Tag: poetry
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Sullivan 250 | 1779: Why Sullivan County Took Its Name
11th in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America November | 11 of 12 Have you ever wondered how Sullivan County got its name? The answer takes us back to 1779, when Tennessee didn’t even exist. We were part of North Carolina, and…
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Sullivan 250 | Why Blountville?
Tenth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America October 2026 | 10 of 12 The name Blountville was not chosen by accident. Neither was its location. By the 1790s, Sullivan County was moving beyond its earliest frontier days. Government needed permanence. Until…
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Kingsport After COVID
I still remember the mood at Kingsport’s 1999 Economic Summit. Beneath the optimism, there was a persistent worry: we were aging, and some feared the city would slowly become a retirement community—comfortable, yes, but eventually aging out into economic drift. That kind of concern is easy to feel in real time, especially when the loudest…
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Great Mass Meeting of Tennesseans and Virginians at Kingsport
FORTY THOUSAND PERSONS PRESENT—ENTHUSIASM OF THE DEMOCRACY—EAST TENNESSEE SAFE FOR POLK AND DALLAS I enjoy digging into old newspaper articles, and this snippet from the 1844 Nashville Union is a real treasure. We often assume Kingsport only began in 1917, but for 156 years before that it was a bustling river port—the highest navigable point…
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The Little Girl of Rotherwood Mansion
Virgealia “Jill” Denny Looney Ellis was a leap year baby in 1928. Since 2024 is a leap year, I wanted to honor her. Mrs. Ellis was the counselor for generations of students at both Douglass High School (before integration) and Dobyns-Bennett High School (after integration), including me. She made a lasting impression, and I was…
