Frank Cagle and David Hunter: An Appreciation

Frank Cagle and David Hunter died within four days of each other in February 2021. They were best known to East Tennessee residents as columnists for the Knoxville News Sentinel, but in terms of substance they were writers of significance.

Frank Cagle worked his way up from proofreader and copy editor to managing editor of the News Sentinel. His most frequent subject was local and state politics. Although he was a conservative of a somewhat libertarian bent, you most often could not tell this from his columns: he was a critic of all sorts of chicanery and backroom dealing, besides being a careful explainer of various points of view. He was not partisan in the least; he called them the way he saw them. His objectivity was what drew me in and eventually made me a fan of his. I also admired his writing in technical terms: his grammar and his choice of words were exceptional. He stopped writing for the News Sentinel when the management decided on “a different direction on the editorial page”. I noticed the different direction (I didn’t like it either) but did not realize that it had cost us subscribers his writing. The News Sentinel has had many capable columnists, but to me Frank Cagle stood above the rest, nearer to Olympus.  He was 72.

William “David” Hunter had some other job for years in his adult life, but always felt drawn to police work. Eventually he gave in to the urge and joined the Knox County Sheriff’s Department. He wrote op-ed columns for the News Sentinel for almost 30 years. He wrote on many subjects, but one that was very popular was dogs. He wrote about his German Shepherds Maxie, Greta, Angel, and Lady, in a way that spoke to all dog lovers and he was never trite about it. Sometimes he reminisced about his relatives, again in a way that, one felt, made you know what they were really like. But perhaps his best writing was on the subject of police work and what he had learned from it: the procedural aspects, the stress of having to be ready for anything, and, always, the human stories of the victims and perps. He also wrote many books and was nominated for an Edgar award. He was 73.

When I think about dying, I always imagine myself on my deathbed reviewing my life; I hope that if that happens, I will feel satisfied about the whole thing overall. Will I have my self-respect, will I feel disappointed, will I think that I sold out or settled for less than I could have been? I don’t know if Frank Cagle and David Hunter got to do that – the New Sentinel reported that Cagle died in the car as his wife drove him to the hospital – but if they did, I hope that they felt that they did make a difference and that they did show “the content of their character” to the world and the world said that it was good.