'Hall' Honorees Officially Inducted

October 27, 2005

The Scott County Hall of Fame has 10 new members, following an induction ceremony at the Oneida National Guard Armory on Airport Road Monday evening.

The ceremony served as a formal induction for 10 current or former Scott County residents who were chosen for induction into the hall of fame by a selection committee earlier this year.

Among those inducted Monday were Bill Phillips, business leader; Jack E. Lay, coach/youth mentor; Delina Sharp, female athlete; Jordan Jeffers, male athlete; the late Dr. Milford Thompson, lifetime achievement; Jerry Kline, community volunteer; the late Ora Shoemaker Robbins, K-8 educator; Mary Ann Brewster, 9-12 educator; Bromma Pemberton, philanthropist; and William Paul Phillips, elected official.

Phillips, who has served as the District Attorney General for Tennessee’s Eighth Judicial District for 26 years, spoke on behalf of the inductees, saying that Scott County has and will continue to stand up for children.

“You’re not here for us, you’re here with us to celebrate the fact that Scott County is the greatest place to live and grow up in the world,” Phillips said. “Scott County has stood up for children, whether they’re from homes of privilege or homes of neglect; whether they’re from homes in Oneida or homes on the head of Brimstone.”

Phillips commended the mission of the Boys & Girls Club of Scott County, which initiated the Scott County Hall of Fame in 2003 as a fundraising effort and which hosts the Hall of Fame dinner each year.

“Children need to be lifted up and the Boys & Girls Club is an excellent ministry to do that,” Phillips said. “You’ve shown that, truly, no child should be left behind.”

Former U.S. Senator and Huntsville native Howard H. Baker, Jr. served as keynote speaker at the event. Baker, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff and recently retired following a four-year stint as U.S. ambassador to Japan, said that Scott County is a unique place and that the people of Scott County are passing that uniqueness along to a new generation.

“I draw strength from this place and these people,” Baker said. “There’s a special quality to the people of this area, particularly this county and these communities. The very nature of the people who settled here represents the best example of the last remaining frontier spirit.

“I think that frontier spirit still exists in Scott County,” Baker added. “The greatest advantage that any community, family or person has is to pass on their heritage to a new generation. That’s another quality of the frontier spirit and I commend you for it.”

Baker told his audience that Scott County’s “greatest potential is still before us,” and said that “we have an obligation to educate our children and prepare them to lead.”

John Lee, president of the Boys & Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley, of which the Boys & Girls Club of Scott County is an affiliate, said that plans are for the club’s new facility on U.S. Hwy. 27 at Verdun Road in Oneida to be completed and ready for occupation by mid-January.

“I know of no Boys & Girls Club anywhere that has begun and moved into a facility, especially a facility like this one, in three years,” Lee said. He said that in just three years, the Boys & Girls Club has expanded its roll to 700 children in Scott County. He added that Boys & Girls clubs have also been started in Fentress County (200 members) and Lake City (nearly 100 members) and that both of those communities looked at the success of Scott County as they determined to begin clubs in their own towns.

Scott County Mayor Dwight Murphy added that the success of the Boys & Girls Club of Scott County is due to Executive Director Robert Wright and his staff, who he said are “changing lives, one at a time.”

The Scott County Hall of Fame now includes some 40 members, 20 of whom were inducted during the inaugural Hall of Fame in 2003, and 10 more of whom were inducted in 2004.

The Scott County Hall of Fame inducts 10 new members each year and accepts nominees from the public.

newsroom@ihoneida.com

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