Title: Kermit Hunter Chucky Jack Script

Date/Date Range :   1956

Extent: 0.1 linear feet

Abstract:

The play Chucky Jack: The Story of Tennessee (1956) by Kermit Hunter is about the family of John "Chucky Jack" Sevier between 1782 and 1796.

Call number: MS-2362

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This collection is property of the University of Tennessee Special Collections Library.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Kermit Hunter Chucky Jack Script, MS-2362. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of a single folder.

Kermit Houston Hunter (1910-2001) graduated from Ohio State University in 1931; studied at the Julliard School of Music; and received his Ph.D. in 1955 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His master's thesis was the play Unto These Hills: A Drama of the Cherokee , which he had written for the Cherokee Historical Association. The first performance was in Cherokee, North Carolina, at the Mountainside Theater in 1950, and it has been running there ever since. Hunter taught English at UNC-Chapel Hill while completing his Ph.D. and drama at Hollins College in Virginia from 1955 to 1964. He then became the first dean of the Meadows School of Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. From 1978 to 1993, Hunter was senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Arlington.

As a soldier John Sevier fought some thirty-five battles or skirmishes, including the controversial Battle of Kings Mountain. His political career started as a representative to the Provincial Congress during the Revolutionary War. He helped organize the State of Franklin, which collapsed after a battle between his faction and the opposing Tipton Family faction in February 1788. This battle tarnished his reputation and, after his arrest for taking part in a brawl in 1788, he fled to hide in the mountains. His way back to political respectability was by strongly supporting the ratification of the national Constitution. In 1789, Sevier was pardoned upon election to the North Carolina Senate and represented of North Carolina in Congress from 1789 to 1791. With the cession of western lands to the Federal government, he became active in the new territory's legislative council. With statehood in 1796, Sevier became the first governor of Tennessee. From 1796 to 1802 he served three consecutive terms and returned to the position for three more terms (1803-1809). In 1809 he was elected to the state Senate and in 1811 to the U.S. House of Representatives. Here he served, until his death in 1815 on a mission to survey the boundary of the Indian peace treaty.

(In 1775, Sevier moved to the south bank of the Nolichucky (River), from which come his nicknames "Nolichucky Jack" and "Chucky Jack" ).

The play Chucky Jack: The Story of Tennessee (1956) by Kermit Hunter is about the family of John "Chucky Jack" Sevier between 1782 and 1796. It takes place in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia, and includes a variety of characters from politicians William Blount and Thomas Jefferson to Cherokee chief Corntassel. This copy is of the one bought by Mr. & Mrs. R. L. Maples, Sr., from Hunter.

Materials from John Sevier can be located in MS-1941: the John Sevier Collection, 1782-1839.

• Hunter, Kermit Houston, 1910-2001.
• Sevier, John, 1745-1815.
• Theater -- Tennessee.