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10A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, February 13,2019
It sounded different, but we wanted to know what kilt him?’
Not that it should have mat
tered. But I’m Southern so it
did. It mattered a lot.
As long back as I can remem
ber, whenever someone told
Mama and Daddy about a person
who, all a sudden just up and
died, the conversation would,
with some variation, go like this:
“Did you hear ‘bout Jamison
Jackson? Found him dead this
morning.”
“Oh no! Are you serious?”
Mama or Daddy would ask.
Not that anyone would joke
about someone being dead but
when a surprise comes, we
often say things that don’t
make a lot of sense.
Then, without variation, the
next question would be, “What
kilt him?”
Now, “kilt” is an
Appalachian word. On the
coast or in the Delta, people
will be more dignified and say
“killed” or ask, “What hap
pened?”
RONDARICH
Columnist
Yankees don’t ask this ques
tion. Dead is dead to them. It
doesn’t matter how it happened.
He died. End of story. But with
Southerners, the end of the
story needs to be detailed. The
way someone dies is part of
their story. The final act.
So, that’s how it came to be
that I started tracking down what
“kilt” a songwriter named Roger
Bowling back on Christmas Day
of 1982. Bowling was one of the
finest storytelling songwriters to
come through Nashville in the
1970s. He rose up out of Harlan,
Kentucky, a place that is fabled
for the hard times it’ll put in a
man and the stories that will be
bom out of a man bom in a place
where the hours of daylight are
short and the coal dust blackens
the skies. Underneath the scab of
surviving such difficult times will
always be a tender sore that gives
forth to rich storytelling.
Bowling’s first number one
record was the 1975 hit,
“Blanket on the Ground.” He
also co-wrote my favorite
Tammy Wynette/George Jones
duet, “Southern California.”
But it would be a 1977 record
he co-wrote with Hal Bynum
that would become his legacy,
the song that carved his name
into Nashville greatness.
“Lucille” would also revive the
nearly dead career of Kenny
Rogers. Two years later, he co
wrote another Kenny Rogers
smash, “Coward of the
County.”
Both songs are extremely
well-crafted story songs. In our
minds, we can see the poor
farmer who mourns at the bar
over Lucille who left him or
pretty Becky whose assault
made a hero out of her formerly
cowardly husband. Billy
Currington re-recorded
“Lucille” a few years ago and it
is as well done as the Kenny
Rogers version.
Back to what kilt him. He
was only 38 years old.
The New York Times, usually
completely informative about
death, reported that he was
found dead at his home, an
autopsy was performed, results
still unknown, but it was
believed to be natural. Bowling,
at the time, was living in the
picturesque mountain town of
Clayton, Georgia. As long as
you were bom in Georgia, you
will always know someone else
born in Georgia who knows the
story. So, I called one of my
dearest friends and favorite
people who grew up in Clayton.
“Aw, Roger. He was a good
‘un,” my friend said, his voice
misting a bit with the recall.
“Me and him played many a
poker game together. He had
him a little juke joint place
called ‘The Pickin’ Parlor.’ We
had a lot of fun there, too.”
He told a couple of stories
then I asked, “What kilt him?”
“Well, I don’t think he meant
to do it but he went and done it
anyway. There was some
drinkin’ involved. Maybe cold
medicine, too. It was surely
accidental.”
I was stunned. I didn’t expect
that. But as I mulled over it
later, I realized that we
Southerners are right: how
death comes is significant to a
person’s life story.
A challenging beginning can
lead to a hard ending. That’s
how the story sometimes goes.
Ronda Rich is the best-selling
author of Mark My Words: A
Memoir of Mama. Visit www.rond-
arich.com to sign up for her week
ly newsletter.
Photos by Jessica Taylor Dawson County News
Gov. Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp traveled to Dawson County High School to participate in a round-table discussion
about mental health services and the Apex grant Feb. 11. Participants in the discussion included officials from Dawson County
Schools central office as well as representation from counselors, nurses and teachers across the district.
FROM 1A
Kemp
of building infrastructure
and increasing access to
mental health services for
school-aged youth
throughout the state by pro
viding mental health coun
selors inside local schools
It is supported by the
Georgia Department of
Behavioral Health and
Developmental
Disabilities, or DBHDD,
and is in place in approxi
mately 400 schools in
Georgia, mainly high
schools.
Kemp said he wants to
allocate $8.4 million to
double the reach of the
Apex program, which
would provide more men
tal health counselors inside
Georgia schools. This
week he has been touring
systems that are recipients
of the grant to see how it’s
utilized and how it services
students.
“When we were putting
together our school safety
plan ... we learned that
mental health is a big part
of it,” Kemp said. “The
more we learn about the
Apex program it’s like ‘why
do we need to reinvent the
wheel?’ Sometimes, we
have big ideas but we don’t
ask the people implement
ing them. That’s why we
are here today.”
Judy Litzgerald, com
missioner of the DBHDD,
said during the Leb. 11 dis
cussion that the original
intent of Apex was not just
about direct therapeutic
intervention, but about
building partnerships
between the community
mental health provider and
schools.
With $8.4 million that
Kemp wants to allocate to
the program, it would
effectively double the pro
gram, allowing for 800
schools to benefit from a
partnership between a local
mental healthcare provider
and the school district.
Dawson County
Schools, a recipient of the
Apex grant, has a licensed
counselor from Avita
Community Partners serv
ing students inside Dawson
County High School and
the junior high school who
works with students by
providing mental health
services.
Dr. Janice Darnell, direc
tor of student support for
Dawson County Schools,
said that having the addi
tional mental health coun
seling available to students
has already garnered sub
stantial positive results in
discipline data alone.
“A lot of students that
have issues that they need
to be addressed at the men
tal health level - some
times there are barriers in
place that prevent them
from being able to have
those services - and so
being able to have some
one here (on) our campus
has really made a huge
impact on being able to
make sure that if they were
already receiving services
there was no lapse and if a
child needed additional or
new services we have that
available to them,” Darnell
said.
Dawson County Schools
has especially taken stu
dent mental health serious
ly as it is centered in a
region with a higher pro
portion of student suicides
in recent years.
Between Dawson and
Lumpkin counties, there
have been 10 student sui
cides in the past five years,
according to Superintendent
Damon Gibbs.
“We have communities
in crisis, a mental health
crisis in my opinion,”
Gibbs said. “We have some
mental health dilemmas in
our community and the
work that Dr. Darnell’s
done and the partnership
with Avita and work that
they’ve done and our coun
selors and our teachers and
the work that we’ve done is
I think is helping that issue,
but additional funding
would allow those services
to be expanded.”
The discussion of addi
tional mental health
resources was not limited
to looking at the impact at
the high school and junior
high school levels. In fact,
many mental health issues
are arising at the elementa
ry and middle school level.
“(In fifth graders) we see
a lot of symptoms of anxi
ety, symptoms of depres
sion, and even younger
than that,” said Riverview
Elementary School coun
selor, Jeremy Lavender.
Vikki Brannon, director
of youth health services for
Dawson County Schools,
also agreed that symptoms
of anxiety, depression and
childhood trauma are pre
senting themselves in phys
iological ways in the nurs
es’ offices.
“There are so many
physiological symptoms
coming from kids that are
getting out of class due to
headaches and stomach
aches ... and usually it’s
not from a medical need
that they have. It’s usually
stems from anxiety or
depression or crises at
home,” Brannon said.
Even students in kinder
garten are exhibiting symp
toms that they are over-
stimulated at home and
struggling with their men
tal health, Brannon said.
Officials told Kemp that
they would like to be able
to expand their use of the
Apex grant into the middle
school and elementary
schools to work on preven
tion measures.
“Locusing on the high
schools is great but I think
we really need to get to the
prevention end of it which
is starting in the elementary
schools,” said Avita CEO
Cindy Levi.
Avita currently serves 13
counties in northeast
Georgia and has counselors
serving 31 schools in the
region, but Levi hopes to
be able to continue to
expand their reach with
additional funding and
additional opportunities to
help students.
“Also looking ahead to
expand beyond the coun
seling, we’d like to be able
to offer telemedicine as
well,” said Levi. “When
you look at the barriers for
students getting the servic
es that they need, if a par
ent has to take off half a
day of work to go pick
them up and drive them
and all that sort of thing
that could be a barrier -
where they’re in the school
and if we can provide those
services while they’re in
the school, then that’s elim
inating one of the barriers.”
Gibbs said that the
school system is only a few
staff members away from
being able to implement
telemedicine capabilities.
The Apex program is
flexible in how the grant is
utilized with general guide
lines, but leaving the power
in the relationship that
develops between the local
provider and the school,
Litzgerald said.
After hearing testimoni
als from Dawson County
Schools and from Meadow
Creek High School offi
cials in Gwinnett County
Monday morning, Kemp
said he felt that the Apex
program has been working
really well and reaffirmed
why he plans to expand the
program.
“We’ve learned today
too that these issues, a lot
of them are starting in mid
dle school and even some
of them in elementary
school, so I think that’s
something we will contin
ue to look at and see dis
perse whatever funding we
have for this program,”
Kemp said.
Avita Community Partners CEO Cindy Levi shakes
hands with Gov. Brian Kemp Feb. 11.
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