Written by Julianna Dodson
“You want to hear another story?” This question, posed by Chris Carlough midday Friday sitting on his screened in porch when we visited Rising Glory Farms, was so characteristic of our whole trip. Then later that day, as we closed our last scheduled tour at the Henry Horton Visitors Center over an hour later than planned, our host Jess Limbird said with a knowing smile, “I suppose I didn’t do enough of the Tennessee goodbye today.” Jodi and I looked at each other – “What’s the Tennessee goodbye?” “Oh you know, you kind of lean over and slap both your knees with your hands [she demonstrates] and say ‘welp!’ but you gotta do that like five times as the conversation goes on before you actually leave.”
All of our Radically Rural on the Road trips have had their own special flavors and lessons that rose to the top, but for me and Jodi, the hearts of the people here took the cake for Marshall County. The planning group from Tennessee intentionally designed the trip primarily around community conversations both because they wanted to use our visit as a reason to convene these conversations, and because I have a sneaking suspicion they knew this to be true and knew that we couldn’t really experience what makes their place truly special without connecting with the people.
I won’t describe all the incredible people we met by far, but I will share a few profiles and tidbits, and others will be weaved into some of the topics we explore in future posts.
Community Changemakers and Rural Leadership Stories: Nonprofits & Community Organizers
Jess Limbird
Of course I have to start with the person who made it all happen! Though I had never met her in person, last year during Radically Rural, a name kept showing up on our surveys, submission forms, etc. Jess Limbird was participating in everything! She submitted the form for Radically Rural on the Road for us to come visit her town. The reason we chose her submission was because it said, “This would mean a lot to our place.” I loved the idea that the benefit would be reciprocal. We also invited her to be on our RR Advisory Group, which she accepted. She has shown up to our monthly meetings this year, always having great questions and suggestions. In fact, she’s the one who introduced us to the Resonance Network, who has helped us to craft our theme of “Resonance” this year. She also just went through the Dirtroad Organizing cohort with one of our past keynote speakers, Chloe Maxmin!
You know what you can’t get through a screen though? A laugh. That’s right. She has the BEST laugh, and pair that with sharp intelligence and a kind of calm and steady authenticity that can’t be faked, and that’s a recipe for a pretty great person. Over and over we heard, “Jess has done so much for this county.”
When Jodi and I first got there, we had to ask: “How did you find Radically Rural and end up at the summit last year?” She smiled, “Well, I had just lost a job, and after being in the nonprofit sector for so long and being really drained I was looking for a space with like-minded people who could really pour back into me too. And I thought– ‘what if there was a radical rural summit?’ so I Googled it, and there you were.” I asked if we had actually met when she was there and she said, “No, I spent the whole time running from place to place thinking ‘I need to get this for such-and-such person’.” Her husband Aeros then chimed in jokingly and said, “You know she left me right after we got married to go to Radically Rural, right?!” She laughed, “It’s true.”
Throughout our trip she referenced different resources, models, or connections she got at RR that had impacted her work. During our dinner conversation the last night of the trip, she was sharing what she was hoping to see next for her county. I mentioned some connections and resources that would be at this year’s summit and she immediately grabbed something to write it down with. It was so obvious to me how deeply she cared for her place and how seriously she took investing in attendance at RR.
Jess now has a business, Confluence Consulting, which supports nonprofits and leaders of all kinds with strategic solutioning, leadership development for systems change, and outsourced project management. She does it all virtually, so if that sounds like something you could use, please check her out!
I could say a lot more, but I’ll end Jess’ profile with what I think speaks the most to her character. One of the very cool folks we met and spent time with while we were there was Michelle. Michelle has been battling a lot of challenging health conditions, which have rendered her unable to drive. Over the three days, Jess brought Michelle with her to the events. At one point Michelle said, “If it weren’t for Jess, I’d have to stay at home in bed most of the time.”
Jessica Radley
Her friends call her “Martha Luther King.” Jessica and I first met when we sat together at the world cafe style community conversation about connectedness. She was wicked smart, knew just about everyone, and had the best smile. As I interacted with her in different contexts and heard more from others about what she does for the community my respect for her continued to grow. Two years ago, Jessica single-handedly planned Marshall County’s first Juneteenth celebration. This past June, she led a group who worked together to plan it. Attendance had been low both years and it was discouraging, but she had that fierce look in her eyes that she got when she talked about her daughter London when she said, “we’re not giving up.” She also talked about the “Unity in Community” fundraisers they did where they went to the bowling alley and simply had FUN together, intuitively recognizing what we explored last year with Springfield College Sports Management and Recreation Therapy students at our “play station” at Radically Rural (and what we’ve all experienced)–that we find common ground and bond better when we play together! She said, “Let’s not just talk about unifying, let’s DO IT.” Jessica is a force to be reckoned with.
Anna Childress
“If Anna Childress wasn’t at your meeting, you didn’t really have a meeting” and “At any given time, Anna is missing three other meetings.” This and more was said about Anna during the community leaders’ breakfast. Even in our three short days there, we found this to be true. I think we must have run into her three or four times after that meeting! Anna is serving her sixth four-year-term (non consecutive) as county commissioner, and is thereby the longest running county commissioner in Marshall County. One of the topics that came up during the breakfast was the struggle of getting more folks involved in local government. Anna recounted how she got into local government. She said that one day she was playing in her yard with her young kids, when her dad drove up and said, “Anna, I think you should run for County Commissioner.” She said, “Alright.” She’s involved in endless other initiatives as well, but has a long running special place in her heart for community health, especially helping breastfeeding mothers through La Leche League and Mother’s Milk Bank. To me, Anna shows the power of staying, the power of showing up, and of long leadership.
Frank Sullivan
Merely two full days after arriving in Lewisburg, I arrived at “Fun Friday “ in the square downtown. I had barely stepped into the square when I already saw two folks I knew. I waved to Anna Childress (of course!) and stopped to chat with Frank Sullivan from HopeTown, who we met at the community leaders’ breakfast. I was very interested to talk with him more, as his nonprofit is known for trust-based support of people in need. When I expressed my deep appreciation for this way of doing things he said “We have a conversation with them, and if they need help with rent, utilities, or something else, we give it. No hoops to jump through, no having to ‘prove’ income.” I asked how he fundraises. He said, “We’ve never had to fundraise. The money just comes.” He shared that folks often tell him, “Frank, trusting people can’t scale. This can’t work forever. One day you’re gonna have to change things.”
For those who were at Radically Rural last year, you know I used an analogy about Monarch butterflies that came from a talk from Holly Fogle with the Monarch Foundation, where she talked about the direct cash they give mothers. I encouraged him that trusting people is sustainable. That it’s the right thing to do. He said, “I’m not a prophet, and HopeTown may change how they do things one day. But they will have to step over my dead body.”
Tracy Harris
Currently the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, her days as a journalist at the local paper showed through as she took us on a backroads tour of Marshall County. She had a notebook that was chalk full of history and information on the sites.
Aside: Lots of you will know how familiar this interconnectedness in rural places is, but one of the names we heard many times while there was Lynda Potts (I observed an interaction where someone told someone else “You gotta talk with Lynda!”) Lynda helped prop up the Marshall County Historical Guild and is the volunteer coordinator for Leadership Marshall and helped Tracy gather the information for the tour.
Tracy is also the one that put together the most incredible gift baskets full of iconic Marshall County and middle Tennessee goods (like Sundrop!) and beautiful stationary with scenes from the area that she dug up in the basement of the historical society. Tracy’s diligence in watching city council meetings beginning to end was also what spurred a response to a firing of the city manager, who ended up getting reinstated (more on that in another post). What struck me the most about Tracy was her relentless openness; She showed up with her whole self in the community conversations. Further, her dedication to her kids, to her job, and to her community were immense.
Community Changemakers and Rural Leadership Stories: The Arts, Business, Education, and Faith Communities
Felix Maxwell
I met Felix at the Art Guild. He was hanging out helping with the kids’ art camp and when I asked him about his art (talking about the woman in “I Can’t Stop Dancing”) he smiled and said, “I like this lady.” He said that it was a school reunion and Felix couldn’t believe that she didn’t stop dancing the ENTIRE time, all by herself! He laughed as he recounted it. We talked about how people like that make everyone else feel like they can dance too.
He then talked about “There is Music in the Air.” He said that he took pieces of several different scenes he had captured and put them all together for that one. I expressed how dynamic his works were, and how you could almost see the movement.
Behind him you’ll see “Round Midnite.” You could tell he was the most proud of this one. He said that it was a portrait of his son who died in a car accident. I asked him to tell me a little about his son and he talked about how smart he was and what a good musician he was.
Felix has been steady at his art for over 50 years, and it shows. You can also tell that he’s invested a lot in the community during that time too.
Rev. Hebert Johnson
“I’ve been pastor of Greater First Baptist Church for 27 years, and my father was for 59 years.” Rev. Johnson was very quiet and reserved during the community leaders’ breakfast, but Jess told me later that his church is run very much like a community center for her neighborhood and it is one of the only true melting pots racially, religiously, and socioeconomically. In talking about issues around racism, he said “I really have to push folks to get back out there. They’ve been burned too many times.”
Robert Montgomery
“He’s my first cousin!” Emily Darnell, Joint Economic and Community Development Board Director said at the community leaders’ breakfast smiling across the room at Robert Montgomery. Robert had been telling us about his winding journey back to Marshall County, which also spurred a fun light hearted debate about what “counts” as being from there. Robert was originally from the area and then moved to become the campus minister at Purdue, among other things. He was now both acting as a pastor of First Presbyterian Church downtown, and also continuing to run the family sheep farm. That morning he was up at 5am doing chores and spent most of the day before on a tractor. He was lamenting the changes in middle Tennessee, saying, “I’m watching rural America change out of my farm window.” He also spoke of wishing that for a state so dedicated to states rights, they could stop getting so consumed in national politics.
Shirley from the General Store
When Jodi and I stopped into the general store ice cream counter, Shirley served us. She told us about herself and her life here. This was her part time retirement job, and her biggest complaint about the area was a lack of public transportation. But she spoke happily about folks who had helped her get a car, and the housing assistance project where she lived, which provided her not only a home but a great community. The topic that lit her up the most? Her dog Biscuit. She showed us pictures and said “I wouldn’t trade him for the world.”
Kenneth George
“My desk is where my crib was,” Kenneth told us with his characteristic cheeky smile as he poured us wine at Picker’s Creek Winery. A professor at Middle Tennessee State University, we had originally met him at the community leaders’ breakfast, but today he was hosting us at the winery and events venue that he co-owns with his brother and sister-in-law. As we chatted with him and he peppered us with questions, he kept us laughing nearly the entire time. Talking about the house he lives in that he purchased from his parents he said, “Yeah, you know how old folks often move south for retirement? Well my parents did too. They moved a few miles south down the road.” Kenneth emailed me when I got home, telling me how much he enjoyed the visit and offering ongoing engagement in our work.
Closing Tidbits
Okay, I can’t help myself, just a few more tidbits before closing this one out. This first evening we were there, I took a walk where we were staying at Henry Horton. As I headed toward the trail, there was a young girl in a car coming toward me, “Do I know her?” I thought to myself… I mean don’t get me wrong, our area of New England is quite friendly, but this girl was waving like I was her long lost cousin come home. I smiled and waved back and thought “what a fun way to live”.
We also heard about the “hello finger,” which is where people are driving by and they lift their index finger as if to say hello.
I’d also say that I don’t think I’ve ever received so many blessed days in my life, and that’s coming from someone who has lived in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia!
Welp [slaps knees], that’s all for today, folks.