CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – While there were certainly a lot of important Clarksville stories in 2020, such as coronavirus, of course, the groundbreaking of the Multi-Purpose Event Center downtown and the effort to get disability benefits for K2 veterans from Fort Campbell, those weren’t necessarily the most high-interest stories of the year.
Of the more than 27 million page views on ClarksvilleNow.com in 2020, we expected a lot to come from crime stories and from COVID-19, but we were encouraged to also see stories about heroism and community needs rise to the top.
Here are the top 10 articles for reader views in 2020, listed in order, after removing duplicates (lumping all the COVID stories together) state and national news (such as our Trump/Biden debate poll), and lower-level crime news (such as Cody Longo’s arrest).
1. Heroism at Taco Bell
Taco Bell workers save man’s life in Clarksville drive-thru
On Aug. 12, Sonja Nixon Frazier and her Taco Bell co-workers noticed their drive-thru line had come to a halt. They looked at their security cameras and saw that a car was parked the wrong way, blocking the line. They could have just called police and waited. Instead, crew members went to check on the driver, finding a man in medical distress.
Frazier, who once worked as a home heathcare worker, performed CPR until an ambulance arrived. The man survived, and he went back a few days later to thank Frazier for saving his life. “I feel like anybody that knows how to do so should jump at the opportunity to help,” Frazier said. “We are all human, and we all have to love each other and help.”
2. Coronavirus hits Clarksville
Tennova confirms first case of COVID-19 in Clarksville
On March 19, with 98 cases of COVID-19 statewide, the pandemic reached Clarksville in the form of our first diagnosed local case. Since then, the total number of local cases has surpassed 11,000, with over 560,000 statewide. Less than a month later, on April 4, Montgomery County had its first COVID-19 death. Since then, more than 120 people have died of COVID in Montgomery County notably including Judge Ray Grimes.
The effort to stop the pandemic took many forms locally.
On March 31, the city and county mayors announced a shelter-at-home order, which Gov. Bill Lee forced to expire a month later on April 30 when a statewide shelter-at-home order expired. A Montgomery County mask order was instituted on July 6, and it continued with some modifications through Sept. 28, when it was lifted. But coronavirus numbers rose dramatically over the following weeks, and the mask order was reinstated on Oct. 27. It remains in effect.
Meanwhile, Clarksville-Montgomery County School System was one of the first local entities to respond. On March 5, the district canceled a planned student trip to a robotics competition in Williamson County and then closed schools on March 13 after a suspected student case of COVID-19. The schools remained closed, and they never re-opened for the 2019-2020 year.
On April 14, with shelter-at-home orders in effect, CMCSS announced that several proms would be canceled, some proms would be postponed, and that graduations might not be held in person. Over the next few weeks, CMCSS ultimately canceled all proms and held graduations online, putting the Class of 2020 in the history books as the one that missed the end of their senior year, a situation shared by classmates nationwide.
For the 2020-21 school year, CMCSS offered students the option of either virtual or “traditional” in-person classes. But the in-person route didn’t last. After a rise in COVID cases, the traditional students were shifted to remote learning starting Dec. 16, and they won’t return to class until Jan. 25 at the earliest.
In late December, the vaccine reached Clarksville, and emergency workers lined up to get their shots, with Sheriff John Fuson among the community leaders to set an example.
3. Trailer park evictions
Residents of 98 mobile homes in Campbell Heights evicted: ‘I hope the hotels are ready’
In November, Clarksville Now reported on the plight of about 100 households in the Campbell Heights mobile home park who were given eviction notices so the land could be cleared for a housing development.
The notices were posted Oct. 20 on trailer doors, alerting residents that they had until Jan. 20, 2021, to find somewhere else to live. While some were given extensions until the spring, others had to spend the Christmas season scrambling to find somewhere else to live.
YAIPaks Outreach and Fort Care stepped up, and on Dec. 19 they arrived with a Christmas gifts and food boxes to do what they could to help the families.
4. Car crashes into river
APSU nursing student killed in crash into Cumberland River
The evening of Dec. 22, witnesses reported seeing a car leave the roadway and careen into the Cumberland River just north of the RJ Corman Bridge. Emergency crews went to work immediately trying to find the driver. The dive team search was called off due to strong currents and freezing temperatures.
Four days later, divers went back to work, and on Dec. 26 they recovered the car and retrieved the body of Jasonah Crawford, a freshman at Austin Peay State University. The investigation into how the wreck happened continues.
5. Infant rape and murder case ends
Conway pleads guilty to killing infant daughter in rape, murder, abuse case
One of the most horrific criminal cases in Clarksville history came to an abrupt end on Sept. 11 when a former Fort Campbell medic pleaded guilty to killing one of his infant twin daughters.
After the child was found dead in early 2018, Christopher Paul Conway, 25, gave an initial statement to police admitting to the rape and murder. But family and supporters say he later tried to take it back. Conway was charged with aggravated rape, first-degree murder and other charges. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of a “no contest” agreement and will serve 15 years in prison.
6. Teenager shot in driveway
Homeowner charged with shooting on Dresden Way
On March 13, Demariontae Brown, 15, was shot and killed in a driveway on Dresden Way by the homeowner, Jamison Mullins II, who told police he saw the teenager breaking into his wife’s car. Mullins, 25, who did not have a gun permit, was charged with homicide. Mullins’ trial is scheduled for August 2021.
The shooting was particularly traumatic for the teen’s mother, Shawnta Brown, who two years earlier buried another teenage son who was gunned down in Nashville.
7. Phones down after Nashville bombing
911 service down in Clarksville-Montgomery County
A Christmas morning explosion in Nashville caused an AT&T outage that affected 911 service, phone and internet access and credit card readers across the region. In Clarksville, it took the 911 system offline for three days and left hundreds of people cut off from their phones and internet for Christmas weekend, a weekend when many had hoped to connect with family over Zoom or at least by phone call.
8. Protests on Wilma
City leaders attend peaceful demonstration on Wilma Rudolph
On May 30, in the wake of the death of George Floyd on May 25, a small group of peaceful demonstrators gathered along the side of Wilma Rudolph Boulevard. As evening came, the group grew and eventually spilled onto the state highway. Police stopped one lane of traffic, then all northbound lanes until eventually the crowd of hundreds was in the street, marching up and down the highway until close to midnight.
A diverse crowd that included teenagers and families with babies in strollers joined the peaceful protest. Demonstrators prayed, held moments of silence, sang and chanted, and marched with signs. City leaders including Mayor Joe Pitts and his wife Cynthia, and City Council members Valerie Guzman and Richard Garrett, came out to speak to citizens. “I’m here just to listen,” Pitts said.
The demonstrations continued for over three months, but on a smaller scale. A group of Black Lives Matter supporters led by Maurice Stegall held nightly demonstrations on the side of Wilma Rudolph Boulevard, near Governor’s Square, with the final BLM protest on Aug. 31. Each night, Clarksville Police blocked off one lane of travel to ensure the demonstrators were safe. “It’s been an amazing journey for me and for the community, the love and support here,” Stegall said. “Everything that we’ve done so far has been breathtaking.”
9. MCHS mascot
Montgomery Central mascot sparks debate with opposing online petitions
Montgomery Central High School has had the team name “Indians” since the school opened in the early 1970s. The name has been the subject of controversy in the past, with some changes being made over the years, but 2020 brought new conversations about such names, with prominent sports nationwide teams getting rid of them. Those conversations led to dueling online petitions in Montgomery County and a heated debate about the mascot name.
When the debate flared in August, the school system responded they were focused on the COVID-19 crisis and getting schools re-opened, and that they would take up the mascot discussion at some point in the future.
10. Walk for justice
Alabama man walks 1,000 miles for justice, passes through Clarksville
Bothered by the social unrest in America as protests erupted over the killing of George Floyd and others, Terry Willis wanted to do something personal about it. So on June 2, the Huntsville, Alabama, carpenter laced up his running shoes and started walking for a 1,000-plus mile trek to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Floyd was killed.
On June 4, Willis was met in Clarksville by a group of well-wishers, helping him out with bottles of water and other supplies, and joining him for a leg of the journey.