Knoxville Chronicles

Murder in South Knoxville: The Strange Case of Lottie Cummings.

Just past Mead’s Quarry on Island Home Pike, less than half a mile south of the Tennessee river, the stretch of road between the quarry and Sevierville Pike, a distance of about two miles, is as peaceful as any in South Knoxville. It’s one of those neighborhoods that doesn’t appear to have a ready name of its own; few landmarks exist there today, only a few scattered houses and a couple of churches. But in the summer of 1893, this section of South Knoxville proved to be the scene of the ghastly murder of 9-year-old Louis Kinzie Cummings. The murder and its aftermath were extensively covered in the Knoxville newspapers. What quickly became apparent was that Mrs. Lottie Cummings, an uneducated 35-year-old woman, was suspected of bludgeoning her nine-year-old stepson. And as Mrs. Cummings sat in her cell in the Knox County jail, the murder case took several unexpected twists, revealing interesting local color, that during everyday course of events might not have ever been known about this section of South Knoxville. Please note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence taken from contemporary newspaper accounts from the 1890s. Written by Paul James and read by Bonnie Kourvelas.  Special thanks to producer Pete Carty.  Knoxville Chronicles is brought to you by the nonprofit Knoxville History Project. Funding for this episode has been kindly provided by the City of Knoxville and Friends of the Knoxville History Project as well as donors from National Giving Day 2025, including: Gary Balltrip, Theresa Lee and Jacob Love, John and Lillian Mashburn, Susan Davenport, Katharine Capito Torbett & Howard Capito, Anne Young, and Christopher Manning. Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org

The Jazz Legend of Gordon’s Town House

For decades, jazz fans in Knoxville have heard rumors of Gordon’s Town House on the corner of Cumberland Avenue and 17th Street. In the 1950s, full swing orchestras played there in its big dining room with a dance floor that looked straight out of a posh Manhattan nightclub in an old black-and-white movie. Gordon’s also had a smaller, more intimate room called the Blue Note, where you could hear more current music, like bebop.  Before he passed away in 2023, Jack Neely interviewed Gordon Sams about his iconic jazz club and hear some of the true-to-life tales of the jazz legends who played there, including Duke Ellington and his orchestra, Count Basie, Tony Pastor, Woody Herman, and the irrepressible trumpeter Louis Prima.  Fittingly, join jazz aficionado Paul Parris, WUOT radio’s longstanding host on Improvisations on Wednesday evenings, for a reading of Neely’s story that offers a rare look into the world of Gordon Sams, a colorful jazz promoter in 1950s and ‘60s Knoxville. This episode also complements the Knoxville History Project’s developing project: the Knoxville Music Archive & Oral History Project.      Written by Jack Neely and read by Paul Parris. Special thanks to producer Pete Carty.  Knoxville Chronicles is brought to you by the nonprofit Knoxville History Project. Funding for this episode has been kindly provided by the City of Knoxville and Friends of the Knoxville History Project as well as donors from National Giving Day 2025, including: Gary Balltrip, Karen Callaway, Steve and Lisa Davis, David Headrick, Theresa Lee and Jacob Love, John and Katherine McCarty, John and Lillian Mashburn, Susan Davenport, Katharine Capito Torbett & Howard Capito, Anne Young, and Christopher Manning. Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org

Birth of a National Park in the Smokies: How Knoxville Turned a Great Idea into a Significant Grassroots Movement

For many years, only intrepid explorers and hardy lumbermen were drawn to the forbidding mountains visible on the horizon from Knoxville. Despite early efforts on the North Carolina side of the Smoky Mountains in 1899, things only really got moving after Willis and Annie Davis returned to Knoxville from an inspirational trip to see some of the grand national parks out west. Fired up by the idea that a national park could be developed in the Smokies, Willis helped foster the creation of the durable Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association. Annie herself even ran for public office to ensure that the state legislature played its part, working with the City of Knoxville, and officials in North Carolina to acquire key properties. The road to success over the next 17 years proved far rockier than anyone envisioned, involving many ups and downs, legal battles, political shenanigans, fist fights, and ultimately the acquisition of more than 6,600 separate property parcels. The movement also led to the emotional eviction of mountain folk from their ancestral homes that caused bitterness for years.  Ambitious fundraising campaigns attracted large corporate and individual gifts as well as nickels and dimes from hotel bell hops and school children, but it would take a $5 million matching gift from wealthy philanthropist David Rockefeller, Jr. to make the new national park a reality.  After all was said and done, Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially established in 1934 and dedicated in 1940. This is the story of how it all came to be. Written by Paul James and read by Robin Wilhoit. Special thanks to producer Pete Carty.  Knoxville Chronicles is brought to you by the nonprofit Knoxville History Project. Funding for this episode has been kindly provided by the City of Knoxville and Friends of the Knoxville History Project as well as donors from National Giving Day 2025, including: Gary Balltrip, Karen Callaway, Steve and Lisa Davis, David Headrick, Theresa Lee and Jacob Love, John and Katherine McCarty, John and Lillian Mashburn, Susan Davenport, Katharine Capito Torbett & Howard Capito, Anne Young, and Christopher Manning. Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org

Charles McGhee Tyson: The Story Behind the Name of the Knoxville Airport

When checking the status of a flight or whether you are heading out of town or waiting on a family member or friend to arrive, it’s handy to know the three-digit code for the Knoxville airport. Those three letters—T Y S —stand for Tyson, or more specifically, McGhee Tyson, for whom the airport is named. Even though it’s not even located in Knox County—and most people have no idea why the Knoxville airport has that unusual name.  Its story weaves together the family history of the prominent Tyson family and their efforts to establish Tyson Park on Kingston Pike in memory of their son. It’s also linked to the history of Knoxville’s first airport, Aviation Field, in Bearden, and finally, in 1939, its successor, the airport that we know today as  McGhee Tyson airport. Written by Paul James and Jack Neely and read by Jeremy Kourvelas. Special thanks to producer Pete Carty.  Knoxville Chronicles is brought to you by the nonprofit Knoxville History Project. Funding for this episode has been kindly provided by the City of Knoxville and Friends of the Knoxville History Project as well as donors from National Giving Day 2025, including: Karen Callaway, Steve and Lisa Davis, David Headrick, John and Katherine McCarty, John and Lillian Mashburn, Susan Davenport, Katharine Capito Torbett & Howard Capito, Anne Young, and Christopher Manning. Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org

Ghost Walking the Christmas Streets of Knoxville: The Inaugural Knoxville Santa Claus Parade

These days, the annual Knoxville Christmas parade that rolls along Gay Street, typically on the first Friday of December, remains as popular as ever. But everything has to start somewhere, and we have to look back almost 100 years to see how it all began.  Cities of Knoxville’s size had been clamoring to get on the Christmas parade bandwagon since watching the Macy’s Christmas Parade be wildly received in New York in 1924. Even though that first one was staged on Thanksgiving Day, that Christmas parade was renamed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1935. Inspired by Macy’s wildly popular parades, the Knoxville Journal took steps to stage the very first Christmas parade here in 1928, preferring to call it the Knoxville Santa Claus Parade. More than 30 floats, dignitaries and high school bands gathered for assembly on Main Street before stepping off at Gay Street at noon. Resplendent in traditional crimson attire made from a reindeer hide trimmed in white fur, Santa was pulled along in his sleigh on wheels by a team of four reindeer. The event was also touted as being the biggest crowd ever assembled on Gay Street, with one local merchant quipping, “It was the most colorful peacetime parade in Knoxville’s long history.” Written and read by Paul James. Special thanks to producer Pete Carty.  Knoxville Chronicles is brought to you by the nonprofit Knoxville History Project. Funding for this episode has been kindly provided by the City of Knoxville and Friends of the Knoxville History Project. Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org