by Matt Wright
It’s a bittersweet time here at Lakeland Currents as Jim and Sherrye Willis, editor, and photographer, are officially retiring from the news business and moving to the Chattanooga area at the end of this month. Plans were set in place some time ago for a smooth transition as Missy Wright took over last month as the editor for Lakeland Currents.
Jim and Sherrye have played a key role over the past 8 years as the City of Lakeland transitioned into the Lakeland we know today. Every key event in our recent history from elections and the formation of schools to sporting events and business development has been personally covered by the Willises, essentially creating a history book for Lakeland. Lakeland would be different, and not in a good way in my personal opinion, without Jim and Sherrye and their work for Lakeland Currents. We owe them a great debt for their contribution to the city and citizens of Lakeland, TN.
More About Jim and Sherrye Willis
It was their desire to share the good news of the Lakeland community that lured them into an eight-year involvement with Lakeland Currents. With 65K+ unique readers in 2019 from a town of 12K people, their impact has been obvious. Jim and Sherrye are both from Memphis, born at Methodist Hospital nine months apart (Jim is the eldest). Jim is an only child, and Sherrye is the oldest of three girls.
Both studied journalism at the University of Memphis (Memphis State at the time) and they met while working on the student newspaper. Sherrye was named editor of The Tiger Rag and hired Jim to be the managing editor, effectively becoming his first newspaper boss.
Jim quipped saying, “she still thinks she’s the boss after all these years.”
During college Sherrye worked locally in journalism and newspapers while Jim wrote and shot pictures for the Memphis Press-Scimitar (PS). He even had a stint with NBC news, working with crews on Civil Rights-era coverage during the mid-‘60s.
Once married, they moved to Valdosta, GA where Jim was in the public information office at Moody Air Force Base and she was a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.
Jim spent his entire journalism career with Scripps Howard, from city editor at the Memphis Press-Scimitar to editor and president of the Birmingham (AL) Post-Herald. When he retired from Scripps, he was an associate publisher at The Commercial Appeal.
Sherrye was a public relations director at Memphis Goodwill Industries before completing a master’s degree and becoming a vocational counselor for the state of Tennessee. After their two children were older, she started substituting teaching in several school systems.
In Alabama, they lived in a small town called Mountain Brook and loved the excellent schools and safety of the community for their family of two sons who both graduated from Mountain Brook schools.
They returned to Memphis in 2006 when Jim came back to the Commercial Appeal.
Sherrye said, “Like Mountain Brook, we found an affinity with another small town, Lakeland, and its friendly residents and city staff.”
Sherrye applied to substitute teach at Arlington Community Schools and spent one year at the middle school in Lakeland.
Jim continues to work as a consultant with Internet Brands, a Southern California-based news media company with more than a hundred online communities. His fondness for America’s sports car, the Corvette, made operating IB’s Corvette forum site a natural fit. Of course, owning Corvettes for almost 50 years also helped. He still has two Vettes including a red ’65 big block Sting Ray convertible with side pipes and knock-off wheels.
His hobbies include wildlife photography (although he has shot many a photo and video for Lakeland Currents), traveling and boating. Sherrye enjoys traveling and boating, but skips the photography.
As volunteer-junkies (Habitat For Humanity, Salvation Army, soup kitchens, HOAs and West Cancer Clinic), it was not out of context for them to get involved with the publication. Jim started in 2012 with Citywatch and Sherrye joined a year later. Citywatch became Lakeland Currents in 2014 and two years later, the home-delivered publication went to a daily, online medium at www.lakelandcurrents.com.
From the get-go, Jim and Sherrye’s goal with the publication/website was to share the good news of Lakeland and keep residents and those in surrounding communities abreast of town happenings.
Now it is time to start their next chapter in a small community in Hamilton County (Ooltewah/Collegedale) which is about the same size as Lakeland. They will be close to family, but not in the same state.
Sherrye said, “In East Tennessee there will be neighbors to meet, public officials to monitor, lakes to boat, mountains to view and photograph and, maybe, a local publication or HOA newsletter on the horizon” and finished by saying, “but we will miss our friends and activities in Lakeland. There always will be a warm spot in our hearts for Lakeland.”
