June Griffin

DAYTON, Tenn. — Rhea County political activist June Griffin spent several years trying to get a copy of the replica of the U.S. Bill of Rights from North Carolina, of which Tennessee was once a part. She was successful and recently she presented it to the Tennessee State

Museum in Nashville.

Q: How did you get involved with the Bill of Rights?

A: In 1991, they had the

bicentennial of the ratification

of the Bill of Rights. My friend Carris Kocher, who graduated from Bryan College, recognized the absence of a national celebration. So she contacted Congress and had a coin struck to commemorate the Bill of Rights. Carris instituted a Bill of Rights banquet each year in Pennsylvania (and) I started going to her banquets.

Six years ago I thought, “Why should there be one banquet?” So I instituted the Tennessee Committee for the Bill of Rights for an annual banquet to be held here in Dayton. We’ve had six so far.

Q: What work do you and your husband do?

A: We have a dental laboratory. We have a farm that he (my husband) inherited from his father, and the lab is on his farm. We’ve been running a dental lab since 1972. We work for all area dentists essentially. That’s the way we make our living. We make teeth.

He helped develop the copier for IBM in the 1960s. He went to work for them in 1966 at the research annex in Lexington, Ky. He was on the copier development team. That’s when I started to work at the university in Lexington (University of Kentucky).

That’s when all that turbulence was going on in the 1960s and I was the secretary, and staff assistant to the director of maintenance. But I got into it with those students over our Vietnam veterans. We had 5,000 names on petitions wanting to drive the communists off campus. They (students) burned the ROTC building down.

That’s when the Lord really got ahold of me about my patriotism. I felt it was my fault as well for just living a normal life and ignoring what was going on.

(Later) we quit and he took this course from the University of North Carolina on dental technology and came back to the farm.

Q: Are you originally from Rhea County?

A: I was raised in Chattanooga. Went to Central High School, graduated in 1960. We built a house here after we got married, went to Kentucky and then came back in 1972.

Q: How did you get involved with the replica of the Bill of Rights?

A: About three years ago, I read in the newspaper that North Carolina was in litigation for their copy of the Bill of Rights. I contacted Dick Lankford (North Carolina state archivist) and asked if we could get a copy because we fought in the Revolutionary War with (them). I first asked for the original. I wasn’t expecting it, of course.

He wasn’t all that enthusiastic about me at first, but I kept calling. I’d call back, and I’d call back. Finally, after so long of a time, he said, “The litigation’s over and I’ll send you the necessary information to get a replica made.” Then I called the Tennessee State Museum. I first called the governor, but they said it should be in the Tennessee State Museum.

Q: Were you surprised by the response?

A: I guess so. They should be happy and they were. I’ve been involved in so much controversy, and nothing I’ve ever done should have been controversial at all. But this is where we are, and I said I’m going to try and do this because it’s right. They were thrilled.

Q: Are you surprised sometimes about the controversy around you?

A: I am. The issues that were set forth in the ’60s should never have been argued. Am I surprised? I’m surprised that anybody would be upset over me removing that Mexican flag (last year at a Dayton store). Why? Why are we tolerating this invasion of illegals, yet I can’t drive a car because I don’t have a Social Security number?

Q: What was your reaction to “The Daily Show’s” spoof of you a few years ago?

A: I know the truth will always prevail. They may mock you, crucify you, whatever. But the truth is going to prevail. So, I will give their interviews. I have a special love of newspapers because of their history. Those fellows, they got a little bit of a shock. They got their heyday, but the truth that was in that interview will stand. It didn’t bother me. It didn’t make me nervous.

I’m getting used to getting made fun of, I guess, as the night gets darker. I’m like Paul. I know what I believe in.

NEWSMAKER

Name: June Griffin

Age: 68

Occupation: Dental lab owner

Hometown: Chattanooga