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Over several years in the 1990s, thousands of
Coalfield Progress readers became devoted fans
of the "Growing up on Cumberland" column by
Connie Bolling, which appeared in the
newspaper's "Homespun" community news section
every week.
Bolling, whose columns were reprinted here
over several months last year, passed away last
Wednesday in his apartment at the Greenfield
Senior Living facility in his adopted home town
of Oak Ridge, Tenn. He was 101. A memorial
service for Bolling was conducted April 1, 2010.
In his columns, the Flat Gap native regaled
readers with inspiring, sometimes hilarious and
often hair-raising tales of his adventures as a
boy growing up near Pound and as a young teacher
in Wise County's tiny community schools during
the early 20th century.
Bolling was the son of Farney and Boyd
Bolling, and grew up as one of 16 children. He
graduated from high school at age 15 and earned
a degree at Emory & Henry College, financed by
his own occasional work as a coal miner.
During his Wise County teaching career,
Bolling married a fellow teacher, the former
Katherine Edwards. Their daughter, Sandy Bolling
Garrett, resides in Oak Ridge, according to an
obituary in The Oak Ridger newspaper.
In 1943, Bolling and his family moved to Oak
Ridge, where he eventually became well known for
his newspaper columns and as part of the vast
workforce that secretly manufactured material
for the atomic bombs that ended the war against
Japan. Bolling became a production supervisor at
the top-secret Y-12 plant that produced
weapons-grade nuclear material. Years later, the
plant also became known for production of
medical isotopes.
On the occasion of Bolling's 100th birthday
in October 2008, he received a letter from
President Bush and the first lady, along with a
proclamation from the city of Oak Ridge
declaring it Connie Bolling Day in the city. He
had been known for years as the unofficial
ambassador of Y-12 to visitors.
In one of his columns from the early 1990s,
Bolling quoted author Alex Haley's observation
that when an old person dies it is as if an
entire library has burned to the ground.
Bolling, a new author himself at the time, wrote
that he was backing up his "library" on floppy
disks and talking with anyone who was
interested.
In his columns, Bolling left behind a wealth
of memories of a Wise County that still faced
the growing pains of a dynamic coal industry and
a rising population.
"Old age has the gift of experience to give
the young, if it will find a way to share it,"
he wrote. |
