Elizabethton City Council to honor donor for new community park on Thursday

ELIZABETHTON — An establishment of a new playground in a new city park will be one of the items on the agenda for the Elizabethton City Council's meeting Thursday night. Private citizen Louie Greene donated $161,394.18 for playground equipment for the park, to be established on Race Street, just off the Linear Bike Trail. The plans for the park began when Greene approached the Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department with the idea of donating money for playground equipment as a memorial to his daughter, Sandra Renee Greene. Greene vividly remembers the date of Dec. 5, 1968. On that date he was serving in the Air Force in Vietnam. He got a message to report to his company commander. He knew it was never anything good when an airman was told to report to his company commander. "When I saw him he said he was sorry, but he had to tell me my daughter was stillborn. I never got to hold her. She never got to know she was loved. No one got to know her, but now she will not be forgotten. She will be remembered." Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department Director David Nanney said Greene's contribution will enable the city to contract with GameTime Playcore Company of Charlotte to purchase playground equipment for the new park. Nanney said the new park is much needed. There are many apartment building and a few trailer parks in the neighborhood. Kids on foot and bicycle will be able to quickly reach the park by using the Linear Bike Trail. Greene has also purchased a large stone that will bear the name of his daughter to be placed in the park. This is the latest contribution to the community that Greene has made in the past few years. Greene has already donated the Gap Creek farm his parents owned, where he grew up. That donation included over 50 acres, 3 houses, a couple of barns and other outbuildings. He donated the farm with the understanding that the school board would develop it into an agricultural center, where future generations can learn how to farm. He remembered how his parents, Frank Hartsell Greene and Virginia Dare Greene would work an 8-hour shift at North American Rayon Corporation, then would work 8 hours on the farm. Greene has also endowed $250,000 to his high school, Happy Valley High School, to start a scholarship program; $10,000 to the Elizabethton Housing and Development Agency to buy bicycles for the children who live there; and $20,000 to the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs hospital to take care of special needs his fellow veterans might have. Greene said his personal fortune has dwindled, but "I am the last bit of Greene paint left in the can. My mother and father and my brother are gone. My daughter was the only one I hadn't taken care of yet. Now I have a place for her. I told them at the parks department that if they see a little girl walking in the park and holding hands with an old man, they will know who it is."