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Clarksville Living Magazine — July 2026

The July/August 2026 issue of Clarksville Living Magazine marks America’s 250th birthday with the long-awaited opening of the Wings of Liberty Museum near Fort Campbell, Wawa’s Tennessee debut, and a new distillery in downtown Clarksville.

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The issue’s biggest story is thirty years in the making: the grand opening of the Wings of Liberty Museum near Fort Campbell, a 51,000-square-foot facility on a 33-acre campus honoring the 101st Airborne Division, the 5th Special Forces Group, and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Fort Campbell Historical Foundation trustee Sammy Stuard credited a $20 million state investment, plus donations from the city and county, with letting the museum open debt-free. Jack Turner, who has worked on the project for 25 years, traced its origins to retired Colonels Ted Crozier and Bob Jones. Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Brian Winski, who heads the Foundation, called opening day “euphoric,” and former state Deputy Speaker Curtis Johnson is credited with turning a $2 million ask into a $22 million commitment from the state, county and city — funding that in turn drew a $5 million gift from Jennifer Pritzker and a $100,000 donation from HCA TriStar. Board chairman Pete Kinney summed up the museum’s mission: “It’s not just about dusty old glass booths … we want to bring young Americans in here” to Educate, Honor, and Inspire.

The 250th-anniversary theme runs through the issue. The publisher’s note recounts European and Australian visitors reacting to Buc-ee’s, Waffle House and Cheesecake Factory during the 2026 World Cup’s stop in the U.S. Montgomery County’s Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at William O. Beach Civic Hall featured guest speaker Grace Lord, wife of Army veteran MG (Ret.) Walt Lord, who spoke about the toll of military family separation: “It’s the waiting. The kind of waiting that settles deep in your bones.” A separate feature follows Mansker’s Station and the Bowen-Campbell House in Goodlettsville, where Capt. William Bowen built Middle Tennessee’s oldest brick home in 1787 on land earned through Revolutionary War service. Christie Crawford’s Fourth of July dessert recipes — a cheesecake salad, saltine bark, icebox cake and fruit kabobs, each in red, white and blue — round out the patriotic table.

Clarksville’s retail and hospitality scene kept expanding. Wawa opened its first Tennessee store at 1290 Parkway Place, the chain’s 14th state, with a USO Fort Campbell “Breaking Bread with Heroes” event featuring celebrity chef Robert Irvine and a $15,000 donation to his foundation; the store’s “Lending a Helping Hoagie” campaign benefits Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. Downtown, Andy Lang’s Leatherwood Distillery — which started in Pleasant View in 2017 — opened a purpose-built home with a 150-person capacity, pouring bourbon, rye and flavored rums, including a private “160th” label that returns 30 percent of its profit to that unit’s foundation. And the Clarksville Area Chamber’s Veteran Business of the Month is Joker’s Comedy House, opened in 2024 by 22-year Army veteran Gary Singleton, who built the 200-seat room into a regular stop for touring comedians.

On the culture side, the issue profiles bassist and songwriter John Pearson, who has placed more than 500 songs with 23 publishers since driving from Pennsylvania to Nashville by way of Los Angeles, and still turns up at Revel House’s Tap the Mic open mic. Clarksville Kiwanis brought author Chris Grabenstein to F&M Bank Arena for its Reading Rodeo, putting a book in the hands of every CMCSS third-grader, while the 37th Annual Bill Hoy Kiwanis Rodeo drew sold-out crowds to the Montgomery County 4-H Arena. The Montgomery County DMC Task Force marked its 20th anniversary with a gala at APSU’s Morgan University Center, and former Montgomery County First Lady Mary Durrett discussed the Sasha Foundation, the mentorship program she launched in October 2025 to walk women through trauma recovery. Oak Grove’s Spring into Summer Fest drew an expected 10,000-plus with headliner Brett Young, closing out an issue built around one theme: two and a half centuries of American history, still being written in Clarksville.

Table of Contents

  • Wings of Liberty Museum (p. 6)
  • Kiwanis Reading Rodeo (p. 8)
  • John Pearson (p. 10)
  • Business After Hours (p. 12)
  • Patriotic Desserts (p. 14)
  • Oak Grove Spring into Summer (p. 16)
  • Wawa Opens (p. 18)
  • Happy Birthday America (p. 21)
  • Roma Soft Opening (p. 22)
  • American Cuisine (p. 24)
  • Memorial Day Wreath Laying (p. 26)
  • While the War Was Still On (p. 28)
  • Kiwanis Rodeo (p. 32)
  • Veteran Business of the Month (p. 34)
  • Montgomery County DMC Gala (p. 36)
  • Sasha Foundation (p. 38)
  • Leatherwood Distillery Opening (p. 40)
  • Wings of Liberty Museum Opening (p. 42)

Regular departments

  • Watermelon Recipes (p. 44)
  • Calendar (p. 45)

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