making sweatshirts, sweatpants and things like that.”

For a time, the mill was the largest employer in Knoxville. The pay wasn’t the highest, but people came and some stayed for a long time.

“A lot of people came and some of them stayed for 40 years,” Finley said. “It wasn’t that you came to and got rich,” Finley said. “It was about the people and it was a place where you could always get a job.

“Some people came to work there while they were waiting to get a job.”

The work wasn’t always easy.

“I always admired the women who sewed,” Finley said. “They had a big sewing machine with a big motor and it was hot. The motor got so hot and you had to be productive to make money.”

One former employee, Sue Walker, said that working with the sewing machines made her assess her life values.

“It was so hot that it straightened your life out,” said Walker, now 93. “It made you live a better life because you didn’t want to be that hot for eternity.”

Like many youngsters of the time, Walker said she had to go to work as a teenager.

“I worked there for 43 years and I started when I was 16,” she said. I had to lie about my age. You had to be 17.

“But I had to go to work. It was a necessity. I didn’t have a choice, but it was a good place to work.”

Another former employee, Lynn Johnson worked for Standard Knitting Mill for three decades and served as the company’s Vice President of Finance.

He takes great pride in one aspect of the company.

“We had 3,500 employees and we were the largest employer in Knoxville and had the biggest payroll, and in 30 years, nobody ever missed a paycheck,” he said.