Lynnville

“Getting an education changes people’s lives, and I firmly believe that because it certainly has changed mine,” said Brenda (Sanders) Speer, a 1978 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, alumna and owner of Speerit Hill Farm in Lynnville.

At a June celebration for the merger between the UT System and Martin Methodist College (now UT Southern), Speer approached UT representatives determined to get an “Everywhere you look, UT” mural on her Giles County farm. Though she is a proud alumna, her donation to pay for the second mural was about far more than displaying pride for her alma mater.

Speer is more than a UT fan. She is an advocate for higher education.

Her passion for education stems from her parents. They never had the opportunity to attend college, but they made sure she did. She recalled thinking throughout her childhood that attending college was just the norm because there was never any doubt from her parents that she would go. At UT, Speer became a first-generation college graduate.

As a Giles County native, Speer, as most teens are, was eager to leave home, with no intentions of returning. But after college, she realized she wanted to make a difference in her community, and that desire drove her home.

There she met her husband, Dan Speer, also a Giles County native, and they spent their lives together in business and serving their community.  Dan Speer served as mayor of Pulaski from 1989 until 2011.  Brenda Speer says he instilled in her the strong connection between the success of MMC, economic opportunities and growth of Pulaski. When Dan Speer died in 2017, Brenda Speer pursued her dream and established Speerit Hill Farm.

Subsequently, she has supported the pursuit of education in Giles County in numerous ways through donations, her service to Martin Methodist College, and now the mural. It is her way of paying it forward.

“One of the reasons I wanted to make a donation to the university was although Dan and I did not have children to educate, we both wanted to help other young people have access to an affordable college education,” she said. “Dan and I both knew the value of higher education, and this donation will achieve a life time goal for both of us to insure the success of our next generation of Giles Countians and to UT Southern.”

When the news broke of the merger for UT Southern (UTS), Speer was thrilled.

“We really feel like UTS is going to grow and grow and grow,” Speer said. “I am right here on the bandwagon with whatever I can do to support UTS and be a catalyst to helping our Middle Tennessee youth have access to affordable and quality higher education.”

Speer hopes that UTS, which she believes will be more financially accessible for students in the Giles County area, will inspire even more of the local youth to stay home to attend college and it will create additional opportunities to work and raise families. For the more than 300 daily travelers passing by Speerit Hill, the mural will serve as an ever-present reminder of the growing range of options available to the community throughout the state and, most importantly, right here at home.

“I’m just going to be so proud,” Speer said. “I really believe that it will have an enormous influence on many of these young people around here, who pass by and will be starting to think, ‘I can go to the University of Tennessee, in this county.’”

To Speer, “Everywhere you look, UT” represents growing educational possibilities for people throughout the state, especially the youth. She is also just as excited to have the 58-foot-wide UT emblem atop her barn. She is a Vol, after all.

“I want the astronauts to see it,” she said, “because it is going to be big. Everyone is going to know there are UT fans living at Speerit Hill Farm. This mural is a symbol of our commitment to the physical and financial success of UTS and its commitment to Giles County and the entire Middle Tennessee area.”