Gleason, TN

Gleason is a Weakley County town that has built a surprisingly big identity around the potato. Each fall, the Tater Town Parade and festival turn the crop into a local celebration, giving the community a nickname and an annual date on the regional calendar. The town’s other strong landmark is Gleason School, a Pre-K through 12 campus divided into elementary, junior high, and high school sections. The school is more than a line in a district map; it is one of the buildings that gives Gleason its shape and keeps the town’s generations in one local orbit.

Gleason also has a musical connection through Gordon Stoker, the first tenor of the Jordanaires, the backup group heard on many recordings by Elvis Presley and other artists. That detail reaches far beyond Weakley County, while the town itself remains rooted in the fields and roads of northwest Tennessee. The 2020 census counted 1,369 residents. Between the potato festival, the school campus, and Stoker’s place in American music, Gleason has a clear personality: agricultural at ground level, communal in its annual traditions, and connected to a much larger cultural story.