School Project

Today I went and had an interview with Frank Johns of Frank Johns Realty. The Johns family has a long history in Smyrna that goes back to the founding of the town.

He also is a developer and has named many streets for family members. There are several streets in town that are named for children, his grandchildren to be specific, that are still in elementary school, still infants, and in high school.

My column for this week came out and I have gotten some good feedback in comments online and in emails. This project has hit the fancy of many here in Smyrna.

For those interested here is my Smyrna AM column.

Sam Davis is the “Boy hero of the confederacy” and Sam Ridley was once the mayor of Smyrna and because of that, streets are named after them. It would seem logical that influential people would have streets named after them.

But looking at a map of Smyrna, you come to realize there are a lot of streets named after people you don't know. Late last year, I asked a simple question: Who is Ken Pilkerton? I asked because Ken Pilkerton Drive is off of South Lowry between the Jack in the Box and Kroger. That is when I realized how many streets were named after people I — and likely you — don't know.

As part of my degree at MTSU/Regents Online Degree Program I had to choose a finishing project. I decided to try to connect the people to the streets.

I called Town Council member Mary Esther Reed and she got me in touch with her dad Kenneth W. “Coon” Victory. He and a group of older residents – wait, more seasoned residents – met with me in the Smyrna Public Library and talked for an hour about the streets and people of Smyrna.

John Hager, John Moore, Martha Ann Morgan, Tillie Hager and MC Steele joined Coon and I in discussing the people streets are named after. John Hager told about his grandfather Sam Hager, after whom Sam Hager Street is named.

They told me that the previously mentioned Ken Pilkerton was a long time employee of the town codes department and ran a Western Auto where Johns Appliance is now. He was originally from the Memphis area.

When Smyrna a.m. editor Taylor Loyal, who was raised far from Smyrna first got his job here, his grandmother told him her cousin William DeLacey, a colonel and highly decorated commander of the 839th Air Division at Sewart Air Base, had a street named after him.

In the last 25 or so years Smyrna has doubled in size and most of the new residents do not have a strong connection to the history of our town. We are about one generation away from losing a lot of historical details about the people who made up the early part of Smyrna, one street at a time. These details need to be saved and with that said, I need your help.

Does Steve Roberts Drive have meaning to you? Does David Collins Drive bring to mind certain memories or do any of the numerous other streets in Smyrna have connections to people? If so, comment on this blog and share your stories with the rest of us.

I will be posting writeups on some of the streets as I construct them and any feedback from you will be welcome.