Chorus & Clogging at Evins Park on July 4th

July 4, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A Celebration!

The Community Chorus and Mary Ann Puckett’s Clogging and Square Dance Teams invite you to join them at the Evins Park Amphitheater downtown Smithville this evening (July 4) starting at 6 p.m. for an Independence Day Celebration.

Evins Park is located across from Justin Potter Library and the Smithville Post Office.

The Community Chorus, under the direction of long-time Director Faye Fuqua, will take the stage first featuring a patriotic-themed program but you’ll want to bring your own seating and get as close as possible because the concert will be held without a full sound system.

Fuqua explained that this performance is really a rehearsal for the featured performance of the chorus to be held on Friday night, July 5th on the main Jamboree stage at the east side of the courthouse during the opening ceremony starting at 6 p.m.

“We will do a fanfare of patriotic music first followed by a salute in honor of the military. This year our tribute is Roots music with tunes like “Will the Circle be Unbroken” and we will feature blues, folk, country, gospel and it will include a performance from children and even cloggers. Its all part of who we are in this area,” said Fuqua.

The community chorus’ involvement with the Jamboree, Fuqua explained dates back to the beginning in 1972

“Three of the Jamboree founders, Berry Williams, Congressman Joe L. Evins, and James G. “Bobo” Driver approached me and said they wanted to have a patriotic program around the 4th of July, and they asked me to help organize it. They especially wanted to involve high school students. I said let’s use people of all ages from the churches and they agreed. At that time were we doing the lighting of the tree at Christmas time, and I had put together a group for that so this is how it all began and from that I assured those three men that we would always have a patriotic program at the Jamboree,” Fuqua explained.

Jackie Smith, another community chorus veteran, said its an honor to be part of something that has become a tradition and is now known far and wide.

“I got involved around 1972 right after my husband Wade and I came back from overseas while he was in the service. I may have missed one or two performances but its something I look forward to each year. One thing we are very honored about is that the Jamboree was named some years ago as the official state festival,” said Smith.

Immediately Following the performance of the community chorus tonight (Thursday) at Evins Park 5 Square Dance Teams, led by the Square-Dancing Queen herself, Mary Ann Puckett, will dazzle the audience.

The performing Square Dance teams include:

•Smithville Select (who recently performed on The Grand Ole Opry stage)

•DeKalb Dancin’ Delights

•Center Hill Hoedown

•Caney Fork Circle Eights

•Ragland Bottom Roundup

July 3, 2024
By:

DeKalb County will have 39 local cloggers across five square dance teams take the stage this Friday and Saturday to compete in the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree. Under the direction of DeKalb county native Mary Ann Puckett, four teams will compete in Youth Square Dance on Friday and one team will compete in Adult Square Dance on Saturday. The local Youth Square Dance teams are the award-winning DeKalb Dancin’ Delights (who took second place at the Wilson County / Tennessee State Fair last August and who placed second last weekend at the Robert Spicer Tennessee State Buck-Dance Championship in Dickson, Tennessee), Center Hill Hoedown, Caney Fork Circle Eights, and Ragland Bottom Roundup. Smithville Select will be competing in Adult Square Dance this year.

Director Mary Ann Puckett said, “These teams have been practicing hard since March at the Evins Park Amphitheater and are ready to bring their routines down the street to the big stage. I’m truly inspired to see so many of our local kids interested in old-time dance. We are lucky to have this world-class bluegrass festival right here in our hometown. The Jamboree undoubtedly sparks a tremendous amount of local interest in Appalachian dance. It’s almost like the Jamboree stage was built for square dancing, and we can’t wait to get up there!”

The teams performed at the DeKalb County Fair last Saturday evening and danced for the residents at The Webb House and NHC on Monday of this week. The square dance teams will perform at the Evins Park Amphitheater on Thursday, July 4th. The Smithville Community Chorus will start the festivities at 6:00 P.M. with the dancing to follow.

July 3, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County has a new Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Officer.

Colt Elrod of Cookeville joins longtime TWRA Officer Tony Cross assigned to DeKalb County. Elrod has been a TWRA officer for two years. He and his wife of four years Delaney have a young child, Leo who is only a few weeks old.

Elrod said he enjoys working in this area and hopes to be here for a long time.

“I am originally from Mississippi. That’s where my mom’s family is from. We moved around a little bit when I was growing up. My stepdad was in the military. I came back to Cookeville and started school at Tennessee Tech in 2016. I graduated in 2020 and worked for a couple of years doing some graduate things. I got hired by TWRA two years ago and went down to Chattanooga and served as an officer there for about a year and a half. It was an interesting time in my life and I learned a lot but I really like it here,” said Elrod.

Colt said becoming a game warden was not always his life’s ambition.

“I grew up loving to hunt and fish and people used to ask me when I was younger about maybe someday becoming a game warden, but I would say I didn’t want to do that. When the time came for me to get a job, I knew I wanted to be in the wildlife field. I had a friend who was an officer and he tried to talk me into it saying I would be a good fit with TWRA. The more I thought about it the more I realized that this would be a great way to become involved with the hunting and fishing community the way I wanted to be, so I decided to give it a shot. I got hired and ended up loving it. This has been a perfect fit for me,” said Elrod.

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