Jeff Daniel Marion

Jeff Daniel Marion July 7, 1940 - July 29, 2021 Jeff Daniel Marion, 81, of New Market, died last Thursday, July 29, at Ft. Sanders Regional Medical Center of a heart attack. He was predeceased by his parents, J.D. and Eloise (Gladson) Marion of Rogersville. Survivors include his wife Melody Marion of New Market; son Stephen Marion (Eugenia) of Dandridge; daughter Rachel Franklin (Stuart) of Rogersville; grandaughters Allison Goley (Noah) of Kingsport, Jenna Franklin of Rogersville; stepson Dan McCoy of Mukilteo, Washington; stepdaughter Katy McCoy Landrum (Josh) of Nashville; and step grandson Luke Landrum of Nashville; and Shetland Sheepdog Italia. Danny Marion grew up in 1940s and ?50s Rogersville, the community that would later be at the center of his nine books of poetry. For him, the world began on his grandmother Lucy Gladson?s farm and grew outward to include an extended family of three sets of aunts and uncles who helped his parents raise him, a downtown that hadn?t changed much in a century, and a surrounding countryside that included the Holston River, the history and natural history of which would fascinate him for the rest of his life. He taught English at Rogersville High School and at Webb School while completing his Masters Degree at the University of Tennessee and then came to Carson-Newman College to begin a career of more than 30 years, during which he founded the Appalachian Cultural Center, guided the literary magazine Mossy Creek Journal, was appointed as the school?s first poet-in-residence, and encouraged hundreds of writing students who were a lifelong source of inspiration to him. Drawn to words and language from the time he was a child, he began to write poetry in the late 1960s while he was homesick for the mountains during a short-lived attempt at further graduate study in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Over the next five decades, his work explored the Southern Appalachian region with an imagist?s eye and a native son?s feel for the people, their humor, relationships, and struggles. He filled his life with other pursuits too. His journal, The Small Farm, published in the 1970s, nurtured the voices of poets in the region and outside. He took up letterpress printing, and his Mill Springs Press published handprinted books of poetry, as well as broadsides and other publications. He was a lifelong photographer, loved trout-fishing and bird-watching from his house on the Holston River, and collected books and fountain pens, developing relationships in each pursuit that he treasured. He leaves a body of work across several genres that is indelibly marked with his gentle spirit embodying elegance, grace, and wit, but most of all he leaves a community of friends and family whose lives were changed for the better by his presence. A memorial serviced is planned for 4:00 p.m. August 22, 2021 on the back lawn of the Appalachian Cultural Center at Carson-Newman University. Masks and social-distancing are requested. Arrangements by Farrar Funeral Home in Jefferson City, TN 865-475-3892 To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Jeff Daniel Marion please visit our Sympathy Store.