May 1, 1925—THIS DAY IN SCOPES HISTORY

Last Updated 4/28/2025


After a “good though hardly remarkable first year,” John Scopes’s contract ends at RCHS, but he stays in town to help two students injured in a car accident and to pursue “a beautiful blond I had somehow previously overlooked.” (That “beautiful blond” was going to auction a box of fried chicken at an upcoming church social, and John wanted to be there to place a bid.)

Years later, although Scopes could no longer recall her name, Scopes admitted that the “beautiful blonde” deserved “as much credit as anyone for the trial being held in Dayton that summer.

This information is taken from “Causes Go On Forever…: A Chronology of the Scopes Trial,” by Randy Moore and Tom Davis. Copies of the book are available from the Rhea County Historical Society, P.O. Box 31, Dayton, TN 37321. Cost is $25.


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