A community has lost a key contributor in Ken Hicks

By Jim Freeman

TOP PHOTO: Ken Hicks friendly smile will forever be etched in my mind. This photo was snapped on a chilly morning in February 2021 at the West End Marathon gas pumps.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Ken Hicks, a man who touched thousands of lives and made countless contributions to his community, will be laid to rest this morning in the Hicks Cemetery.

In his many years as an educator at La Follette and Campbell County High Schools, Mr. Hicks, as most of us students still call him, taught, befriended and encouraged so many of us in and out of the classroom. He left a large footprint on my life as he likely did for many others.

In the spring during the 1980s, Mr. Hicks showed up at the radio station, and I guess it was the first time I’d seen him since high school. His first question was, are you ever going to settle down? I mean are you planning on staying around here? He knew I’d already had radio gigs in Oak Ridge, Knoxville and Louisville, and I had no idea what he was trying say. I answered “I guess.” “Well, come on, I have something to show you,” said Mr. Hicks.

He drove me over to this neighborhood, and it was a house that he had built. “I want you to buy this house,” said Mr. Hicks. He explained that he would build a house each summer, sell it, teach another year of school and start over. The problem was that interest rates were in the teens, and he was still stuck with this house and needed to move it so he could start this year’s house. I bought the house.

Here, nearly 50 years out of high school, I don’t remember what kind of teacher Mr. Hicks was. However, there’s no mistake that I’ll always remember what kind of man he was and how well he always treated me. Thank you, Mr. Hicks. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 04/26/2022-6AM)