MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — If you’ve ever driven by the courthouse, you probably noticed a statue of a man reading the paper. The story behind it stems from the aftermath of the 1999 tornado.
“I’ve had a lot of people come by and ask me why there’s a man out here at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning in the rain reading the newspaper,” sculptor Scott Wise said, laughing. “They’ll come through here early in the morning and he’s still sitting here, reading the newspaper.”
Of course, the story behind the statue goes much deeper.
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“On January 22, ’99, the tornado came through here and really devastated this whole area, and it affected the Leaf Chronicle, which was right here — the newspaper,” Wise said. “They published the paper the next day, so that’s the reason this one’s called ‘The Day After.’”…