Excerpt from Not-So-Normal People: Great American Stories Preserved

Publishes September 17, 2026

Top photo: Lamar Alexander campaigning to become Tennessee governor in 1978.

Bottom photo: Long-time Chattanooga businessman and politico Pat Brock.

This is uncorrected text from the Advance Readers Copy. Not the final text.

O.D. McKee and me

     I came to know the old man, O.D. McKee, through my early involvement in local Republican politics. His home was in the Ooltewah precinct and so was mine. With steadfast persistence, Greg Vital and I had been busy weaving the little bit of thread we had into local political establishment, and did so in such a way that we somehow, more or less, came to be the go-to ground troops in the Ooltewah-Collegedale area. Harold Coker, the hard-driving, enthusiastic new chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party had set about organizing the county down to the precinct level, and he encouraged me to get elected precinct chairman for Ooltewah. I knew diddly-squat about organized politics, but figured out step one was to go and meet with the locally important people who had been politically active in the past, and whose support I would need to get elected.

     Among them was O.D. McKee, so I called and got a meeting with him at his bakery office. I pitched him my short life story—that I grew up in the Ooltewah/Collegedale area; that I was a fellow Adventist; and that I had once worked at the bakery. We chatted for a while about the upcoming elections and how 1978 was showing signs of being a big year for Republican candidates in Tennessee. Historically, the Volunteer State had been mostly under the control of Democrats, but Republicans had been making gains. In 1978, there was a real possibility that big changes in Tennessee politics were on the horizon, and that had excited Republicans throughout the state. McKee was excited too, and he wanted his fingerprints on making that change possible. 

Ooltewah precinct chairman

     McKee had long been a Republican donor, and in 1978, he was a big supporter of state and local Republican candidates, including U.S. Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., and gubernatorial candidate Lamar Alexander. O.D. wanted the Baker and Alexander campaigns to come for events in his town. In our meeting I was thinking, “yes sir, we can do that,” although at that moment I didn’t know exactly how. I did promise as a precinct chairman to do whatever I could to help build the local party, work with the campaigns, and win elections. When we held the precinct meeting in Ooltewah, O.D. McKee nominated me to be the next chairman. I had talked to others as well in hopes that when the small group voted I would be elected, and I was. My neighbor, Bud Ball, who had kids my age and was a pillar of old Ooltewah politics, was the chairman I amicably replaced—new, enthusiastic, young blood was ok with him. In Collegedale, Greg Vital got himself elected as precinct chairman.

Pat Brock: The Candyman

     The Brock family had owned and operated their candy company in Chattanooga since 1906. The confections company got its start selling penny candies, peanut brittle, and fudge, and became famous for its chocolate covered cherries, hard candies, and jelly sweets. Pat Brock took leadership of the company in the mid-1950s, and grew the family-owned business through acquisitions and bringing to the candy sales market such popular fruit snacks as colored gummie bears and gummie worms. The company went public in 1993, and in 1994, the E.J. Brach Corporation bought a controlling interest in Brock Candy for $140 million. 

     While Pat Brock was a candy man, he was also a very wise and thoughtful political strategist whose counsel many big-time Republican candidates sought. . A later example of this was his service as Chairman of the Southern Region for the 1988 Bob Dole presidential campaign. But at this time he was the third Congressional District chairman of the Lamar Alexander for Governor campaign. Since the McKee’s and the Brock’s were both in the sweets’ business, the families had been friendly for a long time, and Pat Brock was glad to put us on the Alexander campaign schedule.

Alexander for Governor campaign comes to Collegedale

     The Democrats in the governor’s race had fought an ugly and bitter primary battle between Knoxville banker and World’s Fair promoter Jake Butcher; Public Service Commissioner Bob Clement, the son of former governor Frank Clement and a future U.S. congressman; and Nashville Mayor Richard Fulton. Jake Butcher had won the Democratic primary and faced Lamar Alexander in the November 1978 general election. The day Lamar Alexander came to Collegedale we took McKee’s Lincoln Continental Town Car and went down to pick him up at Brock Candy Company, then located off Bonny Oaks Drive about 10 miles from Collegedale. McKee and Alexander sat in the back of the big car and talked as we traveled to Collegedale. Mr. McKee had told me before we retrieved Alexander the route he wanted to take to Wright Hall where the Alexander rally was to be held. As we drove down Apison Pike past the two bakeries, McKee gave Alexander the short story about his snack cake empire, and its economic importance to the greater Chattanooga area. He transitioned to telling Alexander the story about the college and the community when we circled down past Collegedale Academy, the Collegedale SDA church, and onto the college campus.

     We arrived at Wright Hall to a nice size mid-day crowd that had gathered around the steps of the white-pillared administration building. Wearing his walking boots, khaki pants, and red flannel shirt, Lamar Alexander jumped out of McKee’s Lincoln and waded into the expectant group of supporters; shaking hands, asking for votes, and thanking people for coming. Mr. McKee was at Alexander’s elbow heading him toward where he would speak, but occasionally pausing to introduce someone of local importance. McKee slowly guided the gubernatorial candidate through the crowd toward the steps of Wright Hall, where the soon-to-be elected Tennessee governor gave a rousing campaign speech with O.D. McKee standing nearby. At the end of the day, we had orchestrated the campaign event we all were hoping to have, and everybody was happy and proud.

Bringing the campaign of U.S. Senator Howard Baker to town is another story.