POSTAL CUSTOMER
VOL. 9 NO. 52
IN THIS ISSUE
Dulcimers to Nicaragua
Union County’s own Sarah Morgan has a project to bring music to Central America: “It would be a wonderful thing to bring mountain dulcimers to the orphans at Casa Bernabe,” she says. Her friend Luke Hale leaves for Nicaragua on Jan. 13, and Morgan’s goal is to send at least four mountain dulcimers with him.
➤
Libby Morgan’s story is on page 3
Sharps Chapel library gets books Members of the Sharps Chapel FCE and the Dewey Decimal Book Club in Sunset Bay combined efforts to give a 71-book donation to the Sharps Chapel Elementary School library. “These books are all very good for our children’s ages,” says librarian Lisa Brantley. “We’re blessed to have a community of volunteers.” FCE info: Carolyn Shields at 278-3890, Rita Poteet at 2783385 or UT Extension agent Becca Hughes at 992-8038..
➤
See pictures on page 7
Marvin West Shopper columnist Marvin West remembers the year UT coach Bowden Wyatt declined an invitation to the Gator Bowl. “Unbelievable! “When the UT athletic director, General Robert R. Neyland, first heard Wyatt’s position, he spilled some of his coffee and said something along the line of what in the world are you thinking?”
➤
See story on page 5
Ronnie Mincey “Life is about relationships. “Two years of physical education classes at Horace Maynard High School provided several encounters with fellow classmates, some of which, even in memory, remain unpleasant. There were, however, two classmates that I am pleased to call friends to this day.”
➤
See story on page 4
Bonnie Peters Union County historian Bonnie Peters continues her Civil War saga, and this week includes a modern-day picture of Jacob Haynes holding a Civil War era cannonball found by his cousin in the Brock community.
➤
www.ShopperNewsNow.com |
www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow
December 31, 2014
County government gathers at the river By Libby Morga Morgan gan n Mayor Mike Williams and Union County employees celebrated the end of a good year with dinner at Calhoun’s on the River. Union County Public Schools was well represented at the event. Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and his family joined the party, with Burchett saying he’d just had an eye exam. Williams thanked everyone for representing the county so well, and gave special recognition to Ann Dyer for having “zero findings” on a recent audit. He said Montgomery County representatives had visited Dyer’s Ken and Ann Dyer with Diane and office to help create a consolidated Gary England Photos by Libby Morgan finance office for their county.
Chronicling our Civil War soldiers By Libby Morgan
Though concerned with the deceased, the Union County Cemeteries Association is alive and well, with a group of dedicated volunteers. In an effort led by the East Tennessee Historical Society, the burial places, names and military records of soldiers of the Civil War are being recorded in databases and physically preserved by volunteers. UCCA members chronicle the graves in Union County. Gay Morton, a Halls resident, and Phillip Graves of Gibbs are the UCCA’s newest heroes. The two are recent collaborators in the 15-year-old association, a group that locates, identifies and documents gravesites and cleans and protects the cemeteries. Bonnie Heiskell Peters says it was “self-defense” that led her to ask then-Mayor Larry Lay to establish the association. “After I became county historian, I began getting calls and letters from all over the country expressing concerns for the condition of their loved ones’ graves, or trying to locate a loved one’s grave. I helped all I could but realized the task was greater than what I could do.” The late Ralph Monroe, who was the administrator of Carr Cemetery at the time, and others got behind the movement. “Robert and Ollie Ellison, Ger-
ald “Gerry” Myers and the late Sillus Rogers deserve much credit for the preservation of many cemeteries. Gerry has been the backbone in our getting 501(c)(3) status,” said Peters. “Many of us strolled through knee-high poison ivy to catalog neglected cemeteries. Thankfully, many of those sites have now been loved on and are receiving regular maintenance.” Morton, an historian, and her husband, Jim, volunteered with ETHS at the approach of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and by coincidence, Union County was her first focus in the region. “Union County is dear to me. My mother, Anne Hobt, was the extension agent for the county for many years. I spent a lot of time there, and the county was good to her. UT made my mother the very first county head agent in the state,” says Gay Morton. “My work for this project is mostly in front of the computer, and I’m standing on the shoulders of those who came before me: the people who created the 1890 census, the Confederate’s own pension applications, Bonnie Heiskell Peters’ book ‘Faces of War,’ Robert Ellison’s work, Leon Graves’ database on our web site – that’s where I go for my research.
Patricia McKelvey with Union County’s Man and Woman of the Year, Mike Williams and Wanda Cox Byerley
Wilson Park shines greeting New Christmas lights overlook the high school grounds and are highly visible from Highway 33. The display was installed just in time for the holidays with county park funds, according to Mayor Mike Williams. Photo
by Libby Morgan
To page 3
Food City hunger fighters
See story on page 4
7049 Maynardville Pike 37918 (865) 922-4136 NEWS news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sandra Clark Libby Morgan | Bonnie Peters ADVERTISING SALES ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Shannon Carey Jim Brannon | Tony Cranmore Patty Fecco | Wendy O’Dell
Food City stores raised more than $400,000 in the Race Against Hunger holiday campaign. The store in Union County raised $2,200 and donated the money in the form of gift cards to the Union County Food Pantry. Store officials thanked the generosity of Food City customers.
Pictured at the donation are: (front) Blaine Woodie, Austin Woodie; (back) Kandace Muncey, Cliff Nelson, Scott Inklebarger, Robert Hardin, food pantry representatives Patricia Blackburn and Kitty Lewis, Ginger Sanders, George Ries, Sheila Bush and Will Burkhart. Photo by Ruth White
Trinity Funeral Home
treats you like family because we really care.
Treating
NARCOTIC ADDICTION with
SUBOXONE® 865-882-9900 EHCMedical.com
Now is the perfect time to freeze your funeral costs at 2014 prices! Preserve your family’s inheritance.
IT WILL NEVER BE LESS EXPENSIVE THAN TODAY! Compassion, Kindness, Professionalism ... from our family to yours.
Trinity Funeral Home, LLC
228 Main Street, P.O. Box 8, Maynardville, Tennessee 37807 2 Ph: 992-5002 Fax: 992-9007 www.trinityfuneralhome.net