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Union leader credits Shelbyville upbringing

By DAVID MELSON dmelson@t-g.com
Posted 10/25/22

The president of Tennessee’s large AFL-CIO union credits his Shelbyville upbringing ­— and a few key individuals ­— with playing a big part in his success.

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Union leader credits Shelbyville upbringing

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The president of Tennessee’s large AFL-CIO union credits his Shelbyville upbringing ­— and a few key individuals ­— with playing a big part in his success. 

Billy Dycus, who now resides in Coffee County near Morrison, has served as statewide president since his initial election in October 2015. He was re-elected in 2019 and is seeking a third term in 2023. 

It’s not a political-type campaign, but “more about what you’re doing,” Dycus said. “A one-on-one, hands-on approach.” 

The 1974 Shelbyville Central High graduate had been working for Bridgestone when asked to run for the full-time AFL-CIO post. 

“We are the eyes and ears for labor unions across Tennessee,” Dycus said. “We represent 65,000 union members.” 

Much of his work involves working with legislators at the state level, Dycus said. 

“I was president of the United Steelworkers in Morrison and was approached by labor leaders to run for AFL-CIO president,” Dycus said. “They felt workers in Tennessee were ready for a different approach.” 

A native of Dyersburg, Dycus’s family moved to Shelbyville when he was very young. He carries fond memories of life in Shelbyville — and its school system — in the 1960s and 1970s, 

Dycus initially left Shelbyville in 1978, returned in 1987, and moved on again in 1998. 

He found his career path with the help of a woman at Shelbyville’s state employment office. 

“Robert Calahan’s wife (Virginia Calahan) called in 1977. She knew I wasn’t working at the time and told me to come to the employment office to take a test,” Dycus said. 

“It was a lifesaver for me. I was up to no good ­­— trying to find my way in life.” 

That test led to a stint in “nuclear school” in Oak Ridge, followed by a position at the Y-12 plant there and years of working with nuclear and fossil-fueled power plants at paper mills during planned outages. These were not weather-related emergency outages, but rather if mills were shut down to repair boilers or the power plants shut down, Dycus said. 

One big memory of Dycus’s years growing up in Shelbyville is watching the Pepsi Bombers young adult summer league baseball team. 

Baseball was his sport. He remember advancing through the local leagues, playing for Jaycees and Rotary in Little League, Lions in Babe Ruth and Jaycees in Senior Babe Ruth. 

Billy Joe Mahaffey and Jackie Crowell were standout players during those years, Dycus remembers. 

Dycus was a member of the undefeated, unscored-on Shelbyville Central freshman football team in 1970. 

Coach Lendell Massengale became a big influence on Dycus through that season. 

“Coach Massengale could motivate people to do things they didn’t think they could do,” Dycus said. “I’ve always thought if he had been allowed to be the Eagles’ (varsity head) coach he would have been a success.” 

Massengale had been the last head football coach of the Harris High Tigers before Bedford County schools were integrated. He was named Central’s freshman coach after joining the staff. 

“He was the coach you love to hate,” Dycus said. “He never made one player feel more special than the other.” 

But classroom teachers were also important to Dycus. 

He remembers in particular one lesson from algebra teacher Mrs. Barnes — not so much the math but the method behind the numbers. 

“Whatever you do in life, it has to be structured,” Dycus said, remembering, as does anyone who studied under “Mrs. Barnes” can attest, her emphasis on diagramming algebra problems. 

That lesson still works today. Dycus’s grandson was the only student in his classroom able to correctly work an algebra problem recently — due to an explanation originating years earlier from Barnes.

Other teachers Dycus remembers fondly are “Joe Ronnie Earls in geometry, Mrs. (Mildred) Eakin, Mrs. Yell in first grade, Mrs. Parker in second grade, Bill Morris in English, Mrs. (Mildred) Price, who gave me my business sense, and Mrs. McGill.” 

Those memories and lessons live on wherever Dycus goes. 

“I’ve lived in several different states,” Dycus says. “Shelbyville is still my home and always will be.”