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The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 1
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The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 1

Publication:
The Tennesseani
Location:
Nashville, Tennessee
Issue Date:
Page:
1
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

SUNDAY THEY KNOW WHAT THEY DELTA DAWNS AT OPRYLAND Hotel expansion brings river ride to Nashville GET OUT THOSE HOSES NASHVILLE AIRFARE HAVE TO DO No more secrets between Jazz and If June's landscaping and gardening calendar Why our airport food doesnl fty ponies as mey oreDare for one-oame 5 showdown out West Complete weather forecast on 8B NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE A GANNETT NEWSPAPER hfl VOLUME 92, NO. 154 11 SECTIONS Copyright, 1996 SECOND CLASS POSTAGE PAID IN NASHVILLE, TN fw1 fW "jSSJHE Sl Jesse Hill Ford found dead; police suspect suicide 000 Tennesseans celebrate state's bicentennial, toasting history and showing off New South image By FRANK RITTER and JERRY THOMPSON Staff Writers Jesse Hill Ford, one of the Mid-south's best-known novelists and short-story writers, committed suicide at his Nashville home early yesterday morning, Metro police said. Ford, 67, had been in ill health since undergoing open-heart sur 'it By LARRY DAUGHTREY Staff Writer Tennessee turned toward its third century yesterday with a nostalgic salute to the divergent threads of 200 years of history that form Its modern tapestry. As twilight fell over the north side of Capitol Hill, 20 cannons boomed out the formal celebration of Statehood Day and the dedication of the Bicentennial Capitol Mall. The daylong series of activities was full of whipping flags, uniformed soldiers, stirring music, solemn ceremony and laughing children.

It was a day when patriotism was in full fashion. While there was no shortage of public officials in dark suits, the um about 3:45, Murphy forced open the door and found Ford dead. The renowned author left no note, police said. "Jesser had really been suffering because of his illness and was taking strong medication," Murphy said. "He had not been himself lately.

The man who shot himself was not the Jesse I knew." Williamson Memorial Funeral Home in Franklin is in charge of arrangements. The body was cremated yesterday, and a memorial service will be held this week at St' George's Episcopal Church in Nashville, with the time to be announced later. Ford was the author of several novels, the most famous of which was The Liberation of Lord Byrort Jones, which also was made into a movie. He was a prolific author of short stories and nonficbon articles for top magazines, and wrote screenplays. Ford was of the old school, a true Southern gentleman who knew Turn to PAGE 2A, Column 1 gery recently.

He suffered from severe depression, and police say he shot himself in the head sometime after midnight in the library of his condominium at rz- day also be 500 Plantation pQRD Court. Wayne Murphy, a longtime friend of Ford, said he was called shortly after 3 a.m. by Ford's wife, Lillian, who was concerned because the writer had locked himself in the library. Arriving at the condominl- 1 1 longed to those in sneakers and shorts. Both groups struggled for words to express what is special about a state with 2 of the nation's 'I 1 Tennessee Statehood Day Celebration Rally takes a stand to leave no child out population and diverse cultures from mountain hollows to delta flatlands.

V-'The future always has the im STAND FOR CHILDREN I Nashville echoes appeal, on 17 A. I Clinton address on children, on 17 A. i 200,000 march in Washington Tennessean News Services WASHINGTON An estimated 200,000 people gathered yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial for the "Stand for Children" rally and proclaimed the world's wealthiest nation must do more for its children. With songs, speeches, placards and a march of 10,000 children, organizers and participants called on everybody in the crowd to redouble their efforts to better youngsters' lives and to make sure government does the same. "We have the biggest wallet in the industrialized world," Marian Wright Edelman, chief organizer of the event and president of the Children's Defense Fund, told the crowd.

"But we have a far smaller will to share it with our children." Edelman kept politicians off the program and called the event a nonpartisan celebration of individual, family and community strength. "This is a day about rekindling our children's hopes," Edelman told a sea of humanity massed on both sides of the Reflecting Pool. "It is about America's ideals and not about any group's ideology. It is not about what we can't do. We are a can-do American people." However, conservatives criticized the event as a confluence of liberal groups hanging on to big government policies at a time when Americans want less government "While the Stand for Children event is correct in calling attention to the disastrous condition of America's children, it is important to recognize that the children are suffering because the U.S.

welfare system has failed," said Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. The event drew about 50,000 fewer people than the 1963 civil rights March on Washington, which served as the model for "Stand for Children" organizers. 1 print or the past, said vice President Al Gore, the one-time farmer from Elmwood in Smith County. Gov. Don Sundquist, an Illinois native who found work and more in Bedford County, took another perspective.

"We celebrate the men and women of conscience who healed the divisions of the Civil War, made Tennessee the shining example of the New South, who secured for all American women the right to vote, and who helped us tame the demons of official prejudice and legal discrimination." It was a day when the state's diversity was on display and celebrated. People of all ages and colors and incomes mingled in the crowds, and the music shifted from the twang of banjos to the whine of blues guitars. Tennessee's long-planned birthday party for itself seemed to bring half the state to downtown Nashville, but there were sharply differing moods. South of the Capitol was the gaudy street carnival of Summer Lights. North toward Jefferson Street, there was almost a reverent hush as Tennesseans moved among the newest artifacts of their past on the Bicentennial Capitol Mall.

People began arriving on the mall at 6 a.m., wandering through the granite monuments, a sprawling map of the state along a representation of Tennessee's 31 rivers. Later they lounged on the north lawn of the Capitol to watch the dedication of the mall and some of the state's biggest music stars. The mall offered its own meta- Turn to PAGE 9 Column 1 Surviving cancer: a personal story ft if A' REX PERRY STAFF ABOVE: Fireworks cap the grand finale for the state's 200th birthday. BILL STEBER STAFF LEFT: State's big music stars perform at dedication ceremonies. I Mai notes, on 9 A.

200 years of legislating, on 10A. Summer Lights shares spotlight on 11A. Schedule, In Showcase. More than. 8 million Americans are cancer survivors, and Tennessean writer Linda Quigley is one of them.

For Quigley, now 47, life changed forever one day when she was painting her living room and felt a lump in her breast she had never felt before. Three years and 10 surgeries later with much, much in between she now finds herself content and full of hope. "Cancer is a difficult journey," she says, "but there are lessons in it that go beyond the physical challenges." Everyone who has lived with cancer has their own story to tell. P. CASEY DALEY STAFF especially today, which is National Cancer Survivors Day.

Honest and blunt, tender and, at times, humorous, Linda Quigley tells hers. I Story on 1F. CONTENTS OLYMPICS (I DAYBREAK the Clinton ad- Shannon Miller, winner of five gold GROWTH Sumner County's burgeoning population means a need for more schools. But cost and scarcity of sites are causing school officials problems with plans for new schools. On 1B.

um REAL ESTATE PERSPECTIVE The peace process ministration worked to guide is effectively dead with the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel's prime minister, writer Steven Er-langer says. Because Israelis voted with their fears and not their hopes, dreams of an House of 5Q Living, 1-8F Local News 1-88 Showcase Nat'l 14-19A Perspective. 1-6D Real Estate 8Q Scoreboard 11C Sports 1-12C 2E Travel 1-6J Wish List 33 World 4-12A Arts Showcase Baseball 4-5C Showcase Business 1-6e Classified 1-24H Crossword 2F Dear 2F Deaths 7B Editorials. 4D Golf 6C Hey, Cheriet 2F Home 1-7Q Horoscope 2F medals In Barcelona, will compete for the first time this year at this week's Coca-Cola National Gymnastics Championships In Knoxville. Miller, at 19 one of the oldest competitors, has battled Injuries in an attempt to regain her place at the Parade of Homes starts next Saturday in the Fieldstone Farms subdivision.

Sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Middle Tennessee! the event spotlights five builders. Furnished and landscaped homes range from 3,000 to 4,000 square feet On 1G. The Widening of Moores Lane may wipe away some Brentwood residents' front lawns and their dreams of quiet In Williamson County. City officials say the road must expand, but homeowners are asking state transportation officials to reconsider. On 1B.

Israeli-Syrian treaty have been dashed. On MILLER top. Cm 8C NETANYAHU.

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