MURFREESBORO, TN — Kind hearts and heroes will be honored next weekend during this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. birthday breakfast at MTSU.
The late Jerry Anderson of Murfreesboro is the inspiration for the annual award ceremony when America’s greatest Civil Rights leader is remembered.
Anderson played for the Bengals and Buccaneers. On May 27, 1989, exactly five years after rescuing motorists from flood waters in Tulsa, Okla., the retired football safety rescued two boys from a rain-swollen Stones River.
The boys fell off a dam.
Anderson drowned after saving them. His story is dramatized in a “Rescue 911” TV show episode on YouTube.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Breakfast starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, in the Tennessee Room of MTSU’s James Union Building.
The NAACP here recognizes people who selflessly work to improve others’ lives. Award recipients are nominated by their peers. Murfreesboro Fire and Rescue members named for the honor this year are: Capt. Tony Lehew, Fireghters Melvin Holmes, Ryan Battle and Ben Honeycutt, Engineer Douglas Inglish and veteran James Hershel Newsom Jr. Jerry Anderson Humanitarian Award recipients are Martha Cook, Cynthia Wilson, Ernest Newsom and Bart Walker.
Branch leaders are accepting $30 reservations ($20 for students) through Jan. 6.
Contact: Awards Committee Chair Mary Wade at (615) 423- 7548 or wade1949@yahoo.com or Membership Chair Florence Smith at (615) 589-5034.
