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The People Who Tell This Story
- University of Georgia Press
- Chapter
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THE PEOPLE WHO TELL THIS STORY Jason Boone was a St. Paul High School senior at the time he was interviewed , a member of Team Estonoa, and an all-conference, all-regional football player. Currently, Jason is a student at Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon, Virginia. Carl E. “Pete” Castle, lifelong resident of Dante, is a retired postal carrier from Dante who may be found playing his guitar and singing at most any community function. Tom Fletcher returned to St. Paul to become assistant principal and then principal of St. Paul High School after nearly thirty years away from the area coaching NCAA Division I football. Tom’s father, Holland Fletcher, was mayor of St. Paul for almost three decades beginning just before World War II. Tom Fletcher died July 10, 2006. Shirley Glass is a lifetime resident of Dante and treasurer of Dante Lives On. When I first met her, she was wearing a red elf hat and raising money for the community from an eager crowd awaiting the annual visit of the Santa train. Frank Gordon, son of Nannie Phillips Gordon, was one of the first Dante residents in the mid-1990s to understand the importance of putting in a town sewer. His influence “up the hollers” was instrumental in helping Kathy Shearer convince a skeptical community. Nannie Phillips Gordon was battling cancer as she recalled moments of humor and joy amid the mostly painful memories of her family’s poverty and her father’s struggles with alcoholism during the Depression and afterward in Dante. Nannie died April 6, 2005. LeRoy Hilton has excelled during his eighty-three years in golfing, arrowhead collecting, woodcarving, and fishing, to name but a few of his many interests. A retired postmaster of St. Paul, he is widely acknowledged to be the unof- ficial town historian. He becomes most animated when telling fishing stories and describing the wild side of St. Paul when there was once a row of saloons and brothels called the “Western Front.” xxi Frank Kilgore is an attorney in St. Paul with a maverick reputation and a long family history in the area. Along with Kathy Shearer, he emerges as one of this story’s centering narrators, explaining with LeRoy Hilton important elements of the area’s past and speaking of his own central involvement in strip mine legislation, the Pittston strike, and regional redevelopment efforts. Emogene Kincaid talks about coal town life for an African American woman who endured the pains of segregation and discrimination but later watched her children play sports at integrated schools. Currently, she is a member of the board of directors of Dante Lives On. Matthew Kincaid describes life in Sawmill Holler (designated by the coal company for black miners and their families), courtship with his eventual wife, Emogene, hardships and rewards of coal mining, and coping with black lung disease (including difficulties of getting benefits). Bill Kittrell established the Nature Conservancy’s field office in Abingdon, Virginia, when that international organization discovered in the early 1990s that the Clinch River Valley was home to more endangered species than anywhere else of similar size in the continental United States. He outlines a strategy for working with communities located on the Clinch, such as St. Paul, to develop both viable and environmentally sound economies. Currently, Bill directs conservation programs at the Nature Conservancy’s Charlottesville, Virginia, office. Charles McConnell, director of the Wise County Redevelopment and Housing Authority, found himself during the 1970s in the middle of a complicated project to minimize flooding in St. Paul, permit the expansion of U.S. 58 to four lanes as it skirts the town, and pay for relocating people living in substandard housing in the floodplain. What stood in the way was first the challenge of relocating a portion of the Clinch River, then a national economic downturn , and finally the newly established Environmental Protection Agency. Debbie Penland, St. Paul High School librarian, discusses family tensions over the Pittston strike of 1989–90. Her father and a brother were striking members of the United Mine Workers of America while her husband was a salaried employee of the coal company involved in the strike. Roy Phillips discusses coal mining during the Depression, expresses gratitude to the company for keeping him working, and reflects on God’s presence in Dante during bad times and good. Roy died December 30, 2005. xxii The People Who Tell This Story [100.24.12.23...