Blacked out following a destructive EF4 tornado roaring through his hometown, Clinton Turner came to in the early morning of December 11 — devastation wrapping around his tiny home in the Mayfield Housing Authority along Brookside and Anderson drives.
Turner was able to get to his feet and pull back the curtain. His belongings were mostly intact, but he quickly saw everyone else in his small neighborhood was in danger.
Lanky and lean, Turner tumbled into the street — and tried to start moving fallen limbs and some neighbor’s belongings into a trailer.
He got dizzy. His chest seized and hurt. He couldn’t stop sweating. His breath got short. This had happened twice before, when his blood pressure bottomed out next to nothing. He barely made it back to his home when an ambulance arrived and he was rushed to the nearest hospital.
Once there, Turner had a Medtronic implantable cardioverter defibrillator inserted into his chest and considerable fluids pumped through him over the next 48 hours — before being dismissed and transferred to Room 418 of the Lake Barkley State Resort Park as one of the 100-plus lodged as a displaced guest.
He’s upbeat and alert, enjoying a warm bed, a roof, a hot shower, four walls and a few gifts that have been delivered. He frequents the Lodge’s dining room, chats often with Park Sales Representative and Trigg County Chamber Board President Ashley Johnson, and tries to keep other displaced residents in cheerful moods.
But when the time comes — be it tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year — Turner is going back to Mayfield. And not because he has no other choice.
Because he wants to. He wants to help a city that helped him, and the memories he has of his hometown course through his veins.
A Cardinal through-and-through from the Class of ’72, Turner is a former Paducah Sun-Democrat All-Purchase basketball player who ruled the court alongside the legendary Joe Ford. A terrific football player and state finalist in both the long jump and high jump, as well, Turner remembers his high school heroics like they happened yesterday.
He wore number 34 — a number that was passed down to his three brothers: Eddie, James and George Williams. Tradition and family, two proud Mayfield traits, held their family together, too.
Following graduation, Turner steered clear of trouble — no fights, no speeding tickets, nothing, he says — and worked as a Mayfield police officer and later as a quality control man at General Tire, before heading off to El Dorado, Arkansas, following a divorce.
It was familiar ground for Turner and a chance for something new. His father, C.T. Turner, had been a former resident there before his untimely death at age 37 in Albuquerque, New Mexico early November 1969.
In December 1976, at the age of 20, Eddie — himself a stunning high school basketball star for the Mayfield Cardinals, and former Murray State University signee — died in Olney, Illinois, during a junior college basketball game while suited up for Lake Land.
A park in Mayfield, just one mile south of Turner’s home, bears Eddie’s name.
Still maintaining a protective mentality, Turner helped clear up some rough neighborhoods in El Dorado — something that eventually led to an altercation and a two-year prison sentence.
Following incarceration, Turner returned to El Dorado and was married to an Arkansas local for 35 years — moving back to Mayfield just two years ago following her passing.
It’s home. It’s always been home.
Lake Barkley State Resort Park is one of seven statewide serving displaced residents from the December 10 & 11 tornadoes and storms.
