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Refugees Helped Create Knoxville As We Know It
March 16, 2017 In Other No Comment

  Immigrants fleeing difficult or dangerous circumstances in their home countries have always been part of Knoxville’s history. A few Irish political exiles settled here in the 1790s. Right about 170 years ago, Knoxville began receiving hundreds of refugees. Many […]

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Finding Vagabondia: New Clues, and Two Theories About a Novelist’s Legendary Inspiration
March 9, 2017 In Other No Comment

A researcher happened across some clues to an old mystery that’s been nagging at me for a quarter century. In the mix is a pretty incredible coincidence. For a column in Metro Pulse back in the ’90s, I outlined the […]

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Black History Month and Valentine’s Day Both Offer Occasions to Celebrate James and Ethel Beck
February 13, 2017 In Other No Comment

The Beck Cultural Exchange Center was founded in honor of James and Ethel Beck, at what had been their comfortable home on Dandridge, just east of downtown. The Becks were one of the most interesting couples in Knoxville history.  Although […]

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Hating the Architecture of Our Youth: the Old KUB Building
February 9, 2017 In Other No Comment

This winter several have noticed a bit of oddity in a surgical demolition project on the corner of Gay and Church. The greenish cube known as “the old KUB Building,” has been losing its skin for the last several weeks. […]

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Don & Phil Everly – The Everly Brothers
January 26, 2017 In Other 4 Comments

Don and Phil Everly were known for their perfect brother harmonies, but made a global impact on popular music by taking chances with combining their old-time harmonies with a new form called rock ’n’ roll. Their influence on later bands […]

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UT’s “Pride of the Southland” Marching Band Has a History Much Older Than its Name
January 12, 2017 In Other 1 Comment

Just after the Civil War, when what was then known as East Tennessee University was partly military in its focus. The college sponsored a tiny “cadet band,” perhaps not a very good one. When the university needed a band for […]

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Magnificent Distractions: Christmas, 1916, Saw a Promenade of American Show Biz
December 22, 2016 In Other No Comment

If you were to step back 100 years, a lot of things would be familiar. Christmas trees, both the big public one near Market Street and the one at home, glowed with electric lights. Downtown stores were brightly lit, often […]

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Two Rebels: Remembering Avon Rollins and Otis Stephens
December 15, 2016 In Other No Comment

As several friends have remembered since his death in 2016, Avon Rollins was a key figure in local civil-rights history. The Knoxville native was one of the University of Tennessee’s first generation of black students. In 1962, the engineering major […]

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The Attorney-Toreador of Gay Street
December 8, 2016 In Other 1 Comment

There’s a story people of a certain age tell this time of year, of the prominent lawyer who, wearing mainly a nightshirt, rode down Gay Street on a bull, as thousands cheered. Carole Fields was just a little girl, 75 […]

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