Tom Lawson, who was born in 1932 on a farm two and one-half miles southeast of Neelyville, Mo., remembers when U.S. 67 was "a narrow, crooked road" during his childhood.
He had no idea he would be one of the leaders in the effort to get 50 miles of Highway 67 four-laned north of Poplar Bluff, Mo. He was instrumental in the campaign to convince Poplar Bluff residents to approve a half cent sales tax for Highway 67 on April 5, 2005. The vote was 1,787 to 827, a 68-32 percent margin.
Completion of the $180 million project "16 months early and under budget" will be celebrated Aug. 26, which will be proclaimed Tom Lawson Day by Poplar Bluff Mayor Ed DeGaris.
Lawson is being recognized for serving as chairman of the Highway 67 Corporation Board and the Highway 67 Coalition since February 2005. He also participated in the Missouri Department of Transportation 67 Corridor Management Team meetings.
MoDOT's Mid-America Express celebration will kick off at 9 a.m. Friday at the Black River Electric Cooperative along Highway 67 at Fredericktown, Mo.. At 10:30 a.m., the caravan will arrive at the Old Greenville Campground boat ramp parking lot for a second event.
Between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m., the caravan is expected to arrive in Poplar Bluff where the participants will be greeted by the Poplar Bluff High School Band. A program will be presented in a tent north of the First Community Bank along North Westwood Boulevard. The public is invited.
Steve Halter, president of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce, will be the emcee. Anticipated speakers include U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, Tom Schulte on behalf of U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, District 25 state Sen. Rob Mayer, District 153 state Rep. Steve Cookson, District 154 state Rep. Todd Richardson, Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Chair Grace Nichols, MoDOT Director Kevin Keith, Wappapello Lake Operations Manager Cindy Jackson with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Poplar Bluff Mayor Ed DeGaris, Poplar Bluff City Manager Doug Bagby and Lawson.
Jim Belknap, board chairman of First Community Bank, and Lawson, Poplar Bluff city manager from 1991-2003, are among those serving on the Highway 67 Corporation Board since its formation in November 2003.
"If Tom Lawson had not been involved, worked hard and really stayed on top of it, this 50-mile four-laning project would not have happened," Belknap said. "His leadership was superb. It has been an unbelievable tremendous project."
Belknap also commended Lawson for continuing to work with Missouri and Arkansas officials and communities to complete the four-laning of Highway 67 from Route 226 west of Jonesboro, Ark., to Poplar Bluff.
Work is expected to start in 2012 on 4.5 miles of new four-lane highway from south of Poplar Bluff to a mile south of U.S. 160. A new interchange will be built at Highway 158. The Arkansas Transportation Department is extending four lanes to Walnut Ridge.
To have a successful economic development program, a community needs good transportation, good geography and good leadership, according to Bill Robison, who is MoDOT's planning manager in the Southeast District.
"The leadership and vision of Tom Lawson has been outstanding," Robison said. "It takes someone who is selfless and has the interest of the entire community in mind."
Lawson was superintendent of the Hazelwood School District near St. Louis when he retired. He and his wife, Jeane, decided to move back to Poplar Bluff after he had completed 36 years in education as a teacher and administrator.
"What are you going to do in Poplar Bluff?" she asked.
"I will find some way to help my hometown. I still know people there," Lawson said. They have been married 57 years and have a daughter, Terry Gasaway of St. Clair, Mo., six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
After working daily for two months on the 67 campaign and speaking before 29 groups, Lawson awaited the results of the vote on the half cent sales tax.
"I couldn't have been more elated on election night," Lawson said.
He commended the work of Robison and Mark Shelton, the Southeast District engineer.
"Both have been good to work with. Bill has become part of our family. He attended our Highway 67 Corporation Board meetings and our Highway 67 Coalition meetings," Lawson said.
Traveling on the new four-lane highway and seeing Poplar Bluff already beginning to "reap the benefits" has been a rewarding experience for Lawson.
"I think about all the cooperation and effort that had to be made by everyone involved," Lawson said."I had to surround myself with hundreds of people. I was very fortunate to be a part of it."
He also commended the work of all the MoDOT supervisory personnel, the contractors and the workers.
"They did an excellent job," Lawson said.
With Poplar Bluff being at the crossroads of two four-lane highways, Lawson is convinced the city "will become the hub that it once was in Southeast Missouri with more and better retail stores and significant increases in good jobs and in population."
His family, consisting of his parents and older brother, lived in the Boyden community in the 1930s and "did not go anywhere back then." The community was named after the Boyden and Wayman Lumber Company which set up a mill in the late 1880s.
In April 1936, his father, who was a section hand on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, died from double pneumonia. In 1937, Beulah Lawson and her two sons moved in with her parents, Tom and Pearl Berry, who lived between Neelyville and the Arkansas state line. He attended the one-room Hazel Dell School a mile east of Highway 67.
"I remember my first time coming to Poplar Bluff was to visit the Butler County Fair in the late 1930s," Lawson said. His mother married John Aaron in 1939.
"My stepfather was a heavy equipment operator for the Clark Kearney and Stark Construction Company which built a new concrete 67 then," Lawson said.
They lived in several towns where his stepfather worked until he was drafted during World War II. Then they moved to Poplar Bluff.
In 1944, he rode a Missouri Pacific bus to St. Louis, Mo., to visit relatives.
"The narrow, crooked two-lane road was very dangerous," Lawson said,
He attended Poplar Bluff Junior High School two years, Neelyville High School two years (when he lived on a farm adjacent to Highway 67) and graduated from Poplar Bluff High School in 1950. After attending Missouri Baptist College, Lawson began teaching in the 16-1 School southwest of Neelyville and west of Highway 67. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Arkansas State University and his master's and doctorate from the University of Missouri.
Belknap was 11 when his family arrived in Poplar Bluff on a Missouri Pacific train from Bismarck, Mo., in 1934.
"The roads were not very good then," Belknap said. His first memory of driving on Highway 67 was going to a college in St. Louis to visit his girlfriend.
"There were a lot of curves, hills, blind spots and wrecks," Belknap recalled. "We had to drive through Downtown Fredericktown and Downtown Farmington."
He also remembers when Highway 67 entered Poplar Bluff from the north on what is now Highways O and W and Barron Road. From the south, Highway 67 traffic entered Poplar Bluff on South 11th Street.
"This is a dream come true for me," Belknap said.
He and his wife, Margie, have been married 67 years. They have two children, Brian Belknap and Joan Bullington, both of Poplar Bluff, six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
With having a four-lane highway to St. Louis, area residents and travelers appreciate a quicker and safer trip on U.S. 67.