our town stories

3 min read 2022-01-04 12:04:11

Archibald Roane: Revolutionary pioneer

It was a beautiful day in May 1955, when Miss Beulah Starkey took her fifth grade Farragut Elementary class on a field trip to visit the gravesite of

2 min read 2021-12-28 12:04:00

As we close out 2021 still in the grips of a global pandemic, a century ago Knox County was fresh out of the Spanish flu epidemic that started on the

4 min read 2021-12-21 12:04:38

“I want to spend Christmas in the country and get off the Christmas tree one stick of candy, one orange, and one penny pencil. The rich ones gave

4 min read 2021-12-14 12:04:50

This time of year, people tend to think about things shiny and new, like colorful wrapping paper and the latest electronics. All eyes turn toward the

2 min read 2021-12-07 12:04:02

Mourfield Tavern on Kingston Pike is closed. By all accounts, it was a delightful place to visit and the proprietor was a jovial man known as

1 min read 2021-12-01 12:03:10

This Friday, the WIVK Christmas Parade steps off for the 48th time. This year’s floats promise to be dazzling affairs with glittery Santas and

3 min read 2021-11-30 12:04:31

It hurts to lose your first best friend. The Rev. Don McConnell died the other day. He was 89. We’d known each other 79 years. We met in a Sunday

1 min read 2021-11-23 12:04:19

On a quiet hill on Buttermilk Road, Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church overlooks Hardin Valley. While the original building is long since gone, its original

1 min read 2021-11-16 12:04:32

Perhaps no time could be more appropriate for a column on Nathan B. “Red” Eubank than November, the month we celebrate Veterans Day. It was

3 min read 2021-05-04 12:01:36

The lure of East Tennessee is no secret to those who live or like to visit this beautiful state. And thus was the case of Lt. Thomas Boyd

4 min read 2021-04-27 12:01:45

A stately red maple stands sentry over the Thomas Hall Cemetery on Rifle Range Road where it intersects with Maynardville Pike. Aged cedars guard

3 min read 2021-04-20 12:01:21

Since the city of Knoxville cut the ribbon on the Fort Dickerson Gateway Park on May 3, 2017, much of the focus on the park has been on the improved

1 min read 2021-04-20 11:59:43

The East Tennessee Historical Society welcomes Anne G’Fellers Mason, executive director of the Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia Heritage

5 min read 2021-04-13 12:02:03

The evening paper carried this headline on Thursday, Nov. 13, 1941: “Fire Changes Busy Block to Mass of Debris.” Fountain City Bank was in that

3 min read 2021-04-06 12:01:36

“On the first of April, Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the federal man sent word he’d better make his run no more.” These are lyrics from the song from