In The News

6/28/19: *Air Show and Rides Fundraiser have been Cancelled*

6/19/19: 2019 Parade Grand Marshals Announced

Sewanee’s Fourth of July Parade Committee is proud to announce that John and Bonnie Green are the Grand Marshals for 2019. John and Bonnie were both born at the old Emerald Hodgson Hospital. However, Bonnie’s parents left the mountain for Chicago, where she was raised until eighth grade, when she returned to Sewanee to attend eighth grade and high school.  The couple met at Franklin County High School and were married in 1958, their senior year.  They moved to Chicago but returned to Sewanee after a year. John was the produce/delivery man at the University Supply Store until 1969 and was the first Little League coach in Sewanee.  Bonnie worked at Emerald Hodgson Hospital in medical records before taking a position with the College Board.

In 1969 the College Board moved from Sewanee to Atlanta, and John and Bonnie followed them there. John worked at Overnite Transportation until his retirement in 1997; Bonnie worked with the College Board until her retirement in 1995. The couple loves to travel, especially to sporting events of their children and now grandchildren, and did so extensively for three years before returning to live in Sewanee in 2000.

Bonnie and John pride themselves on their volunteer work. Bonnie worked on the opening show of the 1994 Super Bowl in Atlanta, when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills.  She was offered a paid position with the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta but chose to volunteer instead. She worked the opening and closing ceremonies in the costume department and still gets chill bumps when describing the experience. She is currently the treasurer at the Sewanee Senior Center and Golden Heights Apartments in Winchester; she also volunteers with Almost Home in Winchester. John is the go-to person if you need help with anything. They are both members of New Beginnings Church in Monteagle.

The Greens have attended every Independence Day celebration in Sewanee from its inception thirty-four years ago, except for one summer they spent in Alaska. They were in charge of decorating the leaseholders’ float for fifteen years, and Bonnie has held several volunteer positions with the Fourth of July Committee over the years.  We are honored to have them as the 2019 Grand Marshals.Please join us on Thursday, July 4^th, to celebrate Bonnie and John, two of Sewanee’s finest!

6/1/18: Parade Update!

IT’S NOT TOO LATE to join this all-American, we’re-all-America, parade. You just need to submit an entry form by the end of the day on Sunday, July 1, by e-mail or in the jar at the Blue Chair. We can't guarantee that late entrants (day of) can be included in the parade, but if there's room, there will be a $20 late fee.

We are very excited about this year’s Parade, From Sea to Shining Sea. For everyone’s enjoyment and safety we are asking people NOT to park on University Avenue at all on July 4^th. A great variety of floats and groups will be dancing, singing, reciting poetry, handing out produce and whatnot up University Avenue and it would be difficult for them to navigate through cars on both sides of the road. Parked cars also make it hard for spectators to get the full splendor of the spectacle! We ask for your full cooperation in this.

IF YOU ARE IN THE PARADE (first, thank you!) and want the opportunity for your creative labors to be recognized with a trophy or a blue ribbon, please line up no later than 12:30 pm on Lake O’Donnell Road. All entrants in the parade must be in place by 1 p.m. If you have submitted an entry form you will receive a number for line-up by e-mail or phone call the day before.

ALSO, We would love to have more bicyclists and equestrians in this year's parade! We have blue ribbons and medals for the best horse and the best decorated bike. Don't forget our theme: FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA (think pirates, mermaids, fish).

IT’S NOT TOO LATE to join this all-American, we’re-all-America, parade. You just need to submit an entry form by the end of the day on Sunday, July 1, by e-mail or in the jar at the Blue Chair. We can't guarantee that late entrants (day of) can be included in the parade, but if there's room, there will be a $20 late fee. 

TO CLARIFY

Line-up will begin at NOON on Lake O'Donnell Road

Judging begins at 12:30 pm

All parade entrants MUST be in place by 1 p.m.

2018 Grand Marshal Announced

Sewanee’s Fourth of July Parade Committee is proud to announce that John Gass Bratton is the Grand Marshal for 2018. Mr. Bratton’s roots in this community range far and wide from reading, writing, and arithmetic at the Bairnwick School, to the Sewanee Military Academy (class of 1947), to economics major at the University (class of 1952), to alumni director for seven years, to the oldest surviving charter member of the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club, to the proud distinction of having never missed a concert of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival since it began over sixty years ago

Mr. Bratton was born in Texas but moved to Memphis as a young child. At age 8 his father died suddenly and the family moved to Sewanee where his two uncles promptly started building a home for their recently widowed sister and her children on South Carolina Avenue. Mr. Bratton remembers watching his uncle Henry Gass, a professor at the University and acting Vice Chancellor from 1948-49, and his uncle John Gass, a priest who would eventually become rector of the Church of the Incarnation where the Delano-Roosevelts worshipped, build this house in 1937, which has been inhabited by the Brattons ever since. After graduating from the college, Mr. Bratton moved to Charleston and worked on the docks as a stevedore, among other things, until 1969 when he returned to the mountain to become alumni director.

In the mid-sixties his mother had started taking in student boarders in their home on South Carolina Avenue—a practice continued by Mr. Bratton and refined into ritual over the next fifty years. Mr. Bratton guesses up to 150 students have lived in the upstairs apartment and The Cave down below. There were often four students at a time living in the house and the Sunday dinners were legendary. Students were expected to bring a date, a friend, a cousin for a real home-cooked meal around a set table. Mr. Bratton cooked all day for this command performance and privilege; no matter what, students were loath to miss a Sunday at the Bratton table. Many have remained in close contact with Mr. Bratton through decades, forever grateful for his friendship, generosity, and hospitality. In fact the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Scholarship to the University for a student from Grundy County has raised over $13,000 through the generosity of former residents of South Carolina Avenue and other university students warmly welcomed into the Bratton circle. This scholarship is now aptly named the John Gass Bratton Rotary Scholarship.

Mr. Bratton was the program chair of the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club for many years and kept the club alive during some challenging times when membership was in the single digits. Now there are over fifty members with most of the growth coming from younger recruits. The International Rotary Club was founded in 1905 primarily to eradicate polio, succeeding for the most part through vigorous vaccination campaigns worldwide. The Rotary continues to promote peace, fight disease, work to provide clean water and sanitation, and support education and local economies throughout the world. A dynamic crew, our local Rotary supports the work of the organization through fundraising while also handing out dictionaries to students in Franklin, Marion, and Grundy counties. It also bolsters the university’s programs in Haiti, which include sustainable coffee farming and free medical and dental care. However, one of its most longstanding and important contributions has been to provide scholarships for students from Grundy County High School to attend the University. This has been Mr. Bratton’s passion. These Rotary scholarships provide essential support that give young men and women the opportunity to better their lives and their communities.

When Mr. Bratton left his job in development at the University in the seventies, he left to serve a larger community in the alcohol and drug recovery field with Bradford Health services. He did this for many years until retirement when he could devote himself fully to this town, this mountain, this village, whatever we call ourselves. Mr. Bratton was president of the Sewanee Trust for Historic Preservation, president of the Sewanee Senior Citizens’ Center, longtime parishioner at Otey Memorial Parish, volunteer for the Community Action Committee, and, as mentioned earlier, an ardent and devoted supporter of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. If you’ve seen the statue of children in Abbo’s Alley, then you’ve seen Mr. Bratton forever young and at play. The statue was commissioned by Louis Rice for his wife on their anniversary and depicts Ellen Kirby-Smith Rice holding hands with her childhood playmates, Loulie Hunt Cocke, Louise Scott Lee, and John Bratton.

Please join us on Wednesday, July 4^th, to celebrate John Gass Bratton, one of Sewanee’s finest!