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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Nov. 114, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 125 ~ 32 of 66
When I heard the news of him passing, I called Blaine, who works with him, and he said he had about 100 acres left of corn to cut.”
“I pulled together what we were doing and stopped where we were at to help him get his crop out of the eld,” Wimberly said. “We knocked it out that day. I really felt like we needed to do that as a com- munity and for a fellow farmer.”
By that afternoon, the entire crop was harvested and shipped. Later, Steve McAlhany and Bryan Delk harvested McAlhany’s peanut and soybean crop.
Wimberly had known and worked with McAlhany for many years.
“I have helped him sell his crop ... and have handled his grain,” Wimberly said. “He has been a good friend.”
While generally private people, farmers do love one another as a family,” Wimberly said.
“When the right thing needs to be done, we pull together to get it done,” he said.
McAlhany’s daughter, Tracy Mills, said the outreach shows the heart of a farmer and the heart of Branch-
ville.
“It just shows you what a close-knit area that Branchville is for everyone to come together to show love
and support of other local farmers,” she said.
Mills said she just knows her father is looking down on what has been done for him.
“He would be smiling and smiling and saying ‘thank you so much,’” Mills said.
Teresa McAlhany, who was married to Larry for about six years, said her husband was a hard worker
who would give the coat off his back to others.
“He was not happy if he was not on the tractor or playing with dirt,” Teresa said. “That was his life.” “He would go out many times at night to help pull hunters out with trucks who may have gotten bogged
down in holes,” she said. “He would just do things for others.”
As to what he would say about the help received on the day of his death, Teresa said, “He would prob-
ably be at a loss for words.”
“He would probably feel guilty he was not out there doing it himself,” she said. “But he would be grateful
they stepped up to help him out.”
“Farmers just don’t get the support they need from the outside, but in actuality they are a pretty close-
knit group of people,” she said. “They help when one is down.”
Now a couple of months since his passing, Mills says her heart still grieves for her father, who was the
example of a family man who loved spending time with his only grandchild, Becky.
“He will be very missed,” Mills said. “I was his number one. I was his rstborn and nothing will ever
change that.”
Her father’s passing is also the passing of an era. Mills works in the medical eld and her brother is a
school teacher. Neither has plans to return to the family farm.
“The future of the farm died when my daddy passed away,” she said. “It costs so much to keep it going.” ___
Information from: The Times & Democrat, http://www.timesanddemocrat.com
TVA boosts pay of nation’s highest-paid federal employee
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority is raising the pay of its CEO after the utility lowered its carbon emissions, injury rates and costs.
News outlets report TVA’s board of directors voted Thursday to increase Bill Johnson’s salary by 5.5 per- cent. Johnson was paid nearly $5 million in scal 2016, with a reported base salary of roughly $995,000. The compensation package for Johnson, the highest-paid federal employee in the nation, is more than $6 million, including retirement and other bene ts. The board says Johnson’s pay is still low compared to
salaries of utility companies not in public service.
The Knoxville-based TVA was established by an act of Congress in 1933 to help the Tennessee Valley
overcome environmental and economic problems. TVA provides power for Tennessee and parts of six bordering states.