JOE BEGLEY Remembered

Joe Begley died this afternoon. If there was ever a better one, I do not know his name. He was as American as Lincoln. He grew up when the steam boats ran the Big Sandy and people got around on horseback, and he died on a day that the calls he made from his bed were helping people on Partridge gather to stop a strip mine operation from running over them. As a boy he ran whiskey and lived as a rounder. As a man he became a sailor, a machinist, a merchant, a deputy sheriff, and an environmentalist. And that doesn't scratch the surface. He halted bulldozers that were devouring communities, stopped a train to take coal for people who were freezing, and built a water plant for a town that could barely muster gratitude. He witnessed two white house bill signings and fought the legal system that condoned broad form deeds. He argued with Black Panthers and coal operators, and no one dismissed him for somebody less than he was. He could dance and drink for days, he wrestled with God like Jacob, and he fought death long beyond where reasonable men would have given in. The Cornett place he helped save from the strippers at a time when there was nobody else to turn to but Joe, will this year become part of the nature conservancy trust. What a human being does with his time may be of little importance and of little permanence on a grand scale where bulldozers push away dinosaur bones, but on the scale of other humans looking around to see how to do better, a few characters have to lead a life that bears witness so the rest of us have a shot. Joe was that character, and all of us were lucky to have had his company as long as we did.
--Dee Davis, Appalshop Films, Whitesburg, KY

Over 33 years of knowing him he has remained a steadfast hero of mine and an inspiration to everyone I know. He long ago set a standard for integrity and clear thinking that I can only aspire to: right down to the last few days, he was fighting for the little guy with pressure on the OSM. I always knew Joe would die with his boots on. He will be sorely missed, for I can think of no one who will assume the level of leadership that he exercised so well. Eastern Kentucky communities have lost a real champion.
--Michael Kline, musician, folklorist, and activist, Elkins, WV

Blackey and Kentucky, our country and the world have lost a fine man with a great soul.
--Kristin Mendenhall, Piedmont, CA (In the early 1970s, Kris spent several weeks in Blackey as a Pomona College student.)

Joe made an indelible impression on me. He was so wise, principled, and statesman-like. He was the embodiment of a citizen activist, one who cared deeply about people and the environment and saw the inseparable connections between humans and nature. He will not be forgotten. His memory will remain with me for all time.
--Dean Hill Rivkin, University of Tennessee College of Law

I can't wait 'til my two grandbabies are big enough to understand when I tell them about Joe Begley and his many gifts to us all. I so want generations to come to treasure his legacy, as do I. May the hills and hollows always be alive with the sounds of his feet clogging, his heart pounding, and his spirit singing.
--Frank C. Taylor, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI

To me, he was full of life, energy, and imagination and said just exactly what he thought -- qualities we've always valued in my family; qualities that led him to take on the hard issues without a blink. He helped so many people. I am glad I knew him.
--Donna Porterfield, Roadside Theater, Norton, VA

Joe was an inspiration for me and many others. I would say he touched everyone he ever met. He was the real thing.
A mountain of a man
Appalachia running in his veins
The courage to face giants
to die for justice
God give us all
such strength
I am glad I knew Joe Begley.
--Don Harker, director, Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, Berea, KY

All of us who love eastern Kentucky and hate injustice had a friend in Joe and it's hard to say goodbye to a friend. He was a fighter for sure, but a good dancing, big smile, always glad to see his friends fighter. He won't be forgotten soon by any of us who knew him.
--Judi Jennings, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Louisville, KY

What a wonderful and wild and caring and active life he lived. Let us celebrate it. He leaves a big hole in the community and in our lives.
--Helen Lewis, Appalachian educator and activist, Morganton, GA

Both Joe and his son J.T. are my personal heroes, and working with J.T. on strip mining issues, both as his law clerk and during his tenure with OSM, has been a privilege and, in a small way, a tribute to the courage and leadership that his father showed.
--Tom Fitzgerald, Kentucky Resource Council, Frankfort, KY

Joe has been such a force for so many years and an inspiration for so many people in the mountains. He certainly was that for me, a bright-eyed Californian college student intern getting a real lesson in organizing in Appalachia.
--Peggy Mathews, former director Save Our Cumberland Mountains and Community Shares, Jacksboro, TN

I suppose some people thought of Joe Begley as an anachronism. After all, his celebrity reached back to the era when activists expressed their opposition to the coal industry, well, actively. They blew up bulldozers. They stopped overweight trucks by strewing six-inch-long steel "tacks" in the road, dragging old car bodies in the coal trucks' paths, and using their own bodies as barriers. As a reporter who covered a good bit of that upheaval, I never saw Begley involved in violence, never heard him counsel violence. But he did organize and inspire a legion of troublemakers. It was odd, really. For all the hell-raising that's been attributed to the man, I knew him as a quiet and gentle guy.

I'll always remember him on the porch of the C.B. Caudill General Store, leveling those eyes at me as if to ask, "What have you done for the cause today, son?" Reporters are supposed to be neutral, but I always found it difficult to be dispassionate in the presence of Joe's passion for the mountains and for economic justice. What he roused folks against was the real anachronism: a kind of 19th Century industrial exploitation that persists in the daily news, even as we approach the 21st Century.
--David Hawpe, Louisville Courier Journal columnist. ( Read Hawpe's entire 4/2/00 column on Joe Begley at http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/columns/hawpe/hawpe.html)

It was Joe who, early on, recognized the damage strip mining was doing both to the land and, more importantly, I think, to its people. He was a man of rare courage who never failed to take a solid stance on key issues affecting mountain people.
--Tom Gish, publisher of The Mountain Eagle, Whitesburg.

Joe was a natural community activist -- he needed for people to get together and talk about what was wrong.
-- Guy Carawan, musician and activist, New Market, TN

He meant so much to us in so many ways. I treasure every minute I ever spent with him.
-- John Rosenberg, director of Appalachian Research and Defense Fund, Prestonsburg, KY

Joe became one of a handful of leaders from the Appalachian area who stood up to this destruction of the land, this bullying of the ordinary people, this disregard for the heritage and culture of this place. Joe had a gift for seeing both the trees and the forest-the big issues that were at stake here that would effect this region for generations to come, such as water, as well as the individual pain of the small land owner who saw his land disappear before the bulldozer's blade.

He railed against it, and organized against, and fought against it, but he also had the vision and perseverance to work to change the laws that allowed it to happen. He was not the only leader, he didn't do this alone, but he was such a catalyst. He helped to expose both the environmental ignorance and the greed that was driving the way that strip mining was being done in too many hollows and on too many mountain tops. He helped to expose the complete disregard for the little people who stood in the way of corporate profits that were being practiced by too many out of sight in these mountains.

His voice was heard in the hollows as he encouraged people to stand up for the land and their rights. But it was also heard in Frankfort and even in Washington. His voice was passionate; it was articulate; and it was credible as he became a powerful advocate for our people and our land.
-- Tom Curry, paster of the Isom and Doermann (Blackey) Presbyterian Churches