Bob White
My grandfather Bob White was the son of a Confederate cavalryman. His way of life in the country had been pretty much the same as it had been when his great-grandfather Lewis first came to Maury County in the early 1800s and didn’t change considerably through the time my own dad grew up in the 1920s and ‘30s. For instance, my dad was about fourteen before the federal Public Works Administration brought electricity down the road....
Good Dogs and Hard Times
Growing up on a Tennessee farm in the 1920s and ‘30s was a stark life. My dad, Jack White, had a fyce pup, part rat terrier and part something else, called Tip. “He had a little tip of white hair on his tail that stuck out.” Tip was a small dog, nearly solid white except for a liver spot over his left eye. “I really liked Tip,” said dad. “He was my pal. He was a first rate squirrel dog. He’d trot through the woods as quiet as an...
Reunion
A picture hangs on my living-room wall in Columbia, Tennessee, magnificently framed, of which I am especially proud. It is an original 1902 photograph of Confederate veterans gathered for a reunion — friends, relatives, and comrades-in-arms of my great-grandfather James Lewis White, a private in Company F of the 48th Tennessee Infantry, who later enlisted in Company F of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry. The picture is probably taken...
Sons and Mothers Great Outdoor Adventure — 2016
(note: click on photos to enlarge) Near the end of January 2016, Auburn, Alabama attorney Anna Funderburk Buckner was having a conversation with her friend Sidney James Nakhjavan decrying the fact that Lee County, Alabama did not have a Mother/Son answer to the Father/Daughter Dance. “Why can’t we come up with some sort of experience that celebrates mothers and sons?” she asked. This question sparked an idea. Sidney immediately called...
Stark Love at the Tennessee Theater
Congratulations to Bradley Reeves of the Tennessee Archive for Moving Image and Sound and Knoxville, Tennessee’s historic Tennessee Theater for hosting a special screening of the recently restored print of Stark Love. This was the flagship event of the East Tennessee History Fair and was a huge success! A large crowd assembled August 15th in the beautiful 1,600 movie palace to see the film and the accompanying documentary, Lost...