Edwards worked on World Fair, 2000 Gore staff and Sports Authority, among others Emmett A. Edwards, a businessman and public servant for more than three decades, died Monday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center due to complications from lung cancer. He was 59. Born in Covington, Tenn., in May of 1953, Edwards graduated in his high school’s first racially integrated class

“Thank God for unnecessary things!” That was my conclusion to an NBC reporter, who had asked me (as president of the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville) “Are world’s fairs necessary?” I replied: “Absolutely not.  Neither are symphonies, great works of art and football games, but, thank God for unnecessary things.  It’s the unnecessary things in life that make living so