Testimony by Angie Merritt

Angie Merritt was born Angela Denise Bailey in 1962 in Dalton Georgia, and lived there her entire childhood. Angie graduated Southeast Whitfield High School in 1980 and began working for the Georgia Mental Health system. She married Randy Merritt in 1981 and lives in Luttrell, TN and has three wonderful children – Amy 25, Jordan 21, and Callie 14.

Angie has worked her entire career in office management for the freight, construction, and banking industries. She is now the operations manager for Holston Methodist Federal Credit Union, which serves the Holston Conference Methodist churches, universities and businesses.

Angie loves spending time with her family on their farm, cooking, and music. She is an accomplished vocalist with several recordings to her credit, and sings in the church choir and on the praise team.

Testimony by Barbara Herrell

Barbara Reed Herrell was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1970. Her family moved to the Tampa, Florida area in 1973, where her father eventually retired from the military. She graduated from East Bay High School in 1988 and moved to Knoxville that year to attend college. She married her beloved husband, Kenny, in 1990, and they have two amazing children, Holden (17) and Mackenzie (14).

Barbara graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a B.S. in Logistics & Transportation. She is currently an analyst for Pilot Travel Centers and has spent the majority of her sixteen years with the company working in both the Supply & Distribution and Fuel Accounting departments. Prior to Pilot, Barbara worked for UPS and Highway Transport.

Her family has been blessed to attend Corryton Church for the past ten years and Barb sings in the choir and also serves as the drama director for the Worship team. She enjoys music, acting, reading, and spending time with her family. She also loves cats and currently shares her home with four personable felines.

Testimony by Barbara Faubert

Born and raised in Corryton. Graduated from Gibbs High School and East TN Baptist Hospital School of Nursing. Married to Bill Faubert for 54 years. We have one daughter and two grown grandchildren. I am retired from East TN Baptist Hospital Surgery Dept. for 13 years. Attend Corryton Church.

Testimony by Carolyn Renfro

My name is Carolyn Renfro. I was born in 1944, third child to my parents. My father was an only child to older parents so we all shared the same home until the death of my grandparents. To me that was a wonderful life, four children and four adults. There was always a lap to sit in and learn from two generations of knowledge. Lots of love was given to me, so I have always had lots of love to give to others.

I started to school in first grade when I was five years old. My brother and sister and I walked about two miles to school every day and two miles back home in the afternoon. When I was six, my parents surprised me with a little brother. That completed our family. I graduated from high school in 1962 and got married in June. The next June I was blessed with a baby boy and four years later another boy. That made up my family of four.

I grew up on a farm and my boys were raised on a farm, so we all knew what work was and how to co-operate to get the work ail done. We made work as much fun as possible. We all loved life and lived it to the fullest. Church was always important to us and we tried to live our lives in fellowship with Christ.

After being out of school seventeen years, I entered college to become a teacher. I graduated in three years with highest honors. Those three years were times of fully depending on God to get me through my classes, get two boys to school and back, keeping tabs on their homework and school in general. I graduated from college the same year my oldest son graduated from high school. That was a pretty special year, because we also built a new house during this time.

I taught elementary school for sixteen years until my husband got sick. At age fifty-four he died from a brain tumor and was buried on our thirty-fourth wedding anniversary. One year later I married and moved to Blaine. We went to church at Corryton where we made many friends and heard great sermons which bonded our marriage with the love of God.

I am now sixty-seven years old and have taught a Sunday school class for fifty plus years. I have taught every age group in the church from age five to eighty-five. God has been good to me all the days of my life. We now live near the two sons, their precious wives, and the sweetest grandchildren on earth.

Joe is married to his wife of 24 years, Amanda. They are members of Beaverdale Baptist Church.

Joe currently serves Knox County, Tennessee, as its law director. Joe came to saving, personal relationship with Jesus Christ during his service overseas as a United States Army Combat Arms Officer in 1984. He  has been practicing local government law since 1989, during which time he served Polk County, Florida (population 554,000), as its County Attorney, Manatee County as an Assistant County Attorney, and the Florida Association of County Attorneys (FACA) as its president.  He is the 2009 recipient of FACA’s Gordon Johnston Ethics and Professionalism for Local Government Attorneys Award. Joe is a Federal and Circuit Civil Mediator who holds the Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice, from Troy State University (W. Germany Campus), the Masters in Public Administration from Central Michigan University, the Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law, and a post-Graduate Certificate in Public Management from the University of South Florida.  He is a former active duty United States Army Combat Arms Officer and former United States Air Force Special Agent with 10 years overseas service, and a graduate of the Army’s Airborne and Armored Cavalry Schools and the United States Air Force Special Investigations Academy.  An award-winning writer, Joe has published over 85 articles in various professional journals such as the Florida Bar Journal, the Tennessee Bar Journal, City, The Agenda, published by the City, County & Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar, the Alternative Dispute Resolution News published by the Tennessee Dispute Resolution Commission, DICTA, published by the Knoxville Bar Association, Public Risk Journal, published by the Public Risk & Insurance Management Association (PRIMA), Public Management, published by the International City & County Managers Association (ICMA) and the Stetson University College of Law, Law Review. His writing awards include the Florida Bar, Osee R. Fagan, Legal Writing Award, The Florida Association of County Attorneys Legal Writing Award, and has been named Public Risk Management Magazine’s ‘Author of the Year’ for 2005 & 2006.  He is a recipient of the Florida Bar, City, County, & Local Government Section Chair’s Service Award. He has recently presented blocks of instruction on behalf of FACA, the Florida Bar, the Tennessee Judicial Conference, the National Association of Counties, the Tennessee Municipal Attorneys Association, the Tennessee & Knoxville Bar Associations, the University of Tennessee College of Law, The International Municipal Attorneys Association, Stetson University College of Law and the International City & County Managers Association.