Annette Nole Hall is an Emmy Award winning producer and former radio and television news reporter. While she’s a full time mom, Annette still
finds time to work when called upon to field produce by ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight. During the 10 years, Annette has
become a familiar face as a “Wild Side Guide” on the national award winning PBS outdoor adventure show, Tennessee’s Wild Side. She spent many
years on the air and on the streets of Nashville reporting for WSMV-Channel 4, the NBC affiliate where she met her husband Steve. Annette,
Steve and their 12-year-old son Ezekiel live near Ashland City, Tenn. with their two rescue dogs, Zadie and Liberty. The Halls also have an
adopted daughter, Karrie, who is married and living near Springfield, Tennessee with her husband and baby daughter. When Annette is not
homeschooling her son, she loves horseback riding, snow skiing and yoga. The Lewisburg High School graduate is the daughter of Geneva Bilbrey
of Russellville and of Joe Lee Nole, a Lewisburg graduate who lives in Hermitage, Tenn.
I walked into the morning meeting anxious to share my suggestions, get out the door and go to work. A meeting has never been my idea of a productive
way to get the day going, but I do understand the necessity of comparing notes and coming up with a game plan. So I sat as patiently as possible while
one reporter after another went over their own ideas.
Then just as things got going good, this guy walked in, a little late, but with a presence that let us all know he wasn’t worried about watching a
clock. He looked vaguely familiar, but I knew I could ask around later and that was about the extent of my interest. I turned my attention back to the
conference table discussion just in time to hear a co-worker offer up one of his more “simple” ideas to the new guy. We were all sitting there stunned
by the very insult of it, when our visitor quickly responded, “I’ve been watching the newscasts lately and it seems to me that all your stories are pretty simple.” I think in that moment I fell in love.
You see, the reporter who had offered up one of his left over “simple” ideas was the first reporter to bring “sensationalism” into the WSMV newsroom in
Nashville. We had all been troubled by it for sometime and the new guy who in that moment stood up for all of us was a Peabody Award winning journalist
who believed in what we all called Caring Faith. It was a journalistic acronym that represented caring about our community while being fair, accurate,
informative, thorough and human. Sensationalism had no place where we worked.
It didn’t take long to find out exactly who he was and why he was there. We were going into the holidays, a lot of reporters would be taking time off,
and management wanted someone who could walk in and hit the ground running. He had worked at WSMV several years before and just happened to have a few
days available to hang out in a newsroom again. While I had an envious supply of city sources, he walked in on the inside track with state and federal
authorities. He had a calm confidence I found intriguing and I was anxious to get to know this man who had just shook the ground we all walked on.
Now, keep in mind, I had been told my entire life that “Mr. Right will not just walk in the door.” But that Thanksgiving in 1993 he did. He
walked right in the door of our regular routine morning meeting. I wasn’t looking for Mr. Right; I was way too busy trying to get it right. But there
he was, bigger than life, a vaguely familiar face because I had watched him on television while I was still a student at Lewisburg High School.
He slipped in that door at Thanksgiving, knocked me off my lead story perch by Christmas and when spring rolled around I joked to my family and friends
that I would have to kill him or marry him. I decided to go with the safest scenario and 17 years later he remains my soul mate, the best reporter,
best writer, best husband, father and friend I have ever known.
So single ladies…listen up…if anyone ever tells you that Mr. Right won’t just walk in the door, tell them you would rather take your chances and wait
for that door to open than to ever settle for just any old turkey!
Happy Thanksgiving Ya’ll!