Kermit Caughron was born on May 5, 1912. He was the fifth generation descendant of John and Lurany Oliver and the Shield family who were known as some of the earliest Cades Cove pioneers.
Only just 4 years out of his entire life did Kermit Caughron not live inside of Cades Cove and that was only when the National Park Service took over the cove.
4 Years after the National Park Service took over Cades Cove, Kermit and his wife Lois returned to live out the rest of their lives in the cove after negotiating their return since he and his wife Lois had a 5 year lease on the old homeplace.
To the millions of visitors who visited Cades Cove Kermit was known as “Mr. Cades Cove”.
Kermit spent his days inside of the cove tending to cattle and keeping bee hives. He and his wife Lois also welcomed two sons and two daughters while living inside of the cove. Their names were Rex, Roy, Ruth and Kay.
Rex recalled spending time with his father hiking and fishing inside of the cove recalling that his dad caught his fair share of 20 inch trout over the years!
Kermit was known by some folks as the “bee man” due to him visiting his former neighbors that once lived inside of the cove quite often to provide them with the best of that year’s honey.
One event that Kermit remembered and recalled was when he and a fellow family member were outside “working the bees”. The event took place at around sunset as a very interested visitor stopped his car and then leaned against the split rail fence, waving for Kermit and the fellow family member’s attention.
Kermit’s family member that went to approach the stranger and inquire whatever need that he needed. The family member then returned back. Kermit went to ask him “what did he want?”. His family member responded “he wanted to take your picture.”
Kermit agreed and once he had finished all of the work that he needed to do with the bees he went on to begin to walk across the field and then he came back to “work up the honey”. Kermit told his family member “whistle at that guy”. So the family member did as he was told and whistled at the guy who was still leaned up against the fence.
The guy then proceeded to walk away from the fence and got in his car and drove off.
The family member asked Kermit “what was that for?”, Kermit replied “That feller is crazy! He wanted to know how we got the bees to come home at night.”
Kermit permanently left the cove on April 5, 1999, but his story has never left these mountains!
Gracie Latrelle 
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