Both President Bush and Governor Bredesen called upon our nation and our state to honor our veterans - living and dead - as well as our active servicemen and women, on this past Memorial Day weekend. And I don't believe that I have ever personally seen such an outpouring of appreciation and honor for all of them as was displayed all over our country this year. And the folks of the Jellico area did their part to see that the requests were fulfilled here. My sincere thanks on behalf of our citizens to all those who placed the American Flags this year prior to Memorial Day; those who planned and sponsored the D-Day Reception for veterans on Friday; and those who planned and conducted the special and very beautiful ceremony at the Monument on Monday at 11:00 AM described by Channel 10 as "Campbell County's recognition" which it was. (But we would liked for them to have mentioned Jellico and all of the work that was done here as well.)
After a layoff of a few years, I was again able to help the veterans and their families a little in placing the flags on graves of deceased veterans. And I was shocked at the number that have been added to the list since the last time I was involved. Included in the number buried in the Jellico Cemetery within the past year may have been our first lady veteran of World War II to be interred there. Minnie Dodson Carroll passed away since last Memorial Day and she will be missed at the annual Veterans Day observances at Beech Tree Manor where she always proudly displayed her memorabilia that she collected while serving in the United States Navy during that war. (Julia Zecchini who died during World War II while serving in our country's armed forces has her name on our Memorial and is buried in the St. Boniface Catholic Church cemetery on Kentucky Hill.)
William "Uncle Billy" Beams, veteran of both the Mexican War of the 1840's and the Civil War 1861-'65 and who along with his wife "Aunt Hon", gained national fame after their inclusion by Appalachian writer John Fox, Jr. in the once very popular book and movie, "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine", is buried in the Jellico cemetery. After learning of that fact, Herman Heath and others have committed to clean and reset his stone. Beams is probably our oldest veteran in that cemetery although some other area cemeteries do have veterans of the American Revolution and the cemetery at Black Oak includes the grave of a veteran of the War of 1812. (The Beam's small "double marker" is along the left side of the road about 150 feet after entering the cemetery.)
The D-Day Reception for all veterans and especially World War II vets, was truly outstanding in every way. I felt greatly honored and in awe to be standing in the presence of Edwin Chapman, Campbell County's last survivor of Pearl Harbor; Lawrence Hall who endured such unspeakable atrocities as a Japanese prisoner of war; Riley Troxell who served aboard ships fighting the Japanese in the Pacific; Oscar Watkins who did the same in protecting soldiers from German artillery as they landed at Normandy; James Ed Douglas who fought throughout the European theatre; and others that I did not have opportunity to meet or were represented by family members.
Mark Tidwell and Linda Bowlin are to be thanked along with all those who assisted them, for the great job they did in conducting that reception. And the turnout of our citizens - especially our young people who wrote those wonderful essays - was great to see. It truly was an outstanding event and one well deserved by our veterans, and especially those of World War II.
The same is true of the Veterans Memorial Committee and the many others who helped to present a ceremony of honor and appreciation on Monday that was called by several, "the most impressive ceremony of its kind in memory". There were so many involved in planning, organizing and conducting the program that I will not even attempt to name them all. And the size of the crowd in view of the fact that it was either slightly raining or constantly threatening rain, really surprised a lot of folks. The family of SFC Gregory Hicks, killed in Iraq, was extremely appreciative of the folks who came from all over Campbell County and other areas including governmental officials, to recognize his sacrifice.
(I sure do not want to leave out the names of any WW II veterans from the list of those who attended any of our activities either. But some from the Jellico area that were at the ceremony that I knew in addition to James Ed Douglas, include Joe Kidd, Joe Douglas, and Carl W. Baird. If anyone knows of any others that I may have missed, please accept my apologies. And regardless of whether I knew them personally or even names, all veterans from all over were most welcome.)
I again want to thank every single individual who helped in any way with any of the activities this past weekend. As one visiting official put it, "Anything Jellico does is done with class and pride. Jellico folks can be very proud of this weekend!" It goes without saying that we are!!!
And I sure do not want to fail to thank Helen Ruth Sharp for the work that she does voluntarily to see that the Jellico cemetery is maintained in such good condition. Nor do I want to fail to thank those who continue to help her by taking donations including Faye Lewis and Josephine Siler. Those donations are crucial to the upkeep of the cemetery just as they are for other area cemeteries.
I doubt that too many folks remember what our cemetery looked like until the Jellico Cemetery Association was revived several years ago. I well remember when individual families had to keep up the family plots or let them grow up. Thanks to Helen Ruth and her helpers, we have not had to do that for a long time. And let's hope that we don't have to do it in the future!
Our town lost one of its long time employees over the weekend with the passing of John Queener. John was one of our most experienced emergency personnel who was very popular with almost everyone. He will be greatly missed by his family, by his co-workers and by all of our citizens.
I recently discussed our alert signal for severe weather/tornado warnings with Homeland Security Director George Deuel and Fire Chief John "Redbird" Perkins. Simply turning the fire alarm siren on and letting it sound for a long period of time is totally insufficient and very few would even be aware of the nature of the signal to distinguish it between fire and rescue calls. (The fire alarm is no longer required for fires since new technology does a much better job in alerting volunteer firemen so it might now be utilized for rescue squad calls, weather emergencies and the "five o'clock whistle" that is such a tradition. George and John plan to jointly develop a more efficient method of weather warnings - or at least signals that will not be confused with other emergency alarms - and the signal will be widely publicized once a decision is made.
Our Council workshops are currently performing the extremely difficult task of attempting to develop a "performance budget" that will satisfy new state requirements prohibiting the consideration of reserve funds in a projected budget. Tremendous increases in the cost of insurance for city employees, cuts in state funds, the decrease in some local business and the resulting excise taxes due to the legalization of alcohol in another area and a series of events have placed us "between the proverbial rock and hard place". The total labor force in the police department has already seen non-replacement of two employees who have left the department and the reduction in hours paid to another position. More cuts will probably be required somewhere that will be painful.
I want to publicly thank Councilman John Davenport who serves as Commissioner of Finance and who has the very crucial task of working with a projected budget when the funds will just not be there for all of the services that we have had in the past. John's is more than a difficult task!
Our UROC and Classic Car Show weekend is now only a little over two weeks away and preparations are well underway for both. Following those activities, planning for our annual Fourth of July Celebration will kick into high gear. And the published accounts of the John Christopher Knight Family that is scheduled to perform here on Friday evening, July 2nd is one of the most interesting stories to come down the pike in a long time. According to all of the tremendous amount of publicity that they have recently received from their nationally televised appearances on NBC, CNN, PBS and numerous local radio and television stations in both small and large cities throughout the country, as well as the seven page story that recently ran in the Nashville Tennessean newspaper and articles in other newspapers and magazines, they lived on a farm in rural Kentucky without electricity and farmed organically with horses and raised border collies that serves as their "cash crop".
At one of the border collie events, someone heard Knight singing and suggested that he should record - which he did - although he says that the last thing in the world that he ever thought that he would do was to enter the field of music. Almost immediately one song rose very high in the charts and he found himself with sales ranking among some of America's most popular recording artists including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. And with that success has come so much national coverage that the family is constantly looking at a television camera and/or microphone and answering questions from reporters even as they do their daily farm chores by hand and work their animals in the fields as they have always done. And Knight still maintains that genuine soft country drawl that sounds like music to the ears of us mountain folks.
Knight is joined in appearances by several of his nine children that play instruments from the bass to banjo, mandolin, guitar and others. And amazingly, he writes most, if not all, of his own material that he performs and records. Reportedly traveling in an old school bus with no musical training, no manager, no publicist and no contract music label, they have become so much in demand all around the country that they can now virtually charge whatever amount they choose for appearances. However they have agreed to come to Jellico for a relatively small amount since one son teaches mathematics at a college in Tennessee and they can go on to visit him from here.
All publicity that the group has received notes how wholesome the entertainment is for families with children of all ages. Reportedly a very religious individual, Knight insists that any performance must end by sundown which he believes to be Biblical. (And he has already checked for the time the sun will set here on July 2nd - which he says happens to be 9:18 PM.)
Things will sure change on Saturday night, July 3rd! Easily the most popular group of their type, the "Boys Night Out" show will be just as wholesome. But their music ranges from big band sounds to popular songs to the classic rock and roll of the '50's and '60's. They are trained and accomplished vocalists and musicians that really know how to entertain and get folks involved! (The annual fireworks display will follow their performance.)
Several of us gathered next to the Veterans Memorial following the D-Day Reception and all eyes quickly focused on the work being accomplished by Steve Zecchini on that building. And the work was also discussed that is being done by Joe Brown, Mike Siwinski and the new structures under construction by Wayne Barton and Town and Country Bank. Things continue to look up and another project that is planned can really brighten up our downtown. There is a positive attitude developing in our town that we need to keep going regardless of who serves as mayor and members of Council. JOHN CLIFTON, Mayor, City of Jellico
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
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