Wednesday, September 26, 2001
Rich Valley farmer a contestant on popular TV show
He's a real Survivor - or is he?

Tom Buchanan won't tell anybody - family or friends - how he fared on "Survivor Africa," which airs Oct. 11 on CBS.

By JENN BURLESON
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   RICH VALLEY - It's a place where cows graze lazily by the welcome sign and rumors spread more quickly than the smell of manure on a hot summer day.

    Everybody knows everybody else's business in Rich Valley, except for the mysterious fate of their own small-town celebrity, farmer Tom Buchanan.

    Buchanan puttered through his acres of hilly farmland on a faded black golf cart Tuesday afternoon as though nothing had changed. While his cows mooed around him, the 46-year-old cracked jokes about his wife and teased friends that they owed him some liquor.

    But a little more than two months ago, he vanished from the community to take a chance at winning $1 million on the hit television show "Survivor Africa." Only a few family members knew his whereabouts, but Tuesday the truth broke free as CBS announced the hit reality show's latest cast.

    For weeks, Buchanan's father lied to his neighbors as well as his minister at Rich Valley Presbyterian Church. He insisted his son was in Alabama helping a relative.

    After a while, friends didn't buy the story. Their suspicions festered into gossip of Buchanan's being busted for drugs or that he was cheating on his wife. A marquee sign at the local KJ's Kountry Korner read "Where in the world is Tom."

    "I heard all kinds of tales," said longtime friend Duane Prater, owner of Kountry Korner. "I thought he'd been locked up."

    About three weeks ago, Buchanan came home. "Heeesss Back," was added to the sign and a scarecrow was added to the storefront along with an additional sign reading "I survived Big Tom."

    Shortly after he came home, thinner and with a deep, reddish-brown tan, new suspicions abounded.

    Weeks before CBS announced the show's stars, newspapers began writing about Buchanan as a celebrity. He still refuses all interviews, but on Tuesday, Buchanan finally admitted that he'd made it onto the show. He hadn't even told his father if he won any of the jackpot.

    "I told him, 'When you come back, I don't want to know anything unless it's farm-related,'" said Buchanan's father, Raymond Buchanan. "I'm in the dark as much as anybody. I'll watch to see what happens."

    When the show airs Oct. 11, Buchanan's family and friends undoubtedly will be glued to their television screens. Many of them watched the farmer grow up, from his days on his dad's farm to his nights as a star running back on Rich Valley High School's football team.

    Former classmate Fred DeBusk remembers Buchanan as the practical joker who once rode a motorcycle down the high school hallways.

    "They tried to blame it on me," DeBusk said, laughing. "Tom was always easy to get along with. He could talk his way out of anything."

    He's also a little unpredictable, according to his father.

    Once when he was in college at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, he took a road trip to the beach in his father's car. When the vehicle broke down, he sold it for $50 and went on to the beach. He didn't tell his father about the car until after he got home.

    "Should I claim him?" his father joked as he stood outside Buchanan's white farmhouse. "He was always a chance-taker on anything. He wouldn't get into trouble. He just took chances."

    Buchanan once entered a muscle man competition in Johnson City . He made his mark as he barreled onto the stage, promptly knocking down a judge . He didn't win the competition, but he won the admiration of the audience, who booed fiercely when he lost, according to Prater, his high school friend.

    Friends and family members say Buchanan is the kind of guy who makes friends quickly and easily.

    "A stranger's not a stranger to Tom," his father said. "Everybody knows Tom."

    If he were in a crowded room, friends say, the entire crowd would eventually surround Buchanan because of his witty personality.

    "It's good to see a local hometown boy make it," DeBusk said.

    Meanwhile, plenty of people in the nearby town of Saltville are wondering what the popularity of "Survivor" might do for the area.

    "I don't know whether you'd say it will put our name on the map," DeBusk said," but people will certainly know we're here."

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