David Patton, Palmer Historian
2009
Due to time constraints, Mr. Patton regrets that he cannot personally respond to every comment and inquiry. Like most small town historians, he is an unpaid community volunteer and makes no claim of “knowing everything” about local history. For a detailed account of Grundy County history, he recommends that you consult your copy of the Grundy County Heritage Book.
However, if you have information you would like to share, you may write him at
50 Dogwood St.; Palmer, TN 37365, and he will attempt to respond through this page as time and circumstances allow. Your courtesy and understanding will be appreciated. Ms. Susan Sissom and other volunteers will be assisting Mr. Patton in transmitting this material, but have no personal knowledge as to the veracity of its contents.
JUNE 2009
Palmer News
It’s June, the month of good hot weather, the: blooming month: as we call it. The flowers and vegetable gardens all burst into bloom and give us beautiful colors and some mighty good eating this time of year.
Happy 96th birthday to our good friend Crandel McNabb of Dunlap, TN. Crandel and his wife, the former Ethleen Sitz, both grew up in Palmer and we wish them a very happy July 4th as the great holiday draws near.
The annual Creighton reunion drew a total of 39 at the Coalmont Community Center. Among those present were Wanda Hampton Meeks and Patsy Creighton Higgins of Palmer; Tom Creighton, wife Margaret, and son Bruce of Tracy City; Nick Creighton of Altamont; and Opal Hobbs James, daughter Linda and son Glenn of Nashville. We forgot to mention Ann Creighton of Palmer and her sister Joyce Conry of Chattanooga. Opal James at 95 and Tom Creighton , 92, were the oldest attendees.
Eddie Crabtree, son of the late Alf Crabtree, has been suffering terribly from kidney stones, and we hope he gets better very soon.
Our May rainfall in Palmer was 12 ¼”. In May 1999 we had 5.8”.
Tom Burnette, U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam, made his usual patriotic talk during Memorial Day weekend services at Palmer First Baptist Church where he serves as a deacon. He and his wife Frieda walk a lot, and he has lost 40 pounds.
It was good to talk with Clifford “Buck” Brewer recently. He had a stroke in recent years, but still mows and stays as active as possible.
Members and friends of Palmer United Methodist enjoyed a fish fry and singing on the church lawn Memorial Day weekend.
It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Sean Lewis recently. He moved here from Cleveland, OH, and has just completed his second year at the eighth-grade teacher at Palmer Elementary. He’s a Desert Storm veteran and married to Leon “Gabby” Tate’s granddaughter.
Brittney Green has just graduated from nursing school and as an R.N. She’s a granddaughter of Jerry and Judy Harrison and Charles Green and the late Juanita Campbell Green. Way to go, Brittney. She’s a very pretty and hard-working young woman.
Novella Shadrick Patton of Chattanooga was a resident of a nursing home at last report after undergoing a heart stent procedure. She’s the widow of Carl Patton and is 92 years old now. Many of you know her brother Mike Shadrick of Palmer.
Carl Wayne Sissom of Georgia attended the recent 1959 class reunion of students from Grundy County High School. He’s retired from the U.S. Navy and lives in Georgia. His brother Richie also lives in the peach state and is on the sick list. They’re the sons of the late Clyde and Lorene Tate Sissom.
Palmer Elementary School’s graduation was May 20 and in keeping with the date 20 eighth graders hit the auditorium stage to receive their diplo9mas.
They were Austyn Cooper, Tashina Haddock, Alexis Hammers, Keechia Jones, Shana King, Summer Knight, Adam Lawrence, Ethan Meeks, Dee Jay Nolan, Whitney Northcutt, Dominique Rayne Nunley, Miranda Partin, Stefan Payne, Kristen Rankin, Trevor Theeal, Dakota Sanders, Ashton Scissom, Keith Lee Stewart.
Ashton Scissom, granddaughter of the late Wayne Cannon was the valedictorian, and Keechia, granddaughter of 1962 Palmer graduate Joyce Worley Morrison, was the salutatorian. Best All Round Boy was Austyn Cooper, grandson of the David “Bologna” Crabtree, and best all-around girl was Miranda Partin. Ashton Scissom and Ethan Meeks had perfect attendance.
Here’s an interesting piece of Palmer School history. Brittany, Sara, Rebecca, Jared and Ethan Meeks all graduated from Palmer Elementary with perfect attendance in K-8. That is truly an amazing feat and a first for our school, we’re sure.
The five are children of Dewayne and Pam Henry Meeks. Pam’s a long time bookkeeper at the school and we asked her if she didn’t have another beside Ethan to graduate with perfect attendance. “All Five”, mother Meeks said with a beaming smile that could light up Neyland Stadium. If you want to see pure joy, talk to a mother who is proud of her children in their school work. Way to go, Pam! You’ve done a wonderful job with your children, and we’re all proud of you. As the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis said, “If you fail with your children, nothing else really matters.”
Palmer students graduating in the 2009 class at Grundy County High School included twin sisters Jacquelyn and Alexandra Cantu, granddaughters of Jack Sissom. Jacquelyn was a co-salutatorian and Alexandra was an honors scholar. Both girls received college scholarships.
Rasha Cannon, granddaughter of Jerry Cannon and Jerry Harrison, also graduated as did Chelsea Morrison. Chelsea was an honors scholar and is the granddaughter of the late Lindley Long.
As you can see, it has been hectic here “where the good people live”, but we’re proud of our students and wish them all the best of life in the years ahead.
We hope the “fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high” where you live. Happy July 4th and let’s make a date to visit about this time again next month.
Old sayings and figures of speech in Grundy County TN
1.
Bless your heart. You seldom hear this any more. It was said by women as an expression to someone sick or having other problems. They also said this to someone who did something nice for them.
2.If I’m not badly mistaken. This was said by someone confident of what they were saying but didn’t want to be perceived as a “know it all”.
3.He’s drunk sick. Back years ago when we had a lot of drinking in Grundy County this was said instead of a “hangover”.
4.That salt will dry up your blood. We heard this recently for the first time in years. An elderly man said this to his wife as she was sprinkling salt on a slice of watermelon.
5.I bent my earl wire. I bet all of you 50 or over know what an “earl” wire is. People called it “earl” instead of “aerial” wire and, of course, it was the aerial wire on a car for the radio. Remember how those old car radios would pop with static and sometimes go completely out when the car went under high- powered electric lines?
6.He’s weak minded. This was someone who wasn’t insane, but not completely “all there” as they also used to say.
7.He’s in the right or he’s in the wrong - People used to have a keen sense of fairness and although they might not hold the same viewpoint, they would concede that someone was right or wrong. Instead of “He’s right” or “He’s wrong” they’d say, “He’s in the right.” Or “He’s in the wrong.”.
8.He’s a rough customer. – This wasn’t a customer in a store, but a person who had a bad name in the community such as a thief or drunk.
9.He needs to stand on his own two feet. This was a person who got a good job or position because of his family or political connections and “standing on his own two feat” meant he needed to succeed on his own merits.
10.She’s a big cut-up. This was a person who liked to laugh and joke and maybe even pull tricks on others.
Palmer Students Make 8th Grade Trip to Washington, DC
Oldest and youngest- Mary Cannon Stinnett, 74, and grand daughter Vanessa, 7, rest in front of the White House. This photo was taken May 29, 2009, which was Vanessa's 7th birthday. President Kennedy would have been 92 years old that same day, and Vanessa visited his grave at Arlington. There was no 8th grade trip for the class of 1949, but 60 years later, Mother Stinnett finally got to go on a Palmer School Eighth Grade Trip with the class of 2009.
Other photos submitted are:
Palmer School’s Eighth Grade Trip
D.C. Excursion Rivals 1974’s Famous “Disney World” Tour
By David Patton
“It was wonderful and our kids were so well behaved.” That’s how longtime Palmer Elementary bookkeeper Pam Henry Meeks described the school’s 2009 eighth grade trip to Washington D.C., and the sentiment was echoed by everyone we talked with about this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The adventure began at 7:00 PM on May 26 as a group of 48 adults and children met at the school and boarded a tour bus. Staff members included Principal Sadie Smartt, eighth grade teacher Seann Lewis, third grade teacher Alisa Boyd, and bookkeeper Pam Meeks.
Eighth graders were Austyn Cooper, Alexis Hammers, Keechia Jones, Kirsten Jones, Jimmy King, Jr., Shana King, Sumer Knight, Adam Lawrence, Ethan Meeks, Whitney Northcutt, Dominique Nunley, Miranda Partin, Stefan Payne, Kristen Rankin, Trevor Rheal, Dakota Sanders, and Keith Stewart. After an all-night bus ride, the group had breakfast at Cracker Barrel followed by a visit to Mount Vernon.
Mrs. Smartt, principal since 1996 and longest serving in school history, had the idea to go to Washington. She and other Grundy Countians had traveled there by bus in January 1993 to witness the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
“We raised enough money for the eighth graders to go, but if not for the others on trip who paid, we wouldn’t have been able to go,” she said. “I’m a history buff and some of the kids and I were talking about favorite sites, but it was all great. We got to see the original Magna Carta at the Smithsonian and the Daniel’s Story part of the Holocaust Museum. We even saw a presidential motorcade and Ford’s Theater wan an interesting place.”
Few know that the town of Palmer has a connection to Ford’s Theater. When we began our history research on the town some quarter-century ago, we wanted to search for the Palmer family. After finally locating his descendants, we found that Clarence William Palmer, for whom the tow is named, was at Ford’s Theater the night that Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. See the big Palmer family plaque in the Grundy County Miners’ Museum and Heritage Center for more information on Mr. Palmer.
Mr. Lewis, whose first year as the school’s eighth grade teacher was capped off by this amazing trip, recalled it with a sense of awe in his voice. “Our first stop, Mount Vernon, really impressed me by the way the house and grounds were kept up,” he said. “I’m a Desert Storm veteran and my dad served in Thailand during the Vietnam era, so the war memorials were of special interest. I had wanted to get rub offs of all the Grundy County names on the Vietnam wall, but it came a heavy rain and I was only able to get one.” “We saw bullet holes in the House of Representatives and our tour guide said a woman came into the building in the early 1860’s and shot at several of the Congressmen. Our students and adults did Palmer and Grundy County proud by their good behavior. We went on a dinner cruise down the Potomac the last night and our well-behaved group really stood out when compared to some of the others on the boat. As the year go by this trip will become more and more meaningful to these young students as they reflect on it.”
Mrs. Meeks, staff member since the early 1990’s was still excited about the journey weeks after returning home. “It was a year-long effort of fundraising, but it was worth it,” she said. We had 3 doughnut sales, a couple of dinners, bingo, fun days and business donations. We had to have a large group in order to get an affordable rate from the tour company. A maximum of 50 could go, and we ended up with 48. My favorite places were Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. It’s much bigger that it looks on television. I had promised our lunchroom manager Kim Shadrick Rollins that I would get a rub-off of Marvin Phillip’s name on the Vietnam Wall, but it came a downpour, and we all got wet. He was her uncle and my second cousin. I managed to get just one name, George Edward Henry, class of 1962. The name of another Palmer graduate, Marshal Brown, is also on the wall. My great uncle, Elmer “Doe” Davis, served in World War II, and that memorial is really huge.”
“I was really worried about all the walking, but my son Ethan was an eighth grader, and I wanted to make the trip with him. My daughter Sara Nolan also went. Someday I’d like to go back to Washington with my family, take my time, and go through everything. The tour guides said October and November were the best time to see Mount Vernon.”
Ethan Meeks, 13, class of 2009, says Arlington was his favorite place. “I don’t know why he didn’t tell you about Ford’s Theater,” his mother, Pam, said. “He’s really interested in Lincoln and after we toured Ford’s Theater, we went across the street to Mrs. Patterson’s Boarding House where the President died. Some of the kids instead wanted to go down the street and get t-shirts, but Ethan told them he could get t-shirts any day, but he wanted to see where Lincoln died.”
Ethan is an honors student and had perfect K-8 attendance at Palmer Elementary. He was the last of Mother Meeks’ five children to graduate and for a fascinating piece of school history about this family check out the June 2009 “Palmer News” on this website.
Larry Crabtree, class of1962, and wife Gayle accompanied their granddaughter Kirsten Jones to Washington. “The tour guides really explained all the sites well and made it much more meaningful than if you had just went on you own,” he said. “When we went to Ford’s Theater I remembered that Marvin Dee “Little Red” James of Palmer always said he was kin to John Wilkes Booth. I also liked Arlington Cemetery and the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They have to be a certain weight and height and marched so straight and precise that they looked like sticks. At the Vietnam Wall it came a gully-washer and a man selling umbrellas for $5 was handing them out as fast as he could. All of us wish we could have spent more time there because we knew the names like George Edward Henry who went to Palmer School. We were last there in 1995 and you could drive up close to the buildings, but 9-11 changed everything. Now, you have to park a good distance away and do a lot of walking. Traffic barricades are everywhere and we saw guards with rifles on the White House roof. I thought to myself, ‘We’re prisoners in our own country.’”
All of that security was for a good reason. Less than two weeks after the group returned to Palmer, a gunman at the Holocaust Museum murdered a guard in cold blood. They say that “whatever will be, will be” and surely it was fate that placed Mary Cannon Stinnett, oldest, 74, and her daughter (adopted great granddaughter) Vanessa, youngest, 7, aboard that tour bus to Washington. They were the last two joining the group just 48 hours or so before departure.
“I finally got to go on my eighth grade trip,” said Mrs. Stinnett, class of 1949. “Back 60 years ago there was no eighth grade trip. It was a different world than today. We barely had school clothes. There were not buses for elementary school, and I walked up the railroad tracks every day and went through where the Palmer Veterans’ Memorial Park is today to school. My family didn’t even have a car.”
“The tour’s first stop was at Mount Vernon and Mrs. Stinnett was very impressed. “It was beautiful with the rocking chairs on the front porch looking out over the Potomac. President Washington much have had an engineering mind they way the house and grounds were laid out so meticulously.”
“We had gallery tickets and toured the Capitol Building. I was in Washington years ago and the security wasn’t that tight there, but it sure is now. I think everyone found Ford’s Theater and Mrs. Patterson’s Boarding House interesting places and the Lincoln Memorial with him gazing out at the visitors was just awesome. My late husband J.R. Lovell and my current husband Bobby Lynn Stinnett both served in the military, and if you want to make me mad just show disrespect to the flag or a veteran. My late father, Scott Cannon, fought on the front lines in the U.S. Army in World War I. Armistice Day (now called Veterans’ Day) that ended World War I was his favorite day of the year for the remainder of his life. Even on his death bed, he would deliriously call out the name of his comrades in battle.”
“So, of course, Arlington and all the War Memorials were very special places to me. Vanessa had her 7th birthday on May 29, the very day we visited Arlington. We visited the grave of President Kennedy with the eternal flame and the tour guides told us to be quiet around the site and that some family members might be visiting the grave that day since it would have been his 92nd birthday. We did see where flowers had been left. Just down a path is the grave of his brother Robert F. Kennedy. It’s marked with just a simple white cross and they said that was what he had requested.”
“As we were leaving Arlington, we go the experience of a lifetime. A military funeral was approaching with its low cadence of muffled drums and a horse drawn caisson bearing a coffin. Vanessa asked if anyone was in the coffin.”
“The World War II Memorial was pretty, and we got to visit the Vietnam Wall. One of the names there is Marshal Brown. He was married to my cousin Kathleen Barnes.”
The Palmer adults and students got a live civics lesson that made clear what freedom of speech and our Bill of Rights is all about.
“They were having an anti-abortion demonstration in front of the White House and yelling (Obama, quit killing babies.) That bothered Vanessa. We also got to see the presidential helicopter land there. Three approach and no one knows which has the president aboard. At the last minute that one lands and the other two go on.
All of this must have been overwhelming for little Vanessa. We wonder how much the honors student an upcoming second grader will remember in the years ahead.
After a Saturday night dinner and dance cruise on the Potomac, the group boarded the bus early Sunday morning on May 31 and headed for the green hills of Tennessee. After the excitement of Washington, it must have seemed like another world when they arrived back in Palmer around 8 PM. But as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.”
We don’t know of any elementary school in Grundy County ever taking an eighth grade trip to Washington, so these students saw a lot of history and made some of their own. A special thanks to Pam Meeks, the “Dynamo” of Palmer School, for her assistance on this story.
See “Disney World-Here We Come, Palmer School’s eighth grade trip of 1974” on this website for another saga of a long and unusual journey that we’ll take you along on.
