|
Steve Harper, LMT
It is with great sorrow that I post that Steve passed away
today, Sept 29, 2008
Memorial Services for Steve will be at 3:00pm
Sunday Oct. 12, 2008
Arrington Funeral Home
148 West University Parkway
Jackson, TN 38305
731-668-1111
The family has requested that memorial contributions be
directed to the Kiwanis Center for Child Development,
32 Garland Drive,
Jackson, TN 38305
or the charity of the donor's choice.
REMEMBERING STEVE HARPER, LMT
by Debbie Hicks, LMT
with excerpts from an article written by Jade Powell, LMT
“Our Man, Harper” 2007 January Issue
Steve sauntered thru the Pearly Gates on Sept. 29, 2008 at the age of 69. I feel confident that one of the first to greet him was Teena Spencer, LMT singing “You’ve got a Friend”. I know he is there because he always said the only ones going to heaven were Church of Christ and AMTA members, which he was both. I told him if he got there before me, he better pull some strings because I have never been a member of either group. I feel confident that if there is a group to set up the guidelines for massage therapists to get into heaven, he will be at the head of the line and no one is better for the job. For those who may not know, Steve fought a 2 ½ year battle with throat and larynx cancer.
Steve had been in business for himself all his life. At one time he owned about fifteen different businesses ranging from a Cotton Gin, Cotton farms, Trucking companies, Truck Sales & Salvage, marketing companies, massage establishments, and massage schools. Steve got interested in massage when Kay was suffering from back problems. Steve was “addicted” to massage and decided to get tutored by a man and his wife who gave massages in Hot Springs. It was Kay and a friend who talked him into becoming a massage therapist and he started out giving massages in a beauty shop. A year later, he and Kay opened Bodyworks School of Massage in Jackson, TN.
In 1989 two groups of massage therapists from opposite ends of the state started to form associations for massage therapists to network. In the west the Memphis Massage Practioners Assoc. was started by Karen Craig, Bob Straube, Steve & Kay Harper and others. In the east, Suzanne Stuart from Knoxville was starting a group and suggested they form a state association.
Hence, TMTA was born and the first Board of Directors was elected in 1991. Steve & Kay were elected to that first Board and served thru 2006.
Steve was appointed to the Massage Licensure Board by Gov. Don Sundquist in 1997 and served thru 2006. He was Chairman of the MLB from 2003 thru 2006. He and I served on the MLB together from ’97 – ’04. For eight years we burnt the midnight oil hashing out the pros and cons of how best to write the Rules, Regulations and Laws that govern this profession. There were many nights Kay had to fall asleep while Steve talked to the other woman in his life. He would suggest how something should be written and I would play the Devil’s Advocate and vise versa. Nine times out of ten, he was more right than me. We disagreed a lot, but always respected each other’s views and never had a harsh word between us.
There were times when I thought that he felt his purpose in life was to get under my skin. During a MLB meeting when we only had four members present, which was a quorum, and needed all four votes to be in the affirmative to pass a motion to use the NCBTMB as our competency exam, we had three ‘yeses’ and Steve ‘abstained’. I couldn’t believe it, at that moment I wanted to slap him silly. He never liked that exam, but it was the only one available at the time and eventually he had to give in. Another time at a Fall Workshop, he and I were taking questions from the members about the Law and the Rules & Regulations, (this was before Law classes were required) things were getting a little heated when members expressed their dislike to the Establishment requirements and unbeknownst to me, Steve left the room. I turned to him for help in explaining something, and he was gone. I tracked him down when the session was over to thank him for deserting me, and he said “Kay’s asleep, I’m hungry, let’s go to Waffle House”, so we did.
Steve was notorious for using the words “cat house” during MLB meetings. Needless to say, the administrative staff always cringed because the meetings are recorded for public record and am sure the administrator had to clean up his statements for the minutes. After a ten year battle with public officials in Jackson, the “cat house” that was once next door to his massage school, was officially shut down. In 2007, TMTA presented Steve with the first ever, “Cat House Police Award.”
Steve was one of a kind, just when you thought you knew what he would do or say, he did the opposite. He taught me patience, I learned that when he got quiet it meant that a thought was bouncing around in his head like a pin ball machine, and if you waited for the ball to stop, a very important thought, statement or wise crack would emerge. It wasn’t always what you wanted to hear, but he sure kept life interesting and always gave you “something to think about”, which is how he ended most emails.
Steve had that southern gentleman charm about him that no matter how frustrated he made you, you couldn’t get angry with him. He told me he was born in Cadiz, Ohio. I informed him that Clark Gable was also born in Cadiz and maybe that explains his charm. From that moment on, all my emails were addressed to Rhett.
In a previous interview done by Jade Powell, she asked; “Do you have anything else you want me to know?” Steve replied, “I wouldn’t have done any of it, if it hadn’t been for Kay.”
I can’t worry about that tonight, Rhett. I’ll worry about that tomorrow.
Save me a seat.
Scarlet
Massage Licensure Board Newsletter
is available on our Links page.
Please see this important information.
Calendar of Events
is currently up-to-date. If you click on the date "number" for a particular
event, it will give you a description of that days events.
TMTA’s “Locate a Massage Therapist”
It has come to our attention that our "Locate a Massage Therapist" section of our website may not
have the info you want in there for the public to see.
Please click on "Locate a Massage Therapist", find your city and check to see the information that is
listed for you. If it is not listed as you wish, please go to the "Contact Us" section of the site and send
us the corrections you wish to make. For the safety of our members, we will be deleting the street
address from this section in the near future. We have also realized that 'someone out there' is
collecting our email addresses to send spam, so your email address will also be deleted in the near
future.
We have edited our application form to correct this problem in the future. We apologize for any
inconvenience this may have caused you.
Attention Members:
The TMTA has purchased a new program to do mass e-mailings. We will be using this to send notifications of the latest newsletter, upcoming events, deadline dates for workshop registration, etc. We can no longer send the newsletter as an attachment, so your email will give instructions on how to retrieve it from the web site using your member # and password.
Changed Your Email Address??
If you have changed your email address and have not contacted TMTA with that information you will not be able to receive the newsletter if you have opted to receive it via email. Please send your name and new email address to Debbie Hicks ddhickslmt2@comcast.net with “new email address” in the subject line. We ‘thank you’ for your cooperation in this matter.
|
