MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Officials from the City of Bartlett, Tenn., surprised Memphis Tennessee Temple President Boyd Lee when they announced that the temple, located in the heart of the Mid-South just northeast of Memphis, had won the "America in Bloom" award. The reason for the surprise: the temple was never entered in the contest.
Committee members entered select structures that they felt should have been in the contest. That is how the Memphis temple came to be in the running. Pat Casey, committee member, logged hundreds of miles driving through the city taking pictures of the churches in the area that she felt should be entered. When the national America in Bloom representatives were in town, she took them to the temple grounds.
"You just have to see this building in person, it is beautiful," she had told them.