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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 8 Jan 2007.
Kings boost library effort with $1M gift
By: GAIL CRUTCHFIELD
Community News Editor
January 08, 2007
SEVIERVILLE - For many years, the Sevier County Public Library has provided entertainment and information for thousands of people like D.J. and Lindsey King.
The children of Danny and Liz King of Sevierville remember visiting the library as children to work on book reports, learn their family history or simply find a new book to read.
D.J., 17, and a senior at Sevier County High School, said he remembers getting his first library card and going back the next day to check something out.
Lindsey, 19, and a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, said she was able to learn about her family's history, especially that of her dad's parents she never got to meet.
The siblings are the eighth generation of Kings to live in Sevier County, thanks to what they learned from a family history compiled using information available at the Sevier County Public Library.
As a way to give back to the community and a library system that has provided them so much, the King family is giving $1 million to the Sevier County Public Library System Foundation to jumpstart construction of a $9 million, 45,000-square-foot facility - that will bear their name.
The new King Family Library of the Sevier County Public Library System will be located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Gary Wade Boulevard/High Street and Prince/Railroad Street, near the Municipal Complex.
The property was where the family lumber business was located. In later years, the family operated its hardwood flooring company at the site.
When the business outgrew the location, Danny King said the Board of Education purchased the land. It, too, outgrew the location and a land swap was worked out between the county and the board for the purpose of a new library.
In addition to the King family donation, the city of Sevierville has pledged $1 million and Sevier County $2 million for the library. That leaves at least $5 million needed to build the facility.
Liz King said the decision to donate $1 million was one the entire family.
"When we began talking about the donation, it was a prayerful decision," she said. "Our family came together to talk about it and pray about it. We all felt this is what we should do, what we were led to do."
Having the library named after them was another thing. Though honored by it, they essentially had to be talked into putting their name on the library.
"This is not the King family library," Danny King said. "It's the community's library, a library that can serve the area in so many various ways."
Danny King said he considered the gift "an investment in the future of Sevier County."
The donation follows a tradition started four decades ago when Danny King's father, A.J. King, presented the first gift of $1,000 for the construction of the currently main library.
"My father A.J. viewed his $1,000 contribution of a new library 40 years ago as a gift that looked to the future, not just something that was food for then, but that would be inspiring for generations to come," his son said. "We feel that same way about our gift today. Now there is an opportunity for our family to be part of the legacy as well."
Lindsey King said she was awed when she saw the plans for the library, which will be about nine times larger than the 5,500-square-foot main branch. The new facility will include areas for both children and teens, an expanded genealogy section, classrooms, meeting rooms, reading areas, lecture and theater halls, a cafe and a catering kitchen.
D.J. King said he wished plans for a new library had come about sooner.
"I find myself in coffee shops studying," he said.
"Maybe I would have done better on my ACT," joked his sister, who was designated summa cum laude at UT this past semester.
For those associated with the library, the donation is the start of meeting a goal to provide more services, especially in regards to the genealogy department.
K.C. Williams, executive director of the county's library system, said the library now has 2,500 square feet of genealogical information.
"But we also have an additional 2,500 square feet in storage, climate controlled, that they don't have access to," Williams said.
Such historical documents have to be preserved, archivally stored, organized and protected, she explained. When the new library is built, the library will have the facilities in which to store the documents while at the same time making them available to the public.
Circuit Judge Rex Henry Ogle, who serves as president of the library foundation, thanked the Kings for their donation.
"I have known Danny and Liz almost all my life and they are two of the most giving individuals that I know," Ogle said. "They have always done their work quietly and behind the scenes, and have truly enriched so many people's lives. It's just amazing how many people they have helped. The gift from the King family will allow Sevier County to have a state-of-the-art library. It couldn't happen without them."
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 10 Jan 2007.
Officials celebrate $1M gift from King family
By: DEREK HODGES, Staff Writer
January 10, 2007
SEVIERVILLE - It's the largest private gift the Sevier County Public Library System has ever received and it came wrapped in a challenge.
Local residents and dignitaries gathered at the library main branch in downtown Sevierville to celebrate a $1 million gift from the Danny, Liz, Lindsey and D.J. King family. The Kings took the opportunity to issue a challenge to the rest of the county to help in the effort to raise $10 million to build a new library.
"Knowledge is key to our society's well-being and, at their core, libraries are about gaining knowledge," D.J King said. "I challenge all of you to help in building this legacy."
The Kings have offered an additional $500,000 to lead the charge to raise the money that will build the new 45,000-square-foot near the Sevierville Community Center. The new library, which will bear the name King Family Public Library, will feature a large, open Grand Reading Room; a Sevier County History Center; Teen Cyber Cafe; children's area; business resource center; theater/auditorium; class and conference rooms; and a restaurant.
"It is our privilege to be able to make this gift," Danny King said. "This is a gift from our hearts to Sevier County. It is also our hope that our stepping forward will encourage others to become involved, whether in the form of pennies from school children or corporate gifts. This is going to be everyone's library and we're sure all will want it to succeed."
Supplementing the Kings' gift are a pledge of $3 million from the county and $2 million from the City of Sevierville. That brings the total raised so far to $6.5 million, not counting pledges of nearly $500,000 pledged by other donors.
Adding background to the Kings' donation is the fact that Danny King's father, A.J. King made a $1,000 donation toward construction of the current library, the first in the campaign to support that effort. Through a land-swap deal between the county and the school system, the library is slated for construction on the former site of King Lumber Company, which was owned by the King family.
"Let me say on behalf of all the folks of Sevier County how appreciative we are of the King family's donation," County Mayor Larry Waters said. "This has been a project we've been working on for many years. Everything is in timing and I think the good Lord was watching over us to have everything fall into place at the right time. I think this contribution will be the catalyst that will make this dream a reality."
The county's population has tripled since the current library was opened in 1968. While the main branch library itself hasn't grown since that time, several additional branches have been added to the system, including facilities in Seymour and Kodak.
The library system has more than 35,300 card holders and estimates put annual visits at 140,000 for all the branches. All that comes in 15,268-square-feet, slightly more than one-third of what the new library will cover. The larger space will also allow the library to add to its current holdings of 93,398 items, as well as expand programs currently offered to children and adults.
* dhodges@themountainpress.com
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 10 Jan 2007.
Make book on it
Let's hope the Kings' generous donation leads quickly to a new library
January 10, 2007
If you want to create a poster or a public service advertisement on the true value of a community library, look no further than the King family. Danny and Liz King and their children, D.J. and Lindsey, love their library. D.J., now 17, wanted a library card the day he first stepped inside. Lindsey has done considerable research on her family history in the library's genealogy department and the prominent role those people have played in this county's history.
The Kings are among many who see a new and expanded library as a critical need in Sevierville. Instead of just wishing it were so, they have gone many steps beyond. The Kings are donating $1 million toward construction of the new main library, to be located on property once owned by the family as the site for their business. In response to the generous donation, the library will be named for them.
The Kings have challenged others to come through and contribute as much as possible to make the new library a reality. The $9 million facility will be 45,000 square feet. Local governments have pledged $3 million of the cost. The Kings' donation leaves another $5 million to raise in the community. That's where their challenge comes in.
Libraries have changed over the past few decades. No longer just a place to check out books, they have become community centers and computer labs. Modern libraries offer special places for children and young readers, meeting rooms, research facilities and lots of computers for public use. The Sevier County Library System's main library in downtown Sevierville is woefully inadequate, with just 4,500 square feet and not a lot of parking. A new and improved main library is a critical need.
To make it happen will take the contributions of people like the Kings, who understand the value of an adequate library and what it has meant to the teenagers in their household. Their challenge to others is not to match what the Kings have done, but to consider donations of as much as possible to reach the goal needed to start and finish construction. The library foundation, headed by Circuit Court Judge Rex Ogle, has its work cut out. But if the example set by the Kings is any indication, success is not only attainable but within reach.
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 8 Sep 2008.
History of lumber company an important one for community
By DEREK HODGES
dhodges@themountainpress.com
This undated picture provided by the Sevier County Genealogy Department shows the A.J. King Lumber Company likely during its earlier days of operation.
SEVIERVILLE: In its heyday, the A.J. King Lumber Company shipped wood flooring - strips and parquet - all over the country.
Danny King, whose grandfather Andrew Jackson "Andy" King started the operation near the beginning of the last century, recalls those days, playing around the busy manufacturing center as a child.
"I remember playing in the sawdust pile more than anything," King says. "I also liked to go back into the boiler room and watch the men work and see those big boilers making steam that would dry out the wood."
King, like his father and grandfather before him, helped run the flooring operation, taking it over in the late 1970s after his father's death. During that time, his memories of the plant turned from the sawdust piles to those who helped create them.
"The thing I remember most about my time working there is the dedication of the people who worked there," King says. "They were people you could count on and they were proud of the flooring products made there."
In addition to memories of the operation, King also retains a couple brochures from the company's last years of operation. Filled with pictures of 1970s-era furnishings including pedestal ashtrays and spindly-legged couches, the literature touts the durability and design of the company's trademark seven-slat, 6 inch parquet flooring tiles.
Additionally, advertisements for hardwood flooring strips and Crown F-100 Adhesive, a glue for securing the wood to the subfloor for which King's father held a patent, jump from the high-gloss pages.
"It was really some beautiful flooring they made," King says. "I can remember them shipping it all over the states. It was very popular for homes and gym floors, especially."
In addition to covering floors across the country, the company also did more than its fair share of work locally. A history of Sevierville First Baptist Church, which the King family has long supported, shows one such example of Sevier County's King floors. An entry tells of a contract being let to the company to supply materials for construction of a new church building in 1924.
Aiding the company in its effort to produce the fine flooring was the Smoky Mountain Railroad, which is believed to have been owned by the manufacturer at least for a time and started its life as the Knoxville, Sevierville and Eastern Railroad in 1907. The nearly 30 miles of track brought lumber and other supplies from Knoxville to Sevierville, with the train tracks running right into and through the A.J. King buildings. Engineers on the line recall having to signal ahead to the lumber company so a worker could open the big bay doors that allowed the train to enter the only "tunnel" on the line.
The train, dubbed the "Slow & Easy" both for its low speed travel and the last two letters of the abbreviation of its original name "KS&E," started out making two daily trips between its two terminuses, carrying goods for other companies and stores in Sevier County in addition to lumber. That number decreased with the construction of Chapman Highway, which the train carried supplies for.
The line also carried materials used in construction of Douglas Dam. That effort required building a branch line from Sevierville to the dam site.
Of course, all good things must come to an end. The locomotives from the Smoky Mountain Railroad were sold to other rail lines and the Rebel Railroad attraction, the precursor of modern Dollywood, after the line stopped operating in 1961. One of the engines, an old steam locomotive given the number 107, sits behind the Dollywood ticket sales building on the Parkway in Pigeon Forge, now adorned with the Dollywood logo.
The railroad tracks themselves have been replaced by a road appropriately named Railroad Street, which, along with High Street, borders the King property.
However, unlike the train parts which have been, to some extent, given new life, the former home of the A.J. King Lumber Company has been sitting mostly dormant since its closure in the early 1980s. Purchased by the county, the facility was used to store old equipment from the school system, and decaying desks and chalkboards still litter the site.
Around those relics of education, the building itself is showing its age and almost seems to know it's breathing its last. The doors to the boiler rooms King fondly remembers crossing through to watch workers toss sawdust into the flames now sit half-open, offering a glimpse back into the dark recesses of what was once a fire-lit operation. Insulation spills out of the roof and - with wind sweeping through open portals into the giant, now-empty lumber storage warehouse - blows outside to get tangled in the overgrown weeds that have taken over the once well-maintained lot.
It's a sad state of affairs, King says, and while he admits watching nearly 100 years of his family's history hit with the wrecking ball later this month will be tough, he hopes losing that past will provide a brighter future for all of Sevier County.
"It's a bit bittersweet, but I realize that time goes on and there's a great need now for a new library," King says. "I'm really excited and really happy this new library is finally coming into reality and will be a real benefit for Sevier County residents for decades to come. I know it's going to serve the community just like the old A.J. King Lumber Company served this community."
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 14 May 2010.
Worth the Wait: Community welcomes King Family Library
by ELLEN BROWN
SCPLS director K.C. Willliams, center, and her staff do the honors at the King Family Library grand opening Friday morning. D.J., Liz and Danny King, lead donors of the King Family Library, celebrate at the building’s grand opening Friday morning. Gale Collette, a teacher at Trula Lawson, speaks with her students before the grand opening ceremony at the King Family Library Friday morning. Allen Newton, director of Sevier County Economic Development, gets ready to cut a ribbon as other business leaders look on.
Local and state dignitaries joined the community Friday morning for the grand opening ceremony of the King Family Library — an event that was years in the making.
“It was a challenging project, but good things come to those who wait,” said Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters, who recognized Justice Gary Wade and Judge Rex Henry Ogle as two vital participants in the campaign.
“Thank you, donors, for coming through for us,” Janet King, Sevier County Public Library System Board of Trustees chairman, told the crowd outside the 408 High St. location. “Every time I walk through this building, I see something new. It’s almost sacred to walk through it.”
The three-story main library is 41,000 square feet and features a 4,000-square foot vaulted grand reading room, a formal conference room, a computer lab, a cafe, public meeting spaces, a catering kitchen, a children’s reading room and a teen center.
“I don’t know how anyone can pull up in the parking lot and not say, ‘Wow,’” said Tre Hargett, Secretary of State. “I’ve said it before: You show me a city with a great library, and I’ll show you a great city.”
Along with Waters, King and Hargett, dignitaries who participated in the grand opening included Ogle, SCPLS Foundation board member who was also master of ceremonies; K.C. Williams, SCPLS director; Don Reynolds, Nolichucky Regional Library director; U.S. Congressman Dr. Phil Roe; Sen. Doug Overbey; Sevierville Mayor Bryan Atchley; Danny, Liz and D.J. King; Trula Lawson Pre-K and Kindergarten Class of 2010 (who entered the building first after the ceremony with books); and Randy Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church Sevierville.
Music was also provided at the front of the building by the Sevier County High School Flute Ensemble, directed by Russell Ramsay.
“This is going to be a great asset with our school being so close,” said Cindi Loveday, Sevierville Intermediate School assistant principal. “We’re hoping to team up with the library to do programs for our students.”
“This is something for the whole county — it’s really wonderful,” said Sevier County School Board member Charles Temple, who worked one summer at the location when it was still a lumber mill. “We’re all waiting to stake out a place in front of the fireplace with a book.”
Library donor Danny King told the crowd that he was proud of the community and the SCPLS Foundation for “working so hard to make this a reality.”
“I’m also proud of my mom and dad,” King said. “They were truly great parents, and they would certainly be proud of what’s being done here today.”
ebrown@themountainpress.com
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name Bride's First Name Bride's Maiden Name County Date of Marriage File #
KING DANIEL R ELIZABETH [NOT GIVEN] SEVIER 05-10-1980 19595
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