By Angie Fenton | Photos by Tony Bennett
Kyle Lizenby grew up in jail – but not in the way you might imagine. “My dad was sheriff,” the 29-year-old Scottsburg native chuckled, “so, I spent a lot of time in the jail. In today’s world that would be looked upon differently.” But back then, John Lizenby knew who his prisoners were and kept a careful watch on his sons, including Kyle’s older brothers Erick and Tyler. “Scott County is such a small place, my dad knew everybody and kept an eye on me. That’s just how we grew up. … My dad almost kind of ran it in an Andy Griffith’s sense where the laws were the law, but sometimes personal judgment needs to take place in order to serve justice better. ”
The city was small enough that any havoc the boys caused would travel easily back their parents, including mom Lisa Lizenby (who’s been married to Kyle’s father John for 40 years). “A mistake can carry a lot longer sentence than it needs to,” Kyle said. “Everybody knows everybody.”
That familiarity with his community has helped Kyle utilize his role in the media for a greater good. After some prompting from this writer, the WDRB Media director and photographer smiled – clearly a bit embarrassed – and admitted, “I have been able to spotlight some positive stories that have come out of Scott County that normally wouldn’t get coverage because one, either they didn’t know or two, somebody isn’t there to really be a voice of reason as to why it should be covered. … There’s only been a handful of those, which maybe means a lot more to people than I realized.” (Editor’s Note: Several people reached out to Extol to ask that Kyle be featured in this series about Scott County because he has been instrumental in sharing stories that might not have ever been made public).
“Those stories definitely help (Scott County) a lot,” Kyle said. “A lot of the small towns, with these (television stations), usually people feel like they only come up there if something bad is happening. … Being from Scott County, I’m able to highlight those, but Harrison County, Clark County, I mean, all these surrounding counties have these interesting stories that deserve to be told. I guess that’s what’s cool about our job. We’re able to give those people a voice that they normally don’t get.”
