A QUIET GRAVESIDE SERVICE REMEMBERED A SERVANT AND A FRIEND
Today we look back and remember the day Judge Alton P. “Doc” Condra, Jr. died, remembering how suddenly it happened one Wednesday afternoon after he’d spent the morning doing what he always did—serving the people of Rhea County from the General Sessions bench.
He was 71 then, a man who had already served as a Navy veteran of World War II, a member of the American Legion Brady Williams post 100. A longtime veterinarian who opened Condra Veterinary Clinic in the 1950s, and a public servant who served on the Dayton City Council, the Rhea County School Board, County Coronor from 1965-1974 and the county planning commission.
During an interview in 1992 he recalled how he once said that his first heart attack in 1972 made him rethink everything and pushed him toward becoming a judge at a time when judges didn’t have to be attorneys. Even after state law changed in 1990 to require judges to be licensed lawyers, he was grandfathered in.
He had studied here and there, taken courses at the University of Tennessee and the University of Virginia, and attended annual judicial conferences, but mostly people trusted him because they knew his steady way, his fairness, and his servant’s heart.
He had been elected three times since first taking the bench in 1974, stepping away only briefly after a second heart attack in 1991 and then another in 1993, returning each time.
When he passed away, he was still working, hearing cases almost up to the moment he collapsed. Those who were around then remember that Attorned Bill McPheeters was given the authority to execute some of Condra’s duties until another judge was in place.
The county commission suddenly had to fill his seat, planning to appoint someone to serve until the 1996 election. They also recalled the requirements for anyone hoping to take Condra’s place: being a licensed Tennessee attorney, living in Rhea County, and being at least thirty years old.
After his death, the community gathered for a graveside service held at the small Condra Cemetery in Whitwell, where Minister Steve Brown officiated on a quiet Friday afternoon, and where friends, neighbors, and family members stood together as he was laid to rest in the same peaceful ground where generations of his family had been buried before him.
His wife Maggie, his daughters Susan and Luana, his son Alton III, his mother Vera, his brother Gene, his grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews were there, joined by a crowd that reflected just how deeply he was respected. Looking back now, people say Rhea County truly lost something special when Judge Condra died, because he was a figure who quietly held together so many parts of the community, working right up until the end of his life in the only way he knew.
Photo by Jimmy Cunnyngham of Cunnyngham Studio Archives.
Copyright All Rights Reserved -Yesterday In Dayton
Please Consider using The Social Media Buttons Below To Share This Story So Others May See It.
