Video: Tupelo Celebrates 80 Years as the First TVA City

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TUPELO, MS(WCBI)-It was a ceremony marking the day 80 years ago when Tupelo became the first city served by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
WCBI’s Allie Martin has more.[TAKE PKG]

Before Tupelo went on TVA’s  power grid,  electricity in rural areas was rare and often undependable but that all changed February seventh 1934.

“The lights went on in Tupelo Mississippi thanks to TVA bringing power to the region.”

It was such a huge deal for the area that FDR visited Tupelo 9 months after the city came on line and spoke to thousands right here at Robbins Field next to Church Street School. That historic speech was recreated for the 80th anniversary celebration.

nats speech

Eighty nine year old Eugene Digby was at the president’s speech, 8 decades ago and remembers the difference TVA made:

“Even when we got TVA in Itawamba County,  as a boy back then, my dad got the lights but he didn’t get the refrigerator to begin with.”

Former TVA board member Glenn McCullough Jr.,  encouraged Northeast Mississippians to remember the past and look to the future :

“Clearly there are economic opportunities as it relates to affordable, reliable energy , and making sure we have clean water and air, and more and better jobs and that’s TVA’s mission.”

McCullough and others believe TVA’s best days are ahead as America’s largest public power provider.  In Tupelo I’m Allie Martin WCBI News.

TVA’s territory covers more than 80 thousand square miles and 9 million people.