Legends & Legacies Progress 2023

PROGRESS 2023

City Mayor

Curt Alexander - 423-543-1181

Mayor Pro-Tem

William E. “Bill” Carter

Councilman

Jeffery C. Treadway

Kim Birchfield

Michael Simerly

Wes Frazier

Richard Barker

Circuit Court Clerk

Johnny Blankenship - 423-542-1835

General Sessions Court

Keith Bowers, Jr.- 423-542-1825

Juvenile Court 423-542-1829

Criminal Court

Stacy L. Street

Lisa Nidiffer Rice 423-542-1872

Assessor of Property

Ronnie B. Taylor - 423-542-1806

Clerk and Master

Andrew LaPorte - 423-542-1812

County Clerk

Mary Gouge - 423-542-1814

Carter County Trustee

Chad Lewis - 423-542-1811

Register of Deeds

Jarrod Ellis - 423-542-1830

Animal Shelter

Shannon Posada, Director 423-547-6359

Administrator of Elections

Tracy Tanner-Harris 423-542-1822

Carter County Election Commission 423-542-1822

Junior Stanley (R) – Chairman

Ramon Sanchez-Vinas (D) – Secretary

Teresa Murray-Smith (R)

Diane Wilde (D)

Tom Whitehead (R)

Emergency Management Agency

Billy Harrell, Director 423-542-1888

Deputy Director

Kevin Kemp - 423-542-1888

Finance Director

Carolyn Watson - 423-542-3844

City/County Directory

Deputy Director

Audra Gerty - 423-542-3844

Health Department

Caroline Chinouth

Carter & Johnson County Director 423-543-2521

Highway Department

Roger Colbaugh Superintendent

Office Phone: 423-543-2331

Planning & Zoning

Chris Schuettler Director 423-542-1834

Director of Schools

Dr. Brandon Carpenter

Phone:423-547-4000

Assistant Director of Schools

Dr. Diana Bowers

Phone: 423-547-4000

Carter County Board of Education 423-547-4000

Chairman Kelly Crain - 6th District

Vice Chairman Keith Bowers – 1st District

Gary Oaks – 2nd District

Jeremiah Tolley – 3rd District

Danny Ward – 4th District

Tony Garland - 5th District

Terry Hubbard – 7th District

Dylan Hill – 8th District

Sheriff’s Department

Mike Fraley, Sheriff 423-542-1845

Solid Waste

Benny Lyons, Director 423-543-6626

UT Extension Office

Rachel Dean, MPH 423-542-1818

Veteran’s Service Officer

David K. Batchelder, 423-542-1824

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

ADA Coordinators for Carter County: Billy Harrell

Carter County Courthouse 423-542-1888

County Mayor

Patty Woodby 423-542-1801

Carter County Commission Chairwoman

Ginger Holdren

Vice Chairwoman

Kelly Collins

County Attorney - Josh Hardin

County Historian - Lisa Germaine

Chancellor - John C. Rambo

District Attorney General

Steve Finney

Assistant District Attorney

Matt Roark

Carter County Commissioners

1st District – Hunter, Midway, and Unaka Communities

Willie Campbell, 1st District

Nick Holder, 1st District

Robert Acuff, 1st District

2nd District – Hampton, Roan Mountain, and Tiger Valley

Nancy J. Brown, 2nd District

Avery Wynn, 2nd District

Julie Guinn, 2nd District

3rd District – Central, Keenburg, Range, and Watauga

Bradley Johnson, 3rd District

Steve Burrough, 3rd District

Angie Odom, 3rd District

4th District – Courthouse, Eastside, and Siam Communities

Danny Deal, 4th District

Gary Kemp, 4th District

Jerry Proffitt, 4th District

5th District – Happy Valley

Lisa Childress, 5th District

Ginger Holdren, 5th District

Layla Ward, 5th District

6th District – Hampton, Little

Milligan, Elk Mills, Valley Forge

Donnie Cable, 6th District

Jason Clawson, 6th District

Todd Smith, 6th District

7th District – Gap Creek

Jason Rasnick, 7th District

Daniel McInturff 7th District

Aaron Frazier, 7th District

8th District – Elizabethton High School, Harold McCormick

Cody McQueen, 8th District

Kelly Collins, 8th District

Thomas Proffitt, 8th District

Elizabethton Fire Department

Barry Carrier - Fire Chief

Volunteer Fire Departments

Central Volunteer Fire Department

Elk Mills Volunteer Fire Department

Hampton Volunteer Fire Department

Roan Mountain Volunteer Fire Department

Stoney Creek Volunteer Fire Department

Watauga Volunteer Fire Department

West Carter County Volunteer Fire Department

Carter County Rescue Squad/EMS

423-543-5445

City Manager

Daniel Estes - 423-542-1507

City Judge

The Honorable Jason Holly Court Clerk - Cherie Geagley

City Attorney

Roger G. Day

Assistant City Attorney

Charlton R. Devault

City Clerk/Finance Director

Preston T. Cobb - 423-542-1504

Deputy City Clerk

Jennifer Arnold

Department Heads and Other Officials Water Resources Director

Jonathan Pleasant

Electric Department Director

Brandon Shell

Police Chief

Jason Shaw

Street & Sanitation Director

Danny Hilbert

Parks & Recreation Director

Mike Mains

Public Library Director

Bernadette Weese

Purchasing Director

Greg Workman

Planning & Development Director

Logan Engle

Personnel Director - Angela Lyons

Public Relations - Ivan Sanders

Vera Peters Longtime early childhood teacher

Rozella Hardin Local journalist looks back on career

The LaPortes The legacy of an immigrant’s family

William B. “Bill” Greene, Jr. Working to make this place a better place to live

Deacon Bowers Always on the frontline for veterans

Duard Walker Coaching legacy contines to inspire

Jennifer Hughes Making food, friendships and memories at City Market

Claudette Campbell Longtime Little Milligan Elementary secretary

We Build Careers

Longtime early childhood teacher considers career a ‘blessing’

STORY BY ANGELA CUTRER PHOTOS BY LARRY N. SOUDERS & CONTRIBUTED

VBY ANGELA CUTRER

Vera Peters speaks just as you would expect an elementary school teacher to communicate: Her words are measured, her meaning is clear, her thought-process is apparent and her sincerity is evident.

Vera Peters remains an elementary school teacher through and through and nothing will change that — even retirement. And anyone who’s met “Ms. Vera” is probably thankful that’s the case.

Becoming a teacher

As all other elementary/early childhood instructors out in the world know — teaching is from the heart, and if you don’t already possess that passion, you won’t be happy and your students won’t be either.

Every day when a teacher walks in her classroom and flips on the lights, a new day begins and the promise of the possible is never ending.

“Today is going to be a best day of your life!” Ms. Vera would say as students trickled into her kindergarten classroom. Other pearls of wisdom included “Your time is so valuable,” “perseverance” and “life is just a story.”

Ms. Vera, 64, taught young children for 38 years. “I’m was an old-school teacher — they napped,” she said of her classroom rules. “Everyone needs a few minutes rest, especially when you are learning.”

Born and raised in this area, Ms. Vera said her desire to teach was “very grounded by my parents. They saw my desire at a very young age, and in fourth grade, my dad bought old school desks, and my parents transformed our garage into a summer library and school for me. Kids in the neighborhood would come to check out books and have fun learning.

“My parents listened to music with me and read to me every day. I’m an early childhood educator and I knew the importance of reading from birth. My own children would prefer me to read to them.”

Star Photo/Larry N. Souders

Ms. Vera Peters (center) poses with four of her former kindergarten students with the West Side Elementary sign where they all met. From left are Emily Dugger Rock, Axie McQueen Craft, Ms. Vera, Emie Seeley and Kaitlyn Haney.

“In my years of teaching, I never realized about the paycheck — it’s just an inner drive to be with children and learn with them. There are just so many teachable moments possible.”

Vera Peters began teaching during the 1980 school year. “I was very blessed to be asked to teach on the East Tennessee State University campus at the Learning Center,” she said. “I was immersed into the abundance of diversity of children. We saw so many needs and such diversity. I learned so much there. I was mentored because I was clueless, yet I was an open book. I was so in love with the kids and parents. They needed me and I needed them.

“[However,] I made so many mistakes! Just like a young parent — you are trying to do the right thing. The more you teach, the more you learned.”

Peters’ own children liked their mother to read to them as well, which she did until they were each in the third grade. “They are now great readers themselves,” Ms. Vera said proudly.

Change of scenery

At the center, Peters thrived with the children, working from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for 16 years. She also continued her education, working toward a master’s degree in early childhood. She attended and presented at many a conference.

But not all was well. “One day I came home and my three children told me they had a surprise,” she said. “It was a makebelieve ‘Mama Trap’ to keep their mother home with them.”

It was a joke, but Peters knew it was a revelation. That’s when Peters knew it was time to change gears and come back home. “It took me two years to finally get into an Elizabethton school so that my children and I were on the same time frame,” she said.

And that’s something Peters suggests to all parents: Be present. “It’s why I changed my career,” she said. “I needed to be present for my own children. I needed to become part of my community.”

The next 22 years had Peters at West Side, where she and her students were in a self-contained room, unlike the open concept that was the norm at the Learning Center. “It was wonderful,” she said. The added bonus of being at West Side was how Peters could weave her daily life activities right into the fabric of the community itself.

“I finally became part of my community,” she said. “I wanted to teach these children and then see them go to first grade, second grade and on and on. It fulfilled a deep desire for me as a mother

and as a teacher.”

Why kindergarten?

Peters embraces her cherished quote that kindergarten is a garden where children grow.

That’s even what the word “kindergarten” — a word coined by Friedrich Froebel, who started the first kindergarten in 1840 — means: “a garden of children.”

“In words, you can find small words — ‘kind’ is part of ‘kindergarten,’” she said. “‘Kinder,’ another word for child, is part of ‘kindergarten.’”

And garten, a German word, is for garden, of course. And in a garden, you would nurture and encourage growth. “We cultivated learning with deep foundational roots,” she shared.

Even amid changes in teaching expectations, Peters knew the most important part of her job was to nurture the children’s development needs. “Children always deserve to feel security and love, which opens their minds to learning,” she said. She believes upcoming teachers believe that, too.

“There is such honesty in children,” she said. “Every day is a story, a book opening up, the lights turning on. You can be a guide. You’ll spend 180 days with them a year, which is sometimes more than the parents can spend with them.

“Thinking about being an educator, I would never tell anyone to not be a teacher,” Peters added. “You are responsible for so much, but the biggest thing is the trust you build with those children.

You can make every day the best day of their lives.”

And those children remember. Once, a student told her, “Ms. Vera, today is the best day of your life,” her words coming

back to her. He realized she was having a tough moment.

In her classroom, rubbing the backs of those who are hurting was always shared with peers in the classroom. One time,

Star Photo/Larry N. Souders

The group poses at the entrance of the building where the idea of being teachers was first inspired by Ms. Vera Peters (center). She has followed this group of young teachers and several others since they were in her kindergarten class from the late ’90s through the early 2000s. Pictured from left: Kaitlyn Haney, Emie Seeley, Emily Dugger Rock and Axie McQueen Craft.

Peters was concerned about her son in a football game receiving an injury. It wasn’t long before she felt dozens of tiny hands rubbing her back, their owners not saying a word. The children in her care had learned how to comfort, as well as how to express their concern and empathy.

Those are things you simply can’t find in academic books; you have to experience them for yourself.

Education constantly changes, but no matter how often change comes, children are still children, Peters said. “They still need us to provide for their needs,” she explained. “I felt I had an innate ability to listen to children and provide what is needed. I would always ask my class ‘what do y’all want to learn this year?’ Whether it’s about peanut butter, fish and whales, the stars...no matter what they chose, it would also be feeding back into the curriculum I had to meet in the classroom. Which was not my classroom; it was our classroom. This process ingrains ownership and partnership with the children and parents.

Retirement

“My retirement is harder than my regular job was,” Peters said with a laugh. These days you’ll find her at Meredith Valley Farm, which she runs with her sister-in-law, Janet, also an educator. Together they operate a cabin rental family business on an authentic working farm.

With the farm addition, life for both Vera and Janet on a farm with cabin rentals is still like one great big classroom.

Peters describes the best part of retirement as experiencing just how deep she is a part of her own community. She sees her “kinders” all over the place. Recently she attended a basketball game of former kinders during their [high school] Senior Night. One time when Peters brought her mother to the emergency room, another “kinder” was the ER nurse there.

Though she retired from teaching in 2018, Peters still participates in a local tradition of releasing monarch butterflies each year. It’s another piece of a community puzzle she’s proud to be a part of.

Peters gives her former colleagues all the credit for being so supportive during the years she was in the classroom. She’s quick to say that each person in her life helped her succeed in her teaching, whether it was a coworker, a parent, a janitor or a student.

“Community is so important,” she said. “My children — Weston, Meredith and Jordan — had to grow up with me [in the school system] and they realized the importance of teaching as Peters often shared stories of her kinder friends who are now teachers, engineers, electricians and doctors. “It doesn’t matter what they are doing, they learned that their time was so valuable,” she said. “I love that.”

In her final days at West Side, Ms. Vera tried to organize packing up her classroom, which was more like a museum. It was a monumental task that took weeks. During this time, a found dictionary had the word “abominable” underlined — a child had written next to it “Ms. Vera’s classroom is an abominable mess.”

And perhaps to some it might have appeared that way, but Peters never did anything without a plan. “I brought in a Peace Lily, knowing it would bloom the next May,” she said of her fall decisions each school year. “Every day I would tell the children that the Peace Lily would bloom if we kept the peace in our room. Of course, the children didn’t know that it would bloom in May [no matter what], but I did! If something was going wrong, I would tell the child, ‘you’d better go talk to that Peace Lily!’”

Peters said she didn’t work hard at teaching to become a “legend” or to leave a “legacy.” If that happened, it was unexpected and came about because of the people she was surrounded by.

“When you are a teacher, you are a nurse, a parent, a friend,” she said. “You take on many roles.” One was teaching children to take responsibility. “The students did an analogy of how people are like books — they open, they close, they wear jackets, they go to bed at night, they get torn and need a bandage. And so on.”

That’s Peters being “Ms. Vera” again, expressing how she would use simple objects to help students become more aware of their own behavior as well as creativity.

Goodbye, hello

Peters’ retirement in 2018 meant she could spend time with her own mother in the last year of her life, which Peters appreciated. “I had to retire because my family needed me,” she added.

Peters said her most cherished days these days are spent with family and six beautiful grandchildren, with whom she enjoys doing kindergarten activities and picking flowers.

But when she had to face leaving her classroom for the last time, it was difficult — more difficult than she could ever have imagined.

Star Photo/Larry N. Souders

This group of inspired young teachers shares memories, photos and laughter with their mentor as they sit on the bench at the entrance of West Side Elementary. Seated are (l-r) Emie Seeley, Ms. Vera Peters and Emily Dugger Rock. Standing behind are Kaitlyn Haney and Axie McQueen Craft.

Contributed Photo

A classroom group photo from the early 2000s

Contributed Photo

Mayday celebrations from the late ’90s to the early 2000s.

“It was dark outside and it was so hard to leave it,” Ms. Vera said of her final moments in her classroom. “I could still hear little voices in it. Singing, dancing, screaming. I reached to turn off my light like I did every evening, but I could not turn the lights off.

“I left them on,” she said about leaving for the last time.

Ms. Vera added that she hears the new teacher in Peters’ old room is “awesome” and “doing a great job.” Peters is glad about that. She never doubted it.

And so it goes, as new kindergartners still filter through on their way to the next grade, with no idea how important that very first year will be to their futures.

But Ms. Vera knew. That’s why she made every day with them the very best day it could be.

Ms. Vera’s teaching kinders are numerous. Ms. Vera often shared she could not be a teacher without her students — and look what some of her students have become: Teachers.

“I wanted to teach for many reasons, but a few are because of the love I was shown by my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Vera. She was so impactful in my life that I wrote about her in my philosophy of education.

“I want to show students the same amount of love and joy that learning brings that she showed me many years ago. — Emie Seeley, recent graduate of teaching program

“My kindergarten year was my favorite year of school. [Ms. Vera] always made learning so fun and I loved coming to school. Every day seemed like a new adventure. The hands-on activities we did were always my favorite.

“I always hope to inspire and have an impact on my students like [she] did

on me. — Emily Dugger Rock, current teacher.

“What I recall most about being in kindergarten is the way learning was fun. I remember so many hands-on activities like painting with the primary colors, making doughnuts for the school, creating Mother’s Day gifts and so much more.

“The activities that we did shaped me to be a servant for others. We learned how to put others above ourselves and help them feel value. We were so young that we didn’t know we were learning those skills. As I reflect on that time, 17 years later, I see now that the way we were being taught is what the world needs more of today.

“As I approach the final steps of the teacher certification process, I am excited to put all that I have been taught into it. From my first day of kindergarten to the present moments of my life, I feel prepared as I take this next step.

“To all my teachers, past and present — thank you!” — Kaitlyn Haney, recent graduate of teaching program

“Ms. Vera was one of those teachers who made you love learning. She taught lessons with such energy and creativity that there was no doubt she enjoyed and cared about what she was doing.

“Her passion for teaching and learning incited a love of learning in her

students, and I firmly believe it is because of Ms. Vera — my compassionate, kindhearted and imaginative kindergarten teacher — that I decided from the first grade onward that I wanted to be a teacher.

“Now, in my own classroom at T.A. Dugger, I often think of Ms. Vera. In the assignments I create, the attitude I display, the conversations I have with my students and the environment I cultivate, I ask myself, ‘Is this what Ms. Vera would do?’

“I want to teach my students in a way that makes them love learning ... the way Ms. Vera taught me.” — Axie C. Craft, current teacher

Contributed Photo Mayday celebrations from the late ’90s to the early 2000s.

Elizabethton City School Directory

Elizabethton City School Board

Eddie Pless - Board Chair

Phil Isaacs

Danny O’Quinn

Jamie Bass Schaff- Vice Chair

Mike Wilson

Felecia Baird - Board Secretary

Gracie Fields (Student Liaison)

Director of Schools

Richard VanHuss

Assistant Director of Schools

Dr. Myra Newman

Director of Technology

Joey Trent

Director of Special Education & RTI2

Josh Boatman

SPED Coach (system-wide)

Hayley Bishop

Assistant Director of Schools for Operations

John Hutchins

Director of Business & Fiscal Management

Beth Wilson

Director of Wandell Early Learning Center, Curriculum & Testing PreK-12, Accountability and Data Services

Travis Thompson

School Nutrition Coordinator

Regina Isaacs

Director of Extended School Program

Jordan Carder

Director of Coordinated School

Health Coordinator

Emily Brooks

System-wide Registered Nurse

Teresa Robinson

Public Relations

Nicole Moore

Elizabethton High School

423-547-8015

Grades 9-12

Jon Minton, Principal

Sheri Nelson, Assistant Principal

Joe Diaz, Assistant Principal

Tom Hopson, Assistant Principal

T.A. Dugger

Junior High School

423-547-8025

Grades 6-8

Chris Berry, Principal

Justin White, Assistant Principal

Travis Williams, Assistant Principal

East Side Elementary

423-547-8010

Grades K-5

Travis Hurley, Principal

Emmy Morganstern, Assistant Principal

Harold McCormick Elementary

423-547-8020

Grades K-5

Eric Wampler, Principal

Penny Nave, Assistant Principal

West Side Elementary

423-547-8030

Grades K-5

John Wright, Principal

Dr. Tammy Markland

Assistant Principal

Wandell Early Learning Center

423-547-8035

Pre-K - Travis Thompson, Director

CTE Director

Brian Culbert

CTE Administrative Assistant

Jennifer Taylor

Transportation Supervisor

Dr. Tom Hopson

Legends & Legacies

Carter County School System

Carter County Board of Education

423-547-4000

Chairman Kelly Crain – 6th District

Vice Chairman Keith Bowers Sr. – 1st District

Keith Bowers Sr. – 1st District

Gary Oaks – 2nd District

Jeremiah Tolley – 3rd District

Danny Ward – 4th District

Tony Garland - 5th District

Terry Hubbard - 7th District

Dylan Hill - 8th District

Director of Schools

Dr. Brandon Carpenter brandoncarpenter@carterk12.net

Assistant Director of Schools

Dr. Diana Bowers dianabowers@carterk12.net

Board Secretary - Amanda Scalf

Attendance & Student Management

Kathy Ledford

Special Education Director

Dr. Diana Bowers dianabowers@carterk12.net

Program Coordinator

April Howard - aprilhoward@carter12.net

CTE Director

Betsy Oliver - betsyoliver@carterk12.net

Mark Revis - markrevis@carterk12.net

CTE Secretary & Bookkeeper

Rochelle Darnell rochelledarnell@carterk12.net

Head Start Supervisor

LeeAnn Carr leeanncarr@carterk12.net

Director of K-12 Curriculum

Dr. LaDonna Stout-Boone ladonnaboone@carterk12.net

Director of Student Support

Danny McClain dannymcclain@carterk12.net

Federal Project Director

Dr. Jerri Beth Nave jbnave@carterk12.net

Carter CaresAfter School Program

Sonya Miller - Program Director sonyamiller@carterk12.net

Coordinated School Health

Beth Bare

Program Assistant - Lacey Pasquale

Director of School Nutrition

Lindsey Feathers - 423-547-2917

Schools

Central Elementary Grades K-8

Terry Morley, Principal - 423-547-4045

Cloudland Elementary Grades K-8

Scott Potter, Principal Scott Tester, Assistant Principal 423-772-5310

Cloudland High School Grades 9-12

Dr. Amy Horney, Principal Matt Birchfield, Assistant Principal 423-772-5300

Hampton Elementary Grades K-8

Jake Jenkins, Pre-K - 8th Grade Principal Jaclyn Wilson - Assistant Principal 423-725-5220

Hampton High School Grades 9-12

Jeff Bradley, Principal Dewayne Humphrey, Assistant Principal 423-725-5200

Happy Valley Elementary Grades K-4

Mrs. Mandy Greer, Principal Lisa Ensor, Assistant Principal 423-547-4028

Happy Valley Middle School Grades 5-8

Keith Parker, Principal Todd Caldwell, Assistant Principal 423-547-4070

Happy Valley High School Grades 9-12

Dr. Paul Blair, Principal Justin Bowling, Assistant Principal 423-547-4094

Hunter Elementary Grades K-8

Stephen Garland, Principal Dale Campbell, Assistant Principal 423-547-4074

Keenburg Elementary Grades K-8

Doug Mitchell, Principal 423-547-4047

Little Milligan Elementary School Grades K-8

JR Campbell, Principal 423-768-4400

Unaka Elementary School Grades K-8

Richard Thomas, Principal 423-474-4110

Unaka High School Grades 9-12

Mike Ensor, Principal Aaron Dugger, Assistant Principal 423-474-4100

Valley Forge Elementary School Grades K-5

Brandon Young, Principal 423-547-4085

STORY BY LYNN J. RICHARDSON • PHOTOS BY LYNN J. RICHARDSON & CONTRIBUTED

Rozella Hardin, the editorial director and writer for the Elizabethton Star, has interviewed hundreds of people and written thousands of articles. For over half a century, she has helped tell the stories of the people, places and events that make up day-to-day life in Carter County.

When you sit down to talk with her, it is hard to imagine her asking the tough questions necessary for the stories she’s done. Her gentle manner has no doubt put many she has interviewed completely at ease. Hardin makes conversation as easy as sipping a sweet tea on your neighbor’s front porch, and when she speaks, she sounds just like Elizabethton, Tennessee.

Chances are, if you are researching local history, you’ll see her by-line over and over again. Those stories are Hardin’s legacy, stories covering everything from elections to school board meetings, from social functions to murder investigations.

The middle child of ten, Hardin is a Hampton High School graduate. After finishing high school, she went to work at various jobs — first at the Tastee Freeze in Elizabethton, then at a factory in Pennsylvania and then back to Elizabethton, where she worked at a company that made electric toothbrushes.

She did what she needed to do to help her family, but always, since she was a very young child, there was one thing she really wanted to do; she wanted to write.

“I had wanted to be a writer since I was in fifth grade and read a book about Nelly Bly, an investigative reporter, for a book report,” Hardin said. “Dan Crowe, my eighth grade history teacher, stoked my interest in local history, so one day I wrote a letter to Mr. Frank Robinson, who was the publisher and owner of the paper, and shared my desire to write, especially for the local newspaper. I simply said, ‘If you have a loose job laying around, I would like to try my hand at it.’

“I didn’t even have a typewriter, so I did the letter in my handwriting. Mr. Robinson was more impressed with my handwriting than my ability to write, and he offered me a job.”

She was 22 years old and that was almost 54 years ago.

“I’ve never looked back, but feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to further enhance my abilities and talents. I’ve had a lot of help along the way, especially in the beginning. And, through the years, Mr. Robinson continued to encourage me by giving me new responsibilities. I’m very grateful for the opportunity he gave me.”

Another mentor, writer and society editor Lucy Ward and later news editor, also helped mold the young journalist. “Everything I know about newspapers, I learned from Mr. Robinson and Lucy Ward,” Hardin said. “I didn’t know a thing about newspapers except to pick them up and read them.” In the beginning, Hardin worked on everything that came her way. When correspondents sent their stories in, Hardin would type them up. She cut her teeth on emergency room reports, articles about PTA meetings and more. And as she worked to learn her craft, Ward edited her copy and marked it up, teaching Hardin as she went along.

The two worked together until Ward retired in 2000. They often collaborated, not only on news items, but community projects like the newspaper’s long-running Christmas Basket project which provided groceries and hams to the area’s families in need.

It was also Ward who encouraged Hardin when she came up with a really big idea — turning the town’s giant Fraser fir into the community’s Christmas tree. “We were in the office, just sitting and talking about that Fraser fir and I said, ‘That would make a great Christmas tree!’ We just kept talking about it until finally we asked (then-publisher) Charlie Robinson what he thought about the idea. He said, ‘Go for it!’”

They worked with University of Tennessee Extension Service agent Keith Hart, who initially told Hardin he didn’t think it would work. However, Hardin persisted so Hart enlisted the help of his father-in-law, J.I. Cornett. The rest is history.

“We wrote stories and people donated pennies, nickels and dimes,” she said.

“School kids and Sunday School classes took up money. Businesses contributed. We needed $2,000 to puts lights on the tree and in about a week’s time, we had raised the money.”

Hardin got to light the tree in 1997.

Local journalist looks back on career that spans more than half a century R

“Every time I look at that tree, I think ‘that little idea was birthed in the newspaper office and it has become such a holiday event.’ The community just rose to the occasion.”

Not everything Hardin worked on was so pleasant. Such was the case when she did a “Story of the Century” series, revisiting the story of the 1937 murder of Hampton businessman, Arnold Tollett, and the tragedy that followed.

Tollett and business partner, Harmon Gouge, got into a heated argument over a loan and Tollett pulled a knife. Gouge pulled out a pistol and shot and killed Tollett. Although the shooting was ruled self-defense, Tollett’s brothers were determined to get revenge. They rigged dynamite to the four corners of Gouge’s home and detonated it.

Gouge wasn’t at home, but his wife and three young daughters, ages 9, 7 and 6, were sleeping inside. All three children were killed, and Mrs. Gouge was severely injured.

Many years later, Hardin says people still had memories of the story, with some giving accounts of the funeral procession, streets lined with citizens as the three tiny caskets were taken for burial on Whitehead Hill.

“One day a lady came to the office and asked to see me,” Hardin said. “She told me who she was. Her daddy was Arnold Tollett, the man that Herman Gouge killed that set all this off.

“As a young woman, she had ended up living with an aunt in Hampton and going to Hampton High School,” Hardin said. “She had the grades to be valedictorian, but because there was so much stigma attached to the name ‘Tollett,’ they denied her that honor.

“After she graduated, she moved to Chattanooga to live with some other family members. She eventually got married and moved to Georgia.

“I sat and listened and her story was so emotional,” Hardin said. “Tears ran down her face. She simply wanted to share her story and say ‘I’ve forgiven them.’ After her touching visit, I wrote, ‘There were more victims than Tollett and those three little girls.’”

Hardin’s stories have changed lives, especially for one Elizabethton home economics teacher whose job was in jeopardy due to a proposed budget cut.

“I was covering the Elizabethton school board meeting, and afterward, I went home and sat down and really looked at that financial report,” Hardin recalls. “It just didn’t add up, so I wrote

the story and said so.

“The school system’s superintendent and finance director called me and wanted me to come back to the central office so they could explain the report to me. I went, but I told them again, ‘You can’t explain it; it just doesn’t add up.’”

After school officials took a closer look, they finally realized their mistake. The teacher ended up keeping her job. However, the finance director resigned. Ironically, he had been Hardin’s high school accounting teacher.

Through the years, Hardin has covered a plethora of stories including the flood of 1998, the Dolly Gouge murder, and the Ben Tester murder.

“I’ve seem the demise of industry — the rayon mills, the box factory, the undergarment factory, and I’ve seen a once vibrant downtown give way to shopping centers. I saw two state parks come to be, the Overmountain Victory Trail and the

Hardin grew up in this home in the Beck Mountain community of Carter County.

Even as a child, Rozella Hardin wanted to become a writer. This photo was taken when she was in the first grade.

Tweetsie Trail established. I’ve interviewed governors, covered a Miss America Pageant and I’ve seen Cat Island — an old community — made into a park. Some events were sad and some brought tears of happiness. I’ve been blessed.

“I’m not sure I can determine what my ‘legacy’ will be,” she said. “That will be probably left for others to decide. I hope they can say I’ve made a mark on my community in a positive way. I’ve tried, through my writing, to be positive, honest and fair — whether it has been through covering an event, a meeting or just doing an article on an individual. It is never an easy job...but it has been a fulfilling one.

“You know, you don’t leave the job at the newspaper and go home,” she added. “It goes home with you. It sort of becomes your life.”

Hardin and co-worker and friend Bob Bowling share a light-hearted moment.

Mr. Frank Robinson, former owner and publisher of the Elizabethton Star, gave Hardin her first job more than 54 years ago.

Editorial director Rozella Hardin looks over a recent edition of the Elizabethton Star.

The LaPortes:

The legacy of an immigrant’s family

STORY BY LYNN J. RICHARDSON

• PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY THE LAPORTE FAMILY

SSome time before World War I kicked up its ugly heels, a man name Joseph LaPorta threw what few belongings he had into a knapsack and left his home in Sicily behind. He was like many immigrants of the day who turned their eyes to the United States, hoping to find a better life.

There were many other Sicilians who had also come to the U.S., many of whom settled in the Wisconsin area, so that was where Joe went too.

He was in a new place and now, even his name was a little different. When he came through Ellis Island, the processors wrote it down wrong. The flick of a pen changed the last “a” of his name to an “e,” and he became Joseph LaPorte.

The war came and LaPorte fought for his new country. There are no details, but his family says that somewhere along the line, he was gassed in the line of duty.

“At that time, the Veterans Administration Hospital in Johnson City was where they took all the gas victims,” said Sam LaPorte. “So that’s where my grandfather ended up.”

While at the local VA, LaPorte met Minnie Lee Combs, a nurse from the Stoney Creek area of Carter County. The two married and had four boys, one of whom was Sam’s father, Joe LaPorte Jr.

“Mamaw had Stoney Creek Grill up there, right where the bridge crosses from Lynn Valley into the Hunter Community,” Sam said. “She ran that market and raised her four sons, Those were hard times for everybody and I’m certain there were times that she advanced goods to people who were having trouble making ends meet.”

Joe LaPorte Jr. began working as a paper carrier at the age of 10 and by the time he was a student at Elizabethton High School, he had a job at a local rayon plant.

He served his country in the Army for two years during World War II, later earning a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Steed College in 1950.

“Sometime after he came back from World War II, he met our mother, Katherine Isaacs LaPorte, while she was working for the telephone company in Johnson City,” Sam said. “She grew up in the coal mining area of southern West Virginia. Her family was struggling financially, having trouble making ends meet, so she had come to live with relatives just across the border in North Carolina.”

The two married and LaPorte started his banking career at Fountain City Bank near Knoxville, later joining Citizens Bank in Elizabethton as a loan officer in 1956. Six years later, he was named the bank’s fourth president. Under his leadership, Citizens Bank began a period of expansion and growth. He passed away in 1988 while still serving as chair-

The LaPorte family poses for a photograph on Elk Avenue in front of the former location of Citizens Bank. The Betsy Theatre is in the background. Left to right are Joe LaPorte III, Joe LaPorte Jr., Steve LaPorte, Katherine LaPorte, Chris LaPorte and Sam LaPorte.

“The best thing we’ve done for our community is to give back to it — regularly and where it will do the most good. Our parents taught us that it was the best way to live. They didn’t drill it into us. We just learned by watching their example.”

—Sam LaPorte

man of the Citizens Bank Board.

The couple raised their four sons in Elizabethton and two still live in the community. Sam LaPorte is a retired attorney, and his brother, Joe LaPorte III, is currently Chairman and CEO of Citizens Bank. The two other brothers, Chris LaPorte, who is an Executive Vice President with FHN, and Steve LaPorte, who is a retired Managing Director/Trader for Coastal Securities, live in Houston, Texas. However, it is very clear that all four still look upon Elizabethton as “home,” and their support of so many local projects and groups underscores that.

The LaPorte brothers say they learned the importance of giving back to their community simply by watching the example set by their parents. And even though the LaPorte name is synonymous with Elizabethton’s Citizens Bank, the many contributions and commitments the family has made to the Carter County community have never been considered business as usual.

“Far from it,” said Sam. “For all of us, it’s very personal.

“We do a lot of things together and we also do a lot separately,” he added. “There’s not a lot of moss that grows under any of us.”

While Citizens Bank Stadium at Elizabethton High School is perhaps the most visible

Early days at their home in the Stoney Creek community of Carter County is the first generation of the American-born LaPorte family. Left to right are Frank LaPorte, Charles “Dude” LaPorte, Joe LaPorte Jr., “Mamaw” Minnie Lee Combs LaPorte, “Pappy Joe” Joe LaPorte Sr. and Tony LaPorte.

A recent LaPorte family gathering.

PREPARE TO LEAD & SERVE.

of the things the LaPorte family has helped make possible, there are many other contributions the family has made in hopes they will enrich the community, making it an even better place to live, work and play.

Included in that list is the Boys and Girls Club of Elizabethton/Carter County, made possible when the family purchased the abandoned undergarment factory and donated it to the City of Elizabethton with the stipulation it would be used to benefit the community’s youth. Most recently the LaPorte brothers saw to it that both gyms at the Club were completely refurbished. Each is one is now named for their parents — Joe LaPorte Jr. and Katherine LaPorte.

The LaPorte family also helped make the new Citizens Bank Athletic Training Center at Milligan’s Steve Lacy Fieldhouse at Milligan University a reality. The center adds more than 1,000 square feet of treatment space for the 300 student-athletes at Milligan, allowing Milligan to better accommodate the training and treatment needs of its athletes.

Other contributions to the area’s sports-loving community the family has helped make happen are the LaPorte Sports Complex on G Street which offers up a field to be used for youth soccer, the Boys and Girls Cub and city schools. The complex is meant to make the sporting experience more accessible for the city’s youth by providing a common gathering place for local teams to practice and play.

And just down the street, at Elizabethton High School, there is the LaPorte Track, particularly significant to the LaPorte family which had three members participate in Elizabethton’s track program.

The family has also sponsored builds by the Habitat for Humanity, as well as several area scholarships, including the Roan Scholar program at East Tennessee State University.

At the end of the day, Sam says, hopefully all four of “Pappy Joe’s” grandsons can look back on what they’ve returned to the community and hope it has made a positive difference.

“The best thing we’ve done for our community is to give back to it — regularly and where it will do the most good,” he added. “Our parents taught us that it was the best way to live. They didn’t drill it into us. We just learned by watching their example.”

The sons of Joe LaPorte Jr. and Katherine Isaacs LaPorte: Left to right, back row are Sam LaPorte and Chris LaPorte. Front, l-r are Steve LaPorte and Joe LaPorte III.

STORY BY LYNN J. RICHARDSON • PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

William B. “Bill” Greene, Jr.: ‘Working to make this place a better place to live’

WWhen William B. “Bill” Greene, Jr. came to Elizabethton nearly 60 years ago, he came with an education, a completed stint in the Army, a plan to run a local bank and admittedly, a bit more attitude than probably was called for.

“I was an arrogant little jerk,” he said. “I thought I could do anything. I was pretty cocky. When I moved to Elizabethton, I got me a little apartment across from the 7-11. I lived there for four years, under the radar, and working my fanny off. I went to everything there was in the community. If there were more than three people there, I was there.”

In 1964, Greene became the primary stockholder and president of Carter County Bank. He was very young - 24 years old to be exact - which made him the youngest bank president and CEO in the United States.

Since then, Greene has left his mark on the banking industry, higher education, local aviation and more. In Carter County, his name is synonymous with Carter County Bank, Milligan University, and the Elizabethton Municipal Airport.

He has made his home in the area for many years and is married to Dr. Linda Latimer. His daughter, Rebecca, lives in Nashville.

He enjoys thinking back to the time when he first came to Elizabethton, and even before that, when he was two, and his father, who had been in the banking business in North Carolina, moved the family to Kingsport.

He has fond memories of his childhood, but especially the times he spent as a youngster, going to bank and board meetings with his father.

“I would sit there in the floor and pretend I was important when I was probably in the way,” Greene joked.

He learned a lot during those early days and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. But that would come later, following his education and his military service.

Greene graduated from Wake Forest University, and did his post-graduate work at Wake Forest University, the University of Illinois, and Harvard University. He is also a graduate of the Bank Marketing and Public Relations School at Northwestern University and of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University.

Greene served his country in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of Captain in the infantry, and stationed at Fort Bragg, Fort Benning and Fort Knox.

Greene returned to the area and got his first opportunity in 1964. He had become acquainted with Congressman Carroll B. Reese and his wife, Louise Golff Reese, who wanted him to take over her bank - Carter County Bank and First Peoples Bank in downtown Johnson City. He accepted the challenge.

Five years later, he formed the first statewide banking organization in Tennessee history, the United Tennessee Bancshares Corporation, which initially included Carter County Bank in Elizabethton and First People’s Bank in Johnson City. Several years later, Nashville City Bank in Nashville and National Bank of Commerce in Memphis were brought into the organization. He also co-founded Paragon Bank in Raleigh, N.C., in 1999.

He distinguished himself on a national level in the banking industry. As a former director of Northwestern Financial Corporation, Greene was a part of the first major banking merger in the United States with First Union Corporation, now Wachovia Bank, which has grown to be one of the country’s largest banks. In addition, he cofounded Bank of Tennessee.

He has been chairman, chief executive officer and president of BancTenn Corporation since 1972. He was a member of the Young President Organization for

William B.“Bill” Greene, Jr., left, and his father and biggest influencer,William B. Greene, Sr.

Bill Greene and his wife, Dr. Linda Latimer, at a football game at East

Tennessee State University,where the stadium bears his name.

Bill Greene as a youngster, growing up in Kingsport, Tenn.

18 years and in 1998 served as International President of the World President Organization. He received the 3rd Amzi Smith Award in 2016, an award that recognizes a distinguished businessperson who brought together like-minded business leaders.

But despite all the awards and recognitions, Greene is quick to acknowledge those who gave him a taste of the real world and made him better because of it.

He calls going to a public high school one of his “best blessings.” Active in several sports, he says those friendships - and sometimes fierce competitions - helped him along his way.

“Once you’ve had a fight with someone, the next time they’re going to be in your corner,” Greene said. “They give you part of their life and you give them yours. You become ‘blood brothers.’

“I get credit for everything I’ve done in my life,” he added. “I wish I was that smart. I have had a lot of help. Without it, I’d be driving an Uber somewhere.”

That “help” came in the form of family, friends and life’s experiences, Greene says.

“One thing the military gave me was incredible focus and discipline, and they taught me not to take myself too seriously. If you did, you’d get knocked off your perch.

“My mother gave me social graces so I could work anywhere in the world, and my father gave me my PhD in finance and business. He taught me that you don’t ever take shortcuts, to have impeccable integrity, and to give back to my community. They taught me to give all you’ve got, and that really changed my life.”

His spirit of giving back is evident in many ways. In addition to his leadership and many contributions to numerous organizations, in 2014, Milligan (College) University established the William B. Greene, Jr. College of Business & Technology, made possible by Greene’s generosity.

Greene is also responsible for the establishment of the Elizabethton Municipal Airport, ranked as the best general aviation airport in Tennessee. He has served as the chairman of the Elizabethton Airport Commission since its founding in 1967, and the

Bill Greene is an accomplished pilot at the Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton.

airport’s terminal bears his name.

Many would say Greene has established quite a legacy, but he is quick to tell you“quite frankly” - that he doesn’t much care for that word.

“It sounds like it has everything to do with a road, a building or something material,” Greene said. “I want my legacy to be about improving the quality of life in our city and our county by being consistent, authentic and honest, and by selecting those opportunities that best support that mission. And then I want to give it all I have - every day. I want to help anywhere I can in Elizabethton or Carter County.

“I hope people will say, ‘Bill Greene used his passion, determination and his perseverance and the people he surrounded himself with - every chance he had - to make this a better place to live.’ That’s all a legacy should be.

“A good legacy is doing the most good with what you have in the community where you live. It’s not what you have materially; it’s who you’re with, who you live with. I’m just one of the guys rowing the boat, and I’ve been blessed in my life. I’m the luckiest guy I know.”

Bill Greene saw a need and worked to establish the Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton.

William B. “Bill” Greene, Jr.

Deacon Bowers always on the front line for veterans

ASTORY BY ROZELLA HARDIN • PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

Arthur “Deacon” Bowers is now in his 80s and retired, but he still has a presence at most veterans events in the community. He can be seen when there is an event at the downtown War Memorial or at the Monument. And, if State Senator Rusty Crowe comes to town, Bowers is usu ally at his side to escort him wherever he needs to go.

Deacon Bowers has been a fighter all his live – if not for himself, then for someone else.

Born and raised at Hunter, Bowers, who is now retired and in his 80s, has been a lot of places and done a lot of things. On that list is amateur boxer; a youngster who deceived a lot of people about his age to get into the military; a founding member of the Veterans War Memorial and Veterans Walk of Honor downtown; and through his employment

Deacon Bowers takes pride in his work in helping to create the Veterans War Memorial and Walk of Honor downtown. To Bowers, it was a labor of love, and a wonderful tribute to the men and women who have served in the military.

A young Deacon Bowers when he served in the U.S. Army.

with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development has assisted thousands of veterans. In the meantime, he has taken a lot of jabs and punches, both in and out of the ring, that have left him unscarred and more determined than ever to serve on the front line, especially for veterans.

Bowers was 19 or 20 years old before he began boxing at the urging of trainer Don Marshall. “I’d go to the old Teen Town every day and spar for 10 or 15 minutes and then run to the old box factory and back. I was in boxing about three years and had about 56 or 57 bouts,” Bowers shared. His most memorable bout was with Jack Snader at the Bristol VFW. “Jack had knocked out everyone up there. He was really tough, but I knocked him out,” Bowers shared with a grin.

Bowers went on to win the Upper East Tennessee Heavyweight title (he won twice, the first time in 1958, and again in 1959.) He also won the Southern Golden Gloves Heavyweight title in Nashville in 1958 and 1959, and went to the quarterfinals of the National Golden Gloves Championship in Chicago in 1959.

“That same year – 1959 – I was scheduled to fight Cassius Clay in Elizabethton, but he came down with the flu and reneged,” Bowers shared.

In 1960 Bowers began refereeing boxing bouts and continued as a referee until 2005. In 1999 he was inducted into the National Golden Gloves Officials of America Hall of Fame.

Bowers speaks fondly of his time in boxing. “I liked the conditioning and preparing for a bout. Everything I accomplished in boxing was because of Don Marshall. He was the best and taught me a lot about the sport. He became a life-long friend. Also, many of the things I learned in boxing were fundamentals that helped me in life,” Bowers said.

However, long before he became a boxer, Bowers was a fighter with a lot of grit. Big for his age, Bowers at 12-1/2

years of age served with the Tennessee National Guard in Elizabethton. Bowers explained that Jack Carrouth, local commander, lived next door to him. “He let me hang out with them, and later talked to my parents about joining the Guards. At that time, the Guards met in the old A&P building on Elk Avenue. I trained with them. Every time they met, I was there,” said Bowers.

When the local unit - the 278th Regiment - was activated in 1950, Carrouth put Bowers

out because of his age. “You talk about disappointed, I was,” Bowers said. “I was out six months when I enlisted in the Marines at the age of 14. I went to basic training, and my mom called and told them how old I was, and they sent me home,” Bowers explained. However, determined to be a soldier, Bowers six months later enlisted in the Army and went through basic training. He then went to California, and from there to Japan, and on to Korea. “I stayed there about eight months. They never found out about my

age. I sort of wished they had because it was rough. I spent my 16th birthday on the front lines in Korea,” Bowers said.

By the time he was 17, Bowers was back home and a short time later went to Detroit, where he worked for a couple of years before coming home and taking up boxing.

“I was in the Army long enough to appreciate the men and women who serve. They don’t have it easy. They deserve everything this country can do for them,” he said.

In 1959 Bowers married the love of his life, Carol Morgan. The couple was married 56 years when she died in 2015. “Half of me died that day,” said Bowers.

Bowers for 36 years was employed by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. From 1974 to 2004 he served as Regional Veterans Employment Representative. By the time he retired, he had assisted thousands of military veterans. In retirement he continues to build on his volunteer legacy by visiting veterans and their families in the VA Hospital at Mountain Home.

However, the work he is most proud of is his involvement and leadership in helping create the Veterans War Memorial and the Walk of Honor in Elizabethton. “It was a labor of love for me,” Bowers said. “It’s a wonderful tribute to the men and women of Elizabethton who served their country in the military. Some gave their lives fighting for this country and their names are engraved on the memorials at the War Memorial. It’s a sacred place for me and a great way to recognize the men and women who served, and I feel honored to have been a part of it,” Bowers said.

Bowers is the father of two daughters, Julie Presnell and Donna Stanton, and a son, the late Paul Bowers.

He now spends a good part of his days reflecting on the past and visiting with friends, but if there is a need, Bowers is there, ready for the bout at hand and anxious to throw a punch.

Bowers was 19 or 20 before be began boxing at the urging of trainer Don Marshall. He went on to win the Upper E-T Heavyweight title, the Southern Golden Gloves Heavyweight title, and the National Golden Gloves Championship.

In December of 2000, Sports Illustrated featured Duard Walker in an article.

Duard Walker’s coaching legacy continues to inspire servant-leaders at Milligan and beyond

STORY BY MILLIGAN UNIVERSITY • PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

“Win with dignity, lose with grace.” These words epitomize the coaching philosophy of Milligan University’s legendary Coach Duard Walker and are etched into the entrance of Milligan’s Steve Lacy Fieldhouse. The university strives for Walker’s words and legacy to continue to shape the mindset of every student, athlete, visitor and fan that steps into the gymnasium.

Duard Walker served as a coach, administrator and professor at Milligan for 50 years from 1951-2001. During his career, Walker taught health and physical education; coached basketball, baseball, tennis, cross country, and track and field; served as athletic director; held the role of head dorm resident for Pardee Hall and Webb Hall; and served as the dean of men and as academic marshall.

“No one has epitomized more fully the heart of Buff Nation than Coach Duard Walker,” said Milligan President Dr. Bill Greer. “He was a man of unshakable

character whose competitive spirit and love for Milligan was rivaled only by his commitment to God, country and family. His impact on Milligan is incalculable.”

Raised in Piney Flats, Walker transferred from East Tennessee State University to Milligan College in 1942. At Milligan, he was assigned to the Navy V-12 Officer Training program. Walker served three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II and fought in the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Upon completing his service, he returned to Milligan in 1946 to complete his college education. Walker was an avid student-athlete on campus, receiving 12 varsity letters in five sports and earning Milligan’s Scholar Athlete Trophy. Walker still holds the school record for the most varsity letters earned by any student-athlete.

Walker also met his wife, Carolyn Roberts, at Milligan, and they married in 1947. Upon graduation in 1948, Walker completed his master’s degree at Colum -

Duard Walker, pictured in 2011, was a tennis coach for Milligan University for 27 years.

Twenty years old Duard Walker in 1962.

bia University and coached two seasons at Farragut High School before returning to Milligan in 1951 to coach baseball, basketball, and track and field. Additionally, he and Carolyn raised their five children on Milligan’s campus, and his children all graduated from Milligan.

Throughout his coaching legacy, Walker shaped the lives of thousands of students and taught them core values and morals that remained with them long past their four years at Milligan. Walker coached legendary basketball coaches, Del Harris and Sonny Smith. Harris, who spent over three decades as a coach in the NBA and was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 1995, credits Walker as being “one of the finest gentlemen in basketball. To him, players weren’t X’s and O’s; they were human beings.”

Sonny Smith, a basketball coach for Auburn University who most notably coached Charles Barkley, admired that Walker “was the same, win or lose. He was an even-keeled kind of guy, and we wanted to play for him. He gave you freedom, but he had discipline. If you broke a rule, it didn’t matter who you were, he sat you down.”

Walker received numerous awards and recognitions over his career. In

1986, Walker was awarded Milligan’s highest honor, the Fide et Amore, for his distinguished service to the univer-

sity. In addition, he was an inaugural member of Milligan’s Hall of Fame and was named the 2001 NAIA National

Athletic Director. Walker was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2008,

Walker was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

the Carter County Hall of Fame and the Northeast Tennessee Hall of Fame. In 2000, the Appalachian Athletic Conference introduced the Duard Walker All-Sports Trophy which recognizes the conference institution with the most successful all-around sports program each year.

Walker passed away on Aug. 18, 2020, at the age of 95. The highlight

of Milligan’s Homecoming last fall involved a bridge dedication to further memorialize Walker on campus. Before the university’s annual homecoming parade, family, friends and alumni gathered on the bridge that serves as the entrance to campus.

President Greer and two of Walker’s sons, Buff and Gary, shared key aspects of Walker’s legacy and life. Buff Walker

shared how his father crossed that very bridge on his way to war and continued to cross back over that bridge long after his retirement to cheer on his beloved Buffaloes. After their speeches, Elizabethton City Councilman Mike Simerly joined Buff and Gary to unveil a new sign declaring the bridge’s new name, the “Coach Duard Walker Memorial Bridge.”

For decades, Walker’s coaching philosophy and values have helped form Milligan students into servant-leaders who have gone on to shape Elizabethton, the Appalachian Highlands and communities around the world. Today, every person who drives onto campus is first greeted with the legacy of one of Milligan’s most revered alumni, coaches and administrators.

Duard Walker lettered in tennis and was a tennis coach for Milligan University for 27 years.

Duard Walker met his wife, Carolyn Roberts, at Milligan, and they married in 1947.

1958 Mens Basketball team coached by Duard Walker.

Duard Walker served three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II and fought in the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Jennifer Hughes: Making food, friendships and memories at City Market

STORY BY LYNN J. RICHARDSON • PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY JENNIFER HUGHES

WWhen you walk into Elizabethton’s City Market, the aromas embrace you. The smells of burgers cooking on the grill, freshly baked pies and hot coffee brewing take you home.

And on any given day, you’ll be also greeted with a big smile and a ‘hey, there!’ from City Market’s owner, Jennifer Hughes.

On April 1 of this year, Hughes will have owned the popular local eatery for 26 years. It’s gone by fast, she will tell you, adding that her start there and her subsequent ownership just sort of happened.

Just two years after having her first child, in 1995, Hughes went to work part-time at City Market with her mother’s sister and her husband, Mary Lou and Jack Miller. Two years after that, she bought the business.

“Back then, it was more like a convenience store,” Hughes recalls. “I’m not sure who originally owned it when it first opened in about 1932, but back then it was just a produce stand. Sometime in the early 1950s, Jack’s father, George Miller, took it over. Then, when Jack and Aunt Mary Lou started running it, they started adding in things like hot dogs and Crown bologna sandwiches.

The more than 90-year-old business was a great place for Hughes to land. She had just graduated from culinary school - the prestigious Johnston & Wales College of Culinary Arts whose distinguished alumni includes Emeril Lagasse, whose many recognitions and awards have made him known to food-loving Americans everywhere.

Sons Mibby and Matthew Hughes work alongside their mother, Jennifer, to create meals for their guests.

Early days at home, Hughes has always enjoyed putting together a meal.

She attended the school at its Charleston, South Carolina campus, starting right after Hurricane Hugo hit.

It was a learning curve for Hughes. “When I started, I didn’t even know how to turn on the gas burner of the stove,” she said. “I had always used electric.”

Later in her training, she also took her first plane ride ever, flying to the school’s Rhode Island campus for a three-month internship.

“That was quite an experience,” she recalls. “I enjoyed seeing all the pretty scenery and beautiful mansions on the cliffs, but I sure wouldn’t want to live up there.”

Hughes has always wanted to cook from an early age. She has enjoyed preparing meals for her husband, Robert, and their three sons, Nathaniel, Mibby and Matthew. Both her grandmothers also worked in restaurants and were big influences on her life. Her paternal grandmother worked in a long-ago closed restaurant on the “high cliff” on the old road to Johnson City. Her maternal grandmother worked in the kitchen of the Roan Mountain Hotel for years.

“I loved to cook and I wanted to try some new things,” she said. “So when I went to work at City Market, they just let me do what I wanted to do. Back then, all the cooking was done on a four-burner stove. I don’t know how we did it. And this wall,” she said, gesturing to a table lined with tables, “was once lined with coolers. They already had the hot dogs and the bologna sandwiches, so I said, ‘Let’s make a club sandwich, let’s do some chicken salad,’ and they just went along with my ideas.”

That was in 1995. Pies and other dishes came later, including her Aunt Mary Lou’s beef stew which is still served today. As the menu grew at City Market, so did the number of customers. The footprint of the restaurant was increased in 2001 to allow for more seating. Still, by most standards, City Market is tiny, seating only 44 people.

Jennifer Hughes, in front of her City Market, the business she has owned for almost 26 years.

Despite its small size, the team there feeds around 800-1,000 people each week with a combination of dine-in, carry-out and catering customers. Some days they cook as many as 100 hamburgers, “hand-patted out.”

“I’m just busting out at the seams,” she added. But even so, she has no plans to expand the restaurant again.

Her popular chicken salad, requiring more than 9,000 pounds of cooked skinless chicken breast every year, led one TripAdvisor reviewer from Anderson, South Carolina to dub City Market as a “chicken salad paradise.”

Another likens the restaurant to “Cheers” where “everybody knows your name.” Still another says the experience of eating there is “like a day in Mayberry.”

It is a restaurant, that when filled to the brim, burst into song as fellow diners celebrated another guest’s 90th birthday with an impromptu rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

It has become a place of comfort, and familiarity for a regular who enjoys both breakfast and lunch there on an almost daily basis. He told Hughes, “You’re the Alpha and the Omega of my day.”

Hughes’ City Market has become perhaps more of an experience than a restaurant where people can connect, relax and enjoy

a meal with family and friends. And, if all goes as hoped, Hughes’ son, Matthew, will continue the legacy of a family-run City

Market when she decides to retire. But right now, “It’s just a good place to come and eat,” Hughes says. “You’re going

to get a good hamburger or good chicken salad, and you’re probably going to run into somebody you know.”

Elizabethton Twins team members were frequent visitors at City Market. One of the most famous of those was Joe Mauer, who is seated, second from the right.

Two years after buying City Market in 1991, Hughes poses with her staff. From left: Terri Ellis, Candi Berry, Jennifer Hughes, Cissy Campbell and Diane Moore.

Rural mindset can ensure continuation of small-town lifestyle

STORY BY ANGELA CUTRER • PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

TThere is just nothing like living in a small community.

It has its good and bad, of course, but the familiarity it breeds leaves lasting memories of winds in the trees, children’s laughter on the breeze and old-timers’ stories available as you please.

Rural areas have historically revolved around a slower time, where country stores, schools and churches reigned supreme. And not necessarily in that order.

Social cues from others helped teach children how to behave. The fact that those children would see those same adults pretty much everywhere meant a huge responsibility for adults to do better than an adult anonymously swallowed on a busy sidewalk.

A rural shopper is just about guaranteed to see someone familiar at the store, at the red light or at ball game Friday evening. (If they didn’t, they might have good reason to be very concerned.)

J.R. Campbell, 67, is a part of this rural area that flourishes even within the march of time. A ready laugh is always on his lips, and he enjoys it when you laugh, too. It’s part of his personality, his core, which is why he doesn’t want to talk about himself much at all any more (or ever).

But he’d love to talk about smalltown life, especially if it’s about the area of Elizabethton and its communities.

Campbell is an expert, having been a part of this area all of his life (“I was

Principal J.R. Campbell poses with the Buffalo statue at Little Milligan Elementary School.

Principal J.R. Campbell poses for a picture showing the view of Little Milligan Elementary School.

‘burn’ here,” he cackles over the phone). He’s been a farm hand, a factory worker, an educator, a championship-winning coach, a patient after a 2008 aneurysm, an established birdhouse creator and a principal at Little Milligan Elementary School for the last 22 years.

Yes, Campbell is a man to listen to when he speaks. His history of the area is flawless and he has many a tale to tellall of them funny.

You have to be ready to listen to some jokes. He once told an interviewer that if “you give somebody a gift card or a T-shirt... [they’ll] appreciate it. But, you give them a birdhouse ... they never forget you.”

Indeed.

But let’s get back to Little Milligan Elementary School, where Campbell’s imprint is everywhere. Why is this important? It’s essential because Campbell is part of a generation who lived a rural life, shopped at rural stores (he now tells the local Dollar General staff “thank you for opening this store!” because it’s rurally placed), attended a rural church and enjoyed being part of a rural school.

Little Milligan Elementary School: It

was there he felt comfortable and a part of the community. “I would hate for anyone not to feel a part of the community,” he says. “I would never want that for anyone.”

In a 2016 essay in Digital Magazine for Educators, authors reported that “research consistently reveals that in small schools, students of all ‘types’ feel they can connect with one another much more readily and openly [than in larger schools], and also with caring adults whom they know quite personally. If well led, a school develops its own, unique culture of belonging and achievement.”

This is important to Campbell. After all, he is the principal of a school where he himself walked as an elementary student. “I went here when John F. Kennedy was president,” he says of Little Milligan, which was built in 1948. “This institution - when you walk down the halls, there are so many stories. There are seasons [celebrated] here - seasons within seasons: to start school, the Easter egg hunts, the Valentine’s Day activities, children playing outside together, Halloween turnouts, the Fall Fests, Christmas, the end of school. Everyone wants to be a part of those

Principal J.R. Campbell is on the playground with students at Little Milligan Elementary School.

seasons.

“The country stores, the schools and the churches - you can’t put a price on those. If we lose our [local] schools, the pressure is put on the churches. The country stores are nearly gone, but we have to hold on to our schools.”

Why is this so important to him? “This building is more than an old cinder block building,” he explains. “There are memories we have from that old building. The merry-go-rounds, the swings...as a person [drives] by [a school building], he might think of the sports, the lessons, the games, the friends.

“You have to look at the world through a child’s eyes. In every community, there are buildings like this one. Buildings that bring back memories.”

Campbell speaks of the “Bible man” who would “come through” the community when he was a kid. Students would recite their Bible verses to the teacher at the school to win a prize. “The girls would whisper ‘get the white one’ and the boys would choose

the white Bible because his sweetheart wanted it,” Campbell says with a laugh. “There’s nothing like it. Every day these kinds of special moments happen, and who knows, one day some adult will remember Valentine’s Day 2023 at Little Milligan.”

Campbell relates how as a child he would “make mud pies,” but now children open up a laptop instead. “When I was 3, I was running around the yard chasing chickens,” he says. “I’d hate for the children today to not have those rural memories. Nothing can take away those. We just used to be home more, but now we don’t raise that tobacco or those potatoes.

“I hope the children at Little Milligan have some of the same memories I have of growing up in a rural area.”

The Tennessee Rural Education Association’s website relates that “...Tennessee is proud of its rich history of strong, rural communities. Currently, 49 [percent] of school districts in Tennessee are located in rural communities. ... Successful rural schools play

Students of Little Milligan bury Principal J.R. Campbell in mulch.

a vital role in the economic development of Tennessee’s communities. Helping students access opportunities to prepare them for college and careers can attract jobs regionally and statewide. By doing this, rural schools can create a talent pipeline for current students to stay in their communities and be tomorrow’s teachers and leaders. Bottom line: when rural students are successful, we all benefit.”

Campbell hopes that rural stores, schools and churches never get swallowed up and forgotten. In a 2020 article in the Harvard Political Review, an author stated that “...in rural America, destroying a school risks dismantling a community.”

And that would be a shame for all the children who would miss out on chasing chickens at home before heading over to school to watch the football game.

It’s those simple things, as Campbell relates, that make memories even more special.

Jamie Hall

James Johnson

Principal J.R. Campbell sits at his desk at Little Milligan Elementary School.

“I hope the children at Little Milligan have some of the same memories I have of growing up in a rural area.”

—JR Campbell Principal of Little Milligan Elementary

Longtime Little Milligan Elementary secretary: ‘I hope they know I had love for them’

STORY BY ANGELA CUTRER • PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

IIf there is one thing Claudette Campbell, 78, wants her community to know, it’s that it had been her honor to serve her community’s children.

Campbell retired in 2019 after letting go of her secretarial duties at Little Milligan Elementary, where she had worked since 1976. But her path there was not as straightforward as one would think.

Campbell lives about one-fourth of a mile from the school with her husband Jimmy. She started working at the school as a substitute teacher in the late 1960s. That came about when her young son was having photos taken at the school. She joined him there and spoke with the current principal, W.D. Street, who encouraged her to complete her own education. Street, who had

previously taught 7th and 8th grade and high school, had taught Campbell in high school.

“You know, you need to go do it — go get your test and get your GED,” he said.

Campbell, who grew up in that community and never left, had had to leave school in her senior year due to illness in her family. Before they built the school, Campbell’s family home was separated from the school grounds only by the width of a barbed wire fence.

However, Street never forgot her and had confidence in her abilities. “So, I decided to, and my mom and sister came with me and sat in the car with my son on two different days while I tested,” Campbell said. “He really encouraged me.”

Claudette Campbell poses with her cakes celebrating Claudette Campbell Day.

Claudette Campbell poses with her flowers and a friend.

Afterward, Campbell worked at the school, eventually becoming secretary in 1976. The names of former principals pepper her memories.

“A lot of great kids passed through the door at Little Milligan School,” she said. “I don’t have anything bad to say about any of them. They were wonderful. I felt like I was the mother, the grandmother, whatever... I was good to them and they were just good right back to me.

“I was a jack-of-all trades. I had to learn to do bookkeeping from Mr. Pearson — we had to learn things together — and it was a learning thing because I didn’t know anything about that. We learned how to take care of the monies involved and stay with classes when someone was out for a meeting or something.

“We didn’t have a full-time nurse for several, several years, so I learned to take care of the kids. One little girl had fallen and broken her arm. We finally got ahold of someone from the family so they could come to take her to the emergency room and the little girl wanted me to go with her! So that tells you what kind of relationships we had. They loved everyone there and we loved them back.”

Campbell names all the principals she worked under — Street, Mr. Barry, Mr. Calhoun, Shirley Ellis and J.R. Campbell. Each one helped her learn more than she knew before. But that’s what she expected from people of her community.

“Little Milligan is a great place to live — I’ve been here all my life,” she said. “This little area surrounding the school is a good place to live. Good people, kind people. You knew your neighbors and most of them were kin.

“When my husband and I first married, neither one of us had a job. So we’d help

Why

Students loved to include Claudette Campbell in their school activities.

our neighbors — like one got hurt and we helped put up his field of tobacco. That’s just how this area is.”

Campbell said she and her husband live in the area of Watauga Lake. “In the last few years, a lot of people have moved in and out and you might not know your neighbors any more, but they are good people, too,” she said. “Times change and sometimes you don’t know how to approach them, but I’ve found they are very nice, too, when we get to know them and they know us.”

The legacy continues for the Campbells, whose son, Brian, is a chemist at Nuclear Fuels, and daughter-in-law, Sharon, used her doctorate in biochemistry in cancer research and teaching. Granddaughter Elaina has a degree in chemistry and works at Eastman.

“I’m proud of them,” Campbell said of her family, who live in Elizabethton. The smile was present in her voice.

Campbell finally decided to retire from the school in 2019 when technology seemed to get a bit more difficult for her. “I guess I would still be there if not for that,” she laughed.

Campbell doesn’t brag about herself — in fact, she’s the opposite. “You don’t have to brag about anything,” she said. “In the end, people know who you are, what you’ve done and what you stand for. There is no need to tell anyone anything.”

So it was lucky we got her to speak concerning herself — especially when she would just turn it right around and talk about the students who passed through her life.

“I hope they know I had a love for them and I hope they remember that,” she said quietly. “I think the Lord blessed me by letting me stay there for so long. Maybe I made a difference in some of their lives.”

Students of Little Milligan Elementary School stand in line to give Claudette Campbell a card they made for her.

Little Milligan students made a sign showing Claudette Campbell how much they love her.

Claudette Campbell and Michael Odom

The Living Legend: ‘The Fly’ Softball King

Most people don’t know his first name, but he is the most recognized person in East Tennessee. After all, there is only Jarfly Dugger.

Born in the Eastside community, Dugger attended Elizabethton High School before joining the Navy. He was a Navy Corpsman with the Marines 3rd FSR, FMF home based in Okinawa from 1966 until 1970.

When he returned home, the story of a legend began.

Cherokee Park in Elizabethton was the home of fast pitch softball. Jarfly would become a renowned pitcher and travel the world playing softball. As many have said, he was simply the best there ever was. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in South Carolina, North Carolina or Georgia, when people would ask me where I lived. When I would say Elizabethton, Tennessee, countless people would ask me if I knew Jarfly Dugger. The state of South Carolina inducted him into its sports Hall of Fame, because he beat its teams so many times. One of the qualifications

Mof being in the hall of fame is to be a resident of South Carolina; that’s how good he was.

In Japan, Jarfly played softball for the United States of America. He sat on the bench for two years before he learned to throw a strike. Back home he teamed up with guys like Willie Malone, Kent Williams, Sam Bradshaw, Scotty Bunton and Wes Holly. Holly was his third baseman and was as quick as a cat. Bunton was his catcher and called all of his pitches. “Jar is the real deal as a teammate and a friend,” Bunton said.

Jarfly once beat the World Famous King and his Court, one of the best fast pitch softball teams ever; that’s how good he was. Jarfly could throw a fastball, a riser, a super drop pitch, a curveball and the best change up you would ever see. People have swung three times trying to hit that slow change up pitch.

Jarfly started playing softball for the Eastside Baptist Church in the 1960s at the age of 13. His first coach was Clyde “Baldy” Bullock, an ex-Marine who

STORY BY CY PETERS • PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

brought his Marine training to the ballfield.

“He was my toughest coach,” Dugger said, adding he inspired Dugger to pursue pitching.

“You are young and you can do whatever you want,” Baldy told Dugger. After playing for several teams, including the great Camara Inn team, Dugger started playing for Carter County Bank, where he teamed up with Wes Holly and Joe Colbaugh. They played in a lot of tournaments and went to the 1974 Tennessee State Tournament. Jarfly’s buddy, Jim Ensor, also played on that team that beat the defending state champs in the first game. Almost every weekend they were playing in a tournament somewhere.

Scotty and Jarfly traveled as a team playing for Rawl Coal Company in Matewan, West Virginia. Then they traveled to North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, where he played with Rick Anderson and Little Wes Holly. When Jarfly pitched, Wes would play third base and would only be about 15 feet from home plate. But Wes was never hit. He knew no one could get the bat around on Jarfly’s pitching. He was as safe as being behind a brick wall.

Jarfly went on to play in Shelby, North Carolina, where he won 76 games in five years, pitching against the best teams in five states. His team went on to win the 1993 State Tournament where he was voted MVP. Jarfly played in the National Tournament where he won four games, losing only to Federal Lock and Key, who won the National Title. He also pitched a one-hitter against Dyersburg in the Tennessee State Tournament. In his career, he threw an astounding 46 no-hitters and an untold number of one-hitters.

His brother, Ken, was the best hitter he ever faced. Ken laid down a bunt against Jarfly’s team in a game that broke up a no-hitter. Ken was a very smart player. When Jarfly decided to hang it up he said, “The worst moment in all my career was the last pitch I threw.” He loved the game that much. “I had told them before the game, this is my last game. It was in 1996 and my catcher called timeout and walked to the mound. The count was two balls and two strikes and it was the last inning. My catcher told me if this is it, If this is really your last game, I want to see what you’ve got. He told me to go out on a strikeout. That’s when it really hit me, a career of 35 years was coming to an end. That was probably the hardest pitch I ever threw: a riser, that the batter missed about a foot. Then it was over.”

In his younger days Jarfly was pretty wild. If you crowded the plate, one pitch might catch you in the side of the head. It was his field, his game, and everyone knew that the pitcher controlled the game. He was the king of the mound, never replaced. If he started the game, he finished it; there were no relief pitchers. Jarfly remembered pitching 35 innings in a single day, four games and the last one went into 14 innings. In the final game he collected 23 strikeouts. His team won all four games and Scotty Bunton caught all four games.

While that was Jarfly’s softball career, he also shined at his job at United Telephone. If your phone was torn up, you called Jarfly. Every person on the creek that had a landline phone had Jarfly’s name written in the back of the phone book with his personal phone number. Whatever you needed, an extra jack, a longer phone cord or if your phone just wasn’t working correctly, you called Jarfly.

Jarfly is credited for helping kids graduate from school. For decades, he has helped many a girl learn the art of fast pitch softball, whether they attend Unaka, Happy Valley, Elizabethton, Hampton or wherever. He’s even helped some Unaka Elementary girls prepare for softball at the high school level.

Jarfly doesn’t remember all the girls he has worked with but it’s well over a hundred. Ryann Musick was his first left-hander; Katie Robinson from Elizabethton, Sadie Shoun, and Trinity Bowers were super players; and Sallee Taylor was a good pitcher and a great athlete. “I had a lot of fun with her,” Jarfly said. Carla Buckles Brown from Hampton went on to college and all these girls went on to college, Dugger said. Corey Schuettler is at Cloudland, now back teaching what she learned in softball.

“Alana Parsons wasn’t a pitcher but I worked with her since she was about 10 years old. She and Brittney were two of the best hitters I have ever seen,” he said. “Then the catchers, Cat McInturff and Amy Holt, then Katie Johnson just graduated from UVA Wise. She was a great basketball player as well as softball. Then Megan Heaton was there all the time.

“It just pleases me to look out there and see these girls play and in all the years I’ve only had one that’s gone, Jessica Robinson. She was really special to me,” Jarfly said. “One thing about these girls that are successful they have really good parents. You can’t be negative with girls. Once you make a girl cry, they are done. I don’t holler at the girls if I have something to say; only me and her hear it, you don’t embarrass a

girl. To sum it all up and look at the big picture, I’m still playing through them.” Jarfly also became a movie star, playing beside Mel Gibson in the movie, “The River,” where Jarfly did the pitching for Gibson. The River was filmed in the Holston Valley area of Church Hill, Tennessee. The filmmakers purchased 440 acres (1.8 km2) along the Holston River for the farm set and planted corn. Most of the filming was done along Goshen Valley Road and around the Goshen Valley Park area. Goshen Valley Road heads south from Highway 11W in Church Hill, Tennessee. The cast and their families moved to the area a month before the start of production, to connect with the local people and learn farming skills. The floods in the film were supplied by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers with water from the Fort Patrick Henry Dam.

In 1980, Jarfly was voted the craziest of the craziest. Radio station WQUT promoted Crazy Thursday, a day set aside to ease the burden of the everyday working

person. As the search began for a President of Crazy Thursday, nominees poured in, like The Midnight Rambler, Dr. Zeke and television’s Mr. Bill. Tom Klein’s morning show proceeded with the votes by telephone. Jarfly won with 624 votes, followed by The Midnight Rambler with 500 votes. Jarfly was inaugurated on Sunday, June 15, 1980, during a baseball game that raised money for the Carter County Boys Club and the Johnson City Girls Club.

Known all over the world, Jarfly still lives in Eastside; he still attends Eastside Baptist and this makes his 72nd year in attendance there. You can also usually find him at the Legend Lunches at Dino’s every Wednesday in Elizabethton.

Richard “Jarfly” Dugger was inducted into the USA Softball Tennessee Hall of Fame in 2006 and is a member of the Carter County Sports Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 2012. Since that first induction he has been the emcee for most of the Hall of Fame inductions.