by design | Dec 26, 2021 | Columnist, Duncan, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com My father told me many years ago that people forget you when you leave office faster than the ripples disappear when you throw a rock in the water. Former Congressman John Kasich said a friend of his told him, “When you...
by design | Dec 19, 2021 | Columnist, Duncan, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com This will be my first Christmas in 44 years without my sweet wife, Lynn. I dedicated my book to her and put on the dedicators page that she was the only woman I was ever in love with. No one ever affected my life as...
by design | Dec 12, 2021 | Columnist, Duncan, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com My maternal grandfather, Jacob Swisher, was born in 1885 in Watseka, Illinois. In 1910, while teaching in Bureau County, IL, he met and married another teacher, Nora Mae Anthony, in her hometown of Providence, IL. Papa...
by design | Dec 5, 2021 | Columnist, Duncan, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com Many years ago, when I was a young lawyer and unmarried, I was asked to speak to a singles class at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church. In preparing for that talk, I came across some material at my parents’ house that included...
by design | Nov 28, 2021 | Columnist, Duncan, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com In my column last week, I wrote that my father received about 90% of the vote in Knoxville’s African-American precincts in his three races for mayor. He had led the peaceful integration of Knoxville during some very...
by design | Nov 21, 2021 | Columnist, Duncan, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By John J. Duncan Jr. duncanj@knoxfocus.com The last time my father ran for mayor in Knoxville, 1963, he received 803 votes in the largest Black precinct, Mountain View, to totals of 55 and 47 for his two very popular opponents. He was running against Bill...
