Search

This quick reference brings together (and often corrects) large amounts of information from many diverse and hard-to-find resources. The work begins with a year-by-year summary of Tennessee history, from the Revolutionary era to the present. For example, the entry for 1960 reports that after sit-ins in the state's four largest cities Nashville became the first Southern city to desegregate lunch counters. A guide to all official state symbols and their origins follows. For instance, in 1919 the school children of Tennessee voted for the state flower of Tennessee and selected the passionflower. In 1933, the iris was adopted as the State Flower of Tennessee but the passionflower designation had not been rescinded. In 1973, the General Assembly designated the iris as the state cultivated flower and the passionflower as the state wildflower.

Ed Sullivan is known for creating the longest running variety show and introducing the Beatles, Elvis, and Motown to the country, but what most people don't know is that before he was a nationally known television personality, Sullivan was a well-known newspaperman. In this collection of Sullivan's columns, readers will delight in reading Sullivan's memories and reflections of what life was like growing up in small-town America at the turn of the 20th century.