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- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 23 Dec 2010.
Year ending but with new beginnings for folks
Grant and Sandy Adams are the new proprietors of the Del Rio General Store, and formerly the Tom Burnett Jones Store off Highway 25/70 at the Highway 107 intersection. The property is owned by Tommye Dene Jones.
Author: David Popiel
Both a lunar eclipse and a full moon on Tuesday at the start of the Winter Solstice, December 21, came together this week of Christmas in our hometown with folks facing a slight warming trend and warmer weather for the weekend.
Good news has outweighed the bad and more folks seem to be celebrating than lamenting loss and problems. Before telling you about the interesting gathering at the former Jones store in Del Rio, let's finish our chat about the Habitat for Humanity ReStore off Woodlawn Avenue. By the way, the planned Dec. 16 open house was cancelled for the ice storm and will be reset. When I last visited ReStore, folks were in the backroom sorting new items. There I found Phyllis Cureton, quietly at work. There are at least four families in line for homes and the local Habitat has built around 20. She and daughter, Mariah, 15, will live in the home. Phyllis is a Hall from Jefferson County and, as mentioned, has been with Carson Center for the past four years. Mariah is a CCHS student. In Oct., Phyllis began volunteering with ReStore as part of the agreement she work as a volunteer and on her new home for 450 hours-sweat equity. Linda says that Phyllis is way ahead of everyone in ticket sales on a quilt to be given away in December during open house. She has sold more than 400 tickets at one dollar each. How did she get interested in Habitat? "I heard a co-worker talking about the program and applied," she said. That was in 2009. "I feel really blessed. It's something we have been praying for three years." Working at ReStore she saw some furniture and purchased a bedroom set for her future home. You may know some of her family. Her mother is the former Estelle Gunter Hall of Chestnut Hill. Phyllis helps take care of her Mom. Dad is the late Hubert "Bug" Hall, who worked with ConAgra. He lost an eye because of a yellow jacket sting as a boy and hence got the nickname "Bug." Another of the family you may have met is Uncle William "Doc" Hall who used to race stock cars. When leaving ReStore, a familiar woman walked in. Susan Bell is a board member for Habitat for Humanity and has been involved with it since the 1990s. Susan tells me she is also active in Rivers of Living Water, a Hispanic Church that meets at Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church. Susan teaches English as a second language.
Ice had disappeared in most places and a few tufts of snow still clung to shaded hillsides, when I drove east on Asheville Highway for the grand reopening of what old timers know as the Tom Burnett Jones store, now called Del Rio General Store. Did you see the full-page colorful adv. last week announcing the Sat., Dec. 19, event? Dozens did read the Plain Talk and attended, including several officials, former store employees, friends of Tommye Dene Jones, the store owner, new proprietors, Grant and Sandy Adams. The stone-faced store must have still be open in the 1970s, because I remember stopping in and seeing the familiar Del Rio mail carrier, Mr. Jones. He and wife, Erdine, ran the business, and, of course, their only child is Tommye Dene, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the big show of support on that 30-degree Saturday morning. The hot coffee and donuts were welcome, but chatting with old friends was better. Betty McMillan, Plain Talk advertising manager, was the camera pro for the day, and we were among the first folks to arrive and more kept coming. The first fellow I met was James Adams, Grant's father. He wore a Norfolk Southern cap because after 37 years he retired from the railroad. James is from Clinch port, Virginia, not far from Duffield and moved here in 1968. But in 1965 he worked at the now-closed Del Rio rail station, moving to Marshall, NC., and Tiprell station at the Cumberland Gap. Many of you know his wife, the former Evelyn Gooden of Cartersville, Va. Grant was about five when they moved to Del Rio and lived at the old Christy boarding house, which they now own. Their other children are Claude, of Greenville, SC, Rebecca Valentine, and Jayne Ogle. Rebecca is a Cosby School teacher and married to Doug Valentine of Cosby. Jayne married Eric Ogle, also of Cosby. Evelyn retired as postmaster there in 2002 and she gave me a memory snap shot of the post office of 35 years ago. Mrs. Rowland, Carolyn Ramsey's Mom, was post master. For a time M.E. Woody ran the office as an interim PM. Others working there in 1976 when Evelyn started were Herman Sorrells, Hugh Smith, and a new substitute carrier with a funny name, Michael Sledjeski.
I looked around and saw Kevin and Eula Lamb come in and it has been quite some time since I've seen the former operator of Newport Hardware. Eula is a first cousin to Tommye Dene. At a front plate glass window, Randall Howard was brewing coffee. He is a retired fireman from Greeneville, SC, and Dad to Grant's wife, Sandy. She met Grant when he was attending Bob Jones University. Sandy teaches math at Cocke County High School. You Newport residents will recognize Grant as a substitute mail carrier for the past 14 years. I asked him why they got into the store business and he said, "to be more of a part of the community." I heard various comments about the importance of the country store from the likes of Judge Ben Hooper II and Sheriff Armando Fontes. Another fellow I enjoyed meeting again after years because I remember him from Sonoco Products, is Tim Self. At 68, he owns and lives on the former Estel Stokely farm. If you stopped by in the late 1950s to buy a Dr. Pepper you may have seen him at work. Tim said he was a teenager when Tom B. hired him for his first job. It was a tough haul to get to work then because Tim came all the way from the Gulf. Later, Tim graduated from Cosby HS, farmed and joined Sonoco where he eventually was in quality control. In the parking lot outside, when shooting Tim's photo, I glanced and saw Bill Whitson, who is about five years older than Tim at 73 and so remembers the store from its beginning in 1948. Bill said at least once a year his parents, James Garland and Bessie (Denton) Whitson drove their Model A Ford east on the highway. They would visit Bessie's Aunt Molly at Sylva, NC. Today, you take I-40 east for a quick ride, but you would miss a chance to stop at the wonderful old country stores.
Judge Hooper took time from a busy day to visit with folks at the store and he told me a few stories about it and shared some personal memories. In 1964, Ben said he was in his first political race to be a delegate for the 1965 Tennessee Constitutional Convention. His opponent was a young, tall Newport attorney, Roger Smith. Erdine (Murray) happened to have been Ben's fourth-grade teacher. And, though the Joneses were big Democrats, they agreed to support deep-dyed Republican Ben, who won the race. Later he did legal work for the family and went through school the same time Tommye Dene did. Another political friend of the county also got a boost in his career at the store. Dr. Nathan Ford said he ran for school board in 1952, and Jones Store was the meeting place to gain support and votes. Later he became our state representative. "I spent a lot of time at this store," he said, and in later years when he happened to be out with his sons they would stop for a bologna sandwich or Moon Pie.
Jack Spratt agreed: "It was the best place you could ever go." He and his family lived at Wolf Creek and now he and wife, Kathy, and their girls, Emma and Elizabeth, live in Maryville. I am more familiar with his sister, Lisa, of Newport.
After the ribbon cutting, Tommye Dene spoke and invited others to say a few words. She did explain why she knew the store was built in 1948. During renovation that started about a year ago, they stripped the walls. On an inner surface, written in the thick pencil strokes of a carpenter were the words "Tom Burnett Jones" and the date May 1, 1948. Contractor Don Norwood told her that carpenters in that era often wrote the construction date inside the walls. Sheriff Fontes said, "Small stores are the backbone of America." He noted that these helped tie communities and people together. State Senator Steve Southerland presented a large framed State Senate Resolution to Tommye Dene. Trustee Rob Mathis noted that the store "is what a hometown is all about. I learned a lot of life's lessons in them." Highway Superintendent Kenneth Ford echoed that Tommye Dene was a "great person" and friend to the community.
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