Memories of a man who helped bring airport to White County

John D. Jarvis was a man of many talents. He loved Sparta, and he loved Sparta people.

This is the legacy of a man who was described recently as “a friend to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.”

Jarvis, who was a football coach, banker, businessman, and pilot, was also a veteran of the United States Air Force and served his country during the Korean War. After returning to Sparta, Jarvis began a long career as a banker. According to Bill Austin, who was first one of Jarvis’s football players and later a friend, Jarvis was the last of what he called the “true, local bankers.”

“Jarvis understood Sparta, and he knew that people here were farmers and that sometimes they just need a little help, not all these big loans these corporate banks want to make,” Austin said. “He would make a loan of just $1,000 to a farmer, knowing that the man would come back and pay in full when he sold his crops. He wanted Sparta and the people here to succeed.”

Austin would know about Jarvis’s ability to help those succeed on all levels, having called on the town’s favorite banker to help him purchase both his first airplane so that he could be a crop duster over the farmlands and later purchase Sparta’s own WSMT radio station.

While Jarvis knew Sparta well and he understood the small-town way of life, he also wanted to see Sparta prosper and grow. Jarvis, who loved aviation almost as much as he loved Sparta, was instrumental in helping Sparta get an airport. He visited Nashville to speak to congressmen and worked diligently on the airport commission.

“He was the person most responsible for getting the airport built,” Austin recalled, but added that Jarvis didn’t stop at the construction of an airport. “He was also responsible for the merger between the Sparta and Cookeville airports that resulted in the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport that we have now.”

Being a “Sparta boy,” Jarvis wanted to be sure that his beloved city housed the region’s airport and worked diligently to bring all of the sides together, creating the area’s regional airport that is able to service both personal and corporate aircraft.

While Jarvis loved traveling and flying, he loved his hometown and the people in it most, and, while it took three years after his passing (due to Jarvis leaving this world in 2020) for a memorial to be held, Jarvis would likely not mind – he would just look with pride at all that has been happening, the growth that has come, and the sense of pride in the community that held his heart.