Norris’ final birthday event draws crowd
Larry Beeman shares history through a series of posters
Norris resident Spencer Boardman takes photos of some of the posters depicting Norris’ history during Sunday’s final Norris 75th-birthday event at the Norris Religious Fellow- ship church. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
All of the posters were lined up along walls inside the Norris Religious Fellowship, and Beeman — the key architect of the months-long birthday celebration — went over them one by one, with help from others who played roles in the birthday events.
Those included Alan Hendry, chairman of the Norris Historical Society, and Joe Feeman, with the Norris Archives Committee.
Also on display and available for sale Sunday were prints of water-color drawings picturing various Norris scenes, created especially for the birthday celebration by artist Jim Jurekovic, who moved to Norris from California in 2021 with his wife, Charlotte.
All of this year’s birthday activities centered around plans developed beginning last year to celebrate Norris’ three-quarters of a century as an official municipality in Tennessee.
The unincorporated town of Norris was created in the early 1930s by the Tennessee Valley Authority as a “model city” to house workers and engineers building Norris Dam.
Beeman, a former city councilman who moved to Norris in 1954, served as chairman of the 75th Year Birthday Recognition Steering Committee, which was created by the Norris Historical Society.
The birthday events began with the “Wedding Gown Fashion Show” in January, and the highlight was the Norris birthday party held May 18 in the Town Center Commons area.
That all-inclusive celebration included a program, live music, birthday cake, antique cars from the 1930s and ’40s, the posterboards detailing important Norris events, and a citizens group photo.
Among the other events held earlier this year was the Norris Little Theater’s production of the historical play “Norris, Where I Belong,” presented at the Museum of Appalachia April 12, 13 and 14.
There also is a “Norris 75th Birthday Commemorative Book” that was made available for sale during the celebration. It includes photos and commentaries highlighting “the 75th birthday theme of recognizing the vital importance [of] citizen volunteers in preserving the living history of Norris,” Beeman said in January.
There was a bus tour in June to take people to see historical sites in and surrounding Norris.
A ceremony was held in April to plant a tree in the Commons to commemorate the city’s 75th birthday.
There has been some confusion about the exact date that 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 2023 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, he said.