Suite in Fulton High School gymnasium to honor Larry Cox | Georgiana Vines

The late former Knoxville City Councilman Larry Cox, who championed ways to get kids involved in athletics, is being remembered with a multipurpose suite in his name at Fulton High School through a fundraising campaign that needs about $25,000.

Fulton Executive Principal Seth Smith said the suite will be at the bottom part of the school’s gymnasium and include theater seating for 80-90 people, plus meeting space for academies and school organizations to use. Grant money available within Knox County Schools for academy programs was obtained as part of the $70,000 raised to date, he said..

The Larry Cox Suite is expected to be ready by August, Smith said.

Cox, who served on Knoxville City Council 1984-2003, supported Fulton High School through the Knoxville Falcons Youth Organization for decades. A senior center at 3109 Ocoee Trail was named in his honor during the administration of Mayor Victor Ashe. He died on Oct. 18, 2023.

Cox's widow, Brenda Cox, said in a fundraising letter to potential donors that her husband worked tirelessly to improve the Oakwood-Lincoln Park neighborhood as well Fulton and its athletics program. After he died, “his many friends began looking for ways to honor his legacy of supporting his community and in particular youth sports. I was very gratified to hear that those discussions have produced a plan to improve several facilities at Fulton to better serve students and create a Larry Cox Falcon Legacy Suite in his honor,” she wrote.

She cited Smith, Fulton Athletic Director Rob Black and Steve Diggs, president/CEO of the Emerald Youth Foundation, and others for bringing the project forward.

Checks for the Larry Cox Suite may be mailed to the following address:

Fulton Foundation, c/o Fulton High School, attn: Rob Black

2509 N. Broadway

Knoxville, TN 37917.

Smith said he is happy the project is coming along and will miss being the principal when there is a dedication. On July 1, he becomes interim supervisor of Knox County Schools’ Region One team and will help oversee Farragut, Bearden and West high schools and their feeder schools.

∎ UPCOMING BOOKS TO INCLUDE BAKER: Attendees at recent activities at the dedication of the Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee were given printed booklets with chapters from upcoming books by former Sen. Lamar Alexander and Keel Hunt, former journalist and aide to Alexander when he was governor.

Baker was a Republican who served as a U.S. senator, presidential chief of staff and U.S. ambassador. His home was in Huntsville, Tennessee, and he had a law practice there as well as in Knoxville and Washington, D.C. He died in 2014.

Today Baker is considered a moderate Republican willing to compromise to reach legislative goals. While he was living, the Baker Center was established. Its mission was expanded to become a school this academic year, with substantial additional funding due to the inclusion of a new Institute of American Civics. The dedicatory events were held April 12.

Alexander’s booklet, a publication of the Baker School, starts with a story about Baker’s father-in-law, U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, campaigning for Republican Richard Nixon for president in 1960. Baker was with him, and he was young like Nixon’s Democratic opponent, John F. Kennedy. Alexander writes that Dirksen made light of Kennedy’s experience as a PT boat commander in World War II, for which he won some medals, saying his young son-in-law also was a PT boat commander, "and I’ve never heard anyone suggest that he was qualified to serve in any public office."

Alexander then reflects on how no Republican had been popularly elected to the Senate in Tennessee until Baker in 1967 and how at the time there had been no Republican governor since 1920. Baker served in the Senate until 1985, when he did not seek reelection.

Alexander is still writing his book and working with an experienced editor-agent with a goal of getting it published in 2025. The book is much more than his relationship with Baker and will include his days at the White House and making deals with Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump aboard Air Force One, a spokesperson said.

Hunt’s booklet takes a look at the friendship between Baker and John Seigenthaler, a well-known Democrat and the long-time editor of The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. A story tells how Baker asked Seigenthaler not to make an endorsement for any candidate in his 1966 campaign, but he did want straightforward, balanced coverage in the news pages. That’s what happened, although in 1972, the Tennessean endorsed Baker for reelection, which was the first time the morning newspaper had endorsed a Republican candidate, Hunt wrote.

Hunt’s booklet is a joint publication of the Baker School and the University of Tennessee Press, which is working with the author to publish his book. It will have eight chapters and many photographs, Hunt said.

Hunt also has published “A Sense of Justice: Judge Gilbert S. Merritt and His Times”; “Coup: The Day the Democrats Ousted Their Governor, Put Republican Lamar Alexander in Office Early, and Stopped a Pardon Scandal,” the story of the 1979 ouster of Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton; “Crossing the Aisle: How Bipartisanship Brought Tennessee to the Twenty-First Century and Could Save America” in 2018; and “The Family Business: How Ingram Transformed the World of Books,” which is about the Ingram Content Group, a well-known book publishing company in Middle Tennessee.

He writes a popular Substack email newsletter called “Field Notes,” which comments on politics, government and culture, and is a columnist for the USA TODAY Tennessee Network.

∎ DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS UPDATE: Hamblen County is well represented on the Tennessee Democratic Party's Executive Committee with recent elections.

Edee Webb of Morristown, new chair of the Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women, and Walter Kisler, state president of Tennessee College Democrats, both of Hamblen County, also become ex officio members of the Tennessee Democratic Executive Committee by virtue of their positions. Most members are elected based on state Senate districts in the Tennessee Legislature.

Webb and Kisler get to vote on any issue that comes before the state Democratic Party except when it acts as a state primary board, based on a recent chancellor’s ruling in Nashville, said Hendrell Remus of Memphis, Democratic State Party chairman.

Kisler is campus president of Tennessee College Democrats, a junior at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville studying political science and history, and a writer for the Daily Beacon.

Webb said among her goals as president of the state Democratic women’s federation is to encourage women to run for office at all levels of government. She also wants to rebuild chapters throughout the state, particularly since 2024 is a presidential election year.

∎ OTHER POLITICAL NEWS: A fundraiser for state Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Democrat representing the 15th House District in Knoxville, will be held 5-6:30 p.m. Monday, June 10, at the Landing House, 1147 Sevier Ave. Hosts are Tasha C. Blakney and Michael Rogers, Garry Ferraris, Tracy and Don Hardin and Phil Lawson. For more information, email Sean.Moriarty@triumphstrategies.com.

County Commissioner Dasha Lundy also is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 15th House seat in the Aug. 1 primary. Justin Hirst is running in the Republican primary.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Georgiana Vines: Suite in Fulton High School gym to honor Larry Cox