The charter members of the Lewisburg Leaders Hall of Fame were inducted in a memorable public presentation Friday, Sept. 20, at the gym.
Ten of the inductees were present. Two, Otis Foulks and Josh Moore, are deceased. The Forgy siblings, Larry and Alice Lynn, were unable to attend.
The following are the biographies of the final five inductees along with the names of the students who presented them.
Fadocia Annette Nole Hall
Ana Nash, 7th Grader
I am proud to introduce Fadocia Nole Hall, a 1979 graduate of Lewisburg High School, to the Hall Hall of Fame audience!
When Mrs. Hall was Fadocia Nole, she moved to Lewisburg during her junior year, which was in 1977. She graduated with the class of 1979. From here, she went to Western Kentucky University where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Broadcast News and a minor in Mass Communications.
Her broadcast news jobs in radio included WKCT, WBGN, G-107 the Gator, and WSM Radio in Nashville, Tennessee. Her television news jobs were at WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, WLKY-TV in Louisville, and WSMV Channel 4 in Nashville, where she was a senior reporter. Since leaving Channel 4 in 1998 to raise their son, she has worked as a freelance field producer for ABC’s Good Morning America and ABC World News Tonight. She also has worked with two PBS shows, Tennessee’s Wild Side and Creative License.
Her awards include a Mid-South Regional Emmy Award in 2009 for her work on a Public Affairs video for the Tennessee District Attorney General’s Conference. She has also worked as a news desk assistant for the Federal Emergency Management Agency during disaster recovery in Tennessee and as a ghost writer for a Nashville child psychologist.
Mrs. Hall took a new path in her life when she accepted a seasonal job as an Equestrian Director in 2013. She has received her certification as a horseback riding instructor from the Certified Horsemanship Association.
Mrs. Hall has many memories from her time at LHS and many people influenced her life and decisions. Two who stand out in her memories are Coach Bob Birdwhistell and Mrs. Becky Christmas. They made learning fun and she says they encouraged her to look beyond any limitations and pursue her passions, which she has done. She said that many times while climbing the career ladder, she thought back to them and what they might tell her to do and to keep pressing onward.
She said, “It’s not easy, but if you want to make an impact in your life, you will have to work very hard. This quote from an old rock and roll star of the band Steppenwolf, John Kay: “Success at any price demands it’s sacrifice.” To students today, she says you can have it all, just maybe not at the same time. She says that even now, looking back over her life’s work, she knows there is more to come and is anxious to see what God has planned.
Congratulations to you, Fadocia Annette Nole Hall, for your induction into the Lewisburg Leaders Hall of Fame!
Aaron Johnson
Sean Fuller, 7th Grader
Aaron Johnson, from the LMS class of 1996, is the first hall of famer from the middle school era. He was also valedictorian of that class of ’96. He then attended Logan County High School, where he was an excellent student-athlete. He graduated from there in 2000.
Mr. Johnson’s education continued when he went to Bethel University in Tennessee. He received a degree in Business Administration and Accounting, summa cum laude, in 2004 and a masters of arts in education in 2007. He pitched for the baseball team and ran cross country while at Bethel. Some of his accomplishments were NAIA Academic All American in 2003 and 2004. He also was honored with the A. O. Duer NAIA Award in 2003. This is given to a student athlete based upon grade point average, character, citizenship, and playing ability. He was a four-year letterman in Bethel University Baseball and a two-year letterman in cross country. He was the KIAC All-Conference Pitcher in 2004.
From 2004 – 2005, Mr. Johnson was an assistant basketball coach at Logan County High School and from 2005 – 2010 was an assistant baseball coach at Bethel. He has been the men’s assistant basketball coach at Bethel University since 2006.
He is married and has a son and a daughter.
His advice to today’s Rangers: “One thing I have always done is to push myself to finish something that I have started. Many times I have had the opportunity to quit and give up on something, but it is something I have never done. If you quit, there is always someone who will be depending on you, who now has to find a new solution to their plan that you were a part of.
Congratulations and thank you for setting a great example for the Ranger student athletes especially!
Zak Danks
Timmy Lutz, 6th Grader
I am honored to be presenting Zak Danks. He graduated from Lewisburg Elementary School in 1996 and from Logan County High School in 2000. Zak’s next stop was at the University of Kentucky where he received his degree in Natural Resource and Conservation Management. After that, he received his Master of Science in Wildlife Biology and Management from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y.
Mr. Danks has his dream job of being a professional wildlife biologist for the state of Kentucky. He has proudly helped citizens appreciate and protect wildlife and their habitats. He has also helped train many college students and help landowners enroll acres of land into government conservation programs. The conservation programs he is involved with benefit all people in the Commonwealth.
Zak’s research on the moose of New York State and Maine has been published in top scientific journals. It involved complex data analysis and statistics as to why there are so many car crashes involving moose in that area. Other areas of study include the radio-tracking deer, black bears, and elk; monitoring songbird and small mammals; and canoeing the beautiful Adirondack rivers and lakes searching for loons and invasive plants.
Sports were important to Zak, giving him confidence, fitness, and a strong work ethic. His high school success earned him a scholarship to pitch for the University of Kentucky. Unfortunately, he was injured his freshman year. It was academics that helped him rebound from this disappointment; he became more focused on academics. Always a straight A student, he combined his love of hunting and his love of animal and plant interactions into his dream career. Relying on academics is a launching point for truly rewarding things.
His biggest accomplishment is his family. He met his wife at Syracuse and they now have two wonderful, healthy daughters. He considers his most important roles as a leader to be a husband and father who instills values and a love for learning in his children.
Zak’s best memories of Lewisburg center on his favorite teachers and coaches; as a serious student, he worked hard to impress them. He didn’t realize at the time that the classes he had at Lewisburg would help him prepare to become a conservation biologist. He knows his hard work and effort helped him get into graduate school and eventually, his dream job. Now that he is an adult, he realizes it wasn’t about the straight A’s, but about building skills to be a leader.
Zak Danks has achieved many things in his life. That is why we are honoring him tonight.
Debbie Steele
Justyce Warden, 6th grader
Our next Hall of Fame member is Officer Debbie Steele, who graduated 8th grade at Lewisburg in 1999.
Ms. Steele then went on to graduate from Logan County High School in 2003 and from Daymar College in 2009.
Ms. Steele’s greatest accomplishment is her two children, Ethan and Kayla. If you see them, you will recognize that their sweet faces look just like their mother!
Deborah Steele’s profession is one of which she should be very proud. She had known for a long time that she wanted to go into law enforcement, but it was going to be difficult to attend the 18-week training at Eastern Kentucky University with two young children at home. With the support of family and friends, Ms. Steele did indeed master the training and became a police officer! She went to work for the Franklin Police Department in Simpson County in July 2009.
She has already become a decorated officer. She received the Governor’s Award three years in a row for occupant protection enforcement. She and 140 other law enforcement officers were honored by the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety for their efforts to increase the use of seat belts and child restraints in motor vehicles. She has also received the prestigious Medal of Valor. She was honored for twice entering a Roosevelt Street home in March 2011 while it was on fire to remove a teenager from inside the structure. She is a true hometown hero!
Her message to current students is that you can accomplish anything, but nothing in life is free. Remember nothing is out of reach and if you’re willing to make sacrifices, you will reach your goal in due time. She says that to stay true to yourself, you need to stay true to your faith and God will truly bless you. God has a plan for everyone; it may not always be what we intended, but we always end up where we need to be.
Ms. Steele has accomplished many things in life that mean a lot to the community and to her family. We thank you for your service and are so happy that you started as a Lewisburg Ranger!
Cpl. Josh Moore
Haley Bilyeu, 8th Grader
Last but certainly not least – although he will always be known as “Lil Moore” – is a graduate from 2001, Corporal Joshua McKay Moore.
Josh attended Lewisburg School from preschool through 8th grade. He had many academic and athletic honors while a Ranger: he was student of the month, an A/B Honor Roll student. He loved to play basketball and baseball. He was a middle school Ranger and an All-Star baseball team member for several years. He graduated from Logan County High School in 2005. He worked for a few months and then joined the army in August of 2005. He graduated in the top 20 of his basic training class.
Josh was such a special person. He had a loving family and good friends who were important in his life. His mother, Carolyn, also credits his teachers at Lewisburg, his church, and his family for shaping him into the fine young man he was. He never looked down on anyone and if he was your friend, then you had a friend for life. He would go out of his way to help anyone.
After joining the Army, when he came home on leave he always visited Lewisburg school to see his teachers and talk to the children about the war in Iraq. The children would write him letters and sent cards back from the school visits for him to read. It would take a while, but he would stay up that night and read every one of those cards and letters. He loved getting them.
When Josh was at Lewisburg, he managed to win the hearts of everyone around him. He could light up the room with his smile. If he was not smiling, something was wrong! He and his buddy Dustin Epley were the masters of practical jokes, too. But because they always were accompanied with his mischevious grin, they never got in much trouble! According to one of his teachers, if every student had the heart of Josh Moore, the world would be a better place.
The one thing he wanted out of life was to be respected. He knew that respect had to be earned, and Josh certainly earned all of ours. He went to war to protect freedom. He died protecting freedom. Many men and women have shed their blood for this country; if not for them and their sacrifice, we would not enjoy the freedoms we sometimes take for granted. Carolyn Moore is very proud of the son and the man he grew up to be, and we are all so proud of our own hero Ranger.
Mrs. Moore’s advice to students of Lewisburg is to study hard and always strive to be respected. Always respect others; grow up and be someone that can make a difference in the world. Never take your family for granted; listen to your family and teachers because they are helping you get where you need to be to succeed in life.
We are honored to have Corporal Joshua McKay Moore as one of us, always a Ranger.