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Rural Heritage Trust

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT

 

OBJECTIVES:
1. To investigate and record, and to foster appreciation for, the heritage of constituent municipalities, communities, and countryside;

2. To sustain the area’s natural and agricultural characteristics and sense of place and enhance its quality of life;

3. To encourage preservation of the area’s historic structures and institutions; and

4. To link locales (e.g., though interpreted roads and trails) into interwoven, engaging networks of historical, cultural, agricultural, and natural amenities.

 

 

 

 
 


Paul Matthews
President

Paul Matthews is a partner at the Memphis law firm of Harris, Shelton, Hanover, Walsh, PLLC, and the author or editor of numerous published works on legal and historical subjects, including Early Families of the Memphis Area (2008).

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the West Tennessee Historical Society and the Mid-South Public Communications Foundation (owner and operator of PBS-affiliated WKNO-TV and NPR-affiliated WKNO-FM) and on the Shelby County Conservation Board, the Mid-South Greenprint Steering Committee, and the St. Mary’s Episcopal School Council of Advisors.

An early organizer of events for the Memphis-in-May International Festival and a graduate of Leadership Memphis, Paul served as president of the Davies Manor Association, the Duke Alumni Club of Memphis, and Descendants of Early Settlers of Shelby and Adjoining Counties, Chairman of the Shelby County Historical Commission, Vice-Chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission (on which he served for 20 years), and on the board of directors of the Memphis Bar Association and Friends of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Paul and his wife Sue recently restored his family’s place at Barretville, which is a Tennessee Century Farm and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
 


Dr. Rita Hall
Vice-President

 Dr. Rita Hall serves on the faculty at The University of Memphis in the Department of History as an Adjunct Instructor in History/Museum Studies. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Liberal Studies from The University of Memphis, with her studies of kinship and community in the South, after having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal and Justice and Criminology from The University of Memphis.

Dr. Hall also currently serves as the Interim Executive Director of the West Tennessee Historical Society, the umbrella heritage organization for the Western Grand Division of Tennessee, covering 21 counties. Since 2018 she has been the Editor of the Papers, a peer-reviewed journal of the West Tennessee Historical Society that invites authors to submit any paper that pertains to historical events or people in West Tennessee, the Mississippi Delta Region, or the South at large. Since 2010, she has contributed six articles for this esteemed publication, which began its publishing in 1947.
In 2012, Dr. Hall authored the book entitled Images of America: Millington in the Arcadia Publishing series. Her interest in Millington history stems from her deep roots in the area; her ancestors first settled in the 1830s near what would become Millington. She has also served as President of Descendants of Early Settlers of Shelby County and Adjoining Counties.
Dr. Hall is a graduate of Leadership Millington, class of 2012. She has been a member of The Board of Directors in Rural Heritage Trust since 2018 and serves as the Chair of the Narrative and Interpretation Committee, which oversees the research and development of topics and texts for the graphic text panel series of Rural Heritage Trust.
A Tipton County resident, Dr. Hall is a leading historian, author, and genealogist in the portion of Southwest Tennessee that we call “The Crescent.”


Jimmy Ogle
Secretary

Jimmy Ogle worked in parks, recreation, and tourism during his 40-year career in Memphis. Previous positions included Deputy Director of the Memphis Park Commission, General Manager of Mud Island River Park, General Manager of the Memphis Queen Line, Vice-President of Performa Entertainment (Beale Street), Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Memphis Rock’n’Soul Museum, and Dockmaster at Beale Street Landing. He also served as Duckmaster at The Peabody Hotel.

Jimmy was Shelby County Historian and served in leadership positions on other local non-profit organizations, such as the Shelby County Historical Commission, West Tennessee Historical Society, Davies Manor Association, Shelby County Public Records Commission, Mississippi River Corridor Tennessee, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Summer Avenue Merchants Association, and Remember Libertyland.

Jimmy conducted over 200 talks or tours annually, including a popular series of walking tours on streets, parks, and historic buildings in downtown Memphis and the riverfront, as well as presentations in schools, senior living facilities, and civic meetings


Alex Ivy
Treasurer

Alex Ivy is a lifelong Memphian with childhood bonds and ancestral roots in the Gallaway /Arlington area, as well as surrounding portions of rural Shelby and Fayette counties. He is a CPA with the Frazee Ivy Davis accounting firm and devotes much of his free time to family, church, reading, food, and learning.

 


 

Board of Directors
Jay Bobo
Chuck Bryant
Dr. Marius Carriere
Mendi Donnelly
Lysbeth Francis
David Gwinn
Laura Todd
Katrina Hansen
Alex Ivy, Treasurer
Daisy Jefferson
John Marshall
Paul Matthews, President
Jimmy Ogle, Secretary
Adam Simpson
Dr. Rita Hall, Vice-President
Elaine Lee Turner

 

 


 

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