Norris’ 75th birthday events begin Sunday
‘Wedding Gown Fashion Show’ to kick off series
This is the Norris Town Center area as it looks today. The city is celebrating its 75th birth- day as an incorporated municipality with a series of events during 2024, beginning this Sunday, Jan. 21. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
They begin with the “Wedding Gown Fashion Show” at 3 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 21) at the Norris Religious Fellowship.
The theme of this first event is “Here Comes the Bride, 1930s-Present.”
Former city Councilman Larry Beeman, chairman of the 75th Year Birthday Recognition Committee of the Norris Historical Society, presented a list of scheduled events to the City Council during last week’s meeting.
Although Norris was created by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the early 1930s as a model community to house workers and engineers building the nearby Norris Dam – TVA’s very first hydroelectric dam – Norris was not officially incorporated as a city until early 1949.
The highlight of the events will be the Norris Birthday Celebration to be held May 18 in the Town Center Commons area.
This all-inclusive celebration will include a program, live music, birthday cake, antique cars from the 1930s and ’40s, a posterboard historical display of 20 events that led to the creation of Norris, and a Norris citizens group photo.
Among the other events will be the Norris Little Theater’s production of the historical play “Norris, Where I Belong,” which will be presented at the Museum of Appalachia April 12, 13 and 14. Announcements will be made soon on where and how to buy tickets, Beeman said.
The “Norris 75th Birthday Commemorative Book” will also be available for sale during the celebration.
This “high-quality publication” will include many photos and short, focused commentaries, Beeman said. It will highlight “the 75th birthday theme of recognizing the vital importance [of] citizen volunteers in preserving the living history of Norris.”
There will be a bus tour on June 15 to visit historical sites in and surrounding Norris. Seating will be limited, and reservations will be required. Registration information will be announced later.
In conjunction with the May 18 birthday celebration, the Betty Ann Jolly Norris Public Library will host a “Chalk Walk.”
People of all ages and artistic abilities will be encouraged to create chalk artwork on the sidewalks around the library and Norris Middle School on the morning of May 18.
Attendees of the celebration will vote on the best chalk art in a variety of categories, and the winners will be recognized.
Library staff will be in charge of registration, and will supply all the materials at no cost to the participants. Registration information will be announced in April.
A brief ceremony, date still to be determined but most likely in April, will be held to plant a tree in the Commons to commemorate the city’s 75th birthday.
Apparently no one in the city knows exactly what day Norris officially became a city, and several dates were tossed out last year as potentially the correct one.
Beeman brought up the issue during the March 13, 2023, City Council meeting. According to what he found, he said at that meeting, the state legislature passed the bill giving Norris a city charter on April 5, 1949, which some people have considered to be the official establishment of the city.
But Beeman said the governor most likely signed the legislation on April 7, which would have made the legislature’s bill final.
“The lady in charge of Norris archives found where her father-in-law, R.G. Crossno, was in Nashville when all of this was being done in 1949. He was the first mayor of Norris.
“He had written notes that the House passed the bill on April 5, then on April 7, the governor signed the legislation. April 7 date was the date we used for the 50th birthday celebration. I probably would stay with that date.”
Beeman noted that April 9, 1949, was mentioned in an executive action signed by then-President Harry Truman in October 1949 that allowed Tennessee Valley Authority employees to hold positions in the Norris city government.
“At that time, federal employees were not allowed to participate in municipal governments, but President Truman’s order made an exception for TVA employees in Norris, “Beeman said.
“Truman’s order referred to April 9 as the official charter date for the city of Norris.”
During the March 13 council meeting, Councilman Bill Grieve said his research turned up another date, Feb. 1, 1949, as the official Norris incorporation date. That came from records with the UT Municipal Technical Advisory Service.
