South Knox Shopper-News 070115

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SOUTH KNOX VOL. 32 NO. 26 1

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BUZZ Jury Fest ahead for craft guild The Foothills Craft Guild is accepting new member applications from fine craft artisans for its second Jury Fest to be held Wednesday, Aug. 12, with take-in days Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 10-11. Info/application: Bob Klassen, bobklassen@charter.net, or www.foothillscraftguild. org under the “How to Join” section.

July July29, 1, 2015 2013

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Women find support on Diva Ride By Betsy Pickle

The Urban Wilderness is becoming a little less wild. Outdoors and recreational outfitter REI used the outskirts of the 100-acre Wood property as the setting to present $10,000 each to the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club and Legacy Parks Foundation last Thursday. The $20,000 will go toward installing a bridge over East Red Bud Road to connect the Wood property with Marie Myers Park. Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero made “building bridges” jokes as she joined Legacy Parks executive director Carol Evans and AMBC vice president Brian Hann for the presentation by Noah Wildfire, outdoor programs and outreach coordinator for REI. The enthusiastic crowd included AMBC members, Legacy Parks

Nolan Wildfire, Brian Hann, Carol Evans and Mayor Madeline Rogero get a kick out of the big check “worth” $20,000 toward a bridge connecting trails in the Urban Wilderness. Photos by Betsy Pickle

Red Gate Rodeo The annual Red Gate Festival and Rodeo will be held Friday and Saturday, July 17-18, at Red Gate Farm in Maynardville. Carnival starts at 5 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday. Rodeo starts at 8 p.m. each day. Admission is $15 for adults, $8 for kids 4-10 years old, and free for kids age 3 and under. Info: www.redgaterodeo. com or 992-3303.

Unhappy week Betty Bean says Dr. Jim McIntyre had a most unhappy week, and she lists the reasons why in a column titled, “McIntyre’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.” And this week could be even worse.

Read Betty Bean on page 4

Helping others Shopper-News interns visited KARM and served lunches through Mobile Meals last week. Their reports are inside.

Read interns on page 6

To page 3

Korean War veterans tell their stories By Anne Hart

Many of their stories were heartbreaking. And in the telling, occasionally a voice would break and tears would come and there would be a pause before the speaker could begin again. And often, just when you thought your heart had truly shattered, another person would stand and begin his story with a bit of humor and your heart would start to mend. Some of the guests arrived in wheel chairs, others on walkers, still others surprisingly spry considering their age. A few needed help in standing to take the microphone from the master of ceremonies, local TV personality Gary Loe, who moved gently through the crowd of sev-

eral hundred that packed Buddy’s Banquet Hall, giving everyone who wanted to speak the opportunity to do so. As Loe said, “The veterans are the keynote speakers today.” The occasion marked the 65th anniversary of the invasion of South Korea by North Korea on June 25, 1950 – a war that the United States quickly entered – and the story tellers included both the American soldiers who fought in that war and natives of South Korea who now make Knoxville their home. The annual Korean War veterans reunion was started a few years back by former Knoxville City Council member Rex Davis, himself a veteran of that war, who had only three other veterans at his

home for that first reunion, where war experiences were shared. The reunion has grown dramatically since then, and it’s no wonder why. These old soldiers are the real thing. The stories they tell are true. They aren’t make believe tales from a Hollywood movie or a made-fortelevision series. These men lived their stories. They were young men when they went to war – many just teenagers. Some volunteered, others were drafted, but the one thing they have in common is pride – that they fought and saved South Korea from a horrible fate and then came safely home. And they remember the friends they fought alongside who didn’t return – some 54,000 in all. Another

103,000 were wounded, 8,000 are still listed as missing in action and 4,000 were held as prisoners of war until the war ended. Davis told the group at the start of the event, “This is a time for remembering the past and celebrating the present,” and then added with his huge trademark grin, “Seeing this big crowd puts a smile on my face that an undertaker couldn’t take off.” And then the stories began. Many of the veterans mentioned the terrible cold they endured while fighting – temperatures 20, 30 and 40 degrees below zero. One veteran told of being assigned to pick up the bodies of To page 3

Jazz for Joy Taber Gable is the first Joy of Music School student to attend Juilliard. And he’s coming back for a concert Thursday, July 9, and bringing a jazz quartet along. He wants everyone to support the school that provided him his foundation, momentum and opportunity so that more and more children can take part and see their lives changed through the art and discipline of music.

Read Carol Shane on page 7

July 4 events Check out the weekend’s events on the weekender calendar. All the details are inside this week’s paper.

See page 7

A heritage worth remembering: By Betty Bean One Saturday evening in 1958, I settled down in front of the TV at my grandparents’ house to watch “The Gray Ghost,” which celebrated Col. John Mosby, a dashing Confederate whose raiders rode rings around dimwitted Yankees to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” I loved that show. But Mosby didn’t have time to draw his sword when my granddad came barreling out of the kitchen and told me to find something else to watch. “Why?” I asked. “Because it’s treason,” he said. “And I despise it.” I didn’t know what treason was, but I’ve remembered this small incident for more than 50 years,

Finding John Bean although it took decades for me to understand what it was really about: It was the voice of my greatgrandfather, challenging me to come find him. He stayed in my ear no matter how many times I saw “Gone With the Wind.” Here’s what I knew: John Alexander Bean was a Union Army veteran, but he was no Yankee. He was a straight-line descendant of the long hunters who’d migrated down from Virginia and settled near Jonesborough. Russell Bean was the first white child born in Tennessee. Russell’s father, Captain Billy Bean, and at least one of his uncles rode 150 miles with John Sevier to whip the British at King’s Mountain and

Learn more 7049 Maynardville Pike 37918 (865) 922-4136 NEWS news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sandra Clark | Betsy Pickle ADVERTISING SALES ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Patty Fecco | Tony Cranmore Alice Devall | Shannon Carey

William Rule, Union Army veteran, newspaper reporter and Parson Brownlow protégé who later founded the Knoxville Journal, wrote the most succinct account of what it was like to make the long walk to Cumberland Gap and described it in great detail here: ht t p:// babel.hat h it r u st.org/cg i/pt?id=loc.a rk:/139 60/ t5r78r69k;view=1up;seq=21 Information about the Sixth Tennessee Infantry Regiment, including rosters, is here: tngenweb.org/civilwar/usainf/usa6inf.html

later moved on down the valley to Bean Station and Knox County. A rowdy, restless bunch, some of the Beans continued westward (Judge Roy Bean was a distant relation), but others, like John A’s grandfather (also named John and a veteran of the War of 1812) stayed put. That distant John Bean’s grave is in the Living Waters Baptist Church graveyard. I’d heard that John A had declined an invitation to join the Confederate Army and walked all the way to Cumberland Gap to join the Union Army and that he’d been taken prisoner, escaped and gotten so hungry that he’d boiled an old boot in hopes of getting it tender enough for dinner, and that when his children expressed disgust at the notion of trying to eat a boot, he’d snap: “It used to be a cow, didn’t it?” I’d heard that his biggest regret was missing the chance to shake hands with Abraham Lincoln. I knew he was a stonecutter by trade and that he’d lost his arm much later in life after he knelt to pray at the funeral of another old soldier, reached down to steady himself on a grave marker and got bitten by a black widow spider. My father

John Alexander Bean, Private, Sixth Tennessee Infantry, USA remembered that his grandfather always wore a suit and could tie his shoelaces one-handed. I didn’t give those stories much thought or credence until the Internet age afforded me the means to chase them down. And what I found is that most of them were pretty close to the truth. John A was 18 when he enlisted in the Sixth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Brigade on April 18, 1862, in Knoxville, an occupied city seething under the burden of sharply divided loyalties. He stood 5-9, had dark hair and gray eyes To page 3

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