Heritage Foundation to Honor Nationally Renowned Author and Filmmaker with Inaugural Tracy Frist Legacy Award
Dayton Duncan to be honored at the 46th Annual Heritage Ball on October 5
FRANKLIN, Tenn. – On the heels of the release of the new eight-part 16-hour docuseries, “Country Music,” directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey, the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, Tenn. announces Dayton Duncan as the 2019 recipient of the Tracy Frist Legacy Award. Duncan is an award-winning writer, having authored 13 books, and an Emmy-award-winning documentary filmmaker, having been involved with the work of Ken Burns for nearly 30 years.
CEO of the Heritage Foundation Bari Beasley said, “Tracy Frist and Senator Bill Frist would like to shine a national spotlight on Williamson County and the great history and preservation work our community supports every day. To do so, the Frists have been instrumental in creating the new Tracy Frist Legacy Award, which will honor someone at a national level right here in Franklin. The award will be given annually at the Heritage Ball. This year, I could not be more honored to have Dayton Duncan join us. His work speaks for itself, and I know our community will be proud to host him in October.”
About Dayton Duncan
The Writer: Duncan’s books include “Miles from Nowhere: In Search of the American Frontier” (1994), children’s books “People of the West” (1996) and “The West: An Illustrated History for Children” (1996), “Grass Roots: One Year in the Life of the New Hampshire Presidential Primary” (1999), “Out West: A Journey Through Lewis & Clark’s America” (2000), “Scenes of Visionary Enchantment: Reflections on Lewis & Clark” (2004), “Seed of the Future: Yosemite and the Evolution of the National Park Idea” (2013), as well as companion books for documentary films he’s written and produced. He has also written articles for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, American Heritage magazine, The Old Farmer’s Almanac and many other publications.
The Filmmaker: Duncan’s film credits include co-writer and consulting producer for “The West” (1996); writer and producer of “Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery” (1997); co-writer and producer of “Mark Twain” (2001); writer and producer of “Horatio’s Drive” (2003); writer and producer of “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” (2009); writer and producer for “The Dust Bowl” (2012); and writer and lead producer of “Country Music” (2019); Duncan has also served as a consultant or consulting producer on all Burns’ other documentaries, including “The Civil War” (1990) “Baseball” (1994), “Jazz” (2001) and “The War” (2007).
The Political Figure and Conservationist: In politics, Duncan served as chief of staff to New Hampshire Gov. Hugh Gallen; deputy national press secretary for Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign in 1984; and national press secretary for Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign. President Bill Clinton appointed him chair of the American Heritage Rivers Advisory Committee and Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt appointed him to the board of the National Park Foundation. In the spring of 2009, along with Burns, the director of the National Park Service named Duncan as an Honorary Park Ranger, an honor bestowed on fewer than 50 people in history. He has served on the boards of the Student Conservation Association and the National Conservation Lands Foundation and was a member of the advisory committee for the centennial of the National Park Service.
About the Tracy Frist Legacy Award
Inspired by history and preservation trailblazers throughout the Heritage Foundation’s history, Senator Bill and Tracy Frist are honoring these acts through their creation of the Foundation’s new Tracy Frist Legacy Award.
Tracy Frist is an active board member and non-profit supporter, a conservationist, equestrian, writer, educator and agriculturist. She embodies the wholesome American spirit, driven to ensure our collective future and to create a legacy for the people and places for which she so deeply cares.
The award gives national recognition to individuals or groups whose body of work creates a lasting legacy of American history through preservation and conservation of historical resources. The Heritage Foundation honors those individuals who engage both the public and scholars to impact the way Americans think about and appreciate the events, places and stories of the American experience.
About the Sculpture
The evening of October 5 at the 46th Annual Heritage Ball, Duncan will be presented with the physical award, an owl sculpture, made with local materials and by Southern artists. Supporting the theme of this year’s ball, “Discovery – discover our past, present and future,” the award holds great symbolism and significance. Copper Fox Gallery owners John and Talbott Grimm worked with Tracy Frist as designer of the award, sculpter Christine Kosiba and hand-engraver, carver Stephen Hutchens to produce the piece.
Talbot Grimm said, “It was our pleasure to assist the Heritage Foundation with this special commissioned sculpture award for Dayton Duncan. Tracy Frist envisioned working with regional artists she’d admired at our gallery to create this award using historical materials and crafted by hand.
We coordinated the details of this project and completion of the final piece as Christine Kosiba sculpted the extraordinary clay owl and Stephen Hutchins chiseled the lettering by hand on this historic limestone piece from the Frists’ historic Williamson County property, Old Town. “
Representing the past, the base of the award is limestone, engraved by Hutchens and harvested from Old Town. Designated the state rock in 1979, limestone is prevalent in the area, especially along streams and rivers like the Harpeth, but it also has sacred roots connected to the site. Old Town includes the remnants of a Native American village and mound complex of the Mississipian culture and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mississippian mound complexes are thought to have been regional centers for civic and ceremonial activities and permanent residences of ruling elites. Burial plots at Old Town were a type known as stone box graves, commonly used by Mississippian people in Middle Tennessee. In this type of burial, shallow rectangular excavations would have been lined with large thin slabs of limestone.
Representing the present, an industrial rusted, iron circle stands stately on the limestone. Ancient peoples viewed metals as mysterious materials found deep inside the earth and believed them to be full of spiritual powers and potential for creation, as well as destruction. Iron is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, and in this case, represents both the present day Industrial and Information Ages. The circle also has universal symbolism, representing notions of totality, wholeness, the infinite, eternity and timelessness.
Lastly, representing the future, Kosiba’s sculpted barn owl sits gracefully atop the iron circle. Owls hold a lot of meaning in different cultures. Most notably, owls are emblematic of wisdom and intuitive knowledge, with the ability to see what others cannot or do not see.
About the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, TN
Since 1967, the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, TN has been dedicated to protecting and preserving Williamson County’s architectural, geographic and cultural heritage and promoting the ongoing revitalization of downtown Franklin in the context of historic preservation. Notable projects include The Franklin Theatre, Roper’s Knob, parts of the Franklin battlefield and the Old, Old Jail. The Foundation brings county history to about 3,000 public, private and homeschooled children each year through the Heritage Classroom program and walking tours of downtown Franklin. Events and festivals produced by the Heritage Foundation such as Main Street Festival, the Heritage Ball, Pumpkinfest and Dickens of a Christmas bring hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors to downtown Franklin each year. The Heritage Foundation owns and operates the “home of first kisses,” The Franklin Theatre, the area’s nationally accredited Main Street Program through the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Downtown Franklin Association, and the organization’s newest division and current restoration and rehabilitation project, Franklin Grove Estate & Gardens. For more information about the Heritage Foundation, visit https://williamsonheritage.org.
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