What I Know Now with Dwight Henry

Join Kosta and his guest: Dwight Henry, Former Tennessee House State Representative, Cookeville City Council Member, Mayor and Civil Servant to the State of Tennessee. Currently, Dwight serves as a Founding Member and Member at Large of IMPACT Leadership, an organization dedicated to the development and encouragement of civic minded leaders from underrepresented populations of our society to actively serve the betterment of the community and affect positive social change.

In this episode: As we go into the 2024 election year, tensions are high.  How do we come together as a community instead of two halves of a fractured system? Over a quarter of Cookeville residents are living in poverty. As someone that grew up in public housing and understands the struggles of the working poor, what’s your message to our state and local leaders on how we provide real opportunities for growth and development in this area? Cookeville is growing. Our city is changing whether we want to admit it or not. What is your advice to our local leaders and politicians that feel resistant to accommodating to those changes and think we can keep operating at the status quo?

Find out more about IMPACT Leadership:
https://impactleadershiptn.com/

Find out more about Dwight Henry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Henry_(politician)

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media and recorded in Cookeville, TN.

This episode of Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is made possible by our partners at Loxx Salon and Spa.

Find out more about Loxx Salon and Spa:
https://loxxsalon.net/

Transcript

Kosta Yepifantsev: 0:05

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Dwight Henry: 0:50

but I learned that when there is an issue, whatever it is, in fact, we need disagreement. We need healthy debate. If every single vote on our city council was five oh, then four of us are not leaving. If every vote is five oh then somebody's not thinking.

Morgan Franklin: 1:07

Welcome to Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev, a podcast on parenting business and living life intentionally. We're here every week to bring you thoughtful conversation, making your own path to success, challenging the status quo, and finding all the ways we're better together. Here's your host, Kosta Yepifantsev.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 1:26

Hey, y'all, it's Kosta. today. I'm here with my guest, Dwight Henry, former Tennessee House State Representative Cookeville. City council member, Mayor and civil servant to the state of Tennessee. Dwight, you've had a long career of unexpected victories and taking the path less traveled from flipping the 42nd district from Democrat to Republican in 1988, to becoming the youngest elected mayor of Cookeville, to representing the upper Cumberland as a founding member of impact leadership, what's most inspired you as a change maker in this community?

Dwight Henry: 2:02

First of all, thank you for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here. It's a lot of fun. I look forward to it. You know, in terms of inspiration, I guess I'm gonna have to say honestly, people, I mean, people throughout my life, and I could elaborate on a lot of them. You know, my dad became disabled when I was very young. I was six years old, not as good man, you know, church, growing man, good man. But he had a nervous breakdown. He was in a mental institution for the rest of his life. So I had a mother that raised myself as an oldest child and two sisters by herself. And she not only you know, she taught me how to live but she she showed me I mean, and I couldn't have imagined even then the pressure she must have been under because you know, back in those days, Daddy's went up and went to work and momma's had babies and 10 and a half months after they got married, I was here. And the next year, my sister two years later, my sister and all of a sudden she had three to raise by herself. So as I look back on my life, I'd say she's such an inspiration to me, I had a grandmother that by called Molly, she just spoke into my life. So well, she's with the law. And now she passed away when she was nine, he just cannot overemphasize the inspiration she had on the speech teacher. And when I was a junior in high school, just saw me fail so many times at public speaking, but still pulled me over and just put me under her wing and said, There's something in you that you don't know, you've got something inside you and I'm gonna help pull it out. And she did. And I'll never ever, ever forget her for that Pat Sutherland. I had a pastor that knew that my dad was disabled, I started going to church there, he put his arm around me and put some good things in my life. And then I'll have to say, you know, at the core of all of that is my faith. I really do believe that you and me and everybody we were put here with gifts and talents and abilities and skills, to not only be blessed with but to be a blessing we were put here for a purpose and design. And when we plug into that we can enjoy the life that God minister have. So it's all those things and more that that's really been a source of information for me my whole life.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 4:00

Now, you grew up in Sweetwater Yes, and you move to Cookeville to go to Tennessee Tech

Dwight Henry: 4:06

actually moved to Athens for sins, okay, I went to high school in Athens and I'm in County Cherokee, then I actually went to school at Cleveland State Community College. Nobody had ever gone to college in my family before. So we were just kind of a new thing for us. So had a community college not been there, I probably would not have gone and then finished it Cleveland State after two years and moved to Cookeville go to check, what do you major in History and Political Science and initial prize?

Kosta Yepifantsev: 4:32

So I mean, you were one of the youngest mayor's in Cookeville history, and it's scary. Well, you know, and it's we're going to talk a little bit about 2024 Because it's an election year and, you know, obviously, it's a hyper charged atmosphere, but I'm just curious before we get to that, why did you want to run for office in Cookeville?

Dwight Henry: 4:53

You know, my grandfather, who I did not mention on the other side of my family just told me son you are always vote, do not miss a chance to but I mean, he had me to the point where I thought there was like voter police who would come and get you. If you didn't vote yes vote. So that got in. And somehow I always knew, even when I was in Athens in high school, I remember the first time I went to a voting booth, instead of buttons were pushed, there were levers that we pulled, and I walked in networks, all those names, and I just knew that somehow, somewhere, my name would be on there. And I'd be learning from it for something I just knew that I had a love for public service early in life, ran for student about our freshman class president college and served there and ran for student body president taking serve there. And it just always been in my bloodstream. And I came to realize that it matters, who pushes those buttons, it matters, who sits on those chairs, it really matters. And their votes have an impact on us more than we know, every day. And I heard somebody say once I'm a three kinds of people, you know, people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who say what happened. And I wanted to be one of the people who helped things happen.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 6:03

As we go into the 2024. election year, tensions are high. There's no way to gloss over it. And I think you're someone uniquely qualified to answer this question. How do we come together as a community instead of two halves of a fractured system,

Dwight Henry: 6:19

or that has a successor we used to say, $64 question. And we talked about this just a little bit earlier, we have to realize, regardless of which side of the aisle we're on, there's power in words. And let me give you a quick example that many times on the three terms I served on city council, we sit in close proximity with each other, I mean, shoulder to shoulder, we're up there, you know, all five of it's pretty quick. And sometimes you may be in strong disagreement on an issue with a guy sitting right next to you, and the guy sitting on the other side of you. And you may be pouring out your passion and your ideas. And he may be he is. And it might get to the point. Now, if I did that, and I left that meeting, depending on how the vote went, and I said that guy Bob next to me, what's he thinking about? What's his IQ, what's going on, you know, and call him Orca. And it's not going to be long before it gets back to him. Which is because he disagrees with me, doesn't mean he has a low IQ, or he's a buffoon, or he's a nut job, just because we don't see each other out. And on both sides of the aisle, there's too much of that going on. Words are containers. And when they get out there, they stay out there. We have to watch our words, things start with a thought an idea that needs to come towards what I learned to do over not just months and years, but having the opportunity to serve on city council not just centuries, but through millenniums. You know, from the 1980s until 2018 Yeah, you know, off and on. I was on the whole time. But I learned that when there was an issue, whatever it is, in fact, we need disagreement, right? We need healthy debate. If every single vote on our city council was five oh, then four of us are not needed. Right? If every vote is five, oh, then somebody's not thinking. So what I learned to do is if we're in one of those intense discussions, when the meeting is over, the gavel is sanded off, stand up. And if the guy next to me didn't see that issue, just like I saw it, I stuck my hand out to him and said, It's just business. We disagreed this time, we might agree next time, but it's not about me and you. It's not about who you are. It's not about him. It's just business. And I think that's kind of a principle and a practice that if that was done at every level of government more and more. It's just business. This is just an issue. This isn't about you as a person. This is just how I see this issue. This is how you see it is you it's done. It's over. You won the vote, or I won the vote, but we move on. And that may be oversimplifying to a degree, but I think that would help.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 8:41

Yeah, it'll definitely lower the temperature. Yeah. All right. But urge Bert with regards to the difference, you know, serving on the city council versus serving as a house representative. Yeah. What was that, like? I'm

Dwight Henry: 8:54

a firm believer that the closer government is to you, the more effective it is. The closer government is to home, the more bang for the buck that people get city, state federal city council, I mentioned already there five of us. If you can get an idea or something passed on two consecutive meetings, with three votes, you can get it done. You get to the legislature, you've got two houses, you've got 99 representative, you've got 33 senators, if you have a perspective, Bill, let's say it's an education bill, it goes to the education Subcommittee on Higher Education, then to the Education Committee. If it costs money, then it goes to the fiscal review committee, then it goes to the calendar committee, and then it's got to be voted on by the house. And then it's gotta go through the same process in the Senate side. If it gets amended anywhere along the way. There's got to be a joint conference committee to come and bring together those amendments and make it work just exactly the same. And then it's got to pass in both houses, and then it's got to survive the toe the governor, so it's a lot more complicated and a lot more slow. And granted a lot of bad bills do that. We'd get routed out that way. But the process of government, the further it gets away, the slower it is, the more detailed and the longer it takes to get things done. That's the biggest notice was

Kosta Yepifantsev: 10:09

that your reasoning for only serving one term was the pace of legislation just not being able to move as fast? No,

Dwight Henry: 10:18

I actually, the reason that I just serve one term is I decided to run for governor. Okay. And then not to 90, I was a Republican nominee for governor. And I wasn't really the best known candidate, the best finance candidate, not in terms of name recognition. But I didn't know that the sitting governor, for fact, had been up there for two years, was going to propose a state income tax, which I knew would not be good for Tennessee. But he had been speaker for so long and been in that position for so long. I knew he'd get resistance, but he might have been able to pull it off. And it was a fight worth fighting. Somebody had to get out there and voice that. And I traveled to a lot of the 95 counties trying to say, Hey, I'm opposed to a state income tax. Ask him if he is. And that's the issue that I tried to address, unfortunately, fell a little short in that race, but we still don't have a state income tax.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 11:04

That's right. Listen, you've done a lot. Well, I've done a lot. You've served as a representative of the upper Cumberland, both on a state and a local stage. Is there anything you wish voters knew?

Dwight Henry: 11:18

I guess at the top of that list would be I wish voters understood how important their vote is. I don't think we've got a good grasp of that, that particularly on a federal level where there's so many swing states and so much close votes, but I'll give you a quick example of it. The first time I ran for city council was elected mayor, there was a lady who you may or may not have heard of running was Joan Tencel. Joan tanjil, ran for city council, there were 14 of us running for city council. Five of us are going to be elected. John had been active in some of the things but she wasn't really didn't have all that much name recognition. Her husband and we're standing right up here on the corner of the courthouse with a sign in his hand said vote for John Townsend for city council. Well, three or four people combined should wins for the election. Well, that was the day before early voting. And he said today. So I said well go vote. They went to vote. And Joan Tandel. One and got on city council about three votes. Wow. Three, she finished number five, but three votes could have been those three people pass. Yeah, it was three votes. Yeah. And I started with her. She was on the council when I was mayor, great lady, wonderful citizens. She passed away since then. And then she ran the next time, she was the very first woman ever to be elected to City Council in Cookeville, Tennessee. Oh, wow, that was 1988. She won by three votes. The next time she ran, of course, the city council picks the mayor and vice mayor based on him in the vote. So yet, the next time she ran, she finished second in about getting she was vice mayor of Cookeville for three years on May. So I mean, I could tell story after story. But Your vote matters, right. So that's what I wish people would know more about. And

Kosta Yepifantsev: 12:52

they have to vote because Tennessee as a state is one of the lowest if not the lowest in terms of voter turnout. And so we've got to get more people civically engaged. I mean, you've got early voting, it's like a whole month long process where you can go at any point, you can find the time to go and vote. And I'll tell you, I'm not picking sides on this topic. But I will say one of the best ways to govern is with a balanced legislature, and also a diverse set of government branches. So whether it's executive or legislative, judicial, whatever it might be, we don't have that balance right now. But through voting, we could create that balance and people would feel a lot more represented with that balance. And so at to your point going and voting is paramount next year. If

Dwight Henry: 13:45

fewer and fewer people vote, we overtime become a different kind of government. Yes, we really don't have a representative democracy. We have something else. Yeah. And we don't want that. We want that with a representative democracy that we enjoy. Now. Over

Kosta Yepifantsev: 13:58

a quarter of Cookeville residents are living in poverty. As someone that grew up in public housing, and understands the struggles of the working poor. What's your message to our state and local leaders on how we provide real opportunities for growth and development in this area?

Dwight Henry: 14:16

Well, first of all, as I mentioned earlier, having a father who's disabled and all of a sudden their world is upside down. And we are candidates for welfare. We're candidates for public housing, we're all of that my mother took an ironing, babysit that all she could. But I would say to folks involved in government, number one, the resources that government provides, let's make it user friendly. For example, from the time I was six years old, when my dad became disabled till the time I was 16. We didn't have a car. I mean, we did not have a car and we didn't have a car until I got to be 16 years old, worked all summer and bought one. That's how we got our first card. So if we had resources that were available to us or services that were available to us, and they were in four or five or six different places in our country At work from place to place. So Let's always be thinking about how we can make those resources and those services and those goods more user friendly, more accessible. And let's have staff people that don't look down on folks who need those services. But realize, hey, you're there, because you have somebody who needs you there. So let's have people who are user friendly, too. But we've got to remember also, we do not want to make these programs that the government provides for the most part. Now I understand as a hospice chaplain, that there's some folks you're going to be help for a long, long time in certain kinds of resources. But we don't want to make these programs just enabling programs. Most of them are designed to be a safety net and not a mattress. But we can turn the system into a mattress if we're not careful. And I could go back now to Clem, Jones heights, public housing, housing projects, I have to instantly and knock on the door of some of those apartments and find people my age are still there. It's become generational, right? Sometimes it has to be I get that. But more often than not, is because of the system that has let it become like a mattress. You know, when they said to my mother, well, you know, your kid, you're old enough to work now. But if they work and make this income, your rents gonna go up, your food's gonna go down, your medical coverage is gonna go down. A lot of mothers would say, Well, my kids and I go to work. My mom has said, my kids are gonna work, she moved out into a little house. And she said, kids, this is temporary for you. This was a safety net for you. We thankful that it's here. But it's not what your life has to be in. Thank the Lord. For me and my two sisters, life wasn't like that, because she had the initiative to get out. So let's don't make a day. And the final thing I would say his in addition to make it accessible, don't make it a mantra is that it's not all government's job. As a government, let's find ways to partner with churches, with nonprofit organizations, families have some responsibility. I know the city of Kupo. I'm sure this is still the case. We take a pot of money every year, and we put it into a special account for nonprofit organizations. And we have a Citizens Committee that we've appointed, and they come to that committee with their needs and with their situation. And they make their case much like United Way used to do and from the city. We distribute funds to nonprofits every year, things like that. But we need to encourage we need to educate and realize it's not all the government's job.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 17:26

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Dwight Henry: 18:16

So make it slow or slow.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 18:21

So we had an interview with Megan Spurgeon who runs in power you see, and she's the one that's administering the TANF grant for bringing 1600 children out of poverty. And as we're talking to her, she says that 80% of these people that are participating in the program are single mothers with two or more children. And here's the kicker, they work full time. And here's the real kicker, they're making an average of $14 an hour and still qualifying for these benefits. I guess from your perspective, why did we design a system that allows you to make a substandard not a living wage, but then still be subsidized by government spending entitlement programs, when the majority of the businesses in our community? I mean, statistically, they don't pay $20 an hour, they pay somewhere in the range of 13 to 16. But those people are still collecting benefits. So what needs to change? Do businesses need to pay more so people don't qualify for those benefits? Or do we need to cut spending on those benefits so that businesses are then left to essentially pick up the tab? Wow,

Dwight Henry: 19:35

that is that is a good question. And I'm not sure that I have a totally good answer to some of that. You'd have to call back Lyndon B. Johnson and his Harvard he would have to ask him a society where that test in that question, but we have to look at everything what's causing inflation. My wife and I Republican grocery can't say Publix in general. Okay, and I'm looking at Campbell's Soup, dollar 99 cents. I remember when we used to get it for 33 cents, and I really you can't go back to those days, you know, my dad was one of the easy smoked, I mean, camels, the unfiltered camels, 33 cents a pack all, but what's causing all this? Because every time wage goes up, then they're gonna pass that to the consumer. So how do we break that cycle? I don't know that I have the answer to that. I think probably, it's a balance of both. But for sure, we need to have a system and be more moving more and more to it, which educates and motivates and doesn't enable and generationally keep people there year after year after year, generation after generation, because as I say, I can go back and probably knock on the door of the apartment that I lived in and know the person that opens the door because of generational poverty.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 20:42

Campbell's soup was $1, like four years ago, or whatever. Yeah. So you want to talk about inflation, that is significant, I'll tell you, it's most of it is contributed to a wage price spiral. Yeah. And as wages, like you said, his wages go up, prices go up. And we have to find a way to dilute the workforce, to be able to increase the supply of workers so that we can meet the demand, and that stabilizes pricing. But you have to have a plentiful supply of workers so that you can then you can essentially pay a lower wage a more commensurate wage, and then prices will start to go down as demand and supply balance

Dwight Henry: 21:21

and work at that balance is an ongoing challenge. Well, we

Kosta Yepifantsev: 21:24

don't have the workers, the workers, they just literally aren't they don't exist. So the only way that you're going to attract enough individuals is through a immigration reform policy. But that's another topic for another day. Let's talk about impact leadership. For our listeners who are unfamiliar, this organization seeks to develop and encourage civic minded leaders from underrepresented populations of our society to actively serve the betterment of the community and affect positive social change. As a former state representative, and Mayor, what is this mission mean to you?

Dwight Henry: 22:02

The older I get, the more I realize, almost everything, everything rises and falls on leadership. If you're talking about a family, if you're talking about a business, if you're talking about a nonprofit, if you're talking about a church, if you're talking about government, it rises and falls on leadership, and what is the vision of the leadership? What's a character, the leadership or the virtues of leadership, where it's a goes with a leadership, that's going to trickle down, that's going to trickle through every organization, and what impact leadership and the reason I was delighted when Cindy initially asked me to be on the board at the very beginning, was that we are sowing seed, if you will, into not only your future leaders, but we're developing, we're growing, we're cultivating we're incubating. And we're motivating leaders and future leaders so that that leadership will stay in place. It's like a minor league team, you're moving to the bigs all the time. And if you keep doing that long enough with a rat pilot, kind of people aren't going to motivate. It doesn't guarantee that you'll have leadership in your community, in the nonprofits, in the churches in the government, but it sure does enhance the chances. And so that's what it means to me is continually growing and grooming good leadership, because I think everything rises and falls here.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 23:15

So obviously, you know, impact leadership and the Putnam County Republican Party, you're a Republican. Yes. Cindy, if I'm not mistaken, is also a Republican. She was the chair of the Putnam County Republican Party. Two terms. And there's just this like, really weird a are now between the relationship of impact leadership in the Putnam County Republican Party. So here you are on the impact leadership side, and people continue to fire shots, and you're like, Hey, man, like, I'm a Republican, you know, you know, and they say, Well, he's just a rhino or whatever. But, I mean, how does this make you feel you were wrapped? You were mayor, you were on the city council longer than the majority of people that serve I mean, you've been a public servant your entire life, and you're saying words matter? And you're saying that we have to come together as a community? I mean, I guess if you just want to, you don't have to, but if you could say something to the Putnam County Republican Party to maybe lower the temperature or to just, you know, put a ceasefire out there, and what would it be? Again,

Dwight Henry: 24:28

and I'm not sure why that was sort of the genesis of this about at all. You know, I heard that somebody said that somebody said and and then Cindy said, and then the chairman of the party said and all that, first of all, I still consider myself Republican, I struggled to Republican meetings. And those those topics never come up. But again, it gets back to and then I know Cindy, God bless you. I went to her wedding over in South Carolina not too long ago. She's She's great friend, wonderful friend. I've got friends in the Republican Party. This just got to message finally I said to Cindy, is this the mount You want to down? Is this really worth your effort, energy and time and consuming? Now I'm not saying what was said should not have been saved, because I'm not sure what it was. I not even know what it was. But evidently she didn't receive it well, and maybe it was inappropriate. Maybe it was not right. But it's a shame that people it's like a, you know, being a pastor and chaplain and hospice, not like, it's for like college, like a good old fashioned church split. You know, you're kind of about the same mission, but somebody said something that somebody didn't agree with, and all of a sudden, you're going a different direction. I think it's sad that it happened. I don't know that anybody will ever totally get over it, whatever it was, but I wish as much as possible. Okay, this happened, it shouldn't have happened. I'm gonna lay it down and move on. I'm gonna lay it down and move on. And I guess, right now, that's probably the best way to handle it. It just move on

Kosta Yepifantsev: 25:49

was it was a political strategy. I personally, like I mean, I'm a pragmatist. So I look at things from like, what's the point kind of deal? Yeah. And I'm thinking, okay, you've got people that are running for city council, you've got people that are running for county commission, you've got to peel off a couple 100 votes. So political strategy dictates that you're going to have to create some type of information campaign. And that's what the Putnam County Republican Party did. And it peeled off a couple 100 votes, and they got the outcomes that they want it. So anybody listening to this? Vote? Vote? Yeah. Oh, create balance through voting?

Dwight Henry: 26:27

Yeah. Great or good? We've got to think about the great what's the greater good, exactly what's the greater good? And is the greater good, because to stay right here and get stuck in this? You know, sometimes? That's my story. And I'm sticking to it. Yeah. Sometimes it says my story, and I'm stuck in it. So we got to get unstuck.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 26:43

Well said, Cookeville is growing, our city is changing whether we want to admit it or not. What is your advice to our local leaders and politicians that feel resistant to accommodating those changes and think we need to keep operating at the status quo?

Dwight Henry: 26:59

Well, it's unrealistic not to accept the fact that I may change is inevitable. In our God said to me that he was a graduate of an impact leadership, he said, Change is always changing. I'm not sure if I understand fully what that means. But there's some truth in it, you know. So we've got to accept the fact that we're not used to somebody who's coming to Coupal. To see me, I would just simply say this, get off any exit, call me where you are. And I'll be there in 10 minutes, no matter where they were, I could get there. And Tim, I can't do that anymore. Right? And is that necessarily a bad thing? No, it's not, we've got to embrace it, we've got to think that doesn't mean we have to change our core values. That doesn't mean we have to change who we are and what we believe. But it does mean no, we need to change the acceptance of people. We've got all kinds of folks coming in here. Now. In fact, this happens to me every two or three days, I'll talk to somebody where are you from? Or, you know, how did you find Cookeville? Having Cookeville? Find you, right? What do you like most about it? And they talked about the hospital, they talk about, you know, the likes, and they talk about the university and they talk but you know, the short list, everybody shortlisted worth it hard, but the people, the people are so friendly. And see, the challenge is, how do we embrace that change those changes that are going to be necessary for growth, and at the same time, not lose the qualities of what brought people here in the first place. We're either here or they came while they're staying. It's a challenge in government. But we can't just stay locked into the way we used to do things or old delivery systems and old ideas, that is unreal, that's not going to happen.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 28:28

Everybody's number one point is they want higher paying jobs. I mean, you talk to anybody you throw a stone in that person's gonna say I want you know, higher paying jobs. The only way you get higher paying jobs is if you expand the economy, the only way to expand the economy is to either invest in local entrepreneurs, or bring companies that are going to also bring people with them, because there's obviously not enough of a workforce to be able to fulfill their expectations. There's just no other roads that lead to higher paying jobs, then growth and with growth, there's problems but obviously, it's a necessary problem to overcome. And I think as a community and specifically as leadership, we have the stomach to overcome those problems.

Dwight Henry: 29:17

And I would say this, this was a great community this was a giving comedians dancers an incredible and I liked the way you phrase it we do have the stomach we do have the heart we do have the will is going to happen one way or the other. So let's embrace it rested, elegant as a chance to grow and mature and let's don't lose who we are we do or what we believe. But let's find the best way to make it a positive thing and an opportunity for growth.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 29:41

Yeah, and I announced I'll say this in closing, it's kind of like what Marty McFly said on Back to the Future, you know, and when he's at the dance at the under the sea dance, and he's playing Johnny be good on the guitar and everybody looks at him like he's got five heads. And he looks up and he's, you know, surveying the landscape and he said So, you guys probably aren't ready for this. Don't worry, your kids are gonna love it.

Dwight Henry: 30:08

I saw the anniversary they showed that a couple years ago whenever it came out 930 years ago first time 85 Or something that long, maybe longer. They're almost 40 years. I used to play Johnny be good as an old rock'n'roll dish yaki really W L AR and Athens, Tennessee. That was my high school. Job. Yeah,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 30:26

I love it. Finally, you've dedicated your life to the betterment and enrichment of the upper Cumberland, when you look back at all the ways Cookeville has changed over the last 50 years. What are you most proud of? You

Dwight Henry: 30:37

know, again, I get back to this. I'm most proud of the people. You know, the first time I was, I was 32 years old. You know, in Cookeville. You don't run for mayor as you know, you run for city council and Tradition has it? It doesn't have to be that way. But the council elects a mayor and traditionally elected top vote getter. It could pick anybody but they traditionally like the top vote getter. Well, I would just work into the top Bob man I hadn't been I'm thinking give me top five. And as it turned out, I ended up being the top vote getter and not only didn't have one city council meeting, I barely knew where the bathroom was in City Hall. I didn't. But I had folks like Luther mantha city manager, chick, Colin electric department, McCoy, Shelton, Ricky, Shelton's bad fire department. Those people had some time they had some gray hair. They helped me folks, it takes a team. It takes up government, it takes a nonprofit, it takes the churches, it takes the businesses, it takes the citizens it just takes a team. And I guess the thing that I'm most proud I mean, I could talk about a leisure service has been established while I was mayor, I'm really proud of that and new police facility and those kinds of things that happen is projects and, and I'm sure I'm proud of him, not that I had a lot of people involved. But the people who made it happen really are what I'm most proud of.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 31:46

We ended where we started. That's fantastic. It's the best type of episode. We always like to end the show on a high note. Who is someone that makes you better when you're together? That's

Dwight Henry: 31:59

pretty easy. Actually. My wife, Kathy, on her heavier today, she weighs a little less than 100 pounds soaking wet, but half of its heart. She's got the biggest heart of anybody and no, she's always saying Hey, I heard that someone's always sick. Let's reach out to them. So and so's going through this I'm gonna make them a banana pudding. You know, those kinds of things her heart just just when I'm around her and I just catch the influence of her heart. That always makes me a better person.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 32:28

Thank you to our partners at Loxx Salon and Spa for presenting this episode. Loxx is an Aveda Concept Salon providing the highest quality in hair, skin and nail services, from extensions, coloring, facials, and microblading, Loxx is your beauty destination. To find out more visit their website at loxxsalon.net

Morgan Franklin: 32:47

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev. If you've enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. Leave us a review or better yet, share this episode with a friend. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin post production mixing and editing by Mike Franklin. Want to know more about Kosta visit us at kostayepifantsev.com. We're better together. We'd like to remind our listeners that the views and opinions expressed during this episode are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of this show its producers or any related entities or advertisers. While our discussions may touch on various topics of interest, please note that the content is intended to inspire thought provoking dialogue and should not be used for a substitute for professional advice.Specifically, nothing heard on this podcast should be construed as financial, legal, medical or any other kind of professional advice. We encourage our listeners to consult with a professional in these areas for guidance tailored to their specific circumstances.