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- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 23 Mar 2008.
The rising winds and rushing rain seemed to have been pulled towards the Good Friday fullmoon over our hometown celebrating one of the earliest Easters ever. When Betty McMillan told me our old friend Nickey Maxey was in town, I was excited to see him again after at least 20 years. He was a skinny, shy teenager shooting photos with a big camera on the sports circuit in the 1970s. He was in Newport to attend the funeral for Mrs. Glenmore Smith, as he is a close friend of the family. We spent a couple hours chatting about olds times when he helped the Plain Talk and then went to work for Sheriff Tom O'Dell. Nickey really was born in Knoxville to Polly Ragan, daughter of Parrottsville farmer Ed Ragan. But as a child he lived with his aunt and uncle, Pearl and Clyde Ragan, first on a farm in O'Dell Hollow and later in Eastport. You may recall the timid kid at the Toot & Tell drive-in run by the Ragans at Bridgeport. The Plain Talk was in competition with the Cocke County Banner by 1970, when Nickey started helping make photos. He said the Plain Talk really motivated him to get past his shyness and start meeting people.
I was just learning the news business and enjoyed Nickey's enthusiasm and willingness to get out and find the photos. He must have made a photo of any crash that happened in 1973 and 1974 before joining the sheriff's dept. as a dispatcher in 1975, when he turned 18. I knew he was courageous when he got photos at a shooting at the infamous Irish Motor Court and a local thug assaulted him. We took the guy to court and he was fined $50, but Nickey ultimately got the upperhand. Tom couldn't keep Nickey at the radio and desk, so he made him a patrol officer. At 21, Nickey joined the state as a trooper with the help of friends like Richard Maloy and Don Meredith. For 10 years he served well in Knox Co. ultimately joining the Criminal Investigation Division as a narcotics officer. If you look back in the Plain Talk files, as I did, you will see a lot of interesting lawmen. Nickey particularly praises George Grooms for his interest in teaching investigation skills. "J.E. Renner was a hard worker. Bobby Stinson and Tom were great to work for as well as Ty Cobb, who I just loved," said Nickey. Deputy Robert Caldwell was as slim as Nickey, then. Lorene Hartsell was always ready to help at dispatch. Later, Trooper Maxey worked closely with Billy Grooms on the THP. Years later, Grooms now runs the Criminal Investigation Division in ET.
At the same time, the mid 1980s, the US broke up the Bell monopoly. Nickey got a chance to get into the emerging payphone business selling Smartphones and setting up some he owned too. By the time he got to Hilton Head Island in 1989, he owned 600 phones through his International Payphones Co.. But he made his real success in SC, which was still operating 10-cent phones. He discovered that real opportunity was in long distance tolls. By the early 1990s, he sold his business to Peter Graf of New York and went to work as a vice chair of Phonetel Technologies that managed 40,000 phones. Nickey had no money worries by this time and was recognized as an expert in the private payphone business. Nickey said he finally got tired of all the flights to LaGuardia and dealing with Yankees. From 2000-2004, he was CEO of Telsouth Communications in Knoxville, offering prepaid long distance. Coinstar bought this company that had $30 million in annual revenues, 2,500 locations in 40 states. His Resort Hospitality Co. contract with AT&T allowed him to offer long distance to 100,000 rooms nationwide. AT&T eventually bought Nickey out, making him an overnight financial success.
Today, he focuses his attention on his Estill Forest Grove plantation and equestrian center, Suncoast Motors, a carwash and convenience store in Bluffton, SC., and Tenn. Payphone Services. Nickey married Sevier Co. resident Cindy Pack, and they have three children: Colter, 8, Lindy, 10, and Nicole, 13. Ever since he first wore a lawman's badge, he has retained a keen interest in law enforcement. He holds a South Carolina constable commission and was just appointed by Governor Sanford to the Dept. of Natural Resources law Enforcement Advisory Board.
It just so happened when he was in Newport drinking coffee with me at East Tenn. Coffee Co., his friend, Sheriff P.J. Tanner of Hilton Head, was investigating the mysterious disapperance of a wealthy prominent couple. Nickey said he helped coordinate the ground search at Sea Pines but the couple has never been found after a close friend of theirs committed suicide. "The case has gotten cold fast," he said. He and his family host Cocke County people and Nickey loves hunting and fishing and invites state and federal law enforcement friends to his ranch for gatherings.
For a Newport boy with little education and a lot of grit, he applied his own magnetic personality and love of people to succeed to the level that few do. In plain talk, when looking at how well people have done, those who really excelled, like Nickey, always remember their hometown and friends along the way.
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Abt 1957 - (~ 67 years)