“Bear Phillips seated”

Bear Philips, a retired coal miner, lived in Devonia in Campbell County, Tennessee. He had deformed feet from birth and wore padded shoes. He once wrestled a black bear in a traveling circus, which earned him the nickname “Bear” ever since. Corn remembers, “He and his wife were wonderful hosts. The Phillips lived simply, with a porch all across the front of the converted log cabin, and raising most their food in a garden.” In the photograph, Bear looks up solemnly at a picture hanging on the wall of his late son, who was killed in the Korean War.