This Week in White County History, May 19-25

2014

• WCHS Warriorette softball player Katelyn Heath was named the District 6AA Offensive Player of the Year and her team’s Most Valuable Player.
• A White County school bus caught on fire while traveling back to White County from a field trip, in Murfreesboro, where elementary school students had spent the day at the Discovery Center.
• WCMS Warriorette golfers finished second in the district tournament that was played at Lake Tansi Golf Course in Crossville.

2004 

• Sparta would be celebrating its bicentennial on Sept. 11, 2006, and the Bicentennial Committee began to designate specific topics of historical significance to be incorporated into the planned festivities.
• Eric Mitchell was named the new head coach for the Warrior basketball team.
• The 10th annual Coal Miners’ Reunion was held on Bon Air Mountain.

1994 

• Benny Martin was scheduled to appear at the grand opening of the Sparta Amphitheater this month.
• White County High School held its first annual car show. Larry Smith won the Best of Show.
• On May 6, the last contract on the four-lane highway project from Sparta to McMinnville was let, making the I-40 to I-24 link a reality.

1984

• As workmen put the finishing touches on West Towne Plaza, on Highway 111, in Sparta, Rite Aid Pharmacy became the first store to open its doors for business.
• White County High School tennis team won the district championship, in Cookeville.
• Sparta-White County Rescue Squad celebrated the paying-off of the building with a burning of the mortgage. The mortgage was paid in a mere six-and-a-half years rather than the 40 years originally planned.

1974

• Gwendolyn Sue Johnson was named first place winner in the Washington Youth Tour essay contest, sponsored by Caney Fork Electric Cooperative. As top winner, Johnson received an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C.
• American Legion Boys State delegates from White County were selected as Steve Webster, Les Barker, Bill Gillen, Greg Greene, Mike Shockley, and Donald Bradley.
• White County Board of Education voted to hire architect Pat Gingles, of Nashville, to do preliminary work on a new building at Findlay School. The board voted to seek eight classrooms and a library to replace the four burned in a recent fire.