{"id":27610,"date":"2019-08-07T09:26:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T14:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=27610"},"modified":"2019-08-07T09:26:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T14:26:52","slug":"austin-peay-professor-harriet-mcqueens-stolen-billfold-found-down-the-hall-32-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/08\/07\/austin-peay-professor-harriet-mcqueens-stolen-billfold-found-down-the-hall-32-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay professor Harriet McQueen’s stolen billfold found down the hall 32 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Thirty-two years ago, during the 1987 fall semester, a thief snatched Dr. Harriet McQueen\u2019s billfold from her desk drawer in the Austin Peay State University (APSU) Kimbrough Building.<\/p>\n

\"Drs.<\/a>

Drs. Harriet and Leon McQueen look through the billfold\u2019s contents, untouched for nearly 32 years. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI stepped out \u2013 I probably didn\u2019t lock my office door \u2013 was gone 10 minutes, came back in and looked in my purse, and my billfold was gone,\u201d she recalled recently. \u201cWe went through garbage cans, everything, and we couldn\u2019t find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen, who was chair of the business education department at the time, cared more about losing her photos than the money or credit cards in the billfold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had pictures that couldn\u2019t be replaced,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what made me so mad. I never carried photos again because I realized that you could lose them.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen never found the billfold, but an electrician\u2019s assistant did \u2013 nearly 32 years later. And he found it just feet away from her old Kimbrough office.<\/p>\n

Billfold Found In Restroom Ceiling<\/h3>\n
\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Harriet McQueen points at a family photo. \u201cThis is a family picture when Andy was a baby.\u201d (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

While connecting fire system pipes and boxes August 1st in the ceiling above the men\u2019s toilets on the second floor, James Rosson noticed a peculiar shape in the darkness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had my flashlight and I went to look at it, and it\u2019s a billfold,\u201d Rosson said. \u201cI opened it up to see what was inside, and I could see there was a lot of story to it because of all the pictures I found.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also noticed Harriet McQueen\u2019s driver\u2019s license with a 1989 expiration date. The men\u2019s restroom is just down the hall from McQueen\u2019s old office.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cAll I kept thinking was if she were around and how she would feel getting all those memories back after all these years,\u201d Rosson said.<\/p>\n

He gave the wallet to his boss, Jeff Hargrove, Tennessee operations manager for Knight Electric, who was supervising the fire system update.<\/p>\n

Hargrove is a retired sheriff\u2019s deputy and private investigator, and he used some of that knowledge to track down McQueen\u2019s phone number. McQueen called him back on Aug. 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her, \u2018We found your billfold, and I just wanted to be sure you got it back,\u2019\u201d Hargrove said.<\/p>\n

\u2018I Just Remember It All So Vividly\u2019<\/h3>\n
\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Harriet McQueen shows off childhood photos of her sons, Andy and Jeff, now 46 and 43, respectively. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

McQueen recalled getting Hargrove\u2019s message: \u201cI was just floored. It all ran through my mind. I remember all of these pictures I was carrying.\u201d<\/p>\n

When McQueen and her husband, former APSU mathematics department chair Leon McQueen, arrived at the campus police station to pick up the wallet, she saw the billfold and its contents for the first time in more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember it all so vividly,\u201d she said as she thumbed through the billfold. \u201cI remember being so upset that all this stuff was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

She started recounting names and stories.<\/p>\n

[320right]\u201cHere\u2019s one of Andy playing basketball at Northeast High School,\u201d she said. \u201cA calling card? Oh, boy, does that ever date things. Here\u2019s a button, probably to a Cub Scout uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The billfold contained photos of friends and family, some deceased. Most the photos are of her sons, Andy and Jeff, now 46 and 43.<\/p>\n

Andy starred in basketball at Lipscomb University and is now at American Physician Partners in Nashville. He\u2019s married to former Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen. Jeff teaches middle school in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the kids are around, I\u2019ll let them see it,\u201d Harriet McQueen said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a little time capsule. I think about how time has gone by so fast, so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen retired from APSU in 2011 as dean of enrollment management and academic services. She also served as director of student teaching in the College of Education during her long career at Austin Peay, which started in 1978.<\/p>\n

Billfold’s Contents<\/h3>\n

In addition to many family photos, the billfold contained:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Proof of insurance for a new 1987 Honda Accord.<\/li>\n
  • Oxidized pocket change.<\/li>\n
  • A laminated driver\u2019s license with a 1989 expiration date.<\/li>\n
  • Little League baseball photos of Andy and Jeff, taken by Olan Mills Portrait Studios.<\/li>\n
  • A long-distance calling card.<\/li>\n
  • A Belk credit card.<\/li>\n
  • An American Express card, which some APSU employees received for University vehicle expenses.<\/li>\n
  • A serenity prayer.<\/li>\n
  • There was no cash. \u201cI know whoever took it didn\u2019t get much cash because there wasn\u2019t any to be had, I had two teenage sons!\u201d McQueen said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Clarksville, TN – Thirty-two years ago, during the 1987 fall semester, a thief snatched Dr. Harriet McQueen\u2019s billfold from her desk drawer in the Austin Peay State University (APSU) Kimbrough Building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,9986,262,26360,31580,512,825,1601,33888,33889,33890,33891,9387,1197,2191,5392],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7bk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27611,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27610\/revisions\/27611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}