Homecoming ’86 Celebrated in Every Corner of Tennessee

Forty years ago, communities across Tennessee were preparing for celebrations. Some towns planned a parade, some a party, some an outdoor drama.

The event was called Homecoming ’86, and it was introduced by Gov. Lamar Alexander at his second inaugural speech in January 1983. “Let’s have our own kind of Tennessee Homecoming,” he said. “Let’s all come home to the values that make our Tennessee so special. The first step is for each community to take a look at itself to decide what is unique.

“Turn off the television and start interviewing your grandparents on their front porch while you still can.”

The Alexander administration produced a 30-minute video explaining what they had in mind. (You can find this video on YouTube if you do a video search under the words “Tennessee Homecoming 1986.”) Minnie Pearl and Alex Haley, the honorary chairs of Homecoming ’86, starred in the video, which featured a catchy country song called “Come Home, Tennessee.” Peter Jenkins, who had moved to Tennessee after writing a best-selling book called A Walk Across America, was also featured in the video.

The planning phase of Homecoming ’86 took about three years. Every town appointed a committee, which met and discussed what type of project they should create. In many cases, nominees for projects were listed in local newspapers, and there were debates about which projects to organize.

More than 750 towns — over half of which were unincorporated — put on some sort of project. Some invited people who grew up there to a reunion. Others held a festival. Others renovated abandoned school buildings and converted them into community centers. Folks planted trees and cleaned up old cemeteries. Hundreds of public schools held Homecoming ’86 reunions.

Here are some of the more interesting examples:

Since 1986 was the 200th anniversary of David Crockett’s birth, Limestone held a three-day celebration that included folk singing, a living history fair and a film festival.

The Nashville-area community of Madison revived an event called “Hillbilly Days.”

Dover, in Stewart County, held a street fair.

Among the many public schools that presented Homecoming ’86 plays were Bluff City Elementary School in Sullivan County, West LaFollette Elementary School in Campbell County, Reeves-Rogers Elementary School in Rutherford County and St. Bethlehem Elementary School in Montgomery County.

Alex Haley and Minnie Pearl were the statewide co-chairs of Homecoming ’86.
Tennessee State Library and Archives photo

Two of the many gatherings that were part of Homecoming ’86. Tennessee State Library and Archives photos

A shirt sold at the World’s Largest Pajama Party in Manchester. Tyson Andrew Holder photo

A crowd waits to tour the official Homecoming ’86 train in Memphis. Vanderbilt University Special Collections photo

The Carroll County town of McLemoresville staged a “back to basics” day, with people demonstrating churning butter, making lye soap and carding cotton.

Camden held a bass tournament.

The Lincoln County community of Boonshill held a parade and crafts fair and raised enough money to buy a fire truck.

Ashland City had a fish fry.

Folks in Crockett County’s Frog Jump community held a festival complete with a frog-jumping contest and frog legs dinner.

Waverly held a peanut jubilee.

The Shelby County community of Lakeland held a sailing regatta and ice cream social.

Whiteville, in Hardeman County, held a “Golden Age Tent Show.”

Franklin County native Dinah Shore was the celebrity guest at Winchester’s Crimson Clover Parade.

Residents of the Stewart community of Houston County held a weekend-long event featuring a softball game, bonfire, bluegrass music, hog calling contest and tobacco spitting contest.

The people of the Bedford County town of Bell Buckle planted daffodils along an 8-mile stretch of Sawney Webb Road.

Residents of Knoxville’s Forest Brook neighborhood held a homecoming event where people toured the homes in which they grew up.

Perhaps the most heavily publicized of all the Homecoming ’86 events was in Manchester. Since Coffee County had two pajama manufacturers, its residents put on the “World’s Largest Pajama Party and ’50s Dance” attended by 8,000 people. The event included a bed race, three-legged pajama race, a pajama fashion show and a pillow fight.

Today, members of a Facebook group of Manchester natives remember the pajama party with great fondness.

“I won the Hula-Hoop contest,” says Shannon Bramblett Burke.

“I had a puppy who won the dog in pj’s contest,” recalls Beth Jackson McLean.

“A ‘Good Morning, America’ reporter interviewed me in my office,” says Regina Stone Armstrong.

“My family had a bed in the bed race,” says Flora Lester.

“The Pajama Party was the best and most fun Manchester has ever had,” says Joyce McGowan Johnson.

Homecoming ’86 culminated with a passenger train that went from Bristol to Memphis, passing through cities such as Chattanooga and Nashville and towns such as Morristown and Bruceton. As it stopped along the way, thousands of people greeted the train to hear dignitaries and see a group of young people called the “Homecoming ’86 Dancers” perform a short show.

Since about $8 million in state taxpayer money was spent on Homecoming ’86, the event had its critics. “Residents of Tennessee are nearly halfway through an orgy of self-discovery, self-help, self-promotion and self-congratulations,” the Chicago Tribune said. “Tennessee Homecoming ‘86, they call it.” It was also sometimes hard to tell the difference between a Homecoming ’86 event and a political rally for Lamar Alexander and Winfield Dunn, who was campaigning (unsuccessfully, it turned out) to replace him as governor.

But Alexander says it was a success — not just in the fun that people had — but in what it did to Tennes-see’s image. “The idea was to inspire Tennesseans to celebrate what they actually were and not what they weren’t,” he says.

“At that time, Nashville was still embarrassed about being Music City. Memphis wanted to be more like Nashville. Knoxville was still complaining about being ‘Scruffy City’ (a name given by a Wall Street Journal article). Chattanooga was still reeling from Walter Cronkite calling it ‘the dirtiest city in America.’ The Tri-Cities felt left out. And so on.”

In fact, Alexander considers Homecoming ’86 to be one of the biggest two things he did as governor (along with the recruitment of the car industry). “When you find something in your past and in your community to celebrate, then you have a better self-image. And if you have a better self-image, you will set higher goals and achieve better things.”

NEXT MONTH: The long-term remnants of Homecoming ’86.

One of the many Homecoming ’86 parades.
Vanderbilt University Special Collections photo