| Sources |
- [S113] Manes Funeral Home, (http://www.manesfuneralhome.com), 17 Oct 2008.
Calvin Baxter Lindsey obituary
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 22 Jun 2012.
Burnett spends 95 hours in Ford F-150 and drives it home
(c)2012 NPT PHOTO BY DAVID POPIEL
This F-150 Ford has a retail sticker price of over $33,000 but Burnett Duncan only has to pay taxes on his prize after he won the 2012 truck in the "Survive It to Drive It" promotion by WIVK, UT Credit Union and Ray Varner Ford. With Burnet are his children, Leann and Joshua.
Author: David Popiel
On Wednesday, summer of 2012 arrived without delay and brought with it a heat wave in the low 90s for our hometown, where many folks are staying inside with air conditioning or riding in their cars and trucks buying cheaper gasoline.
Before telling you about a determined and lucky Newport man, I did get to visit Bybee Market to talk with Denise Suggs, who operates the market, and will make some photos to share with you soon. The Newport Kiwanis also got a tour of the River Walk thanks to City Administrator Scott Collins and Parks & Recreation Director Tim Dockery. You will be reading more about this impressive project; yes, Audrey Woody's lilies planted weeks ago are in splendid bloom at the McSween Bridge and also at the rear of Newport City Hall. It is worth a trip.
A four-day sit-in to win
Could you sit for 95 hours in a new vehicle if that's what it took to win it?
Burnett Duncan and three other finalists did just that at Ray Varner Ford, of Clinton, with a random drawing awarding the 2012 Ford F-150 Supercab to Burnett.
He hasn't worn the new off the black truck, which he drove home in April as the grand-prize winner of the WIVK, UT Credit Union, and Ray Varner promotion.
To become a finalist he listened to the Knoxville radio station to get the letter clues that spelled out the name of a famous country music artist. When Duncan got enough letters, he called in first with the name, Brad Paisley.
But so did three other people, two of them women. He represented Newport and the other finalists were from Sevierville, Clinton, and West Knoxville.
To arrive at the prize winner, all four were asked to stay in the 2012 F-150 for a few days and the one who could stay the longest would drive the truck out of the showroom and home. That was just fine for Burnett, because his Ford F-350 that he uses for farm work was burned last July near his Lower English Creek farm, where he raises beef cattle. He purchased about 10 acres of the late Ed Sisk farm and leases many more acres in the county.
"I was a nervous wreck, but it was fun," he said of the 95-hour ordeal-almost four days. Yes, competitors could take a break every 2 hours for food, bathroom, leg stretching, but returned immediately to the truck. You didn't get to eat much in that time. It was not possible to sleep long because every two hours they were required to get out of the truck, and then back in. No cellphones, books, newspapers, radios or other devices to help pass the time. So they did a lot of talking amongst themselves and the customers. During the day a continuous line of people came into Ray Varner's showroom to see the fortunate finalists. At night WIVK DJs made sure rules were strictly followed. "They had a Web cam mounted up front to watch us. I think we were on the Internet, too," said Duncan.
Truck is worth over $33,000
The wait-out began on a Saturday after the finalists' names were drawn and Duncan was ready to go. He is not a stranger to vehicles as he spends his days working for Blalock Construction in Sevierville operating heavy equipment such as dump trucks and bulldozers, and on the farm it's a tractor. He and Dad, Paul Duncan, collect antique tractors and have dozens of these.
Another component of the contest was that every time a finalist got out of the truck they had to return to a different seat in a pre-determined rotation scheme. If you sat in the wrong seat, you would be disqualified. "They didn't want you to be comfortable. We couldn't even have a pillow and we kept the seats up," he said, describing a straight-up front seat. At least the F-150 with Supercab has plenty of room. The dealer valued it at $33,850. The timing of the contest worked well for Duncan because he had just gone on vacation. But Blalock was supportive and would have worked with him for time off to compete in the final four. "I think there were a lot of people pulling for me," said Burnett and his fans included his wife, Tina Duncan, and there two children: Leann, 10, and Joshua, At Times, Burnett Duncan even tried to sell Fords while he talked with spectators and Ford customers.
As I mentioned his Dad, Paul, is noted for restoring vehicles and sold cars for the late Mooney Ramsey for whom he rebuilt many antiques with the help of ill Brown. Paul's wife was the late Betty Sue (Ledford) Duncan, of Newport. Tina Duncan's family is from North Carolina and her father is Tommy Price, a building contractor. Mom is Rhonda Lindsey, of Ponder Road, near the Duncans' home. Rhonda works at Dollar General, Cosby Highway, and Tina has been selling auto parts for Mister Automotive for the past dozen years. I plan to find out more about the tractors and how Burnett learned farming from Cotton Stuart at Dutch Bottoms.
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(Age ~ 69 years)