World War II had ended with the Victory in Europe (May 8, 1945) and Victory over Japan in the Pacific Theater (Aug. 14-15, 1945). As most of the United States Armed Forces returned home, a sense of normalcy returned to Chattanooga although tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics increased.
One year later, Chattanooga area high schools had identified 27 students who would attend Tennessee Volunteers Boys’ State at Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tn. from June 4-11. Tennessee’s Boys’ State program had begun in 1939, sponsored by The American Legion with individual student sponsorships provided by local groups, with a stated purpose of Involving the selected rising high school senior young men in a participatory program where each gains knowledge about local, county and state government, hopefully resulting in informed, engaged citizenship once reaching a voting age.
The names from the 1946 roster features several future Chattanooga leaders.
The 1946 Boys’ State attendees from Chattanooga were: James Vernon Pitts, Hixson; Howard Lee Frumin, Lawrence David Levine, Roy Korn Block, Herbert Bruce Tabb, William W. Martin, Jr., Baylor; J. L. Roberts, Tyner High; John Martin Rungee, William Brotbeck and John Kaiser, Kirkman Vocational High; Gene Austin Mealor, David Charles Hafley and Glenn G. Miller, Chattanooga Central; Theodore Nelson Graves, Soddy-Daisy High; Larry Everett Hale and Raymond L. Craig, McCallie; Richard Royal, Harry Carpenter, Richard Corley, Roy Leslie Howard, James Browning, Charles Perkins and Charles Acquardo, Chattanooga High; Joe Delaney, Notre Dame and Jimmy Reich, Jimmy Thurston and Spencer Gass, Chattanooga High.
Among the organizations sponsoring the young men were: the Elks Club, Nancy Ward Chapter, NSDAR; Jewish Community Center; Mizpah Temple Brotherhood; B’nai Zion Congregation; B’nai B’rith Lodge; Chickamauga Chapter, NSDAR; Summers-Whitehead American Legion Post # 14; Legion Luncheon Club; Exchange Club; American Legion Post # 14 Auxiliary; James Craig Loder Post, American Legion; Voiture of 40 et 8; Chattanooga Rotary Club; Junior Chamber of Commerce; Knights of Columbus; American Business Club; YMCA; Brock Class, Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church, the Alhambra Temple and the Cherokee Council, Boy Scouts of America (Charles Peacock, Chair, Dave W. Evans, Jr., Fred Hetzler and Jerry Sprayberry).
The Tennessee Volunteer Boys’ State program continues today, on the campus of Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville since 1965, hosted by the American Legion while in 1947, the Volunteer Tennessee Girls’ State Program was added.
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Linda Moss Mines is the official Chattanooga and Hamilton County Historian.