_{Several persons from the Tri-county area were in Gleason Sunday afternoon to honor James Dudley Sanders for the outstanding work he has done for his school and community.} 

_{A program sponsored by the Gleason Gazelles and entitled “This is Your Life Butch” was presented after the 12:30 lunch in the Gleason School gymnasium. Bob Owens acted as master of ceremonies with various other persons who have played important roles in Sanders’ life making brief comments.} 

_{“This is Your Life Butch”} 

_{In May of 1927 Charles A. Lindberg made the first Trans-Atlantic flight. But in Gleason, Tennessee some thirty days later, something bigger was to happen and sure enough it did. On a very hot night some 53 years ago unbeknown to anyone other than his parents and grandparents a happening took place that was later to touch and help mold the lives of thousands of boys and girls.} 

_{These happening took place on Noah Sanders Farm, where Liberty Apostolic Pentecostal Church now stands (to those who might not know where this is . . . it is the suburban area of Sandhill). Anyway, it was very hot and one minute before midnight on June 11, 1927. Dr. Goldsby of Gleason announced to Lucy Bell Huggins Sanders and the late Zebra Rokey Sanders “it’s a 9 pound 2 ounce curly-headed ugly boy.” It had been agreed months before that if it was a boy that he would be named James Dudley.} 

_{It was a fast changing world and five years later Rokey and Lucy Sanders migrated east toward Gleason settling at Ivo Edmonston Farm some three miles west of Gleason where James Dudley was to spend some five years enrolled at Parks school (the information given was it was not exactly a consolidated school). His teacher stated he was the only student she had that could read with the book upside down.} 

_{In 1936, one-fourth mile closer to Gleason on the farm still owned by Mama Lucy he broke three ribs trying to learn to plow with a rastus. Dudley also rode the tongue of a riding cultivator one entire afternoon with his big toe hung in a cultivator shank afraid to tell his dad about it for fear that his dad would make him get off and not let him ride anymore.} 

_{In 1938 Dudley and his family moved to the windy city of Chicago for 6 months then returned to Gleason. It seems Dudley didn’t like city life as a n eleven year old. (It was rumored that school wasn’t going too well for him in Chicago and that he didn’t get to play ball).} 

_{Dudley finished the 8th grade at Gleason in 1940 and started high school. He played football, basketball, baseball and participated in all sports.} 

_{December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Day was the start of World War II. Dudley was still in high school and employed by Bob Smyth at the City Drug Store for $3.00 per week. He worked before school in the mornings, after school in the afternoon, all day on Saturday and Sunday mornings sweeping the floor and running the soda fountain.} 

_{Graduation day in 1944 took place in the old study hall. He was voted Most Popular, Handsomest, Most Likely to Succeed, Best All Around and Most Athletic.} 

_{In the fall, tendering his resignation to the City Drug Store, this young man with stars in his eyes entered University of Tennessee Knoxville with his sights on an engineering degree. (He thought engineers were people who drove trains for the first two quarters he was there.)} 

_{In 1945, Uncle Sam called and it was “anchors aweigh” with the U.S. Navy for a hitch. After a Navy separation it was back to his first love, the City Drug Store for a short time. This hustling young man had been exposed to too much of the world – and he had many wild oats to sow. He ventured into the business world borrowing enough money to buy the Highway Café along with a partner Ray Maddox, presently a minister in Oak Ridge. It has been told that the two bought the café so each could be off ever other night and Mama Lucy could open up in the morning – not bad thinking and not bad hours.} 

_{Later he enrolled at the University of Tennessee - Martin lettering in football. He received his degree in June 1950 from Murray State University.} 

_{Some of the wild oats were about to be harvested on a hot July 5, 1950 the lovely and charming Martha Steele became Martha Sanders. The only prudent thing to do was to settle down. In the fall of 1950 Dudley accepted a position at the Gleason High School as teacher and coach.} 

_{Things were not as they should be as World War II turned out not to be the war to end all wars. The Korean war was hot and in the spring of 1951 it was a trip for Dudley to Fort Jackson, South Carolina with the U.S. Army Infantry division.}

_{This man was not one to waste time and at the base hospital in the sandy, pine tree Carolina country Martha Steele Sanders gave birth to a blond-headed boy that was to be called Kenny Joe. Dudley separated from the Army in 1953.He, Martha and Ken returned to Gleason.} 

_{May 1953, found Dudley unemployed and ignorant and this was the beginning of the Steele Plant Co. He started peddling sweet potatoes in a worn-out pick-up truck all the way from Gleason to Huntingdon, West Virginia and back. From this beginning the Steele Plant Company has grown to the point that they ship more orders of sweet potatoes than any other single company in the world, specializing in small orders. They now ship plants for such famous people as Gurney’s, Henry Fields Seed Company,  Jackson and Perkins, George Parks, Burpees, and others.} 

_{Later, Dudley returned to Gleason School to a teaching and coaching position. Things were still happening fast and improving all the time for on a hot August 28, 1958 a pretty little girl began to cry. She was to be called Anita Kay Sanders.} 

_{In 1961, the football and boys’ basketball coaching career of his man ended. It was said by many that he jumped out of the frying pan into the fire when he started a new career coaching girls’ basketball in 1967. In 1969 his girls’ teams lost only one ball game in regular season and had the second best record in the entire state. They represented Gleason in the state tournament for the first time in the history of Gleason High.} 

_{Time moved on for this many and on a hot June 10, 1973 Martha Sanders became a mother-in-law and Dudley a father-in-law. Ken Married Valerie Chapman. On October, 31, 1975 this lovely couple presented Martha and Dudley with their first grandchild, a boy, Bryan. Three years later on October 2, 1978 a sweet little daughter was born to this couple and named Kara Leigh Sanders. Granddaddy Butch and Grandmother Martha had two lovely grandchildren.} 

_{In December, after 30 years of unselfish and devoted service, Dudley resigned his teaching career and became the full time chief-executive officer of the Steele Plant Company at 105 South College Street in Gleason. He still desires to play ball, loves and appreciates his outstanding and devoted family and tries to beat his son, Ken, playing a few holes of golf when time permits.} 

_{Several persons praised Dudley Sanders for his outstanding leadership and guidance of his students. Among them were Jerry Simmons, Weakley County School Superintendent, J.T. Miles former Weakley County Superintendent now retired, Curtis Mayo from the American Legion Post 166, Murrell Finch from the Rotary Club, Dr. Robert M. Jeter who patched up his ball players during his coaching career, Frank Margraves, representing the First Methodist Church where Dudley is a Member, Dean Shaw former student and Ann Beasley a Gleason Gazelle. Ralph Adams was unable to be present.} 

_{Some of the comments were; “A good name is rather to be chosen that silver and gold.” “He has had more to do with molding the minds and character of boys and girls in this town than any other single person.” All the other wonderful comments said about his dedicated man were too many to be recorded.} 

_{Dudley Sanders helped organize and put into practice the first summer program for the youth in Gleason under the direction of the Rotary Club. It has been told he whittled out the bats and took up his money in a cigar box. Persons participating in the program or having children in the program as well as other persons acquainted with his summer recreation program have said the summer recreation is the best around – probably the best in the state. Many people ask “What is a good program?” “A good program is a program that works.”} 

_{Telegrams and letters were read from Congressman Ed Jones, House Speaker Ned Ray McWherter, Senator Howard Baker and Governor Lamar Alexander. The Governor also appointed James Dudley Sanders a Colonel on the Honorary Staff of the Governor.} 

_{In summing up Dudley’s life Bob Owens asked him what better testimony of his life he could want than hearing the sincere heartfelt words from his fellowmen. “What more could any man ask?”} 

_{In concluding, Mr Sanders thanked everyone for their kindness and presence. He commented briefly about his teaching and coaching career, summer recreation program and church. He thanked people for giving him a chance to do the things he wanted to do. He said he thought at Christmas when he retired the school wouldn’t be able to open up in January but it did, and that there wouldn’t be a graduating class but there is.} 

_{In closing Dudley had this to say; “To be honored by your own folks is the greatest thing of all. The Gleason School faculty presented Mr. Sanders with a gift and the Gleason Gazelles presented him with a handmade “Tater Box.”}