KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Latoja Schaben (née Harris) never met her father.
When Schaben and her now-husband, Scott, were planning their wedding in 2007, she knew who would walk her down the aisle — the person who had been there for her for decades, offering her first college scholarship, comforting her when she was homesick, placing her in an environment to succeed, and hiring her when dozens of others ignored her: Bill Fennelly.
“That’s how important he is,” Schaben said. “I never really had a father figure growing up and he filled that. He is family. I’m the daughter he never had.