[ Home ]

Both had got to know Harry S Truman when he was in the White House in both their Democratic Party and American Legion connections and they felt this, colorful former President would be a natural if he could be prevailed upon to accept. Don flew to Kansas City, Missouri, to call on the ex-Chief Executive at his then office in the Federal Reserve Building and delivered a personal invitation from Governor Clement. Mr. Truman liked the uniqueness of the event and that it would be in the East Tennessee Mountains "among my kind of people" and he agreed to come although the official and publicized acceptance would await a future visit by Don and a delegation of Cocke County Hillbillies bearing ramps and the Ruritian Club invitation. Accordingly, early in April, 1955 Don and Colonel Charles T. Rhyne, flew to Kansas City and there met Jack Shepherd, Wallace and D. R. Large, Hollis Padgett and M. G. Roberts who had driven up. The group changed to their blue jeans, plaid shirts, and straw hats and, bearing two large packages of young ramps wrapped in aluminum foil descended an the Federal Reserve Building and its unsuspecting inhabitants. The press had been a alerted and some twenty reporters and newspaper and TV cameramen were on hand in Mr. Truman's office.

    The two packages of ramps had been on the road for two days in the trunk of one of the cars and, the weather being unusually warm for that time of year, had "ripened" considerably on the journey. Once the introductions were over, McSween unwrapped one bundle and, taking several in his hand, stuck them under the startled ex-President's nose. The grinding and clicking cameras caught a horrified expression on Mr. Truman's face as he flinched and recoiled from this assault on his olfactory senses and these pictures went all over the United States and to many foreign countries. Combined with his statement that "the only way you'll ever get me to eat one of those things is to hog tie me and cram it down my throat" these pictures widely printed in newspapers and news magazines everywhere really started the publicity ball rolling.

    The president of the Cosby Ruritan Club issued a statement from Tennessee that the club was prepared to so "hog tie" and "cram" and, this statement also being put on the press wires, the success of the 2nd annual Ramp Festival was assured.

    Frantic preparations were set in motion in Nashville, Newport, Cosby, and Carson Springs as "Bonnie Brae cabin would be host to the distinguished guest and his headquarters while in the area. Cleaning, sprucing and general refurbishing were begun and the almost split-second schedule and accompanying logistics put together. Law enforcement agencies from the Secret Service to the Cocke County Sheriff's Office, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Tennessee Bureau of Identification, and the Tennessee National Guard were mobilized and coordinated. The private plane of the Commanding General of the Strategic Air Command from Roosevelt Field, long Island, N. Y., was made available and, with Governor Clement's Tennessee Air Guard plane as back up went to an air base at Independence, Missouri, Mr. Truman's home, to get him.

    Back at Carson Springs, the official party had assembled at Bonnie Brae, with the McSweens, Governor and Mrs. Clement and Agriculture Commissioner and Mrs. Buford Ellington (himself later to become Governor of Tennessee) at Bonnie Brae and other notables quartered in other homes, there and in Newport.

    127 newspaper reporters and photographers, columnists magazine representatives, local TV crews and those from the three national networks and from local and national radio gathered from throughout the country and abroad. The number included some of the best known newsmen in all the media and they were invited for a briefing at Bonnie Brae on Saturday. A press headquarters had been set up for them in a Newport motel and everything possible had been done for their comfort and pleasure, as well as extraordinary communication facilities so their stories and pictures could be speedily transmitted.

    The time and place of Truman's arrival had been kept secret as he had asked to be kept "off the record" until he reached Carson Springs and he didn't want to encounter any of the press before arriving there.

    At the press briefing at Bonnie Brae an Saturday conducted by Don McSween several of the newsmen insisted on know where and when, the noted visitor would be met. McSween told them of Truman's wishes and that plenty of time had been scheduled at Bonnie Brae for all the pictures and interviews they wanted after the party reached there.

    The Newport party rose early on Sunday morning and Clement, McSween, Adjutant General Joe W. Henry, Jr., and Ellington departed for the McGhee- Tyson Air Base at Alcoa in the Govenor's official limousine. driven by Captain Harold Cross and preceded and followed by units of the Highway Patrol. It had been raining all night, at times very hard, and they entered the VIP Quarters at the air base in a downpour to be met by Herbert S. Walters, of Morristown Tennessee's Democratic National Committeeman who had come down in a station wagon with his nephew, Tracy Prater.

    President Truman's plane touched down shortly and he was escorted to a private room to change his clothes.

    While he was so engaged an officer came in to report that a station wagon full of reporters was at the gate demanding admittance and that one of them was Edward Woods of the St. Louis post Dispatch who said he was a close friend of Truman. He wanted the President to know that he was being forcibly detained in the rain.

    Don McSween went to Mr. Trumans room and reported this to him whereupon the crusty Missourian replied "Hump! Ed will get over it."

    The other newsman at the gate were a Mr. St. John, well known writer for the Atlanta Journal, a cohort from the Atlanta Constitution, photographers for both papers, and Henry Trewhitt of the Chattanooga Times, This young man was on his first major assignment for his newspaper and had violated journalistic custom by bringing his new bride to Newport with him, although not to Alcoa. It was later learned that he had been talked into their ill-fated breach of the prescribed rules for the event by the older and more experienced reporters with whom he had cast his lot. Thus it was that Hank Trewhitt, in pursuit of a story, was in a place he wasn't supposed to be and would so be out of designated place when the party arrived at Carson Springs, a fact that led to his undoing and an early pall being placed on the festivities.

    (Trewhitt became an outstanding newsman with the Chattanooga Times, went from there to the Baltimore Sun where he further distinguished himself in his profession, and in 1976 was one of the panel of questioners for the nationally televised debates between president Gerald Ford and aspiring Democratic candidate Jimy Carter during that year's campaign.)

   When Mr. Truman was ready and the mo torcade formed and moving out,, the bedraggled little group of reporters at the gate, soaking wet, were noticed by Governor Clement. Knowing that unless they were allowed to join the escorted caravan they would never reach Carson Springs through the heavy traffic or, if so, not in time to cover the scheduled events there, Clement relented and told them to add their wagon to the motorcade,

    At Bonnie Brae, which was by now something of an armed camp, every detail had bear painstakingly orchestrated in advance and orders had gone out to the Highway Patrolman guarding each entrance to admit only the Governor's limousine and the Walters station wagon on the front driveway. The lead car would go across the front bridge (which was still of logs and planks at this time) and stop in the front yard where a large crowd was inevitable. The wagon would just stop on the house side of the bridge.

    The route, was out of the air base to U. S. 129, onto Hall Road to the Old Maryville - Knoxville Highway, onto Wildwood Road to U. S. 411, by this road to Chapman Highway, into Sevierville and from that point to Dandridge with a stop at Douglas Dam and its overlook, up U. S. 70 and 25 to Wilsonville, and up to Carson Springs Road to Bonnie Brae.

    The rains miraculously stopped and the scenic route was enjoyed by President Truman and his hosts. The group got out of the cars at the over look at TVA's Douglas Dam and spent a few minutes there. Mr. Truman had long been a supporter of TVA and had asked to see this dam and impoundment.

    Some 300 people, including many VIP's, had been invited to Bonnie Brae to have breakfast with the former President. Add to that number 127 newsmen, all those helping, and several hundred curious and uninvited people (many of whom were sure their invitations had simply gone astray in the mail) and there was quite a crowd straining to be the first to see Mr. Truman and hear what he had to say on arrival.

    The Highway Patrol escorts went on up the road past the turnoff to the front driveway, the Govenor's car was waved in followed by the Walter's station wagon and the unexpected wagon full of reporters. The lead car crossed the bridge and stopped where it was supposed to in the driveway at the outdoor grill, the Walters vehicle stopped where it should, but this threw the unplanned wagon also on the bridge which was narrow and with scant space between the sides of a large car and the slightly raised log guardrails on each side.

    Those in the third vehicle had but one thought in mind: to get out of the wagon, across the bridge and where the action was fast! All four doors spring open simultaneously, young Hank Trewhitt coming out of the left rear and on a dead run toward the house side of the bridge. This required that he thread his way up the narrow space between the cars and the side of the bridge and, just as Trewhitt got to the side of the Walters station wagon, its driver opened his door. Trewhitt caromed off the door and was literally catapulted off the bridge and down 11 or 12 feet onto the large rocks in the creek, injuring himself grievously and barely escaping death.

    Because of the great throng in and around the house and the excitement of the President's arrival with a veritable fusillade of flash bulbs going off, the official party and those over there did not know of the tragic event for several minutes. They went on into the house, being greeted by Louise McSween and others on the porch and were seated in the living room when one of the Troopers came in and told them what bad transpired.

    There was nearly as big a crowd still on the other side of the creek with a steady stream of humanity pouring up the driveway from the main road and a good many had witnessed Trewhitt's plunge. By the time Truman, Clement, and McSween got back over the bridge, several had gone down into the creek and had got the hapless reporter back up on the bank and covered with coats, a picture of him lying there with Mr. Truman, Mayor George Dempster and Concilinan Max Friedman, of Knoxville, standing over him made a full page of the next week's Life Magazine in a story of several pages on the Truman visit and the Ramp Festival.

    There were doctors among the throng and Trewhitt was attended to while an ambulance was summoned to take him to the hospital. There it was determined that he had a badly crushed elbow, a broken leg, several broken ribs, a severe spinal injury and a serious concussion. He was later transferred to Baroness Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga where he had a long convalescence and was required to wear a neck brace for some while. Don McSween visited him there and was elated to learn that he would have no permanent injuries

    This unfortunate happening put a damper on everyone's spirits but, after everything possible had been done the schedule was resumed. President Truman and the assembled hundreds feasted on Tennessee country ham, biscuits, scrambled eggs, jams and jellies, coffee and juices.

    A humorous sidelight had its beginning some ten days before the great day but after there had been daily publicity about the forthcoming visit in all media, including long biographical stories on Truman so complete as to even allude "more than once to the fact that he occasionally liked a toddy or two."

    The McSweens and some who would help them were meeting at Bonnie Brae almost nightly and one still dark evening they were sitting in the living room when they were startled to hear the dead giveaway tatoo of the bridge planks rattling. No car lights had been seen as was always the case when a vehicle turned into the front driveway at night and, in a few minutes there were hesitant footsteps on the porch and a timid knock on the door.

    Don went to answer and there were two overal1 clad residents of the nearby mountains who were former law clients of Don's when he was practicing in Newport, after being invited in, which they declined, one said they had read that Mr.Truman was coming and that he like a little libation now and then and, as they had a three gallon keg of pure and aged-in-the keg corn whiskey, made the old-fashioned way, that they had been saving for a special occasion, the coming of the former president, they reckoned, met those criteria and they wanted Don to have it to serve Mr. Truman from when be got there.

    Not knowing what else to do, Don graciously accepted and hastily hid the keg upstairs. This same scene was repeated, with minor variations and different donors, almost every night for the next ten days until there was enough illegal liquor secreted in different areas of Bonnie Brae to make the McSweens prime candidates for at least 5 years in the Atlanta Penitentiary. There were kegs, fruit jars, and bottles with the contents ranging from white to deep amber.

    During the period these unsolicited donations for Mr. Truman's plea sure were being received an unprecedented number of raids on illicit stills in Cocke County were being made daily by a small army of Federal "revenuers", Tennessee Tax agents, and local Sheriffs deputies. Ten, fifteen, and twenty stills a day were being raided and the Knoxville newspapers were chronicling on their front pages these incursions daily, always featuring the locations where they had been found "near where former President Harry S Truman will attend the 2nd annual Ramp Festival, Sunday, April 29th". This constant activity, added to all the other accounts of the plans etc., for the big day combined to help mount a veritable crescendo of excitement in the area.

    A couple of nights before the eagerly looked forward to weekend, the McSweens and a few friends were again sitting in the living room of the cottage, trying to tie up any loose ends, when two cars whipped into the front drive at a faster than prudent speed, barreled across the clattering planks of the bridge and braked to a stop beside the house. Eight doors opened as one and Federal and State Alcohol agents in their green and khaki clothes, boots and caps, piled out and started up to +he house.

    Don saw who they were (he knew most of them) and, momentarily, his heart sank for he figured he had been "set up" or somebody had squealed. His fears were groundless, however, for the eight or ten agents were in high good spirits and came onto the porch laughing and shouting.

    Once they were all on the porch and seated, one who appeared to be the leader and was also a longstanding friend said: "Don, how do you like the publicity we've been giving your Festival the last two weeks?" To which Don replied that it was fantastic and that all concerned were duly appreciative.

    The agent then dropped a bombshell: "We know your route leaving the Festival will be over the Ben W. Hooper Highway from Cosby to Gatlinburg and on back to the air base and we've left two stills undamaged and in working condition for President Truman to see, one is wider a bridge you will cross over, the other about 50 feet off the road."

    Visions of Truman, Governor Clement, and other dignitaries being photographed beside a working still and reported on by 127 newsmen quickly flashed through Don's mind. With a deep breath, he said: "Fellows you don't know how much I appreciate what you've done and I know president Truman will too. I'm sure nothing would please him more than to see these genuine East Tennessee distilleries in operation. However, we've timed and retimed the schedule to a split-second and, only yesterday, firmed it up for the last time. It's simply impossible, as much as we would like to, to add one single thing at this last minute. We've had to hurt some feelings of very important people, and make several mad, just because of the time element." Thus, one of many crises that had risen and were yet to arise, had been avoided and the agents accepted it in good spirit.

    After breakfast, Mr. Truman went out to the front porch to watch the Mathis sisters of Cosby clog to the music of a local country band and he made himself available to the horde of reporters and photographers, an promised.

    Following this the feisty "man from Independence" asked Don if there was a room where he could lie down and take a nap. Anticipating this the McSweens had bought a beautiful and comfortable bed at Fowler Brothers in Knoxville and had placed it in the front bedroom upstairs. As they went upstairs the guest looked in the back bedroom, liked it and that was that. Officers were stationed at the foot of the stairs and Mr. Truman slept for a short period.

    When Don went up, to wake him later he asked if there was a telephone upstairs. When told that there was one across the hall (in the room planned for his use) he asked Don to call Independence and get "the Boss' on the line while he dressed, giving him their private, unlisted number in the process. Don placed the call and chatted with Mrs. Truman briefly until the president came in whereupon Don closed the door and went back downstairs, putting the unlisted telephone number which he had written down in his billfold.

    Several years later in Nashville Governor Clement called Don one night and said held been trying to reach Mr. Truman on a very important matter, but the operator would not give him the number. Did Don have it, by chance? His cabinet appointee said yes, he did, but he'd have to place the call and get the former President to call Clement back collect. The Governor was not overjoyed with this procedure, but agreed, and Don placed the call. Mr. Truman answered himself and when he learned who was calling demanded "Where in hell did you get this number?" To which Don replied: "You gave it to me at Carson Springs when you visited us and my old grandmother taught me in my youth never to throw anything away."

    After his rest, Mr. Truman was driven to the First Baptist Church in Newport in company with Circuit Judge George R. Shepherd (a leading Republican and Don's Dad's law partner) and Ben D. Stokely of the famous canning family and a cousin of Don's. Both of these man were members of this church and great admirers of Mr. Truman. This appearance had also been made known to the press and another tremendous crowd awaited them there. Needless to say, in the church sanctuary there was standing room only.

    Returning to Carson Springs, the guests were served lunch and the motorcade to the Ramp Festival site some 23 miles away was formed. It was a lengthy string of cars as all the visiting dignitaries had been invited including the Governor's entire cabinet and staff and their wives, Senators Estes Kefauver and Albert Gore, Congressman B. Carroll Reece and other Tennessee members of the House of Representatives, Tennessee Legislative leaders, Judges and others.

    Once the cortege reached the main highway leading into Newport, traffic was bumper-to-bumper and backed up out of sight toward Knoxville and Sevierville. It was this way the remaining l9 miles to "Shangri La" Hill in Cosby and had there not been scores of troopers and other officers at every intersection all in touch by radio, the party would never have made it. The main road to Cosby from Newport (Tennessee 32) had been made one-way for this occasion and the long procession of official cars made their way down the left side all the way, passing the completely clogged right-hand lane gingerly and, even so, there were stops and interruptions. From every car so passed, and from knots of people standing along the highway or in the yards of houses or fronts of businesses there were shouts and friendly waves to the distinguished visitor and those accompanying him.

    Once at the site, the party was greeted by 70,0OO screaming and cheering people, the University of Tennessee "Pride of the Southland Band" playing the Missouri Waltz, the Tennessee National Guard firing the prescribed 21-gun salute with four ruffles and flourishes by the band, while overhead Tennessee Air Guard planes and helicopters flashed by in review. It was a sight, no one who was present will ever forget. A most partisan Democratic ex-President being wildly received in arch Republican East Tennessee and in the Cobs Precinct of GOP-dominated Cocke County where he had not received a single vote when he ran against and defeated Thomas E. Dewey in 1948. The out-pouring of love and hospitality was genuine and many later remarked that if the man ever ran again (which was not considered unlikely at the time) he wouldn't lose a vote in Cosby and few in East Tennessee.

    Commissioner McSween introduced the great number of distinguished guests to the throng and then presented Governor Clement who, in turn, introduced the star attraction. Mr. Truman delivered a witty, down- to-earth speech which was warmly received recalling his long affinity to the State of Tennessee and his own family connections with it.

    He told of the visit of Don McSween and others to his office with the odoriferous ramps and that, when they left he had given the remaining ramps not passed around that day to the press or used for the photographs to his long-time personal secretary, Rose Conway with instructions to "put them away somewhere until tomorrow when I'll take them over to that Republican infested Kansas City club for lunch and I'll make believers out of that bunch." Miss Conway did as instructed but, in her innocence as to the potency of the things, placed them beside an air-conditioning out-take.

    When he arrived at the street entrance to the building the next morning from nearby Independence, he was startled to see fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and a large crowd gathered. Asking a policeman if he know what the trouble was, he was told that there was something dead or some noxious gasses loose on his floor. Tenants had been evacuated for several floors above and below his as the air system had wafted the offending odors through several stories. He said the "dammed things" had nearly caused him to be evicted.

    Following the program the visitor was driven back to the Alcoa air base by way of Gatlinburg and Sevierville and many of the dignitaries accompanied him to Nashville on the SAC General's plane. There he, the Clements and McSween went to the Governors Mansion for dinner and to spend the night.

    Qualified observers reported that at the time he was speaking at Cosby, the road to Newport was bumper to bumper with cars, busses and trucks full of people trying unsuccessfully to get to the scene, the same was true for several miles on the roads leading of Newport toward Knoxville, Morristown, Sevierville and Asheville, North Carolina, as it was all the way from Cosby to Gatlinburg and beyond. Add these to the estimated 70,000 (which may be conservatives who made it and there were easily l5O,OOO to 20O,000 trying to get to the 2nd annual Ramp Festival. The traffic jam was so gigantic on all arteries that it took hours to unsnarl.

    Don McSween accompanied Mr. Truman and Randall Jessee (a Kansas City TV personality and friend of Trumans who had come along) back to Independence   just the three of them and the crew on this huge aircraft where he spent the night before returning to Tennessee. This was the end of an almost unbelievable odyssey and one that forged an unusual bond of friendship between McSween and the former Chief Executive which lasted until Mr. Truman's death.

    McSween was with him many times in future years in Washington, New York, Chicago, Sam Francisco, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Independence,, and elsewhere and they carried on quite a correspondence between these meetings. Some of these occasions and the events that transpired at them, would make other interesting telling but those are other stories mid do not concern Bonnie Brae although they perhpas were made possible by the bond forged there in 1954.

    Mr. Truman wrote Louise McSween a long, handwritten letter (very rare for him) of thanks for her hospitality when he got home and she had it framed and cherishes it to this day. It hung in a prominent place at Bonnie Brae as long as the McSweens lived there along with several of the numerous pictures which recorded the visit and which Mr. Truman autographed each with some succinct and pointed comment.

    With such a tremendous success of the 2nd annual Festival, the sponsors were hard put to come up with anyone of equal stature for the 1956 event. They again turned to Clement and McSween and those two again undertook to do the impossible. The only other ex-President was Herbert Hoover and Clement and McSween considered him the logical choice since they wanted to keep the affair non-partisan. And, the former Democratic President had been so warmly received in this hot bed of Republicanism that they felt it only fair to attempt to get the distinguished former Republican Chief Executive the following year.

    Accordingly, McSween flew to New York with an introduction from Congressman Carroll Reece (a former Chairman of the Republic National Committee) and called on the dignified Mr. Hoover in his apartment in the Waldorf-Astoria Towers. It was not generally known but Hoover and Truman were man friends and Hoover was greatly interested in his friend's visit to the festival the year before. He wanted to hear every detail and, in turn, told McSween some of his experiences in company with Truman. He said he wanted very much to comply but would have to consult his family and doctors. While they were chatting, Mr. Hoover continuously smoked his pipe and, when he would refill it, he would spill goodly amounts of tobacco on his desk and on the floor a trait for which he was well. known.

    McSween made a second trip to New York to follow up and try to persuade Mr. Hoover, but it was not to be. The former President said he very much wanted to accept but that his doctors had forced him to give up everything except his chairmanship of the Boys Clubs of America and an annual winter fishing vocation at a club at Key Largo, Florida. Otherwise, he said, "they have confined me to writing and taking pills."

    The next highest Republican who was acceptable was Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States Supreme Court and McSween, again using Republican friends to gain entree, journeyed to Washington and the formidable and forbidding private chambers of the Supreme Court Justices where he was passed through a maze of corridors and eyed by many armed marshals before reaching the office of the Chief Justice.

    McSween had met Warren when he was Governor of California and the Chief Justice and his fondly had later attended the National Governor's Conference at Gatlinburg when Governor Gordon Browning had been the host. Warren and his family had been smitten with the Smokies and he said nothing would give him and his family more pleasure than to return to those beautiful mountains for an outing of this sort.

    Being a man of the people and by nature gregarious he had accepted invitation to go to New Orleans and Crown the Queen of the Mardi Gras shortly after being appointed to the Court. His picture was taken crowning and kissing this beauty and when he returned to Washington he immediately noticed a distinct coolness on the part of his fellow justices as well as the Court attendants and employees. Not yet grasping the reason, he accepted another invitation this time to go out at the Tidal Basin in Washington and crown the Queen of the Cherry Blossom Festival and, on his return from this after large pictures of him doing so had appeared on the front pages of both of the Nation's Capitol newspapers, and on TV, he encountered a veritable freeze at the Court.

    He told McSween that he would rather accept and come to Cosby than eat when he was hungry but he had reluctantly accepted the fact that the only engagements he could get by with were college commencement addresses or appearances before Bar associations.

    So, McSween returned home and Bonnie Brae Cabin recorded two near misses to add to the roster of notables it had housed. He and Clement decided then to turn to the world of entertainment for a special guest and Eddie Arnold, "The Tennessee Plowboy" was invited and he accepted.

    The star and his back-up musicians and entourage stayed at Bonnie Brae and, again, Governor Clement and other of Don!s associates in Nashville were present. Others from East Tennessee were invited in for a reception and refreshments.

    The, same format was followed for Roy Acuff in 1957 and Minnie Pearl in 1958. Each succeeding festival drew crowds ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 and the affair steadily gained in respectability and was long since an established annual event in the State and region drawing people from great distances and resulting in much favorable publicity and attention for and to the area.

    Although successful, these Festivals following the Truman blockbuster did not come close to drawing crowds comparable to that one. Accordingly Cosby Ruritan Club members again asked the help of McSween and Clement. After considering several possible choices, they settled on Tennessee Ernie Ford then at the height of his popularity with two different TV network shows high in the ratings.

    McSween was dispatched to Hollywood, California, which was then Ernie's headquarters, and he spent hours trying to sell the Bristol native on returning to his native section. There were complications with Ernie's schedule and contracts and Don had to go back to the West Coast twice more before everything was worked out.

    In between long distance telephone lines were kept busy as Ernie and his manager and "good right arm", Jim "Red" Loakes preferred this method of communication to writing. Ernie had had some problems with public appearances as his fame was at its peak and his fans the most rabid and, in some places, they had burst in on him, torn his clothes, and committed other frightening acts. His manager was naturally concerned and, as none of them had ever been to Carson Springs or knew how Bonnie Brae and its environs were laid out, much talk ensued as to these details and what the security arrangements would be.

    Finally, everything had been worked out, Bonnie Brae stocked with choice food and drink including the favorites of each of the expected guests, and the stage was set.

    Governor Clement (by that time out of office for four years until his reelection in 1962), Don McSween, who had also left Nashville temporarily, and Colonel Charles T. Rhyne drove to Cumberland Gap Tennessee, where Tennessee Kentucky, and Virginia converge to meet the Ford party which had come by train (Ernie didn't like flying too well at the tine) to Cincinnati, Ohio and there transferred to new Ford Thunderbirds (the Ford Motor Company being one of Ernie's principal sponsors on TV) for the drive across Kentucky.

    Tennessee Highway Patrol cruisers and helicopters accompanied the group to the state line and the two convoys met at about the pre-arranged time. Photographers were on hand to record the meeting. For the return trip, Colonel Rhyne decided to view the countryside from aloft and he went in one of the 'copters which later set him down at the clearing at the Baptist Camp a few hundred yards above the McSween home.

    When Ernie and the others arrived in the front yard (the party included "Ole Ern', Jim Loakes, Cliff, his producer, and two representatives of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, one from New York, the other from Los Angeles who handled the Ford Motor Company Account), Ernie took one look around him and bellowed in his fine baritone voice: Lordy, lordy, I'm home!" Louise McSween was waiting on the front porch and, when introduced to Ernie, he grasped her in a bear hug and kissed her firmly on the lips. This scene was duly caught by the accompanying photographers and after being autographed later was framed and took its place on the wall as one of Louise's prize possessions alongside the Truman letter.

    The McSweens had vacated the entire second floor to accommodate the Ford party and give them privacy and they and Governor Clement took rooms downstairs. Ernie had the front upstairs bedroom, Loakes and the others had beds in the hall and in the back bedroom. During the ensuring week, they seemed to have a ball when they were all together up there playing all sorts of practical jokes an each other and keeping the others in the house laughing.

    One day of the visit had been set aside for a tour of the area and its Smokies, one for golf at the Gatlinburg Country Club at Pigeon Forge one for a boating and fishing outing on nearby Douglas Lake (embarking at the Swan boat dock), and another for golf at Knoxville's Holston Hills where partners were Governor Clement, President Andy Holt of the University of Tennessee and "Cotton" Barrier of the Gatlinburg Club. Judge George R. Shepherd of Newport also joined the group as he had in Pigeon Forge.

    Newspapemen, TV cameramen, and radio recorders accompanied the group everywhere and, during Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the stay, every radio station in the, area played Ernie Ford recordings exclusively.

    Don McSween was driving a golf cart at the Gatlinburg Club and transporting some of the cameramen and their gear. He also had a small, but loud, transistor radio tuned to the Sevierville station which, like the rest, was playing nothing but Ernie's records. As he followed the foursome and the large gallery of spectators around the course he kept the volume very low, inaudible a few feet away.

    When they reached one green and everything was deathly still awaiting Ernie's putt, just as the "Old Pea Picker" addressed the ball, Don flipped the volume up to full and the star singing "The Old Rugged Cross" suddenly blared out. In a spontaneous reaction, Ernie jumed and flung his club high into the air. After a good laugh on the part of all the match continued but was never quite the same.

    Each evening the group would return to Bonnie Brae for the evening meal and one night Ernie acted as Chef in charbroiling the large T-bone steaks on the outside grill. The taste in the matter of steaks differed from most of the other guests, however, and there was a constant stream of guests taking their meat back for further cooking: Ernie liked his almost raw and assumed that everyone else did also.

    One of the ground rules the McSweens had laid down before the party arrived was that, under no circumstances, was anyone to ask Ernie to sing as they wanted the week to be one of rest and relaxation for him.

    After one of these feasts, Ernie was sitting on a pillow on the living room floor and the rest were in chairs, window sills, or standing around when Governor Clement, as was his wont when he had a good sized audience, got up on the hearth and was making quite an oration on some subject or other.

    A mobile home had been brought in and set up back of the house to serve as a command post as well as sleeping quarters for some of the Highway Patrolmen assigned to the duty and one of the troopers was Jimmy Clevenger a native of Bybee, Cocke County Tennessee and an accomplished guitarist as well as a pretty fair vocalist.

    In the midist of thc Governor's tirade, which appeared to have no end, Don McSween signalled to Trooper Clevenger to accompany him out to the kitchen. There he asked him if he had brought his guitar. When he said that it was back in the trailer, Don said: "Do you know "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" Jimmy said he did and Don told him to him to get his instrument and to unobtrusively slip back into the room and behind Governor Clement and to start strumming and humming the hymn quietly while the Governor continued. Trooper

    Clevenger protested: "You'll get me fired, Commissioner. I Don't dare do that." MoSween assured him that he would guarantee that this would not happen so he did as he had been told.

    The Governor was so immersed in his subject that he didn't notice Clevenger slipping in and behind him (this was a ploy the Governor had himself used on many other occasions with the Wally Fowler All-Night Sing and other entertainers) and when the first notes of this, the Governor's favorite gospel song and one which Ernie was to sing in his honor at the festival, came forth, Clement stopped in mid sentence, put his hands on his hips, and, glaring around the room, said: "I think I know who is responsible for this."

    This evoked a round of laughter and, when it had subsided, Ernie reached up from his seat on the floor, took the guitar from Clevenger's hands, strumed a few chords, threw his head back and burst into "Precious Lord" in a rendition of this great old song never before or since heard by anyone present. When he had finished and handed the instrument back, there was not a dry eye in the house, it was so beautiful. Although his subsequent rendition of the same song at Cosby was great, it didn't equal this one in these relaxed and informal surroundings. All who heard it will remember it forever.

    Another night of the visit was given over to a reception at Bonnie Brae to which several hundred people were invited to meet Ernie. Guests included people from a wide area, the members of the Cosby Ruritan Club, and many members of the Governor's Cabinet, Senator Estes Kefauver Congressmen Reece, Governor Buford Ellington, and others. Following this, everyone went down to the nearby home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred L. Myers for a bountiful and delicious repast and many were lodged in other Carson Springs homes and those in Newport for the night.

    The next day, some 65,000 people saw and heard Ernie at Shangri La Hill at Cosby by far the largest crowd in Ramp Festival history since the Truman visit.

    From 1959 to 1963 Donald McSween busied himself in professional and business pursuits and in helping lay the groundwork for Governor Clement's successful campaign in 1962 to return to the State Capitol in Nashville. Governor and Mrs. Clement and members of their family were frequent guests at Carson Springs during this period as were many other political and personal friends of the McSweens.

    When Clement was re-elected and, this time, appointed McSween as Commissioner of Conservation, once again, Don and Louise decided to maintain their home at Bonnie Brae and take an apartment in Nashville. Once again, Don drove and flew back and forth, as did Louise when she was needed in the Capitol. And, againt the Governor and members of his cabinet and staff made use of the home on their Fast Tennessee visits and they often brought other interesting people with them.

    At the conclusion of the term in 1967, Don was named Director of State Parks and Recreation for the State of South Carolina and he  and Louise moved to Columbia for the next four years.

    During this time, a long time personal friend, Kemeth H. "Bucky" Howard, of Maryville, lived at Bonnie Brae and many of their mutual friends shared it with him.

    When Don and Louise returned to Tennessee in 1971, they moved to Maryville where he had business interests and after about a year, were prevailed on by friends and relatives who were parishoners to make Bonnie Brae available to the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation in Newport as a Rectory for their priests Father Bill Burks, his wife and young son. The Burks remained in the home until November 15, 1977 when it was sold to Rocky and Helen Howard and Bill and Stella Russell of Maryville.