White was a force for good
I was shocked at the recent news about Caney Fork Development’s past director, Mr. Richard White. I had the opportunity to work with him. He always had the needs of the low-income citizens at the top of his list of priorities. I have seen him work many hours above the call of duty in order to better and fairly distribute state-allocated funds for the many programs under his supervision.
You could always call his office and speak to him in person if you felt the need. If his office couldn’t help you, then he would try his hardest to put you in contact with someone who could. I have also seen him go into his own pockets to assist a family in need when they didn’t meet state guidelines
Mr. White was also a driving force in our county obtaining a dialysis center. He started work on getting a center here and two months later, a working center was up and going. This was after he was told to give up because it had been tried in the past and just wasn’t going to happen. Well, it did happen, because Mr. White wouldn’t give up when the need was so obvious.
He was often thought of as odd by county officials, because he danced to a different drummer in order to voice the needs of the often-forgotten, low-income citizens. He didn’t just roll up his sleeves for a picture to go in the newspaper. He would do what was needed on a daily basis.
The article in the paper seems to suggest he had given his daughter’s boyfriend a ride to the scene of an earlier altercation when Ms. McCoy was shot, at which time shots were fired between Mr. Jackson and whoever he had a run-in with earlier. This leads me to believe Mr. White probably didn’t know or understand what he was putting himself into when he gave the young man a ride.
I haven’t seen Mr. White in several years, and I understand he has major health problems. Let’s all not be so quick to judge and keep in mind Mr. White’s past good deeds and efforts to make this a better community. I remember, Mr. White, and I thank you.
Sincerely,
Felicia Smith
116 W. Shellsford Rd.
McMinnville