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James Jackson |
James Jackson walks with a limp, but he wears a smile born
of an uncommon appreciation of life plus a well-grounded
faith that sees him through times of adversity, of which
he's seen aplenty.
Besides a stroke that left his left arm and leg somewhat
impaired, he's suffered kidney failure as a result of
diabetes, a systemic disease that affects the entire body.
He's stoic regarding his condition, noting some diabetics
lose their feet, due to poor circulation, or their eyesight,
and monitors his blood pressure and sugar to help offset
future problems.
"You've got to learn moderation and take care of yourself,"
he says matter-of-factly. "There's a lot of things in life
that are challenging but you can't give in. Faith and a
background in sports pulled me through both situations: With
sports--playing and coaching--you don't give up... and of
course, with faith you don't."
A former teacher and coach as well as principal and
superintendent, Jackson--who lives in Huntingdon--says he
runs into his former students everywhere he goes, a
situation he adores. Most often, he receives comments of
appreciation, but on the other hand, he says, grinning and
with widening eyes, there are times when students begin, as
one did recently, "Coach Jackson, do you remember what you
did to me in study hall?"
"Oh boy, here it comes," he relates, still grinning. "She
said I drew a circle on the board and made her stand with
her nose in it; she remembered it as a fun thing."
He pauses in reflection, then adds, "It's an enjoyable,
satisfying profession, especially when students go on to
make good in life."
His own education took place in Crockett County, where in
Gadsden (which then boasted a population of about 200) he
attended a small school, inclusive of grades one through 12.
"I had great teachers; they encouraged me," says Jackson,
who played basketball and baseball in high school before
heading to Bethel College in McKenzie after graduation,
where he continued playing baseball.
"They happened to be the only recruiter that came by my high
school," says Jackson, who was the first person in his
extended family to obtain a college education. "My high
school coach brought me here to visit. He had an interest in
me going there, too, because he had been a student at
Bethel."
Jackson's fondness of his alma mater goes beyond memories of
"courting" in McKenzie's downtown theater and laughable
episodes like the night he and his wife pushed a Volkswagen
all over town to get it back to the campus after running out
of gas.
"I pretty much owe everything I have materially, my faith,
and my wife to Bethel College," he muses. "The night I
joined the church, the minister who preached the sermon was
a graduate of Bethel College; I met my wife at Bethel; and
Bethel College enabled me to do one of the things I enjoy
most in my life--coaching and teaching."
So keen were he and Christine Glover on marriage that they
dropped out of school in '63 to accomplish that goal. He
returned later the same year to finish his education and,
after attaining his degree in biology and health and
physical education in December 1964, took on his first
coaching and teaching job in his wife's hometown of
Somerville.
The Jackson Family in one of James’ favorite
photographs taken some 13 years ago: James and Christine are
surrounded by, from left to right, Debbie and Mark Jackson,
and Chet and Suzanne Roberts.
But he was soon offered a position in Pocohontas, Arkansas,
as high school baseball coach and biology teacher. It was an
offer he couldn't refuse and one he will never regret, as in
his first year the team progressed to the state tournament,
a highlight in Jackson's career.
"We got beat in the second game in an extra inning with a
suicide squeeze play," he tells, the excitement of the game
still fresh in his memory.
After three years, he returned to Somerville where he
climbed the ladder to elementary principal and high school
principal, while raising a family that grew to include Mark
(now 40) and Suzanne (Roberts, 36) and eventually four
grandchildren as well: Hannah and Brett Jackson, who attend
school in Huntingdon, and Lauren and Rebecca Roberts in
Clarksburg.
In the early fall of 1975, he and Christine moved back to
Carroll County, where he was superintendent of Clarksburg's
school for six years.
Meanwhile, Christine returned to college and completed her
degree in elementary education in 1977, the same year the
couple bought a home in Huntingdon. She has been teaching
for 28 years in Clarksburg, where she teaches second grade.
Jackson left the Clarksburg system in 1981 to become West
Carroll's first superintendent, a turbulent era in the
history of several small towns when the Atwood and Trezevant
special school districts consolidated. From seven schools
serving approximately 1150 students (two high schools in
Atwood and Trezevant and five elementary schools in Westview,
Lavinia, McLemoresville, Atwood, and Trezevant) three
remained: pre-K through second grade elementary school
students attend school in McLemoresville, Trezevant houses
grades three to six, and the seventh through twelfth grade
junior/senior high school is located in Atwood.
"I thought that was going to be a big job and it was," says
Jackson. "We did what we thought was best. It was bad from
the standpoint that both had good basketball teams, but by
putting the schools together they have a better quality
education. It's a bad thing to have to do, but sometimes you
have to bite the bullet and do what's best for the children
and not necessarily what's best for the community."
He gains satisfaction with the knowledge of the success the
West Carroll School System has attained as well as the new
junior/senior high school that has been built in Atwood
since he left the superintendent job in 1984 to become high
school baseball coach and junior high principal in McKenzie.
"It's a satisfying feeling to go through there and think,
'Maybe this was the right move that we made,'" he says.
It was in 1985 that he experienced the stroke that he
attributes to high blood pressure and stress secondary to
diabetes.
"I went to a PTA meeting and it took me six months to get
back home," he jokes.
He nevertheless remained principal until 1995, when he
retired and took up a new vocation in radio. It was actually
a return to a venture he'd dabbled in during his last year
of college when, in addition to juggling life as a newlywed,
trying to graduate, and buy groceries, he worked three jobs:
Bethel's bookstore, Drewry's Grocery, and radio station WHDM
in McKenzie.
"I needed something to occupy my time and I didn't want to
substitute: that's the hardest job in the education system,"
he says. "I wanted something I could enjoy and do with my
limited disabilities."
Jackson enjoys working for WDAP AM Radio in Huntingdon,
where his favorite activity is covering sports for Bethel
College. And with football season underway, it's an exciting
time for Jackson, who is also energized by the technology
recently put into play with Internet streaming that allows
games to be aired even when the radio station, by FCC
regulations, must be off the air.
"Our theme is hits and headlines 1530," says Jackson
regarding WDAP. "(The last weekend in August) we made local
history by streaming the McKenzie game and the Jamboree on
the Web."
Jackson says the station received thanks from as far away as
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Iraq from displaced hometown
football fans grateful to follow their teams' competition.
"That's a very satisfying job," he says, content in the
service delivered to listeners in a widening venue.
The early years of his adventure in radio were abbreviated,
however, when in 1998 he underwent a kidney transplant that
remains successful following periodic checkups that have
stretched from three to four month intervals to every six
months.
"That's another amazing thing about my life," he says. "Talk
about a wake up call, after being on dialysis for three or
four years and then to be told it's not working."
Placed on the transplant list, with the understanding that
the average wait was three years, he was relegated to
carrying a beeper to insure constant contact with the
hospital. Thanks to what he terms an "odd blood type,"
however, it was only six weeks later that he was awakened at
3:00 in the morning with the call, "Mr. Jackson, we've got a
kidney. Can you be here by 6 a.m.?"
"What kind of person in their right mind would say no?"
Jackson asks today, grateful for his reprieve. "Doctors are
doing miraculous things--this kidney came all the way from
Asheville, North Carolina--but the main thing we need to
remember is that the Lord is doing miraculous things through
the doctors."
He later learned the decision to donate the kidney was made
by an 18-year-old girl whose father was killed in an
accident on July 26, not long after she had graduated from
high school. Her parents having divorced, she was his next
of kin.
"She had to grow up in a hurry," says Jackson. "She had just
turned 18 in May and had to make the decision to pull life
support and donate his organs."
Her mother had written Jackson to tell him the story of how
the gift of life had come about. The donor's other child, a
son, was active in Babe Ruth baseball while his daughter was
getting ready to start college.
"After working with kids for 30 years, to stop and think
that this girl had to make that decision at 18 years old...
It was really a blessing to hear the story and consequently
another pastime I have is speaking to Rotary and Lions clubs
about organ donation," says Jackson, who has been known to
wear a T-shirt proclaiming, "Don't take your organs to
Heaven, Heaven knows we need them here."
"It hasn't anything to do with funds and anybody can donate
unless they are disabled," he continues. "The only thing
they have to do is sign the back of their driver's license
with witnesses, though the family still has to agree. Over
1500 people in Tennessee are waiting for organ donations
right now, and it's one of most intimate gifts a person can
give."
James and Christine are active members of the Presbyterian
Church in Huntingdon, where she teaches adult Sunday School.
Additionally, he travels two Sundays a month to Pleasant
Ridge Presbyterian Church in Big Sandy, where he is a lay
preacher.
Reflecting over the years of his life, he encourages others
to go into the teaching profession.
"There's always a need for good teachers, even though
computers are taking over a lot of the teaching," he says.
"And it's enjoyable working with children. I just had so
many satisfying experiences in the actual teaching
profession; to see the light bulb come on as they think,
'Now I know how to work that problem, now I understand.'
"It was fun, I made a lot of friends, and I'm always running
into old students. They always remember something that
happened and it's a lot of fun.
"I know it sounds like I had a lot of traumatic experiences
but the Lord's been good to me--if I check out tonight, I'll
be way ahead--and life is not always on the mountaintop,
sometimes we've got to go to the valleys. My philosophy is,
you can't swim halfway across the river and turn around and
come back, you've got to keep going--that's the way life
is."
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