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- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 14 Oct 2001.
Mattie Ruth Chandler McDermott obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 19 Jan 2009.
Stan Voit: Miller has made mark on county
Growing up black in a county whose black population was so small there were just 27 students and one teacher in the only public school for them, Jamesena Miller didn't really know what she was missing until she saw life beyond the county's borders.
And even then, what she saw made her more curious than angry, with a determination not to flee her hometown but to stay and work for change.
Indeed she has. Miller, 64, has been at the forefront of much of the racial progress and societal changes that have come to Sevier County since the 1960s. She also was among the first to sign up when friend Joseph McMahan started pushing in 2004 for a local observance of Martin Luther King's birthday. On Monday the fourth annual celebration of that birthday will be held in Sevierville, and Miller will make the walk to the courthouse and be in the audience for the program at First Baptist Church.
"I work with a lady at the dialysis clinic in Knoxville, and she told me, "You've got to be so proud of Sevier County for what they do for Dr. King. We in Knox County don't do anything like you do.' I told her she'd be surprised to know that only about a third of the members of the committee are minorities. The rest of the group are white, and the leadership isn't even minority. I am extremely proud of that."
Her father was a native of McMinnville but moved to Sevier County later in life. Jamesena (her father James Edward was expecting a boy and combined his first and middle names to make hers) was born in Sevier County and has never left. She attended Pleasant View Elementary near what is now Sevier County Health Care Center. It was the segregated school for the county's few black children.
Mary McMahan, believed to be the only teacher in the county with a master's, was the only teacher for the school that combined grades one through eight.
"We were fortunate to have the most qualified teacher in Sevier County," Miller said.
For high school she and other blacks were bused (at county expense) to Austin High in Knoxville. It was a long bus trip, she recalled, but became an enlightening experience.
"We were curious," she said. "We were living in a time that was supposed to be separate but equal. When I was in high school they started having a lot of sit-ins in Knoxville, and a lot of the students I went to school with took part. We'd hear about it in Knoxville, then come back to Sevierville and nothing would be happening."
Then in 1963 Miller heard King's "I Have a Dream" speech. That was a turning point.
"It was like I'd seen the vision. I could see what the desired outcome could be. I didn't know whether it would happen or not, But I hoped it would. My curiosity changed to hope."
She never felt bitterness or anger about being regarded by most whites as less than equal, but it did give her determination. She enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 1962, one of just 13 or so black students on campus. Always her plan was to return to Sevier County to live and work. And be an activist for social change.
"The speech made me see what change could be," she said. "It made me think of my own family and a sense of optimism. It also gave me a sense of urgency to do something."
Not long after she finished at Austin High, Sevier County High accepted black students. Her own daughter, LaTonya, was Miss SCHS and the school's first black drum major.
Miller worked at UT for 35 years, commuting from Sevierville the entire time. She and her husband Aaron, married since 1965, were just not going to leave this community behind.
Along the way she was a member of and chaired the Sevierville Housing Authority, helping to find the land that became Ridgewood Village in Pigeon Forge. The street leading into that public housing development bears her name. She was a founding member of Leadership Sevier. She's on the board of the Sevier County Public Library System. She has been a lifetime member of Boyds Creek Church of God.
"I wanted to leave a legacy not just for blacks but for the community at large," she said. "Most people are shocked there is even a black community in Sevier County."
It's a very good thing she hasn't left. Monday's observance of King's birthday is one good reason why.
Stan Voit is editor of The Mountain Press. His column appears each Sunday. He can be reached at 428-0748, ext. 217, or e-mail to svoit@themountainpress.com.
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Abt 1944 - (~ 80 years)
, d. 6 Oct 1959 (Age 51 years)