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Norris’ final birthday event draws crowd

Larry Beeman shares history through a series of posters

by G. Chambers Williams III


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. - G. Chambers Williams III
The final event in this year’s 75th birthday observance for Norris attracted a crowd Sunday afternoon to hear Larry Beeman recount the history of the town through a series of 20 posters created for the anniversary of the founding of the city.

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.

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African American Cultural Museum opens

by Ben Pounds


Julia Daniel, president of the Mayme Carmichael School Organization, shows off a photo of Joy Ann Allen Boyce, a member of the Clinton 12, the group of students who desegre- gated Clinton High School. Her ex- periences and those of the Clinton 12 are among the stories the Tri-County African American Cultural Museum hopes to tell. - Ben Pounds
A new museum has opened in Oliver Springs to showcase the stories of African American families in Anderson, Roane and Morgan Counties.

It’s in the Tri-County African American Cultural Museum on Oliver Springs’ Anderson County side at 1069 East Tri-County Boulevard.

It’s open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

The museum has exhibits on many themes, including schools, churches, farming, mining, hairdressing and military service.

Families covered have ties to national stories like school desegregation in Clinton and Oak Ridge as well as the World War II Tuskegee Airmen.

Julia Daniel president of the Mayme Carmichael School Organization, runs the museum.

She said it was important for relatives of the relevant families including herself to tell their own stories.

“I don’t expect anybody else to tell my own history; I’m going to tell it myself,” Daniel told The Courier News.

A framed quotation sits on a counter at the museum of an African proverb with a similar message: “Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

She called the museum a work in progress, and said she hoped to do more interviews to gather more information.

Anyone interested in helping with information or exhibits or wanting to tour the facility can call 865-789-0846.

“My main thing is to try and let my light shine,” Daniel said.

October Sky Festival on tap for Saturday

by G. Chambers Williams III

Anyone looking for a fun fall event might want to check out the annual October Sky Festival set for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 19) in Oliver Springs.

Held every year, the festival highlights the roles the town and surrounding areas played in the 1999 film “October Sky,” about the coal-mining community featured in Homer Hickam Jr.’s best-selling 1998 autobiography, “Rocket Boys.”

Centered in Arrowhead Park in the south end of downtown, the festival also includes events at the Oliver Springs Historical Society Museum in the downtown area, along with other local sites.

Also included in the activities is the historic downtown railroad depot, which will allow visitors to see how it felt to be a station manager, conductor or engineer.

The museum has a vintage caboose that will be open to visitors, as well. The daylong festival is expected to attract more than 100 vendors, and bring in thousands of visitors.

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Judge Hunt reflects on deployment, earning medal

by Ben Pounds


Judge Brian Hunt served as a major in Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti in support of Opera- tion Enduring Freedom, Horn of Africa, and earned the Meritorious Service Medal for his collaborations with other countries’ militaries in the region.
Judge Brian Hunt has returned to Anderson County Juvenile Court from his U.S. Army deployment with a medal and lasting memories.

Hunt served at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti in support of Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa, earning the Meritorious Service Medal for his collaboration with militaries from countries in the region.

His work involved operations and partnerships in Kenya, Chad, Morocco, Mozambique, and other nations, according to Army documents related to his award.

“It was a great experience; I’m thankful I was able to go and thankful everyone came back safely,” Hunt said in a recent interview with The Courier News. He said he felt honored to receive the medal.

Hunt said the most-rewarding aspect of his service was “just the camaraderie and the team,” including both U.S. troops and foreign personnel.

He described bonding with fellow Americans by sharing memories of home, and he enjoyed learning about the different training and knowledge foreign troops brought with them.

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Zion Hill Baptist Church honors 180-year history at Homecoming

by Pete Gawda Special to The Courier News


This display, located in the fellowship hall of Zion Hill Baptist Church, features the orig- inal handwritten church constitution and minutes from the 1840s. The sign above, once displayed on the church building, is also part of the exhibit. - Pete Gwada
On a recent Sunday in September, worshipers at Zion Hill Baptist Church celebrated homecoming, as they have done each year for as long as anyone can remember.

The congregation has been worshiping at Zion Hill, the church with two cemeteries, since the 1840s.

Early records of the church, located on Cardin Gap Road about one-tenth of a mile from the intersection with Hinds Creek Road, are incomplete.

The few existing handwritten records are often difficult to read, with black ink fading to brown, and the paper turning yellow.

A sign on the front of the building states the church was organized in 1842.

However, in February 1840, according to minutes from Bethel Baptist Church, that congregation requested help from ministers and deacons of Clear Branch Baptist Church (now Longfield Baptist Church) to organize a new church, Zion Hill, near Hinds Creek.

The earliest available records show that Zion Hill held preaching followed by a business session on the second Saturday in September 1840. The church continued meeting on the second Saturday of each month for several months, after which there is a gap of more than a year in records.

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