By Ralphine Major

ralphine3@yahoo.com

Mr. C. B. Chesney was the Principal at Karns High School where Bob Dagley graduated.  I recognized the name.  Chesney was a member of the Gibbs High School basketball team that won the Knox County Rural League Championship in 1921.  The team’s picture was featured in the 1963 Gibbs Yearbook.  He was an uncle to former Gibbs Elementary teachers Sue Cardwell (my fourth grade teacher) and Lue Cardwell Reynolds (my brother’s fourth grade teacher).  They were featured in my Focus column 10-24-11, ‘Miss Lue’ and ‘Miss Sue.’  Our father had Mr. Chesney for a teacher at Gibbs High School before he moved to Karns.  After our father passed away, the late Dr. Bill Butler suggested we call Mr. Chesney to see if he would give a home to our geese on his farm.  He did.

One of the first things Dagley remembers about the Karns Principal was at the first assembly at the beginning of each school year.  Chesney would take his Bible and read the 12th Chapter of Ecclesiastes which began with “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”  Usually, Chesney would pause, read it again, and then finish reading the chapter.  “He wanted to show his faith and guide us in ours,” Dagley said.  (To be continued)