Knoxville – StoryCorps

Reagan Richmond and Jack Richmond

In 1987, Jack Richmond was driving a forklift at work when the vehicle overturned onto him, crushing his leg below the knee. Initially he was in denial that he was going to lose his leg, but eventually he came to accept that he was going to have to live with a prosthetic limb, and dedicated himself to counseling and comforting others going through the same thing.

Since then Jack has run the Boston Marathon and now works for a company that designs and tests prosthetic limbs.

At StoryCorps, he talks with his daughter Reagan who was just 2 months old at the time of his accident about how he quietly helps others.

Originally aired April 19, 2013, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Kenneth and Gaye Honeycutt

On March 18, 1937, a gas leak at The Consolidated School of New London, Texas, led to an explosion that claimed the lives of nearly 300 students and teachers.

It remains one of the worst school disasters in US history.

Kenneth Honeycutt was playing near the school when the explosion happened. At StoryCorps, he shared memories of the tragedy with his wife, Gaye.

Mary Van Beke and her son Charles

94-year-old Mary Van Beke tells her son, Charles, about growing up in the 1920s.