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New Home News
A hairbrush was the microphone
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Kenneth and Lucy Young and Faye Adkins attended the wedding of their nephew Jason and Amber Young in McMinnville on Saturday. They had dinner in McMinnville before visiting Christeen Arnold.
Get-well wishes are extended to Sarge Bowman. He has been a patient in Centinnal Hospital in Nashville. He has heart trouble. They put a stent in.
Bro. Dwight Rackley preached at New Home Baptist Church Sunday. We are proud of the new stained glass windows that has been installed.
Valerie Mears visited her mother Mabel Pack Saturday.
Sympathy is extended to the family of Lynn Colwell. He passed away recently.
Marie Walls visited her sister Ruby Thompson of Prospect, Tenn., recently. She helped her celebrate her birthday. Several of her family members were present.
Visitors of Marie Walls recently were Dean and Connie Neely of Shelbyville and Linda Neeley and Mike Holliman and Audra Kennedy.
Mark Herman spent the weekend with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Herman, and others.
Betty Byford visited me Monday morning. She was excited over all the ribbons she got at the Warren County Fair. She works hard getting things ready for the fair. She had 179 entries in all and won 136 ribbons. She is so good to visit me and shares vegetables and other things with me. So does her sister Dianne Evans.
Visitors on Sunday of Betty Wilson were Faye Adkins, Douglas and Rebecca Ervin and Sue Arnold and JoAnn Pittman.
Jerry and Linda Snow of Nashville spent Monday with his mother Martha Snow. Bro. Vincent Baker visited earlier.
Joyce Wright of Murfreesboro and Wanda Tramel of Crossville and Ellie Vaughn of Alexandria spent Friday night and Saturday with Lu Autry Malone.
A baby shower was held at the home of Lu Autry Malone for the new adopted baby of Malorie and Eric Carten. Those attending were Gail and Hannah Wright, Rita Robinson, Jaylene Vanatta and Jessie Vanatta, Natasha and Ellie Vaughn, Wanda Tramel, Judie Johnson and Trena and Debra Malone and Christa and Joyce Wright, Natalie and Eric Weems, Eric Carter, Rawlin Vanatta, Madlen and Jocie and Sirus Weems.
I am proud that my son, Ralph, was recently elected to be president of the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame. He and a group of former radio station announcers along with some still on the air from across the state began meeting in December 2010 and later formed the organization.
He has a love and passion for radio that goes back to when he was 6 years old. I remember the day when he first told me that he wanted to be on the radio. We lived on Vickers’ Hollow Road at the time in a little house that did not have electricity. So we had a 1942 battery-powered radio.
The house only had two rooms and a closet with the living room also served as our bedroom. My dresser, which was near the bed, was Ralph’s make-believe radio station and my large hairbrush was his microphone. We always kept the radio tuned to WSM in Nashville, and Ralph would try to make his child voice sound like the announcers on the station.
I wanted to encourage him but knew nothing about people getting into radio. So I would agree that someday it would be possible; not knowing anything more. I recall him saying that he told Mrs. Alice Foster his dream, but made her promise to not tell anyone since he was bashful. She was his first-grade teacher at Cross Roads.
After he learned to read better, Ralph would take the Smithville Review and read the articles out loud; again trying to sound like the announcers that he heard on WSM.
I thought little more about his dream during the next few years although he kept telling me that someday he would be on the radio. His daddy always assumed that Ralph would farm just like most of the family had done before him.
You have read some of my articles before that described how Ralph won a contest at WJLE and from there got his first job in radio. He lived the dream for 21 years.
When Ralph recently told me that he was elected president of the Hall of Fame, he said that he is today who he is by the grace of God and radio because it gave him the confidence to talk in front of people. I asked him if he ever gets nervous when standing before groups, and he said "no" because he remembers what it was like to be so bashful and how important it is to be able to express himself with his words.