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Continuing our exploration of useful information sources regarding Tullahoma area history, here’s Part 2.

The Heritage of Coffee County Tennessee was published in 2005 by the Coffee County Heritage Book Committee. Spanning 656 pages, it contains a huge amount of information about Coffee County pioneer residents as well as ones contemporary with its publications date, plus institutions, businesses, and more. Just a few of its sections include Military, Churches, Businesses, Cemeteries, Historical Buildings, Slavery, Pioneer Families, and Transportation. It’s an excellent reference volume and comes available on eBay from time-to-time, but usually sells for well over $100. Still, if you’re student of local history, it’s well worth owning. Thankfully, it is well-indexed!

Tullahoma is a simple enough title for this excellent book published in 1986 by the Historic Preservation Society of Tullahoma. The occasion was the Tennessee Homecoming of that year. This one is 192 pages and is similar in some ways to the first book listed, but it has enough different subject information to warrant owning both, and it is indexed. It, too, shows up on eBay once in a while, too, but often more expensive than it should be. There’s one listed now for $199.

Bluestocking by Bud Willis isn’t really a history book, but then again, it is. Bud grew up in a very poor family in Tullahoma in the 1940s and 1950s. The book is basically his memoir of that time and it’s a jewel. Raised by a single mother and the sixth of nine children, if you know the time, you can imagine the stories. Bud graduated Tullahoma High School, class of 1959. Reading Bluestocking after having lived here 22 years and having looked at hundreds of old Tullahoma photos, I could visualize the antics of Bud and his friends and siblings. I do wish I had marked references when I read it. Now I’ll have to read it again. Oh well! Available on Amazon and eBay.

Do any of our readers have old photos from Tullahoma Christmas Parades of past years, or photos of downtown businesses decorated for Christmas? I’d love to borrow them briefly. You can contact me at alanmayes@lighttube.net.