Samuel York reminds us of the special connection the Fortenberry family has with the land and country living.
Hello, my name is Samuel York, I am the grandson of Neal and Shirley Fortenberry, and one of the recipients of the Fortenberry Family scholarship this year. I’d like to thank you for supporting me in my college experience, and I have been asked to share some of my memories of being a Fortenberry. Now while I’m not too good at recalling specific events, I do remember going out fishing with my granddad when I was a child. We would all pile into his pickup and drive out to one of the ponds on his pasture some ways away and spend a couple of hours catching fish and then return home to eat. My parents were never particularly outdoorsy people, so getting to do this was special for me. Most of my memories of being a Fortenberry were just getting to ride out in the pasture on four-wheelers counting cows, and going out to help harvest the vegetables from my grandparents garden. That is my story, and I hope in the future I will be able to help contribute to future generations stories of the Fortenberrys.