So many people think of Tennessee as an ignorant, unhealthy, poor state. Yes, there is some of that, but that's also true of the rest of the country. Our accent is mocked, our slow-moving ways are ridiculed, and the stereotypes are abundant. I'm here to fix that.
The following people are natives of the State of Tennessee. There are many others in our fellow Southern states, but I'm sticking to home on this one. Keep in mind, some of these "natives" might not have been born here, but we still consider them ours.
- Presidents Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk, and Vice-Presidents Andrew Johnson and Al Gore, Jr. Not to shabby for country folk.
- Singers Gregg Allman, Elvis Presley, Miley Cyrus, Usher, Kenny Chesney, Tina Turner, Lou Rawls, Aretha Franklin, and an up-and-coming singer by the name of Justin Timberlake (aka my next husband).
- Actors Kathy Bates, Dixie Carter, Christina Hendricks, Annie Potts, George Hamilton, Shannon Doherty, Cybill Shepherd, Megan Fox, Morgan Freeman, Patrician Neal, and Reece Witherspoon.
- Heroes/Activists/Politicians Alvin York, David Crockett, Nikki Giovanni, David Farragut, Howard Baker, Jr., and Jack Hannah.
- Sports Figures Reggie White, Wilma Rudolph, Pat Summitt, Ed (Too Tall) Jones, Johnny Majors, Bill Belichick, Jason Witten, and Lynn Swann. You might have also heard of this little treasure - Peyton Manning. (GO BRONCOS!!!)
- Legend Dolly Parton. Dolly is a state treasure, especially here in East Tennessee, where she was born. I can't even begin to tell you what Dolly has meant to our state. Beyond Dollywood and bringing tourist attention to our region, Dolly also started the Imagination Library. This program provides FREE books, one a month, to EVERY CHILD UNDER THE AGE OF 5. Everyone. Free. Every month. What a legacy she will leave!
Besides the famous people, we have other redeeming qualities:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory - one of the major sites vital in the making of the A-bomb. Currently, the lab excels at medical research, 3-D printing, nuclear science, and currently has the 2nd-fastest computer in the world, performing 20 thousand trillion calculations per second. And no, that's not a typo.
- Memphis - Home of the Blues; Nashville - Music City, USA; and Bristol - Home of Country Music. Any music you hear today - and I mean ANY music - was influenced by one or all of these cities.
- Great Smoky Mountains - the most visited National Park in the country. If you've never seen the beauty of the mountains of Tennessee, you truly have missed out. The West might have bigger mountains, but ours are certainly prettier! Lush land, thousands of miles of mountain roads and millions of miles of hiking trails, not to mention lakes and rivers and wildlife. This is truly God's country.
- St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital - founded by Danny Thomas in 1962, St. Jude's treats children with cancer. Beyond that, they never charge a family who can't pay. A family's worse nightmare is treated with the best physicians and medicine in the world and all for free.
- Knoxville alone is home to the corporate headquarters of Regal Cinemas, Tennessee Valley Authority, Bush Brothers, Pilot Flying J, and Scripps Networks, including HGTV. Also located in Tennessee is FedEx, O'Charleys, J.C. Bradford & Co., and Dollar General just to name a few.
Ok, ok, that's enough bragging on my part. You get the point. Tennessee is full of exciting, intelligent, beautiful, caring people. We change the world. We welcome it into our homes. We help to heal it and look for solutions to cure it.
We are old, young, white-collar, blue-collar, Bible-thumping, moonshine-drinking, rebel flag-flying, Civil Rights-marching, country-crooning, hip-hop dancing, football-crazy, hard-studying, people. We are history and we are the future. We are big cities and small towns. Culture and mud racing. The Great Smoky Mountains and the Mississippi River. We are America.
Come to Tennessee...y'all.
P.S. To see photos from this beautiful state, visit my website: www.menopausemomma.com.
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