The Henry Family was recently inducted in the Lincoln County High School Hall of fame. Here is the story of the Henry's and how they came to Lincoln County.
It was 1958 when Bob Henry moved his family from Bowling Green, Ky., to Fayetteville, Tenn., so that he could work on the Redstone Arsenal. With the move, his wife, Martha, would go to work for NASA and experience the early days of the space program. The two had been high school sweethearts – she was a cheerleader and he played basketball. That’s where their love of sports and community began.
What would follow, though, would be a lifetime dedicated to high school athletics and community in Lincoln County. And it wouldn’t stop there. Their son, Paul, would also become known for his love of sports and community.
Flashback to the 1960s and old Central High School. On any given night, Bob would load the family up, stop for a sack of burgers, and head to a ballgame … It might have been football or it could have been basketball, but the fact was, the Tigers were playing somewhere, and the Henrys' were going to be there. Many times, Bob and Martha would also host teams and their coaches for dinner at their house.
This simply became a way of life for the Henry family. Their support of high school athletics continued through the ‘70s, and when Lincoln County High School opened in the fall of 1979 and the Falcons began to take flight, the Henrys were very much on board. While they understood the impact of a consolidated high school on smaller communities within our county, they also appreciated the promise of what the future might hold for students at this new high school, academically and athletically.
In the fall of 1981, we’d host our first football game out here in The Pit – what is now Meadows-Thompson Stadium. At that same time, the Falcon Club was formed, and Bob and Martha were charter members. They were, in every sense of the word, Super Falcons. Martha served as the club’s president in 1984-85 and again in 1990-91. And Bob, referred to as “Chief” by generations of Falcon players, videotaped practices and games for the coaching staff and players to review, marked off the field, and helped get the stadium ready by pressure washing the concrete stands each year. He often used a week’s vacation from his job on the arsenal to attend football camp and work the Falcon Rock Café during the Fair.
In 2001, Bob was honored with the TSSAA’s A.F. Bridges Award for “Contributor of the Year”. At that time, he had maintained a 270-game perfect attendance streak. That streak continued until October of 2003 when he sustained a traumatic brain injury from a fall at Coffee County’s football stadium while setting up to tape the game. The fall also came just three weeks after the Henrys lost their daughter, Brenda, to cancer.
It was a tough time, but athletics and community continued to be a mainstay in their lives. Paul, who is and has always been an avid supporter of local sports, would often shoot half of the Falcon football game on Friday nights and then drive back to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga to be with his mom and dad. The support of this community, his love for the game and the kids, and his desire to “capture the moment” kept him going.
And when his parents celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2010, what better way to celebrate than with a tailgate party at The Pit before the Riverdale game.
Paul has always enjoyed photography and sharing with anyone with an interest in the field. Through the years he's photographed countless historic events in our community and at a variety of locations.
Still, he’ll tell you, “It’s all about the kids” … And I have a feeling, no I’m sure of it, Bob and Martha would tell you the same thing.
