LOCAL LEGENDS: A Jackson County Start from the Ides of March

By Christy Tosh Crider, Jackson County resident 1988-1990

Christy Tosh Crider

“Beware the Ides of March” Newport High School English teach Lynette Miller cooed as her eyes darted around the classroom, as if scanning for a ghost.  She did far more than teach her students to read classics and write the Queen’s English.  Mrs. Miller emitted passion for the literature that transported us from the safety of our Greyhound classroom to the magic of a fortune teller in the Roman empire warning of the assassination of Julius Caesar.  She taught us that from this sturdy launching pad our next steps could reach as far as our imagination.  And what a perfect start to life – a community where each student is known by wise educators who could passionately transport them to other worlds.

My mom, Joan Tosh, was a science teacher and school counselor, who provided such a foundation for thousands of students. I learned by watching the relationships she had with her fellow teachers - a group of women with unbridled school spirit who cared for and supported one another, while having a whole lot of fun.  My dad, Dwight Tosh, was with the State Police stationed in Newport.  His promotion to Captain prompted our family’s move to Jackson County in 1988, when I was a junior in high school.  While I only spent two years in Newport, I count it as my hometown because of the life-long friends I met there, like Amanda Nance Reynolds of whom I am so very proud for launching County Culture magazine to celebrate this county from which so many of us found the path to our dream.

Mrs. Miller sparked my fire for reading and writing, which led me to choose English as my major in college.  My mom’s passion for science and my dad’s for law enforcement fueled my decision to attend law school and become a health law litigation attorney.  Learning from the bonds I saw among my mom and her friends, I have led the Women’s Initiative for my law firm for more than a decade.  

My faith deepened and my love of gospel music grew during my time at First Baptist Church of Newport.  This passion continues today as I sing in a bluegrass gospel group, the Woodmont Christian Gospelaires.  From Mrs. Miller I learned to envision faraway places with wonder, and not fear, which gave me the courage to accept the invitation to join a firm in Nashville Tennessee in 1997.  My husband, Marcus, and I raised our children, Cole and Lydia, in Nashville and they are now forging paths of their own.  I am currently writing a book on the secret to finding balance in life, which I hope to publish in 2026.  

I am so thankful for the foundation the people and culture of Jackson County gave me.  May we all bring the same passion to our pursuits that Mrs. Miller brought to teaching Shakespeare, and the Ides of March.

Christy Tosh Crider lived in Jackson County from 1988-1990 and served as Miss Newport and Miss White River.  She is an attorney with Baker Donelson in Nashville Tennessee, where she has led the Health Care Litigation Group, the Women’s Initiative, and serves with fellow Jackson Countian Mary Ann Jackson on the Board of Directors. Christy and her husband, Marcus have two children Cole and Lydia.

Crider has directed her church’s children’s choir, coached the high school mock trial team, and sings in the bluegrass band the Woodmont Christian Church Gospelaires.  In 1990, she accompanied the founder of this magazine, Amanda Reynolds, to their first concert, White Snake in Memphis Tennessee, along with many other adventures at Skillet Ditch, hayrides, campouts, proms, Greyhound football games, and early morning power walks down Eastern Avenue, which Amanda now calls home.