Delta Magazine September/October 2022 by Delta Magazine

Delta

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Annual Outdoor & Hunting Issue CHEERLEADING

through the decades

recipes from the

3 DINNER DARLING DELTA DOG PHOTO Contest Winners

ADULT AND PEDIATRIC UROLOGY Brooke N. Tims, CFNP

Derek Miles, MD, FACS

Bolivar Urology Clinic provides comprehensive adult and pediatric urologic care including medical and surgical treatment for the following: Prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular and genital cancers Kidney stone treatment and lithotripsy Male fertility and vasectomy Circumcision Sexual dysfunction Urinary Tract Infections

Bowel and bladder problem treatment Overactive bladder and voiding issues Midurethral sling and Interstim neuromodulation for voiding dysfunction Bedwetting Penile implant surgery More services available

Dr. Miles is a board certified urologist and fellow of the American College of Surgeons serving the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas since 2002 with clinics in Cleveland, Mississippi and WestHelena, Arkansas, covering East-Central Arkansas, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Greenville, Ruleville and surrounding counties.

662.846.9990 870.816.3890

907 East Sunflower Rd. Cleveland, MS

blazing fast 5G, in the palm of your (one free) hand.

DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Educating the state of MISSISSIPPI making an impact here and beyond

We prepare future generations of Mississippians to lead and serve this state and this nation. By delivering comprehensive knowledge and hands-on research opportunities, our impact is felt everywhere. We move the world forward, driving the pace at every turn.

It’s our purpose and our commitment.

See how we’re empowering students to build their own legacies.

Delta m

Publisher: J. Scott Coopwood Editor: Cindy Coopwood Managing Editor: Pam Parker Director of Special Projects: Kelli Williams Contributing Editors: Hank Burdine, Maude Schuyler Clay, Lea Margaret Hamilton, Jim “Fish” Michie, Brantley Snipes, Roger Stolle Digital Editor: Phil Schank Consultant: Samir Husni, Ph.D. Graphic Designers: Sandra Goff, Maggi Mosco Contributing Writers: Jim Adams, Jim Beaugez, Jack Criss, Erica Eason Hall, Chatham Kennedy, Sherry Lucas, Kelli Williams, Susan Marquez, Mary Lee McKee, Joshua R. Quong, Angela Rogalski Photography: Kaelan Barowsky, Katelyn Buchanan, Abe Draper, Rory Doyle, Lance Moore, Lyndsi Naron, William Powell, Anna Satterfield Account Executives: Joy Bateman, Melanie Dupree, Cristen Hemmins, Kristy Kitchings, Wendy Mize, Ann Nestler, Cadey True Circulation: Holly Tharp Accounting Manager: Emma Jean Thompson POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to

Delta Magazine, PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732

ADVERTISING: For advertising information, please call (662) 843-2700 Delta Magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited materials or photos and in general does not return them to sender. Photography obtained for editorial usage is owned by Delta Magazine and may not be released for commercial use such as in advertisements and may not be purchased from the magazine for any reason. All editorial and advertising information is taken from sources considered to be authoritative, but the publication cannot guarantee their accuracy. Neither that information nor any opinion expressed on the pages of Delta Magazine in any way constitutes a solicitation for the sale or purchase of securities mentioned. No material in Delta Magazine may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publication. Delta Magazine is published bimonthly by Coopwood Magazines, Inc., 125 South Court St., Cleveland, MS 38732-2626. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, MS and additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Delta Magazine, PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732-0117. Delta Magazine (USPS#022-954)

Delta Magazine is published six times a year by Coopwood Magazines, Inc. EDITORIAL & BUSINESS OFFICE ADDRESSES: Mailing Address: PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732 Shipping Address: 125 South Court Street, Cleveland, MS 38732 E-mail: publisher@deltamagazine.com editor@deltamagazine.com

6 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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Doing it right means doing it

WITH EXCELLENCE

WHEN IT HAS TO BE DONE RIGHT

ROBINSONELECTRIC.BIZ 8 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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FALL EVENTS AT THE DISTRICT Sept - Oct Live Music District Thursdays 6-8pm - outside on the green Sept 17th Fall Football streaming on the green - 3:30pm Ole Miss + 5pm MS State Sept 18th Fall Football streaming on the green - 12pm Saints game Sept 22nd Newk's Cares Ovarian Cycle : 9am -3pm Sept 29th "District Dash, Donuts & Drafts" Running Challenge - 5:30pm Oct 10th Tunnel to Towers 5K - 7:50am Oct 20th Purple Dress Run 5K : 6-8pm Oct 22nd Fall Football on the green - Ole Miss + MS State games Nov 10th Wine & Wishlist Shopping Night : 5-7pm Dec 2nd & 3rd Deck the District Holiday Festival - details on our social media!

celebrate local JACKSON 12 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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M Y L A G O S M Y W AY

C AV I A R C O L L E C T I O N S

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from the editor

Labor Day: What’s in a Name?

It was so much fun spending time in the kitchen with Lindsey Bell as she prepped recipes for our Dinner Darling photo shoot!

“Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September.” That sounds lovely, and I guess it means we’re all supposed to take a break from our labors. Nice try, Labor Day. As Juliet proclaimed, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and we all know the truth. Labor Day means two things in the South and neither allow for any sort of respite—one, the opening day of dove season; two, the season opener for SEC football. In other words, FALL HAS COMMENCED. Pull out the sweaters and boots. When I was a girl, and used to at least tolerate summer, Labor Day also signified the start of the school year, and I was always ready, pencils sharpened. In all honesty, it’s also the first of many occasions that just make you feel like the temp should be twenty degrees cooler. But it’s just not, and it’s a huge disappointment every time. However, with the cranking of Gators, the early morning Boom! heard across dove fields of sunflowers, the cookouts afield, the kickoffs and tailgates, comes the promise of crisp fall days in the near future. I have often declared my love for the season, so for me it can’t come soon enough. I’ll take it a step further and say that basically, I’m ready to carve pumpkins on July 5th. By Labor Day, most of us are ready to get back into a routine although adjusting schedules for back-to-school can be challenging. Make the transition a little easier on yourself this year and try easy weeknight recipes from the Dinner Darling, which Lindsey Bell shares with us on page 148. And speaking of carving pumpkins—Halloween is right around the corner. This year try some old but possibly new-to-you homemade Halloween treats. We’ve put together a fun menu for a neighborhood gathering sure to please kids and adults alike, page 154. Take a look back through the years with us at Deltans who have gone on to cheer for their teams at the college level. You’ll be astonished at how things have changed as it has now morphed into a sport. We also bring you an incredible hunting cabin behind the levee in Coahoma County, and in our hunting section, you’ll learn about Southern Outdoors Unlimited’s Super Hunt, which provides disabled kids the opportunity to get out in the woods. Plus, Hank Burdine shares coon hunting tales, as well as the life journey of duck-hunting enthusiast and entrepreneur Ramsey Russell. And last but not least, turn to page 136 for the results of the 2022 Delta Dog Photo Contest. This year we had 168 entries and a whopping 4,623 votes and we can’t wait to share winners with you! In closing, it’s no secret that fall is a particularly special time of year in the Delta, and we worked hard to pack as much of it as we could into this issue. If you are not a subscriber I encourage you to go to our website and sign up today, as we truly need your support, and remember, Delta Magazine makes a perfect gift for anyone who loves our region, its culture, and history. Happy fall y’all! DM

Cindy Coopwood Behind the scenes with photographer Abe Draper in Lindsey’s kitchen.

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Editor @cindycoopwood | editor@deltamagazine.com

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RICE LAW Bringing more than three generations of divorce and family law experience to your case, Larry and Nick Rice are certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as Family Law Trial Advocates. Certification is earned by actual contested trial experience, judicial recommendation, endorsement of other lawyers and rigorous examination. There are only 139 attorneys who have earned this credential in the United States. The Rices co-authored "The Complete Guide to Divorce Practice,” published by the American Bar Association. Both Nick and Larry routinely lecture from their book and other topics, continually teaching other lawyers to effectively practice divorce and family law. The Rices have earned the credentials, and would be honored to earn your trust.

FOR INFORMATION ON DIVORCE, VISIT

aboutdivorce.com TO TALK TO A LAWYER ABOUT DIVORCE, CALL

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FALL 2022 SERIES

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NOV

An Evening With Clint Black

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NOV

Little River Band

An Evening of Hits Starring

Peabo Bryson & Taylor Dayne

Anastasia

OCT

Legally Blonde - The Musical

DEC

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contents SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER Volume 20 No. 2

ANNA SATTERFIELD PHOTOGRAPHY

50 departments 42 BOOKS Reviews of new releases and

ABE DRAPER

what Deltans are reading now

162

66 78 105

148

GRAMMY Museum Mississippi New exhibit showcases impact of Southern Rock

Fall Fits and Tailgating Accents

ART KATIE AND KY JOHNSTON Artistic couple combining unique creativity and skills

MUSIC

HOME

148 162

Cheerleading Deltans who cheered on their college teams

A Delta Boyhood Bill Lester’s new limited edition, hand-printed book, The Goodness

2022 Outdoor & Hunting Section Southern Outdoors Unlimited’s SUPER HUNT, page 106 Getting Ducks with Ramsey Russell, page 118 Shopping, Elevated Cabin Accessories, page 124 Coon Hunting in the Delta, page 128 2022 Delta Dog Contest Winners, page 136

ON THE COVER: This stunning fall tablescape was designed by Allyson Duckworth of Oxford for the Alias family at their Miller Point hunting cabin. Photo by Abe Draper. 18 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

SHOPPING

GHALIA VOLT Belgian born Blues Queen MAKING MEMORIES AT MILLER POINT Alias family cabin is full of treasures old and new FALL FORAGE Tips from for making arrangements from Erica Eason Hall, page 102

ABE DRAPER

RAMSEY RUSSELL COLLECTION

118

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FOOD 3 recipes from the Dinner Darling’s Lindsey Bell Homemade Halloween treat recipes, page 154

HISTORY The Kirk family of Gunnison

in every issue 22 Letters 30 On the Road Where we’ve been, where we’re going next

34 Off the Beaten Path Roaming the real and rustic Delta

38 166 178 184

Hot Topics Events Delta Seen The Final Word by Joshua Quong

GET IN THE

SWING!

SEPT. 26 – OCT. 2, 2022

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LETTERS JULY/AUGUST 2022

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Hot Crappie Fishing at our nationally ranked lakes

Inspired Historic Renovation with Home Designer Frank Tindall

Maude Schuyler Clay A Delta Odyssey

The Delta Cocktail Trail

Congratulations to Delta Magazine for the past 19 years of publication! I began subscribing to the magazine with the initial issue. Since I am a “collector” (hoarder!) I am sure I still have that issue, plus stacks and stacks of others! It is always fun to look back through the years. As a product of the Mississippi Delta, I usually find some person, place, or event I can relate to in every issue. I was born in Clarksdale, lived for a very brief time in “the Hills” (Calhoun County) then grew up and planted my life in “The Gateway to the Delta” here in Yazoo City. As I opened my July-August issue last week you cannot imagine my surprise as I saw the four-page feature on some of my musical cousins, Bradford, Sonny and Gene Parker and the “Parker Brothers Band.” I knew well of the popularity of Cousin Conway Twitty (Herald Jenkins) but had forgotten just how well known Brad Parker and his sons were! Thanks to Laura Jane Giaccaglia and Jim Beaugez for sharing with our readers. Keep up the good work in the years to come, and I’ll keep my subscription paid up! Linda Jenkins Yazoo City I live in New York but love the unspoiled quality of the Delta and its friendly people who you capture in your magazine. I like the mix of editorial and local advertising which really reflects the Delta. You bundle hunting and fishing, with food and interior decoration and now more people too in a very readable way. And especially Hank Burdine who captures the history and people of your unique special place in the world Keep it up! Bill Doyle Millbrook, New York

I always love to check out the new recipes in each issue of Delta Magazine and the Tomato Basil Galette in the July/August issue did not disappoint. I couldn’t resist trying it, especially with my home grown fresh basil and summer tomatoes! So delicious and surprisingly easy to make. Cindy Grittman Cleveland, Mississippi

he imposing red brick home on the corner of Gresham Street and Catchings Avenue was home

to four generations of Greshams. Built by William Pinkney Gresham and his wife, Mamie, in 1917-1918, the colonial revival’s solid construction effortlessly weathered two world wars, the Great Depression, several ice storms and tornadoes, eighteen US presidents, and more than a few shortlived design trends that never came close to threatening its classic façade. If walls could talk, this home could tell countless stories about the unique ties that bind among friends and families in the Delta.

When the last Gresham matriarch and resident, Ann, passed away in 2017, her eleven grandchildren had moved to various places, established their own family homes, and not one intended to return to Indianola to take up residence in the grand old homestead. The big house stood vacant for the first time since 1917, a reminder that times have changed. Determined to be good stewards of the home that held so much of their family history and their personal memories, Ann and Bill Gresham’s four adult children searched for a buyer who would love the house, who would appreciate its history, and who would want to make the same kinds of family memories that defined the Gresham family all these years. It felt like a tall order, but never underestimate the power of prayer and the Delta’s social network! The lights are on again in the big house as a young family now calls it home. Mary Clair and Noel Cumbaa began a ten-month renovation in early 2021. At the same time, Mary Clair, an interior designer and owner of Cumbaa Design Co., was also opening The Olive Tree, her retail shop in downtown Starkville, and preparing for the birth of their first child, Thomas. Mary Clair managed to meet every challenge with flair. She was doing what she does best— creating a beautiful space. She embraced the spirit of the proud old house, keeping its “bones” true to its origins, seeing herself not just as a designer but as a curator and steward of this treasure. The original house underwent its only previous major renovation

The original façade of the 1917 home did not change at all until a 1963 renovation by the third generation of Greshams. The Greek columns, the exterior shutters, and wrought iron handrails maintained the classic appeal.

in 1963 when Ann and Bill Gresham moved in with their four children. They basically reconfigured the back part of the house, removing a butler’s pantry to add a side entrance and extending a back wall to create a laundry room and a new garage. A screened porch became a breakfast room, and the former garage became a new family room. Three pair of tall French doors open onto a brick porch that looks out on a swimming pool and an expansive brick patio. With an old brick woodburning fireplace at one end, the family room remains the most lived-in room in the house. The warm chocolate-colored Saltillo tile floor is original to 1963. The natural pine paneling is reminiscent of Point Clear’s Grand Hotel, and Mary Clair decided to leave it just as it was. They raised the preexisting bookcases slightly, finishing them out with molding and painting them with Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze. The brass

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Many thanks to the staff of Delta Magazine for the article and pictures of the Gresham home in Indianola. What a treasure it is. I grew up in that house and lived there until I married in 1952. My mother and father, Georgia and Walton Gresham, would be so pleased with its new owners, Noel and Mary Clair Cumbaa and what they have done. I think I’m the last living Gresham resident of the home. I have many happy memories of living there, and it was most attractive even then. Noel’s greatgrandmother Geraldine Dean, from Leland, and my mom were dear, dear friends. That connection made the purchase so special. Georgia G. McPherson Indianola

SEND COMMENTS AND LETTERS TO: editor@deltamagazine.com or Delta Magazine, PO Box 117, Cleveland, MS 38732 22 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Y’all Said

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTS @deltamagazine

We Asked... What’s on your summer reading list this year?

I am currently reading The YAZOO River, by Frank E. Smith. If you live in the Delta now or have moved away, you might want to read this one to know the history of how the YAZOO Delta evolved. I give it 5 Stars! Enjoy! – Bill Fisher

Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army, by Eugene L. Meyer, published in 2018. – Mike Lucas I have numerous books on my reading list....nothing overly new but new to me. Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee; The First Phone Call from Heaven, by Mitch Albom—already finished For One More Day I’m on book 10 of the Sarah Boothe Delaney Series, by Carolyn Haines set here in the Delta! The Incredible Winston Browne, by Sean Dietrich Out of the Clear Blue Sky, by Kristan Higgings Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Connie Lancaster Crappie – James Wiygul

Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout – Robin Coco It Ends With Us, by Collen Hoover – Rita Brown Crappie – Donald Bradshaw

Last Summer Boys, by Bill Rivers – Susan Huff Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. Not your average beach read but will keep you mesmerized! – Ann Bullock

Seen on Instagram Laura’s bird house build! She’s super proud of it so we did a little photo shoot. The inspiration for the build came from the cover of the Delta Magazine. I may have helped a smidge. – Patrick Remington @patrickgrem DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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TIME IS THE SAME FOR EACH LOCATION. SHREDDING WILL BEGIN AT 10 AM, ACTUAL LENGTH MAY VARY. IF THE SHRED TRUCK IS FULL BEFORE 2:00 P.M., THE REMAINDER OF SHRED DAY WILL BE CANCELED.

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Waves of Grain

PHOTO BY RIGGS WARE

The Delta landscape has changed over the past decade or two with many of the once prolific fields of cotton—white gold—replaced with amber waves of grain, as the patriotic song “America the Beautiful” declares. Ever adaptable, Delta farmers have had to adjust over the years to an industry rife with changes in technology, labor shortages, and rising costs. And now, reminiscent of the plains where wheat, corn, and other grains are the primary crops, vast acres of grain crops are as common a sight as the white and pink blooms of the blossoming cotton plants. DM

28 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

A COMMEMORATIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK OLE MISS: 2022 BASEBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONS “It's impossible to overstate the improbability of this championship run.” USA Today “Last one in. Last one out. Ole Miss completed its magical College World Series run with a comeback victory over Oklahoma to win the national championship.” Sports Illustrated “A storybook ending no one saw coming for Ole Miss baseball. They will forever be known as the best baseball team Ole Miss has ever put on the ﬁeld.” 247Sports

ON SALE OCTOBER 10, 2022 AT BOOKSTORES EVERYWHERE To Preorder Your Copy, visit NautilusPublishing.com/CWS

Foreword by Tim Elko Essay by Mike Bianco

9” x 12” Hardcover I 160 pages I 200+ spectacular photographs ISBN: 978-1-949455-34-2 I $48

I N H I S E L E M E N T:

ANDREW BUCCI’S EXPLORATIONS OF PLACE CONSTITUTION FIREHOUSE GALLERY

1204 MAIN STREET, VICKSBURG, MS | 601.415.0934 PRESENTED BY THE VICKSBURG ART ASSOCIATION

SEPTEMBER 3-25, 2022

WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY 10 A.M. – 4 P.M. | SUNDAY 1 P.M. – 4 P.M. OPENING RECEPTION TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13 AT 7 P.M.

UPCOMING SHOWS | WWW.ANDREWBUCCI.COM LAUREN ROGERS MUSEUM OF ART | AUGUST 23 – OCTOBER 30, 2022 WALTER ANDERSON MUSEUM OF ART | SEPTEMBER 29, 2022 – MARCH 20, 2023

DELTA MAGAZINE 2022 Bucci_Delta Mag_Half-Page_Horiz_Vicksburg.indd 1

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8/5/22 1:59 PM

ON THE ROAD

where we’ve been, where to go next

STOVALL

HATTIESBURG

The stomping ground of blues icon Muddy Waters. – DELTA MAGAZINE

A unique greeting and work of art at the Hattiesburg zoo.

– ED WRIGHT

BOLIVAR COUNTY

PHOTO OPS YAZOO CITY

An evening stroll down a turnrow. – MARSHALL BLEVINS

SHAW

Halloween is never complete without a visit to the Witch’s Grave in Glenwood Cemetary. Once a common sight around the Delta, bottle trees are becoming few and far between. – MECHELLE GENTRY WILSON

30 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

TATE COUNTY

MEMPHIS

Artistic expression in this small town located on the edge of the Delta. – RICK LAMBERT

BOLIVAR COUNTY

The microphone Elvis used to record some of his early hits at Sun Studios. – DELTA MAGAZINE

& FUNKY STOPS LAMONT Towering over the town of Merigold. – DIXON-DRONE PHOTOGRAPHY

CLEVELAND

It’s that time of year again when many of the Delta’s fields will be covered with the region’s trademark crop. – RIGGS WARE

Instagram users, follow @deltamagazine

Newly installed sculptures in downtown Cleveland bring an artistic vibe. – RORY DOYLE

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OFF THE BEATEN PATH roaming the real and rustic Delta

DELTA STATE’S HISTORIC JOBE HALL Repurposed to accommodate local events

OBE HALL, ON THE CAMPUS OF DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY, houses a large

auditorium, a stage area, and makeup and dressing areas, with offices and classroom space on the second floor for the Department of History and Theater Arts. It’s also a beautiful event center when not in use for daily school activities. Dr. James Robinson, Professor Emeritus of History, saw something more than classrooms and offices when the building wasn’t being utilized for its original purpose. “The auditorium is the biggest feature of the building; it seats around 300 people,” Robinson says. “Eventually, I started decorating around the auditorium because it was a bit rundown and needed a refresh. It dawned on everyone that you could hold an event there, and of course, as an auditorium it had already seen many types of happenings. But, with all the decorating and refreshing that we did, it became obvious that it would be a wonderful place to hold different events.” Robinson says there is an eating area in the back and a large seating area as well. “It just has a lot of wonderful features to it. Right now it isn’t being used for classrooms or offices, so it is available for reservations if anyone has an event they would like to host. If someone would like to rent it out, they would just go through Facilities Management at DSU to do so.” Since Jobe Hall’s dual role began, Robinson says that several graduation ceremonies have been held and a seminary. “We’ve also held a beauty school graduation as well, dance recitals, musical events—just a variety of different things.” For more information on reserving Jobe Hall, contact Facilities Management at Delta State University.

Delta State University 201-261 North 5th Avenue, Cleveland 662.846.4740

34 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Enhancements at Jobe Hall at Delta State University in Cleveland have turned the facility into an attractive event center that can be used for multiple purposes.

DAISY’S ON THE SQUARE Houston’s historic boutique hotel filling a travel niche

This unique boutique hotel, opened by Greenwood native Mike Colbert, is located in the eastern part of the state. This destination offers special accommodations with a nearby diner and coffee shop.

OCATED IN HOUSTON, MISSISSIPPI, DAISY’S ON THE SQUARE came into being in 2010

when owner Mike Colbert and his sister, Debbie, both full-time executives in the field of energy, purchased the circa 1911 building and decided to do something to boost and promote their community. However, the boutique hotel did not officially open until November of 2021, says Colbert, a Greenwood native. “When we originally bought the building, we planned to turn it into an office,” he says. “But, we were both constantly on the road traveling in our other careers and didn’t finish renovating the structure until 2013. In the meantime, we also opened a restaurant around the corner called Dixie Diner, as well as Gather, a nearby coffee shop. And we were getting ready to open Daisy’s on The Square in early 2020 when, of course, Covid hit, hence the delay.” “All of the guest rooms are constructed from original components of the old building, from the flooring to the ceilings and the walls. We even made all the furniture in the hotel from the repurposed wood from the old building,” he explains. Daisy was Colbert’s mother’s name, “My mother was a little 5´2˝ fireball,” he laughs. “She was a great cook and loved people. I thought that naming the hotel after her would be a nice way to honor her memory. And, I’m pleased to say that we’ve had guests come from all over the world to stay here. She would have been delighted. A number of avid cyclists who come down South to ride the Natchez Trace, which is just a short distance away, find us online and stay here.” Colbert adds, “We’ve also become a popular destination for Mississippi state politicians, which I think is a positive for Houston—for them to see what our town has to offer.” Speaking of politicians, Colbert says each guest room at Daisy’s is named after former Houston mayors and have had paintings commissioned of each mayor on the wall. “There is really nothing like our hotel in the state.” 103 North Jackson Street, Houston 662.542.4363; daisysonthesquare.net

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IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR: OUR HERNANDO DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS AND CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE!

Visit and shop over 20 participating Hernando businesses to get an early start on your Christmas shopping! OPEN HOUSE | NOV. 11: 9-5 & NOV. 13: 11-5

NOV. 12 9-5

on the Hernando Town Square Sponsored by:

Enjoy cra昀ers and vendors with Christmas wares, trolley tours of historic homes, wassailing in the historic downtown, historic carriage rides, children’s ornament decorating, historic entertainment, sel昀es with Santa and more. Call 662.429.9092 to get updates on the event. 36 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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HOT TOPICS MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART PRESENTS Maude Schuyler Clay: Portraits of a Place An exhibition of photos by renowned Delta-based photographer, Maude Schuyler Clay will be on view from October 29, 2022, through March 5, 2023, at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson. Maude Schuyler Clay: Portraits of a Place, is a collection of nearly 100 photographic works by the artist from the early 1980s to the present, including intimate family portraits, still-life images of fruit, haunting landscapes, and glass plate images taken by Clay’s grandfather, Joseph Albert May. Judge Maude Schuyler Clay, Highway May was a photo hobbyist and influence on Clay’s career. The Memorial 011, No date. Chromogenic print. 30 x 30 inch. glass plates, shown for the first time in an exhibition, document the agrarian lifestyle of the 1920’s Mississippi Delta. Portraits of a Place will also feature select images of Clay’s Highway Memorial Series. A fifth generation Mississippian, Clay records local history as a visual archivist, capturing domestic, agricultural, and civic subjects unique to the Mississippi Delta—a section of the state known for an array of cultural traditions unique to Mississippi. The curated images are drawn from the artist’s personal collection of her black-and-white and color photographs. Maude Schuyler Clay: Portraits of a Place will be accompanied by a brochure and a roster of public programs. For more information visit msmuseumart.org. Maude Schuyler Clay, Erasing Sally Mann,

380 South Lamar Street, Jackson; 601.960.1515 msmuseumart.org; Facebook and Instagram: @msmuseumart

Maude Schuyler Clay, Hopscotch, Glendora, Mississippi, No date, Chromogenic print, 7 x 7 inch.

2013, Chromogenic print. 22 x 22 inch.

CONFERENCE ON THE FRONT PORCH Event Returns to Plein Air after two-year hiatus The only known gathering devoted solely to the significance of the front porch in American society will return to the Plein Air neighborhood in Taylor, Mississippi after a twoyear COVID hiatus. The dates for the 2022 gathering are October 28-30. Robert Davis, the visionary founder and developer of Seaside, Florida, will be the keynote speaker. Seaside is credited with introducing new urbanism, a development philosophy that emphasizes human scale, walkability, and mixed use planning. Davis has been recognized as one of the most important real estate developers of the twentieth century. New to the conference this year is a singersongwriter component. Mississippi’s own Mac McAnally will perform as the conference’s headliner Robert Davis on Saturday night. McAnally is a country music legend, part of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has written hits for groups such as Alabama, Jimmy Buffett, Sawyer Brown, Rascal Flatts, and more. The three-day gathering will also showcase Mississippi Today

editor Marshall Ramsey, Southern Foodways Alliance co-founder John T. Edge, poet January O’Neil, podcaster Abe Partridge, and others. Joining McAnally on the music front will be Charlie Mars, Bedon Lancaster, and other local acts. “We are very excited to bring the conference back. Even more so with the incredible lineup of speakers and musicians we’ve got in store for ‘22” said conference founder Campbell McCool. Tickets to the three-day event include all events, meals, speakers, picnics, bonfires, and storytelling sessions.

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Mac McAnally

662.234.3151 theconferenceonthefrontporch.com Facebook: @pleinairtaylor; Instagram: @millatpleinair

PEACOCK IN THE DELTA New venue provides a unique experience deep in the Delta Nestled in an idyllic grove of chinaberry trees just off Highway 448, rests a newly restored, ninety-two-yearold church. After five years of renovations, Chinaberry Chapel— formerly Entail Methodist Church—at Peacock in the Delta is ready to celebrate newlyweds for decades to come. Located in Shaw, Mississippi, Peacock in the Delta serves as a fully functioning farm, multi-site Airbnb, and wedding destination. In 2013, Peacock in the Delta opened their first Airbnb, Sycamore Cottage, aptly named for the towering sycamore tree that grows nearby. This site, which can house up to six guests, became a popular resting spot for Mississippi Blues Trail visitors. During their stay, visitors can roam the grounds, ride horses, take a tour of the farm, and enjoy the swimming pool and tennis courts. With the success of Sycamore Cottage came the addition of Chinaberry Chapel and Peacock Cottage. The concept of an expansion started with a stained glass, rose window found on eBay. Cay Ely and her daughter Louisa Giliomee ordered this awe-inspiring piece of art without a place to display it.

Unfortunately, the stained glass shattered in transportation, but the beautiful framing remained. Cay then began looking for a place to install the window, and the search for a chapel to transport to Peacock in the Delta began. “We don’t do things the normal way,” says Cay with a slight chuckle. The original structure came with a Sunday school hall, which was detached and placed behind the chapel to add an additional fourperson Airbnb known as Peacock Cottage. This building now serves as the perfect location to house wedding parties. Mere steps away from the chapel, Cay and her husband, Lars, installed reclaimed cypress beams to accentuate the cathedralstyle ceiling. Twenty pews from an old church in Yazoo City line the wooden floors. The rose window, now complete with clear glass, displays the beauty of the chinaberry grove and acts as the building’s centerpiece. For more information on how to book a stay in this Delta Oasis, contact Peacock in the Delta. (Chatham Kennedy) 662.721.3001 peacockinthedelta.com Facebook and Instagram: @peacockinthedelta

TROJAN SHIELD BOOKSTORE A hidden surprise in Moorhead In the small town of Moorhead, or how locals refer to it—“where the Southern cross the Yellow Dog” in reference to the railways that intersected downtown, the town of 1,500 residents balloons during the school year because it’s home to Mississippi Delta Community College. One jewel on campus, and a pleasant surprise to those looking for specialty and shopping items, is the Trojan Shield Bookstore. While most think of a college bookstore as simply featuring textbooks, supplies, and Trojan gear— which it most certainly does—many are surprised at the boutique offerings that are available. Manager Kelly Pilgrim has been working hard to expand product lines in the 40-year-old bookstore that appeal to not only students, but residents and visitors of Moorhead, as well. “While we carry MDCC Trojan swag and all things collegiate, we also have school supplies for students. We carry a wide variety of gifts including jewelry, home accessories, drinkware, purses, candles, and gourmet food items such as dip mixes, jellies, and salad dressings. Some of our popular brands include Votivo items, Bridgewater candles and products, Jane Marie jewelry and bags, and Mills Gourmet food products.” While the bookstore is currently housed in Tanner Hall, it’s

moving to a new location within the Vandiver Student Union. The expansion will allow a new nook featuring free Wi-Fi with a coffee corner offering cold and hot teas and other specialty beverages. The Trojan Shield Bookstore is open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mississippi Delta Community College campus Highway 3 and Cherry Street; 662.246.6446

Instagram: @Friends of MDCC Bookstore DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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BOOKS

Buzzworthy Comments

Yellow Dog Blues by Alice Faye Duncan (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers) One morning Bo Willie ﬁnds the doghouse empty and the gate wide open! Farmer Fred says Yellow Dog hit Highway 61 and started running. Aunt Jessie pics up Bo Willie in her pink Cadillac and together they go look for his missing puppy. Their search leads them from juke joints to tamale stands to streets ringing with the music of B.B. King and Muddy Waters. Acclaimed creators Alice Faye Duncan and Chris Raschka present a boogie-woogie journey along the Mississippi Blues Trail. With swinging free verse and stunning hand-embroidered art, Yellow Dog Blues is a soulful fable about what happens when the blues grabs you and holds on tight, about friendship, about love, and loss. (Special/DM Staff )

Alice Faye Duncan

The World of Marty Stuart by Marty Stuart (University Press of Mississippi/Mississippi Department of Archives and History) In the late 1960s in Philadelphia, Mississippi, nine-year-old Marty Stuart started his ﬁrst band and began playing country music and collecting treasures of the culture. More than a half century later, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History has partnered with the country musician and ambassador to share his story and collection with the public in an exhibition and tandem publication. Marty Stuart has worked with the legends of country music, from his early days playing with Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash to his successful collaboration with Travis Tritt and his celebrated return to American roots music with his Marty Stuart band, the Fabulous Superlatives. The World of Marty Stuart traces the life and times of Marty Stuart through essays, photographs, and reproductions of artifacts from his extensive collection, highlights of which include Stuart’s ﬁrst guitar, Hank Williams’s original handwritten manuscripts, guitars from Carl Perkins and Pops Staples, numerous costumes including Porter Wagoner’s suit and Dolly Parton’s dress, personal items from Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and Connie Smith, and much more. (Special/DM Staff )

Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen by Julie Hines Mabus (University Press of Mississippi) In the late 1960s, Patsy Channing, a stunningly beautiful young woman, was suspended from the venerable Mississippi State College for Women for breach of conduct. The resulting scandal reached all the way to the Columbus courthouse, and the press ate it up. But Patsy’s story starts long before that. Living in Memphis with a preoccupied and troubled mother, Patsy grew up burying her unspeakable childhood trauma, determined to have a normal life. Music became her ticket for the one thing she covets most—a chance to be crowned Miss America. In Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen, Julie Hines Mabus provides a peek into that world—a world struggling through the civil rights movement, reeling from the death of JFK, and cutting loose with the musical innovations from Memphis and Detroit. Patsy’s story, marked with Julie Hines Mabus tragedy and triumph, mirrors that of an evolving South, where change never comes easy. (Special/DM Staff )

We asked Facebook friends and Delta Magazine fan page group members to share with us their favorite character in a book they have read. o Mike Carr, attorney Cleveland, Mississippi

Huck Finn because when faced with the choice of protecting the only person who loved him, or going to hell, he said he’d rather go to hell. o Nancy Franklin, retired Gunnison, Mississippi

Abra from East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. She tried to be in love with Aaron who was the good son, but was drawn to his troubled brother Cal. She was also troubled and felt she could help him. o Nash Nunnery, project manager at Mississippi Development Authority Clinton, Mississippi

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. Santiago, the main character is a lowly fisherman, Santiago is a proud man who displays perseverance and a quiet dignity rarely seen today. o Mary Lundgren, retired Clinton, Mississippi

Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery. She was smart, imaginative, resourceful and kind.

For the Record Books Delta Magazine fans are currently reading o Pam Hughes Powers Silence by Shusaku Endo

o Missy Tollison Henson Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

o Mary McKenzie Thompson The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

o Anne Martin Vetrano Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg 42 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

o Mary Lou Scruggs Heaney The Judges List by John Grisham

o Tammy Fisher Nesbit House at the End of the Street by Lily Blake

o Patrice O’Brien Rush on the Radio by James Golden

o Ramona Brewer Adams A Place Like Mississippi by W. Ralph Eubanks

o Paula Webb Mississippi Mojo and Murder by Mary S. Palmer and Paula Lenor Webb

o Anita Grossman Horn Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

o Rhonda Green Dimuke It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Conversations with George Saunders edited by Michael O’Connell (University Press of Mississippi)

Besides being one of America’s most celebrated living authors, George Saunders (b. 1958) is also an excellent interview subject. In the fourteen interviews included in Conversations with George Saunders, covering nearly twenty years of his career, the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December provides detailed insight into his own writing process and craft, alongside nuanced interpretations of his own work. He also delves into aspects of his biography, including anecdotes from his childhood and his experiences as both a student and teacher in MFA programs, as well as reflections on how parenthood affected his writing, the role of religious belief and practice in his work, and how he has dealt with his growing popularity and fame. Throughout this collection, we see him in conversation with former students, fellow writers, mainstream critics, and literary scholars. In each instance, Saunders is eager to engage in meaningful dialogue about what he calls the “big questions of our age. “In a number of interviews, he reflects on the moral and ethical responsibility of fiction, as well as how his work engages with issues of social and political commentary. But at the same time, these interviews, like all of Saunders’s best work, are funny, warm, surprising, and wise. Saunders says he has “always enjoyed doing interviews” in part because he views “intense, respectful conversation [as], really, an artform—an exploration of sorts.” Readers of this volume will have the pleasure of joining him in this process of exploration. (Special/DM Staff )

The Watercolor Road by Wyatt Waters (The Watercolor Road Press) Experience the American South through the expressive paintings and musings of renowned master watercolorist, Wyatt Waters. His rambling and wandering through the southern trail deliver an impressive collection of 133 paintings, 21 essays, and an array of adages that depicts both the South and his relentless trek to be a better painter as a mindset rather than a destination. The Watercolor Road captures the artist’s longing ambition to explore and present this place he calls home in plein air watercolor. Pulling a 16-foot Casita travel trailer behind his Pastormobile, Wyatt roams the rural and urban, country roads and highways, oceans and forests, BBQ joints and local diners—expressing his visceral connection to each locale with his vivid images. His pictorial explorations span from the Arkansas plateaus to the Louisiana bayous, the Blue Ridge Mountains to the low country marshes of South Carolina, across southern farmlands and down to the balmy Florida Keys—with all points in between. Having long contemplated his feelings and observations on painting and living through his writings, in this book, Wyatt shares the many truths he has learned along the way and how he applies them to his art and to his life. The Watercolor Road will appeal to aficionados of southern culture as well as those who enjoy the art of painting and desire a deeper understanding of the “whys” of painting more so than the “how-to’s”. (Special/DM Staff ) DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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FABRICS FOR every HOME PREMIER PRINTS PILLOW FORMS CUSTOM SEWING SPECIALTY FABRICS CUSTOM FURNITURE TRIM

premierprintsinc.com MADE IN THE USA

JACKSON, MS: 601.899.8850 • GERMANTOWN, TN: 901.758.0090 DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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SHOPPING

FALL FITS &

tailgating accents

Fun gameday attire and entertaining ideas to help you cheer your team on all season Plate Perfect Even tailgate pick-ups need a cute platter to get you in the game-day mindset. Can’t make it to the game? These are a great way to bring some school spirit to your next at-home watch party! Pickering Boxwood, Memphis Instagram: @pickering_boxwood pickeringboxwood.com

Go Green An embroidered hat is never a bad idea, especially if its for the multi-sport winning Fighting Okra!

Blinging Bulldog The Queen of Sparkles reigns supreme this football season. Glow up game day with a bit of pizzaz!

Delta State University Bookstore, Cleveland 662.846.4640

H Squared Boutique, Cleveland Instagram: @Hsquaredboutique 662.843.4504

Tea Time Celebrate your team all year long with these adorable tea towels. These would also be perfect for a hostess gift should you be a guest in the Grove or the Junction!

Tailgate Table

Mimi’s on Main, Senatobia Instagram: @mimisonmain 662.562.8261

It’s a touchdown every time with this fall-themed table runner. No better way to celebrate a victory on the tabletop than with a scoring party theme!

Game Day Baubles

Good Hope General Merchandise, Yazoo City Instagram: @good_hope_gm 662.746.7776

Cleveland Fresh, Cleveland Instagram: @Clevelandfresh 662.441.0500

Show off your team allegiance all year long with these precious beaded earrings.

Gotta wear Shades These Goodr rubber glasses are all the rage with their polarized lenses and lightweight frame. With a great selection of team colors available, and comfortable ﬁt, they are the perfect game day or playing sports. The Wishing Well, Cleveland Instagram: @thewishingwellofcleveland 662.843.7881

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Squad Goals Hip Hip Hooray for the little ones! Team spirit is in full effect with this adorable cheer-inspired frock. Punkin Patch, Cleveland Instagram: @punkinpatchcleveland 662.843.0434

Dress to Impress Kick your game day footwear up a notch (or ﬁve) with a whole lotta bling! Not only are they comfy for lots of walking, they are sure to stand out. Mod + Proper, Cleveland Instagram: @modandproper 662.400.3111

Hoop it up Add a pop of maroon and jewels to jazz up your game day attire! These City Girl hoops can take your look to the next level. The Olive Tree, Starkville Instagram: @theolivetreestarkville 662.722.3019

Copper Tone What great tailgate table is complete without a fabulous show-stopping center piece? This copper staple can be used for much more than arrangements, and is sure to be a stand-out. The Mississippi Gift Company, Greenwood Instagram: @themississippigiftcompany 662.455.6961

Sharp Sneaks Looking cute and repping your team doesn’t have to be uncomfortable with these gold and blue kicks that are sure to be attention grabbers! Lavender Lane, Indianola Instagram: @lavenderlaneindianola 662.452.5131

In Stitches There are few things that scream southern hospitality than linen and embroidery! These school spirit napkin sets come in a pack of 4 with different designs and are the perfect complement to your cocktail. paddockthreads.com

It’s in the Bag This stadium-friendly Jon Hart clear purse is sure to elevate your ﬁt for the day. What’s even better is that it can be monogrammed! The Olive Tree, Starkville Instagram: @theolivetreestarkville 662.722.3019 DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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ART

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Katie and Ky

JOHNSTON

Artistic couple combining their unique creativity and skills BY SUSAN MARQUEZ • PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA SATTERFIELD

he relationship between Ky Johnston and his wife, Katie, is a great example of how art and love are intertwined. Each of them is an excellent artist in their own right— however, the two also collaborate, creating pieces that neither could do on their own.

Ky is originally from Forest, Mississippi. The son of missionaries, he moved to Brazil with his family when he was eight years old. “I came back when I was in the seventh grade, then we returned to Brazil and I stayed there until my senior year of high school, which I finished in Forest.” Ky had always enjoyed drawing, and he was mostly self-taught. “It was just something I liked to do.” After graduating high school, Ky went to Mississippi College. “I had not decided on a major. I thought I wanted to go into graphic design, but after taking one graphic design class I decided against it. Instead, I studied art education.” He attended graduate school at Ole Miss, with an emphasis on ceramics. “I had a couple of friends, Robin Whitfield and Nicole Stowe, who had been at Delta State, so I knew something about the art department there. When a position opened in the art department, I never looked anywhere else. I came to Cleveland for the first time when I interviewed for the job and stayed.” Katie’s path was a bit different. “I grew up in Greenville, and I grew up loving art. I took art classes every year of high school, and when it was time to go to college, I went to Delta State where I majored in art.” After graduation, Katie began teaching art classes at East Side High School, now called Cleveland Central. “I’ve been teaching art for twenty years. It’s something I love to do.” Throughout the school, walls are covered with murals painted by Katie. “It’s something I enjoy doing, and I think others enjoy seeing them. It adds a little joy to our day, and I like knowing that my work will be there for a long time to come.” After a few years of teaching, Katie returned to Delta State to work on a master’s degree in education. “Ky was teaching by then, and I had one class with him. After I finished, I kept up with the folks in the art department. Since undergraduate school I have always tried to keep up with the people in the art department simply because it was such a great place to be and each of them inspired me greatly and continue to do so. I continued to teach, and after eighteen years, I returned to school one fall and they told me I would also be teaching ceramics. I had to set up a ceramics lab and I had

Katie and Ky Johnston have combined their talents to create imaginative, one-of-a-kind pieces.

no idea of where to start because my knowledge in this area was so limited. I had only taken one class and it had been thirteen years since I had done anything at all with the medium of clay. She reached out to Ky for help more than once. He helped her from the DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Each work is finished with a variety of beautiful paint colors and intricate detail.

Ky enjoys creating ceramics for his business as well as teaching his students about the artform at Delta State University.

start, and after pretty much setting up the ceramics lab, Katie said she felt she owed him. “I jokingly told him that I felt as though I should take him out for a drink.” The rest is history. The couple got married and their life collaboration morphed into an art collaboration. “We both make pottery,” says Ky. It started with a vase and a jar. “I made a vase and a jar for Katie to paint. I think we’ve still got them! It soon became something we enjoyed doing together. She had always painted, and she was getting better every day at using the wheel.” The couple now makes some of their pottery on the wheel, and some is hand built. “Sometimes I paint my own,” says Ky. “And sometimes Katie will paint it. She paints a lot more than I do.” Most of the painting is done at home, but Ky makes his pottery at Delta State, and Katie makes hers at Cleveland Central. “Sometimes she joins me in the studio at Delta State on the weekends,” says Ky. “I used to have a studio in my basement when I lived in Merigold, but when I married Katie and moved in with her, I gave up having a personal studio space.” The couple’s work can be seen at Cleveland Fresh. “Both our collaborative work, my pottery pieces and hers, as well as Katie’s paintings are there,” Ky says. “And since I graduated from college, I’ve had my work in Attic Gallery in Vicksburg.” Katie says their art is also sold online. “People can see our work on our Instagram page, 52 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Johnston pottery, and make inquiries.” Katie still does a lot of painting. “I enjoy doing wildlife paintings. It’s something I know because I grew up with five brothers who loved to hunt and fish, so I learned from them. My grandparents had a farm, so I have always spent a lot of time outdoors.” An art professor of Katie’s, Sammy Britt, once told her that if she started making art for someone else, then it’s time to quit. “I know men enjoy paintings of wildlife, but I am fascinated with color. I go through a lot of photography when I begin a painting to find something interesting. I like to see how the light comes through the trees, or the color of the clouds.” Manipulating the colors, Katie paints with lots of pink, purple, and turquoise. “The men may like the painting because of the deer in it, but the women are drawn to the beautiful colors. Honestly, you don’t have to care anything about the outdoors to love a beautiful painting. It’s a win-win.” When not creating art, the couple loves traveling. “If I had my

Ky’s paintings of scenes from Brazil where he grew up, above and below.

Many of Katie’s paintings are inspired by her great love of the outdoors and local wildlife.

way, I’d travel much more.” We both have a passion for exploring other cultures and it gives the two of us a lot of inspiration,” says Katie. Ky says he recently returned to Brazil, taking Katie with him, and they plan to go again as soon as they are able. “I actually took a group of students from Delta State there in 2015 with a fellow professor, Ron Koehler. We stayed for nearly a month.” Ky learned to surf while growing up in Brazil, and he enjoys surfing whenever he gets the chance. “I get inspired when I go to Brazil. I get ideas for images, and even my experiences can influence my work.”

Katie says she still enjoys being outdoors any time she has the opportunity. “I love to hunt and fish, as is evident in my work, but I don’t get to do that as much as I’d like to. I also enjoy gardening. Our hobbies are similar enough for us to enjoy doing things together, but different enough to keep things interesting. I love learning new things. I get bored otherwise.” Katie has three children, the oldest of which will be a senior in high school this year. “Only one seems interested in art, but none of them care about doing it as a career.” DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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MUSIC

KAELAN BAROWSKY

Volt standing in front of the world famous Viper Room, the ultra-hot bar in West Hollywood known for its cuttingedge music and celebrity-studded scene.

BLUES QUEEN Belgian-born musician Ghalia Volt fell for the blues, then she fell hard for the Delta BY JIM BEAUGEZ

RAVELING ALONE BY RAIL, bus and thumb in a strange land may not sound appealing to everyone, but blues singer, guitarist and “one woman band” Ghalia Volt has an uncommon amount of determination.

“I wanted to see all the towns that the songs I listened to talk about,” she says, “so I started traveling in the Delta.” Volt had fallen hard for the blues, thanks to legends like R&B queen Ruth Brown, jump blues master Louis Jordan and Bentonia bluesman Skip James. Experiencing the places where her newfound obsession originated became her singular focus, and in 2014 she 56 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

journeyed to America to chase down the ghosts of the blues, and the musicians still playing the music she loved. “I found out about Skip James and all of those guys, and it made me want to come and visit Mississippi,” says Volt, who grew up in Belgium and now resides in New Orleans. “And then the first time I came to Mississippi, it was three months' travel that I did as a pilgrim for blues music and all the music I was listening to.” Embarking on solo adventures was nothing new to Volt, though. When she was just 16, she bought a rail pass and spent a month finding her way around Europe, taking passenger trains from country to country and even hitchhiking when she needed to.

LOLA REYNAERTS

FROM GHALIA VOLT’S FACEBOOK PAGE

DALE GUNNOE

FROM GHALIA VOLT’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Volt at the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale.

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FROM GHALIA VOLT’S FACEBOOK PAGE KAELAN BAROWSKY

Left, Volt in front of the iconic Capitol Records building in Los Angeles. The musician is known for her marathon driving tours across the U.S. and Europe.

Volt got into American garage-rock bands like the MC5 and then rockabilly, which she listened to until she decided it was “just jump blues sung by white people.” She had been playing guitar since age 11, but it was a few more years until she worked her way to the blues by going backward from the punk and garage rock she grew up on— ending up on YouTube, of all places, where she came across videos of James performing. When she made up her mind to come to the U.S., she busked on the streets of Brussels to earn cash for an extended stay. With enough money in hand to last her a few months, then 21 years old, she packed a backpack and a guitar and boarded a plane. “I came on a trip for three months, from New Orleans to Chicago and the surrounding areas, like Austin, Texas, every good music town—St. Louis, Nashville, Memphis and the entire state of Mississippi,” Volt says. “I did all the Blues Trail and Jackson, Bentonia, Clarksdale and Holly Springs. “I would just grab a Greyhound, Megabus, Amtrak and hitchhike sometimes, until I had a couple of bad experiences where I'm like, I'm done,” she says. “In Europe we grew up pretty open minded and doing all the crazy things. I mean, to me, traveling by myself when I was 21 didn't seem like a big deal ‘cause I was doing it since I was 16.” Her full immersion into the blues included stops at gravesites for 58 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Elmore James in Ebenezer and Robert Johnson in Greenwood. Then she went deeper into the Delta from there. In Clarksdale, she discovered blues pioneers like Son House, whose music bonded her to the city and the region. Clarksdale has since become a home away from her adopted hometown of New Orleans. Here, she met blues musician Sean “Bad” Apple, who introduced her to Roger Stolle of Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art, who booked her for the Juke Joint Festival, which she has made every year for nearly a decade. Red’s, Bluesberry Cafe and the Shack Up Inn became some of her favorites spots in town because of the people and the welcoming environment they created. “Ever since I went to Clarksdale, that's been a second home after New Orleans, and I still go up there a bunch and to Jackson,” she says. “Everybody in Clarksdale is pretty much like a big family— even all the fans and the traveling persons. Once you've been there, you always come back. I find myself coming back a bunch because I had that feeling.” On her most recent trips through the Delta, she’s toured by herself as the “One Woman Band,” which means she holds down the rhythm on her guitar while accompanying on harmonica and playing percussion with her feet. The idea to simplify her footprint came from her experiences busking in Europe as well as in New Orleans, and she originally conceived it as a way to travel and continue to play music between waves of Covid-19. It worked so well, she still tours that way after two years. “The whole concept started when I used to play the clubs in New

TANGUY URBAIN

Orleans on Tuesdays and Sundays, and then I would just play by myself on Frenchmen Street,” she explains. “And then when the whole pandemic started, I upgraded to a real drum set and then I went to Mississippi, mainly to Clarksdale, and north to Memphis to play a bunch of gigs. Then I came back and I called Ruf Records and said, ‘What about we just do a One Woman Band album?’ And they said, ‘Yes, people like it. Why not?’” Titled simply One Woman Band, her 2021 album showcased the chops she honed playing through the Delta and hit the top ten of the Billboard Blues Albums Chart. As the pandemic eased, she took her show across the U.S., still traveling by herself—this time in a transit van—and playing to audiences from coast to coast. None of her travels wowed her in the same way as coming to the Delta did, though. “When you come as a European for the first time you’re like, ‘Oh, I'm going to discover Mississippi, it’s like Disneyland for the blues,’” she says. “But then

the reality is, it's way better than that. What's behind the scenes, and when you see all the scenery, it's not just being amazed. It's being kind of shocked, too. “I've taken that train from New Orleans to Memphis a lot, and you pass those areas where there's nothing, and there's no way you can really relate to those songs until you see where those songs were born.” While Volt’s next musical project will likely include a full band, she isn’t completely giving up the concept of the One Woman Band. But it won’t be her main focus. She’s currently writing and recording her fourth album, and one thing is certain—she won’t be gone from the Delta for long. “It's been nine years since I discovered the Delta and I'm always [coming] back,” she says. “For me, the most spectacular thing is always the sunsets driving home. It's just always a good feeling. I never get bored. I can just drive through Mississippi every day without getting bored.” DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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LOUDERSOUND.COM

Allman Brothers Band

GRAMMY Museum MS New Exhibit Features Southern Rock BY JACK CRISS

he history of Southern rock music is set to be explored in a new exhibit, The Sounds of Southern Rock, opening at GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi in Cleveland, MS., on Sept. 30, 2022. Opening events to celebrate the exhibit will be announced soon.

Curated by Bob Santelli and the Mississippi Museum, Southern Rock will spotlight the bands and artists who were integral in the development of the genre, including the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Charlie Daniels Band, Little Feat, the Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, The Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, Dixie Dregs, Blackfoot and many other bands and musicians. A partnership with Hard Rock International, the exhibit will be on display in the Museum’s feature exhibits gallery through 2023. “The Southern rock genre exploded in the 1970s as an extension of an already long and vibrant Southern music heritage that 62 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

encompassed blues, country, gospel, R&B, and even big band jazz,” said music historian Bob Santelli, who co-curated the Southern Rock exhibit with GRAMMY Museum Mississippi. “This exhibit will explore how Southern rock rose to become one of the most popular genres of the decade and will spotlight the bands who made it famous, including the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd. While

Southern rock’s heyday ended with the plane crash that took the lives of members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the genre lives on in the hearts and minds of music fans everywhere.” “Of the many contributions that the South made to American music, the Southern rock genre is certainly one of the most popular,” said Emily Havens, Executive Director of GRAMMY Museum Mississippi. “This exhibit will provide a unique and in-depth look at the genre and the bands who made it famous. We can’t wait to share these important stories of Southern rock bands with our Museum visitors, and we thank Hard Rock International for their partnership to help bring this exhibit to life.” Havens also said that the Museum will host programs that celebrate the genre with special guests throughout the duration of the exhibit, including possibly some of the musicians being featured. "We'll plan to host panel discussions, films screening,

education workshops, and public programs to celebrate, honor and learn about the Southern rock genre," added Havens. "This is the first exhibit dedicated solely to Southern rock music in the Museum and we're thrilled to be able feature such a unique and much-needed tribute." Some of the featured artifacts that will be included at the exhibit include: Charlie Daniels' Gibson Les Paul and fiddle, a Duane Allman guitar, Lynyrd Skynyrd stage outfits worn by Leon Wilkerson and Gary Rossington, Little Feat guitar played by the group's late leader, Lowell George, Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Fender Stratocaster, Derek Trucks artifacts, a Molly Hatchet bass, percussionist Jaimoe of The Allman Brothers cymbal case. posters, ticket stubs, t-shirts, memorabilia...and much more according to Havens. This new exhibit continues the stated mission of the Museum to provide unique learning opportunities based on the enduring legacies of all forms of music; the entire creative and technological processes of recording; and the history of the GRAMMY Awards® with a focus on the continuing achievements of Mississippians. The GRAMMY Museum Mississippi is an exciting and interactive celebration of the power of music occupying a vibrant space in Cleveland. Its total size of 28,000 square feet features cutting edge exhibits, interactive experiences and films provide a one-of-a-kind visitor experience--engaging, educational, celebratory and inspirational, and has brought in visitors from all over the nation and world. From Southern Rock to Hip-Hop, from County to Classical and from Jazz to Latin, all forms of music are celebrated at the Museum through education, public programs, lectures and intimate musical performances on its inhouse soundstage. DM

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64 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Lolo Tubertini Nowell

Cheerleading From ankle skirts to standing tucks A look back through the decades at Deltans who cheered on their college teams

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BY MARY LEE MCKEE

IT’S SEPTEMBER. Supposedly the ﬁrst day of fall is the twenty-second. Whatever. We know when fall really begins: at the ﬁrst kick-off.

Bob Bailey (MSU, 1959) “We didn’t do all these trapeze tricks and tumbling and stuff. We simply held someone up and yelled, ‘Yay!’” says Bailey, far right.

senior year, she began practicing for Ole Miss cheerleader Ever since the season ended last year, preparations for this tryouts. But her reparation began years before. “I started fall have been underway. Recruits have been broken in. gymnastics when I was ten. But that last year I spent a lot Coaches have been fired and hired. New plays have been of time going to Memphis, twice a week most weeks for dreamed up with strenuous strengthening and seven to eight months before tryouts, conditioning for hours on end. And practicing, getting my skills where they then, finally, one month out, the drills needed to be, going to cheer clinics, and drills and practice, practice, making connections with coaches, and practice. Now it’s fall. Let the games letting them know I wanted to be part begin. of the program.” Her hard work paid But the coaches and players aren’t the off and she made it through each round only ones who have been diligently until she was selected. preparing. In addition to the band and But Warrington’s experience of the entourage that supports the players becoming a college cheerleader is quite and coaches, there’s another team on different from what it used to be, once the field, or rather, on the sidelines: the upon a time. cheerleading team. They too have been When Sally Meek went to training. Newcomb College at Tulane in 1968, Mollie Warrington from Greenville she also tried out for cheerleader. “I is a sophomore cheerleader on the Ole went out on stage and remembered I Miss co-ed cheer squad. In the spring didn’t tell them my name. I said, ‘I’m before her freshman year, she tried out sorry. I forgot to tell you who I am. I’m for cheerleader along with at least two Sally Meek and I’m from Merigold, hundred other hopefuls. Tryouts, for Mollie Warrington (Ole Miss, 2021) Mississippi,’” she proudly proclaimed. Mollie, were the culmination of years of Pictured with fellow cheerleader Kevin Brownlow of Greenwood. “Being selected “I was wearing a pink gingham shorts preparation. to cheer for the Rebels at the 2021 Sugar outfit and they elected me!” She cheered for Washington School Bowl and to be in the parade in New “We just had fun doing it,” recalls throughout high school and during her Orleans was the highlight of last season!” DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Martin Mitchell, middle back row (DSU, 1994-1997) “My favorite memories are winning the UCA Division II National Championship in 1996 and 1997. In fact, Delta State won six national championships from 1992 to 2000. Also traveling with the women’s basketball team to the Elite Eight in North Dakota—alumni paid for us to go!”

Mollie Warrington, featured on an ESPN College GameDay promotion: “Getting to be a part of SEC GameDay, just to be there and see them live and how excited all the fans were is absolutely one of my favorite memories!”

Bob Bailey of Yazoo City. Bailey cheered for Mississippi State in 1959—the same year Old Main Dormitory, where he lived, burned down. “The only reason I passed my chemistry exam was because my dorm burned down the night before and the professor gave us credit!” The fire inadvertently contributed to him becoming a cheerleader. “A lot of us didn’t have a place to live and I was a Kappa Alpha pledge and moved into the house. That got me involved in some campus politics and then I got elected cheerleader,” he explains. “We didn’t do all these trapeze tricks and tumbling and stuff. We held someone up and yelled, ‘Yay!’” As fate would have it, Bob’s grandson Kinkead Dent is currently a senior quarterback on the Ole Miss football team. “Cartwheels were our only form of gymnastics,” confirms Janet Gregory Flowers of Tunica. Flowers grew 68 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Bob Bailey (lower right) with the MSU 1959 cheer squad.

up in Starkville, and cheered in 1955-1956 for what was then known as the Maroons at Mississippi State College, before they rang cowbells and before it became Mississippi State University, a change for which she lobbied in Jackson to help bring about in 1958. “I never dreamed of being a cheerleader,” remembers Henry Paris of Indianola, now Oxford. His big brother in the fraternity, Phi Epsilon Pi, was a cheerleader and encouraged Paris to tryout. “He inspired me to run. Told me a few things to do.” At the time, the cheerleaders elected the head cheerleader. “One cheerleader, Mary Frances, said she thought a boy should be head. So I got it.” Paris was the head cheerleader for Ole Miss 19491951. Perhaps Amy Permenter McMahan of Greenville, now Jackson, said it best. She remembers when she was

Henry Paris (Ole Miss, 1949-1951) Head cheerleader, Paris takes a swan dive over the team.

Janet Gregory Flowers (MSU, 1955-1956) “We had a lot of pep rallies in downtown Starkville. The stage would be set up in front of the old State Theatre and we gave away free Cokes. We were the last girl cheerleaders to wear long skirts!”

Lila Lee McRight (Ole Miss, 19421946) McRight standing in front of the pictures of her and her brotherin-law, Hall of Famer Kayo Dottley from back in the day at the M Club Room dedication. Sally Meek (Tulane, 1968)

Amy Permenter McMahan (Ole Miss 1960) “Our outfits were horrible! The skirts were a total circle with a hole in the middle. The whole thing weighed a hundred pounds.” Left to right: Al Povall, Helen May, Troy Mashburn, Susan Sadler, Trent Lott, Amy Permenter and Ken Cargile.

Leigh Hargett (MSU 1985-1988) “I loved being able to cheer at so many different SEC and other college campuses. I loved experiencing other schools' traditions.”

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Nancy Newton, of Greenville (Vanderbilt, 1953-1956) “After the 1955 Tennessee game Coach Art Guepe told two of us if we made it to the airport we could ride back with the team. So we hitchhiked with some Tennessee fans who drove us to meet the plane and our football player boyfriends!” Lolo Tubertini Nowell (MSU, 1973-1976) “One year we ordered new sweaters for the State-Ole Miss game at Memorial Stadium in Jackson. The sweaters arrived just in time for the game, but the MS letters weren’t attached. My mother, Sara Tubertini, sat in the gazebo at the Governor’s Mansion sewing the letters on our sweaters, so we could wear them that day.”

Bob Sharman of Greenville (Ole Miss, Director of School Spirit 1979-1980). “My favorite memory of the cheerleaders was the moving pyramid. The squad went to the national championships multiple years at that time and placed in the top five each time.”

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Pictured on the sidelines with fellow cheerleaders and Yazoo City comedian Jerry Clower. Cheryl Sidney Anthony (MSU, 1978-1981) “My favorite memories are the pep rallies, school spirit, and game day EXCITEMENT, it was collegiate athletics at its best! The game that stands out the most Bulldogs beat Alabama in 1980, everyone in the school went crazy!”

Bill met at the end of her ﬁrst semester senior year, and elected by the student body as Ole Miss cheerleader in they married six weeks later in February. “There was such 1960. “Nobody cared if you could cheer or not. If you an immediacy after the war,” Lila Lee’s were cute and had friends, you got elected.” daughter, Lila Lee Neely, explained. She That’s a far cry from what is expected cherishes her mother’s memories of cheering now. To try out now you must know how at Ole Miss, including “daddy in the stands to tumble and do stunts like standing tucks, hollering at her.” extensions and double down dismounts. McMahan, whose cheer partner was But perhaps what they could not do in former U.S. Senator Trent Lott, had taken impressive stunts, they made up for in dance lessons for years and tried to teach the charisma and charm. Isn’t work-a-crowdteam a routine, but it didn’t go too well. ability the most prized cheerleader “One girl, she was real cute, but she didn’t attribute? One cheerleader had that in know her right from her left. The boys spades, Lila Lee Nosser McRight of would yell, ‘Go Rebels!’ and we would try to Vicksburg and Greenville, who cheered for do the Rebel dance. It was hysterical. No one Ole Miss from 1942 until 1946. Walterine Permenter Odom could do anything.” She never lost that ability and she never (Ole Miss, 1967-1971) Walterine helped pass the bill Almost a decade later, that would change. stopped cheering for the Rebels. In 2015, she in the student senate that McMahan’s own sister, Walterine required cheerleaders to have was named the ESPN/Cheetos Game Day “some” experience, eventually Permenter Odom, now in Oxford, was also Fan of the week at the age of 90. That trait shifting the process to much an Ole Miss cheerleader and served on the must have run in the family, as her sisters Nina Dottley and “Betty Boop” Mims would cheer for Student Senate when a bill was passed requiring that cheerleaders must have “some” experience. “Ed Peacock the Rebels after her. And all three married Ole Miss football players. Who says the football players don’t notice was on the Senate with me. He decided that we needed to pass a law and he made me put the bill forward because the cheerleaders? Nina and Betty married Ole Miss Hall I was a cheerleader. I told the Senate, ‘If you’ve ever made of Famers John “Kayo” Dottley and Crawford Mims, fun of the cheerleaders, then you have to vote for this bill!’ respectively. Lila Lee married W.O. “Bill” McRight, who It passed unanimously. Fifteen years later, our cheerleaders played football for Ole Miss after returning from serving the Air Force in World War II as a rear gunner. She and were winning national championships!” DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Lindsey Zepponi Mandarà (Ole Miss, 2005-2008) native of Tribbett, now Dallas. “I would say the things I miss the most are my cheer squad and all being together 24/7 and secondly, would be running onto the field with the football players at the start of the game. There's nothing like an adrenaline rush trying to tumble and throw back handsprings while dodging giants at the same time! I do not have a single bad memory from my time as a cheerleader—if I could go back, I would...and I would do it exactly the same!”

Raising the bar for cheerleaders became the norm everywhere, of course, and Mississippi has boasted its share of cheering champions. Some of the best memories of Leigh Hargett of Indianola, who cheered for Mississippi State from 1985 to 1988, are when she and her team competed nationally and earning fourth place in 1985 and ninth in the nation in 1986. “But my overall favorite game to cheer for was in 1986 Mississippi State vs. Tennessee in Knoxville. We won. And I will never forget our band playing “Rocky Top Tennessee”—their song, but with a twist since Rocky Felker was our coach!” Bob Sharman of Greenville vividly recalls the skill of the Ole Miss cheerleaders when he was the Director of School Spirit 1979-1980. “My favorite memory of the cheerleaders was the moving pyramid. And the precision with Leigh Hargett which they executed their cheers. They did pyramids that went up three levels,” he remembers. “And they danced on top!” The squad went to the national championships multiple years at that time and placed in the top five each time. To be fair, precision might have proven difficult to earlier squads, considering their uniforms. “Our outfits were horrible!” laughs McMahan. “Our skirts were a total circle with a hole in the middle. They were dark blue corduroy and beneath was red satin lining, and they were two inches above our ankles!” Meanwhile, according to 72 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Janet Flowers, Mississippi State’s cheerleaders were enjoying the freedom of shorter skirts, having given up the long skirts four years earlier. Flowers recalls that her group was “the last to wear long skirts!” McMahan continues, “We wore white button downs under our long sleeve, white sweaters. The whole thing weighed a hundred pounds.” That would make precision difficult. Or even just basic running. “When the players ran on the field before the game, we ran in front of them. I remember a player yelling at me, ‘Pick it up! We’re about to run over you!’” And that’s one overlooked aspect of cheerleading: it can be risky. Bailey agrees. “It was kind of a dangerous thing to be a cheerleader.” He reports that at LSU, the squad was exposed to a real live tiger mascot. They were also exposed to old-fashioned, bad manners at times. Bailey remembers playing Tennessee at Tennessee and losing. “They beat the socks off us.” At that time, their stadium, like LSU’s, had a built-in dormitory. “When we walked out after the game, the students in the dorms yelled out the windows and started throwing cokes and stuff on us.” McMahan remembers dashing into a gas station to change as quickly as possible out of her uniform into the cover of anonymity after the infamous 1960 Arkansas game in Little Rock when Rebel Allen Green kicked a hotly contested, winning field goal in the last seconds of

Body President. They wanted to settle it. We negotiated the game, resulting in fights throughout the stadium. and we got the flag and the dog back.” Sometimes the challenge facing cheerleaders is In addition to some of the more dramatic liabilities, knowing where their job starts and where it ends. When there are the more mundane matters of travel hazards, Ole Miss played a losing game to Vanderbilt while Henry especially back in the day when cheerleaders had to drive Paris was head cheerleader, he recalls getting a bit themselves to games. The road to Gainesville has proven sidetracked by a melee that erupted. His fellow perilous to cheer teams more than once. Janet Flowers cheerleader also became entangled in the imbroglio and recounts, “On the drive, I gave all the cheerleaders toy took a swing, at which point a policeman grabbed them. They were taken before the student body and admonished deputy sheriffs’ badges. And then we got stopped for speeding! The patrolman said, ‘I see you are all deputy by the Dean, “Y’all just cheer!” Football legend Ray sheriffs, so I won’t give you a ticket. But please slow “Buck” Howell would later tease Paris, “I played football down!” for four years at Ole Miss and never got kicked out of a In 1974, the cheerleaders for the Mississippi State game!” Bulldogs were again on the road to Gainesville, this time But, then again, sometimes duty calls to defend the in a Winnebago. However, in Montgomery they had a honor of one’s team, as Nancy Newton of Greenville wreck and two of the cheerleaders sustained minor recalls. Newton cheered for Vanderbilt from 1953-1956, injuries, including Lolo Tubertini Nowell of Greenville, and also earned the title of Miss Vanderbilt during her now Philadelphia, Mississippi. Lolo’s arm was broken and years there. She proudly recalls when her cheerleading she received a cast from the team climbed the knuckles of her right hand Alabama bell tower in up to her arm pit. Not ones 1954 to keep it from to be deterred by accidents ringing Alabama’s victory. or injuries, the cheerleaders Mission accomplished. made it to the game just in Another favorite memory time for kick-off. Though is cheering at the Gator she was not allowed to Bowl when Vandy played cheer that game, Lolo, Auburn. “It was the would cheer the rest of the highlight of my cheering season, arm in cast. career. Coach Guepe and Sometimes though there Vandy scored the win 25were perks to cheerleading. 13 over eighth-ranked Docia England cheered at Auburn!” MSU in 1971-1972 and Yet the calling of a cheerleader might Whitney Dinkins of Glen Allan (MSU, 1996-1997) “I absolutely loved recalls, “We were playing sometimes actually be cheering on the Bulldogs. My favorite memories were beating Alabama an away game at LSU and multi-faceted and even 7-0 at HOME and also cheering on our men’s basketball team in the SEC were allowed to miss two championship at the Pyramid in Memphis!” days of classes. I’m not sure weighty. During Paris’ which was more exciting…visiting the French Quarter tenure, he was called upon to participate in a timely, and Pat O’Brien’s for the first time or cheering at the delicate negotiation. It was 1951 and the Egg Bowl was infamous Death Valley stadium!” one week away. “Ole Miss had a huge flag that covered It is conjectured that cheerleader travel impacted one the whole field, and they stole our flag. Ole Miss stole Ole Miss vs. Georgia game. The year was 1970; it was Bully,” Paris recounts. Most likely, that was the original Archie Manning’s senior year, and he was dating his future Bully, who was purchased in 1947 to serve as the team wife, Olivia. “The Chamber of Commerce put the mascot. (According to family legend, Bully would be cheerleaders on a small plane and Olivia was on our plane. stolen again a few years later by none other than Bill There were so many small planes we couldn’t land,” recalls McRight.) Tension between the schools rose and a Walterine Odom. “We had to circle forever. By the time delegation from Ole Miss was sent to Mississippi State. we got to the stadium, we were losing 14-7. They thought “The President of the Student Body, the Vice President we crashed! But once we made it to the game and ran out and the head cheerleader went to meet with their Student DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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to the sidelines, we ended up winning. We scored twentyfour unanswered points!” According to The New York Times, “The incomparable Archie Manning passed for three touchdowns and scored another today as sixth‐ranked. Mississippi rallied in the final period to beat Georgia 31-21.” Being a cheerleader is a labor of love, although perhaps more so in days gone by. “We had NO budget. They gave us twenty-five dollars for out-of-town games. We even had to make our own pom-poms!” recalls Amy McMahan. “We would go to the Square and buy crepe paper and put slits in it and then tape the ends together. After one game they were gone!” How different things were when almost twenty years later Sharman, as Director of School Spirit, would get bids for pom-poms and flags from around the world so he could order enough to “saturate the student section.” Lolo Nowell recalls ordering sweaters for the Egg Bowl game at Memorial Stadium in Jackson. The sweaters arrived just in time for the game but did not have the “M” and “S” letters attached. Her mother sat in the gazebo of the Governor’s Mansion and sewed the letters on each sweater so they could be worn for the game. As much as things have changed over the years in college cheerleading, there seems to be one consistent element. While there are many favorite memories of specific games and pep rallies, bowl games and parades, the most cherished memories are the relationships fostered by cheering together. Even today, that is one thing that cheerleading has given Warrington. “We are all different and come from different places. But cheering helps me branch out and connect with others.” Paris reflects on his cheering companions from seventy years ago. “We remained friends for years. We had reunions. There were four boys and four girls. Two of us are still living and one I don’t know about.” McRight attended cheerleader reunions for decades, and Flowers recalls, “We were all good friends and had fun together.” Sometimes, those friendships blossomed into extraspecial, long-lasting relationships. Case in point, in 1977, Lolo Tubertini married her cheer partner, Guy Nowell, and today they have two children and six grandchildren. For those who were cheerleaders, it seems many of them never left their poms-poms—if they were lucky enough to have them—and their megaphones too far behind. That inner cheerleader keeps on cheering, even if it is from the stands and not on the sidelines. Walterine Odom is wistful; “To this day I have a hard time sitting in the stands.” DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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A Delta Boyhood Forty years in the making, Bill Lester’s limited edition, hand-printed book, The Goodness, reveals the good that can come from tragedy BY SHERRY LUCAS • PHOTOGRAPHY BY RORY DOYLE

Lester used special handmade papers from Japan and Nepal for the original art images in each copy. The books were hand bound by Norris Bookbinding Co. in Greenwood.

78 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Lester is an artist, author, turkey call maker, former Delta State University art professor, and Executive Director of Dockery Farms Foundation.

ILLIAM “BILL” LESTER opens the slim volume with all the exquisite timing of a slo-mo reveal, a grin of boyish delight dawning on his 74-year-old face. Silver endpapers catch the eye with a saucy wink, much like the silver pony on the cover that gleams in the light. On a cerulean blue page inside, the block-print pony stands proud amid swirls in the paper’s sateen ﬁnish, echoing the smoke rings in the story’s prose. “Isn’t that cool?” Lester asks now and then. It always is. Here at Dockery Farms, where legend has it the Delta blues was born, things can get a little magical. Lester—artist, author, turkey call maker, former Delta State University art professor, and executive director of Dockery Farms Foundation since its start—turns to his earliest books, The

Redd Pony, The King’s Grackle, and The Night Moth from the 1970s, to set the stage for talking about his latest, The Goodness. The Goodness launched at the Mississippi Book Festival in August, and has been decades in the making, simmering on the back burner of his conscience and doled out in drips and drizzles over the decades in-between. Like his three from the 1970s, the limited-edition book holds a by-hand quality from its artwork to its spine. But The Goodness stands apart. The embellished memory of a Delta boyhood spans several days surrounding his father’s suicide in 1958, when Lester was just ten years old.

Lester’s new limited edition offering,The Goodness. One of the signature images is a cardinal which graces the cover of the book.

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Lester with Marc Brinkley and Eddie Gong working together to hand pull the 1,600 silk-screen prints for the four hundred hand-made books.

It’s a story he’d actually started on back in the ‘70s, including cutting the now 45-year-old linoleum block of a flushing cardinal that is its iconic image. “It was just too powerful for me to write at the time,” he says. So, he set it aside. “It’s about a little boy who tries to save his father from going to hell. These are all children’s stories,” he says of his first three. “This is about a little boy, but this is not a children’s story.” For the next forty years, he’d be out turkey hunting or driving across flat landscapes of the Delta, when a sentence or a paragraph would sneak up on him. He’d pause or pull over, grab a piece of scrap paper and jot it down. When he got home, he’d stick it into one of several big manila envelopes he had going for that purpose, and tuck it away in his filing cabinet. “Sometimes, it would be a point at the beginning of the story, sometimes it’d be a paragraph at the end of the 80 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

story, and it would just come to me,” Lester says. “I knew better than to not think about it, because you can’t ever remember it later.” First of February 2021, he decided it was time to write the story. “I took out all those envelopes, and I reread all the notes and I stacked them in order, where they ﬁt, from the beginning to the end. “I’d take the top note, and I’d reread it, and that would point me in the direction I was supposed to go,” he says, working his way through a foot-high stack of the scraps. For the next month, he devoted the 4-to-7 a.m. window usually reserved for turkey call crafting, to writing. Creature characters such as the “night-dancing, truth-telling” rooster Clear Bouillon (a nod to Canterbury Tales’ Chanticleer) and Big Billy Billy Goat—animals imbued with humanlike qualities and magical

purpose—hold kinship with his previous tales. But this one, rooted in a family trauma and his struggle with it, is more tightly bound in remembrance than the stories that came before. In it lie the pranks of a mischievous boy, the bonds of kind hearts, and the goodness that can came from unexpected people and surprising places. “It’s about a little boy in the Delta, and it’s made up from memories and stories that I heard as a child, growing up,” Lester says. “So, I just melted them together to create The Goodness.” In its signature image, a cardinal at the bird feeder flushes away from the window at the glass-rattling sound of a gunshot. “The little boy sees him flush away from the window and he hears the sound, but he just doesn’t comprehend what that sound means,” Lester says. “It’s a pretty interesting story. It’s kind of different, you know. Kind of tough. But that’s how it is.” An excerpt from The

everything hell for strong!’ Lester laughs He wanted to give Hall something Goodness, about the boy’s relationship with outright joy at the telling. more than just a drawing or a painting. with Lad Baby, a workman at the old That’s why he wrote The Redd Pony, the “He’s been dead a long time, but I homeplace in Estill, was published in tale of a pony that ﬂies to Oxford and always want to bring him back to life Delta Magazine’s fall 2021 issue. and shake him and tell him, “Memories are good and ‘Look, I make everything I bad,” Lester says. “And we make hell for strong, but I have always haul up and open up the to make it pretty for nice—it’s good ones all the time, and just part of my being.” enjoy them. The bad That’s evident in his limitedmemories, we almost never do. edition books, with their “But I learned along the hand-printed images and way, that sometimes if you special handmade papers from embellish the bad memories, Japan and Nepal—details that that you can turn them into fortify their rich prose and good memories and you can deeply personal appeal. Linen revisit them, without that book covers, quality papers terrible feeling of it being a bad memory. And so, this is one of Lester kept the notes and memories he jotted down over forty years, and, in his ﬁrst three, the saddle which eventually came together in The Goodness. stitch binding that allows a those things that I just double page showcase for his linoleum embellished.” gets shod with sterling silver shoes. block prints, work a warm, tactile Lester recalls the Oxford blacksmith “You just can’t believe all the things I charm that turns the fanciful tales into learned from him. He used to look at M.R. Hall, with whom he worked for me and tell me, ‘Billy, don’t you make true keepsakes. almost seven years while at Ole Miss, His books were hand bound by and “where I really got my education.” anything pretty for nice … you make DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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The vivd ink of the images, Alizarin Crimson, stands out on handmade turquoise papers.

Norris Bookbinding Co. in Greenwood. “You couldn’t get that kind of look unless you go the handbound route,” he says, with the heavy linen covers and deep imprint of the images. “It adds a little bit of elegance to the book.” “I just wanted the highest quality I could possibly get” for The Goodness, he says, tapping Hederman Brothers for the printing and Norris Bookbinding, again, for the binding. There are four handprinted images per book. The Goodness has a limited-edition printing of four hundred linen-bound books numbered 1-400 ($95 each), and an additional twenty-six that are leather-bound and marked A to Z ($300 apiece). The perfect binding is different than that of his first three, sewn on the outside edge rather than the middle. “That’s something that they just don’t do anymore,” Lester says. Since he didn’t want a crease in his hand-printed artwork and his original block prints wouldn’t otherwise fit, resized images were hand-silkscreened onto the pages. The ink of the imagery, Alizarin Crimson, stands out on handmade turquoise papers, its deep red hue representing the blood that was spilled, 82 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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and also the lifeblood that continued to pulse through loved ones afterward. “I just think the story let me get old enough, so I could tell it without any kind of embarrassment,” Lester says. “If your father shoots himself, for a 10year-old kid that was the end of the world. I long since forgave him.” “Writing the story helped me to understand it better. And I thought it was just something I should do.” Even before the book’s launch and sales, Lester felt like he’d already gotten all the good out of the project, from its writing and from working with Hederman Brothers, Norris Bookbinding, his designer friend Wanda Clark who designed the dust jacket, Bill Ferris who wrote the foreword, and all the unexpected gifts that fold into the eﬀort. “That’s where the good came from. Or the goodness.” “The good comes from the work you do to produce it … and from realizing that you were able to do something that was beyond what you thought you could do.” DM

Coming Spring of 2023 • Celebrity Concerts • Inspiring Theatre • Renowned Lecturers • Classic Films Sign up for our mailing list at northwestms.edu/cpa to be the first to know about season tickets.

Editor’s Note: Bill Lester is a noted artist, avid outdoorsman, and author. He lives at Dockery Farms with his wife Tennie, where he is executive director of the Dockery Farms Foundation. For inquiries, contact Bill by phone 662.719.1048 or email: wclester48@gGmail.com DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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HOME

Making memories at Miller Point

Alias family’s cabin is full of treasures old and new BY SHERRY LUCAS • PHOTOGRAPHY BY ABE DRAPER

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The kitchen's massive granite-topped island anchors the great room which includes the living and dining areas, and the wet bar, for an open and casual space enjoyed by all. Teak butcher block countertops also suit the space.

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Interior designer Barbara Michael and Margaret Anne worked together to come up with their own custom stain for the big room’s pine walls, lending warmth to the area which is flooded with natural light.

illiam and Margaret Anne Alias’s cabin at Miller Point Rod and Gun Club, behind the levee near Clarksdale, holds tight to childhood memories of the Delta outdoors and ensures that passion will carry on to the next generation.

Its construction dates to the couple’s 2003 engagement, but the idea of it reaches even further back, rooted in William’s visits to his grandparents in Clarksdale and holidays, weekends, and summer days immersed in outdoor fun. It’s a rite that started as early as age three on hunting trips with his dad in the Delta. “Truthfully, I just fell in love with being on the other side of the levee and the Mississippi River bottoms,” William says. “To me, it 86 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

was a little boy’s paradise,” from the starry night skies to the freedom-filled days. The dads at Ward Lake Hunting Club would sit their boys down yearly with a single rule. “We could do basically anything we wanted to do, as long we stayed on the inside of the levee,” he says, fondly recalling the dirt roads where he learned to drive at age ten and the little Jeep he and his friends shared. “You can hunt all over the country, and there are some amazing places everywhere. But there’s nothing like being in the Mississippi River bottoms…. All the hardwood trees and the little sloughs, there’s just a feeling of, you’re Huckleberry Finn.” He loved the hunting clubs behind the levee. “They all have a great history to them…. They’re all special places,” William says, and it became his dream in life to join one. Once he started working

Margaret Anne and William Alias, with daughters Mary Beech, ten, and Kate Carson, six, and the family’s black Lab, Carly Copley.

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One of Duckworth’s arrangements perks up the wet bar, with locally grown figs and dahlias in the mix. The portrait of Margaret Anne’s Tennessee Walking Horse, My Jackie O, has a special place along with a set of engraved silver shot glasses, passed down from William’s grandfather.

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at age twenty-two, he felt driven to achieve it. Now, at their Miller Point cabin, he passes that Delta love along to their two daughters—Mary Beech, ten, and Kate Carson, six. “I love taking them out there.” Decorated for fall entertaining, the Aliases’ two-story cypress cabin comes alive with autumn’s earthy hues and an abundance of fresh flowers that go beyond the usual sunflower standbys. Oxford interior designer Allyson Duckworth, owner of Pearly Peacock Design, fashioned tablescapes and arrangements for the dining room and kitchen island and wreaths for the front doors to bring in the crisp colors of fall. Pumpkins and pheasant feathers factor in too, pulling in harvest and hunting notes. “To me, nothing’s better than fresh flowers at a dinner party,” Duckworth says. “We tried to make it very fall and warm and inviting.” The contrast with meaningful heirlooms on the table— William’s grandmother’s Francis I sterling, Margaret Anne’s grandmother’s silver goblets and mix of Bernardaud, Deshoulieres, and Grainger Worcester china—forms a festive setting that invites lively stories and loving memories. “The whole point of having dinner around a table is to have communion,” Duckworth says, and with legacy pieces, even the spirits of departed loved ones can pull up a chair. Flowers also perk up the wet bar, where locally grown figs and

The well appointed wet bar, flanked by four swivel chairs with a game table at the center is an oft-used and favorite space of the Aliases.

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The large painting of ducks in flight by Oxford artist and Clarksdale native Bradley Gordon is the focal point of the dining area.

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The stunning tablescape and arrangements in and around the kitchen were created by Oxford interior designer Allyson Duckworth, owner of Pearly Peacock Design.

The unique wood-beaded chandelier is among the few things salvaged after the flood.

dahlias call attention to the portrait of Margaret Anne’s Tennessee Walking Horse, My Jackie O, and a set of silver shot glasses, passed down from William’s grandfather. “Big Shot,” “Just a Shot,” and “Little Shot,” say their engravings—a cute nod to both hunting and entertaining. William’s cabin dream and the family’s cabin enjoyment have been steadfast—its walls, a little less so. But the 2011 flood that ruined a lot of the furnishings also left opportunity in its wake. Their redo, plus later adjustments in 2015, added more than a literal lift. The master bedroom’s screened-in porch was converted to an

The lively and modern tablescape mixes beautifully with the place settings of family heirlooms, including William’s grandmother’s Francis I sterling, Margaret Anne’s grandmother’s silver goblets, and a mix of china patterns. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Comfortable furniture, cool vintage chairs made from Jack Daniels barrels, and a ping-pong table make the girls playroom a perfect hangout. The overstuffed mama black bear and cub at the game table think so too!

office, replacing screens with windows that held on to its Old River overlook but expanded the room’s potential use. William could now be there and work, cutting back on the need for back-and-forth trips home to Oxford. Reconstruction and renovation also included conversion of former loft spaces into actual bedrooms for their two daughters and a playroom addition for more casual hangout space. The cabin was raised from ten to fifteen feet after the flood. A front porch with rocking chairs spans the length of the huge great room inside. Both issue a warm welcome to family and friends. “My dear friend, interior designer Barbara Michael in Oxford, started helping us with the cabin back in 2011, when we had to completely gut it after the river flooded,” Margaret Anne says. The great room combines living, dining, kitchen, and wet bar for a breezy conviviality that can accommodate all comfortably and well. The vaulted ceiling keeps the atmosphere airy. In the kitchen, 92 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Kate Carson’s room pops with coral accent lamps and pillows. The wall decor includes a Nicole Lamar heart and a portrait of Champ, William’s first duck dog.

Antique clawfoot tubs in each girls bathrooms are painted in happy colors to match their bedrooms—purple for Mary Beech’s room and coral for Kate Carson’s.

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Over Mary Beech’s bed hangs her dad’s first buck. Designer Barbara Michael helped reframe (and feminize) the mount to blend with the decor.

Crisp white bedding is set off by a fun purple paisley fabric and navy velvet pillows. 94 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

The gilt sunflower mirror above the bed is an appropriate nod to the Mississippi Delta this time of year.

The master bedroom’s original screened-in porch was converted to an office, replacing the screens with windows, providing William a place to work when needed—with a stunning view. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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The two downstairs guest rooms are accented with salvaged barn wood. Above, Margaret Anne’s champion ribbons, won on My Jackie O, decorate the wall.

spindles and molding add decorative touches, and authentic antler drawer pulls, made in Hawaii, fit right in. Teak butcher block countertops and a granite-topped island also suit the space. Barbara and Margaret Anne came up with their own custom stain for big room’s pine walls—a light, natural hue with notes of gray and brown. “We kept trying different things,” Margaret Anne says, mixing them for a just-right result. The decor is a refined nod to the outdoors, with intriguing personal touches that warm the space. A bench just inside the front doors was hand-crafted by Margaret Anne’s uncle from Byram, fashioned from a tree on his family farm. Area rugs divvy up the space into different gathering spots, for dining, for lounging, and for socializing. Grays and creams mark the dining room, and studded linen upholstered chairs bring in a subtle masculine touch. The chandelier is among the few things salvaged after the flood. With wood bead strands and wood prisms, it’s a cool focal point that also evokes the outdoors. Other flood survivors include the salvaged pine hutch that now displays china gifted by William’s uncle and granite from the original kitchen that was repurposed in two of the bathrooms. A large painting of ducks in flight by artist Bradley Gordon, a Clarksdale native, enjoys the dining room’s spotlight display and provides an artistic ally to the trophy mounts around the rest of the room and throughout the cabin. Most of the deer and all the ducks, bass, and turkey were locally harvested, but the collection also includes representatives—elk, black bear, and pheasant—from Texas, Montana, South Dakota, and Canada.

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A grid of framed prints from vintage Field & Stream magazines continues the hunting theme.

In the living area, couches and a pair of caramel leather recliners convey easy comfort, laidback charm, and textural interest. While they were sad to lose their pool table in that flood more than a decade ago, “It turned out to be for the best,” Margaret Anne says. The pool table was rarely used, and its loss made room for a move of the wet bar and the addition of four swivel chairs and a game table at its center. Now, “We use that space all the time,” she says. “That is a favorite for both of us.” Margaret Anne bought the antique game table from Ole Miss’s Kappa Delta house when her sorority redecorated a few years ago. Above the bar, one of William’s head mount trophies is joined by a suite of trophy cups—gift replicas of a friend’s coon hunting wins from a competition there at Miller Point. Salvaged wood from a source in Guntown lends rustic charm to the walls in the master bedroom and the master bath, where a corner tub makes an enticing bid for a nice, long soak. In the bedroom, the drapes’ rich red and gold design add a lively dash of color, and the sunflower mirror above the bed is a nod to the Mississippi Delta. “You see so many sunflower fields for dove hunting,” Margaret Anne says. Salvaged barn wood accent walls carry that rustic charm into two downstairs guest rooms as well. In one, framed groupings of prints from old Field & Stream magazines celebrate the hunting life. In another, Margaret Anne’s champion ribbons, won on My Jackie O, decorate the wall. The small half bathroom downstairs holds a note of history—a framed handwritten letter from an ancestor of William’s, who was

The vanity in the small half bathroom downstairs was made from an antique dresser that belonged to Margaret Anne’s grandmother. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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The cabin’s front doors offer a warm welcome with a pair of gorgeous fall wreaths. Duckworth embellished the preserved wreaths with local green figs, eucalyptus, cattails, and swags of grasses.

The salvaged pine hutch (background) survived the flood, and now displays china gifted by William’s uncle. Late hydrangeas, eucalyptus, cattails and other seasonal blooms fill a large copper container far the island’s focal point.

at the U.S. Naval Academy when the Civil War broke out. He wrote home to ask his father’s permission to resign because his sympathies were with the Confederacy. His photo hangs beside the vanity, which has its own history as an antique dresser that belonged to Margaret Anne’s grandmother. A chevron runner pads the trip upstairs, where the girls’ bedrooms and the upstairs game room are the perfect retreats for rest and play. “They needed their own space,” says Margaret Anne. The ping-pong table attests to her husband’s love of the game, and comfortable furniture includes a cushy sofa and fun barrel chairs, made from Jack Daniels barrels, that her dad bought off a truck back in the 1970s.

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She replaced their red vinyl seats with black velvet. Their girls’ stuffed animal obsession spills over to the cabin, where their collection works into the decor, including a mama black bear and cub clustered around William’s grandmother’s game table, working on a jigsaw puzzle. The girls’ bedrooms are among their mom’s favorite touches. They’re not “cabiny,” but they are charming, with fun accent colors to match their personalities. Antique clawfoot tubs in their bathrooms are painted in snazzy colors to match—purple for Mary Beech’s room and coral for Kate Carson’s. Above Mary Beech’s bed hangs her dad’s first buck. William’s dad, who had the mount for

A beautiful aerial shot of the Alias’s cabin on the banks of Old River oxbow lake.

A bench just inside the front doors was hand-crafted by Margaret Anne’s uncle from a tree on his family farm in Byram.

Scores of mounts of all kinds are hung through the cabin, with deer and elk mounts blanketing the vaulted walls above the living area.

years, wanted to pass it on, and designer Barbara Michael worked with him on reframing it to fold into the decor. In Kate Carson’s room, wall decor includes a Nicole Lamar heart and a portrait of Champ, William’s first duck dog. The patio’s circle of Adirondack chairs, with a fire pit in the center, is a favored spot in the evenings. “We all love to sit out there, and the girls love to roast hot dogs and marshmallows,” Margaret Anne says. They’re taking to the outdoor life. Mary Beech has started duck hunting with her dad and harvested her first buck this past winter. Kate Carson has gone deer hunting too, and the family’s black Lab,

Carly Copley, is, of course, all in. And while hunting isn’t Margaret Anne’s passion, she relishes the quiet time to herself when the rest of the family takes to the woods. For William, it’s current fun that taps into those treasured childhood memories. “To this day, when we drive up on the levee, my blood pressure goes down,” he says. “I truly love it just as much today as I did when I was ten. “There was nothing to me that was more peaceful—and to this day it’s the same way—than getting up early in the morning and going out in the woods and climbing up in a stand and the sun’s rising and the snow geese start flying over. To me, it’s just magical.” DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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FALL FORAGE with Erica Eason Hall The ingredients in this arrangement were all intentionally foraged from my own backyard. And I added the additional restriction of not using typical early fall gotos—Limelight hydrangeas or Magnolias. I let branches, foliage, and wild fruits do all the talking in these fall compositions. I hope you will be inspired to do the same! Bring the outside in, and enjoy what you have.

FORAGED INGREDIENTS Crepe Myrtle Branches • Oak Leaves and Branches • Dried Pecan Branches • Persimmons • Elderberry

e are a blessed bunch of folks living in the Mississippi Delta with

horticulture and native plant life as proliﬁc as the writers and musicians who hail from this place. Long hot summers create a perfect environment for many of our favorite wild things to grow. I was amazed at what I could ﬁnd when I challenged myself to hunt only in the great outdoors for the elements of a foraged fall arrangement.

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Oak Leaves

Persimmon

Elderberry

Pecan Branches

I started with a simple matte concrete container adding chicken wire inside to create a natural frog to hold the branches in place. Once the inner workings were in place, I added fresh oak branches ﬁrst to create a starting form.

Next, dried pecan branches were added for depth—their rusty brown color contrasts nicely against the fresh oak leaves. (You could reverse this design and use dried oak leaves as the base, and fresh green pecan branches.) Then I added elderberry, for a dark central punch of color, and green persimmon fruit for more color and texture. Finally, Crepe Myrtle branches, both leaved and bare, were added to help elongate and add height to the arrangement, keeping it from being too compact. (at left) DM For more tips on foraging and perennial gardening, follow Erica on Instagram @ericaeasonhall or visit ericaeasonhall.com DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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THE 2022

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Southern Outdoors Unlimited’s

SUPER HUNT

Making the impossible possible by introducing youth with disabilities to the great outdoors

BY SHERRY LUCAS • PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOUTHERN OUTDOORS UNLIMITED

No deer were going to make an appearance that day, Alan Mumbower just knew it. Not with the amount of noise emanating from their deer blind. The wildlife biologist had recently started as a volunteer guide on the Super Hunt, an annual event that introduces youth with disabilities to the great outdoors.

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Mumbower is now board president of Southern Outdoors Unlimited, the nonprofit that coordinates Super Hunt activities. But, this years-ago moment is one that sticks with him. That day, their young hunter, who is on the autism spectrum with learning disabilities and other challenges, was getting his first taste of hunting (and an earful from family members along for the outing). “There were six or seven of us in the

deer blind,” Mumbower recalls with a chuckle. “The grandfather was yelling because he was hard of hearing, and the kid could barely hear because of a disability he had, and the mom was yelling at the grandfather to be quiet.” Mumbower and a fellow guide in the blind could only shrug and reckon it’d be a good activity anyway—they’d all have fun, hanging out together in nature. “We say it every year, that this is just a

God-breathed event,” Mumbower says. “God has a funny sense of humor—He takes the impossible and makes it possible.” Sure enough, despite all that ruckus, out walked a deer into full view. The grandpa was still yelling, the boy was trying to shush him, and the guides were repositioning their young hunter to take full advantage of this miraculous stroke of luck. “By the end of it, the kid had shot and harvested a decent 12-point

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buck. It would never happen on a regular day when somebody out there is just hunting by themselves. But it’s one of those things that’ll stick with you forever.” “That’s why we do this,” Mumbower says. “We’re not doing this for the fame or fortune, or anything else. We’re doing this for the kids and families that may never get this experience again, so they can get a sense of why we love the outdoors, and we love being a part of God’s creation.” The Super Hunt, aimed at anyone ages 6 to 17 with a disability, usually falls on or near Halloween weekend—the weekend preceding Youth Gun Season, as 108 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

granted by the Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks to Southern Outdoors Unlimited for that purpose, Mumbower says. That allows youth with disabilities to be the first people in the woods with guns each deer season. About forty to fifty private landowners and eighty to over one hundred kids with disabilities take part in the Super Hunt each fall. The event is completely volunteer-based through Southern Outdoors Unlimited, with all sponsor and donor dollars supporting the children’s outdoor fun and hunting pursuits. In

addition to willing landowners, they need volunteers, guides, and financial partners every year to help make it a successful event. The event’s origin traces back to the National Wild Turkey Federation Wheelin’ Sportsmen program. Mississippi’s Wheelin’ Sportsmen event started small in 2006, coordinated by a group from NWTF and Bass Pro Shops as a way to get youth with disabilities into the outdoors and deer hunting. The Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Foundation took over the event in 2012, renaming it the Super Hunt, and in

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2018, the nonprofit Southern Outdoors Unlimited formed as a way to continue the Super Hunt. Since 2018, more events have joined the calendar, including fall turkey hunting for youths with disabilities and the lowkey, introductory Outdoor Adventure Day that includes fishing, games, and outdoor activities. While the Super Hunt focuses on the 6-to-17 age range, events such as a late-summer gator hunt aim to keep those who’ve aged out, involved in the community they’ve built. The Super Hunt has changed and adapted over the years, but the initial concept—private landowners hosting children with disabilities and their families for a weekend each fall—remains the foundation. “It’s been successful. Over 85 percent of the state of Mississippi is privately owned, as far as hunting and outdoor access,” Mumbower says, and engaging private landowners introduces the children and their families to communities deeply steeped in the rewards of outdoor life and pursuits. “They’re already passionate about it, they’re already conservationists, they’re already giving back in a lot of different arenas, but now it allows them to show and teach some of these kids and their families, who may or may not have other opportunities to get in the outdoors.” It’s a chance, too, for families to catch a break from normal routines and hit the refresh button. Landowners Missy and Jay Shackelford, of Benton, move to their deer camp, River Bend Lodge in Pickens every year when September rolls around. They are now approaching their fourth year as Super Hunt participants, and do it for one simple reason: “The children,” says Jay. “It will bring you down to earth.” “It humbles everybody,” says Missy, “to remain grateful and thankful.” Their five children—four sons plus daughters-in-law and their daughter and her fiancé—get involved, too, as guides, helping with meals, filming, and photographing the fun as they host three to four children each fall. “Every deer, no matter how small it is, is a trophy and we treat it that way,” Jay says. They stay in contact with the kids, too. “They become part of your life.” Last year’s Super Hunt was an eyeopener for Belzoni landowner and first-time participant Jessica Sandifer, who 110 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

runs Easymoney Hunt Club and related businesses with her husband, Jimmy. Their four daughters also enjoy the sport. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Sandifer says, with rewards as meaningful on the landowners’ sides as they are for the children. “Tears welled up in my eyes at just the sight of how excited these kids are.” “Honestly, I think I gained so much— just to be super thankful for what we take for granted every day,” Sandifer says. Seeing the passion for the outdoors in these children’s faces, “It touched my girls’ lives as well.” “The whole goal of our organization is to get children with disabilities in the outdoors and just allow them to be kids, allow them to have fun,” whether they want to harvest an animal, experience deer camp camaraderie, or just play outdoors, Mumbower says. “We don’t limit kids, based on disability. As long as they have medical forms and the proper documentation from the doctors, we allow them to participate.” Now in its sixteenth year, “I would say we’ve seen just about every type of disability that you can think of,” DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Mumbower says, including kids who use wheelchairs, those with cerebral palsy or spina bifida, children with hearing or vision limitations, kids with autism or ADHD, and those battling heart disease or cancer. Each Super Hunt starts at MDWFP’s Turcotte facility, where the youth shoot on a shooting range with an MDWFP officer, ensuring gun safety and ability. Adaptive pieces—eye scopes, holding mechanisms, and other equipment—acquired over the years help overcome challenges, for youth to be more successful in their hunts. The Mississippi Delta is a key player in the Super Hunt. “One thing that’s been neat is that we’ve got clubs that even seasoned hunters have never laid foot on, because they’re privately owned in the Delta and all over the place,” Mumbower says. “Some of them, especially the more renowned ones, are in the Delta. Because the landowners are so generous and so willing, they have donated their property to host kids for the weekend.” Some landowners build relationships with their young guests that extend beyond the Super Hunt. Some become event sponsors. 112 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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“Over the years, we’ve had clubs on the Mississippi River, in the Delta as far over as Vicksburg and Yazoo City, all the way up to Greenwood, Greenville, Belzoni, and Bolivar County,” Mumbower says. “We have landowners all over the Delta that have donated their time, their energy, their effort to be a part of our events and our organization. That’s not just for the Super Hunt, where the deer hunting is good. That’s for our alligator hunts, where they have access to water.” Southern Outdoors Unlimited’s ability to give children with disabilities and their families such a full and rich experience is a key point of pride. That extends from the first get-together, through a weekend of hunting or fishing fun, and to the Sunday morning worship service and share time. As many as 350 to 400 people come to that final gathering each year, to hear the kids talk about their experiences. “It shows you how much we can brighten their year,” Mumbower says. “If we can just alleviate a little bit of the normal wear and tear and the normal stress and strain of their daily lives, with one event or with a weekend—that, to me, is what makes the difference.” For more information on the Super Hunt, visit southernoutdoorsunlimited.org. DM

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Ramsey Russell

GET DUCKS Greenville native’s journey from a boyhood love of hunting and fishing to his travel agency specializing in highquality wing shooting world-wide BY HANK BURDINE PHOTOS FROM RAMSEY RUSSELL COLLECTION

World traveler and renowned waterfowl sportsman emeritus, Ramsey Russell, duck hunting with Char Dawg. Here in this marsh in Argentina is Ramsey’s most special place in the world and where he wants his ashes spread when his duck hunting days are over, a long, long time from now. 118 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

The poled boat or skiff is a well-known mode of travel in the marshes of Azerbaijan. Once a trip is booked through GetDucks.com, all your travel and sporting needs are taken care of. Quality hunts are booked and enjoyed in some of the most remote and prolific waterfowl habitat areas on earth.

amsey Russell was raised in Greenville, Mississippi. His grandaddy lived through and was an integral part of the relief effort in Greenville during the great 1927 flood, and he loved to hunt and fish. Ramsey grew up under his grandaddy’s wings fishing on Lake Ferguson and hunting. His favorite sport while young was dove hunting around Inverness. He also deer hunted and duck hunted. He was reared under the tutelage of some of the greatest masters of the hunt to ever come out of the Mississippi Delta. Soybean, grass, and sunflower fields were covered with doves in the early fall. Whitetail deer were abundant on the many islands along the Mississippi River. And greatest of all, later on to Ramsey, was the myriads of waterfowl that came down and settled into the sloughs, lakes, cypress brakes, and flooded timber, bean, and rice fields. The 1960s and 1970s were a young sportsman’s utopia. And it was the local gurus of those hunting sports in the Delta who were his mentors. As a young teenager, Ramsey Russell learned well.

Ramsey’s family moved to the Jackson area, and one day just prior to his sixteenth birthday, Ramsey was cleaning paint brushes in his family garage when a gas hot water heater pilot exploded the gas fumes and left him with an 8 percent chance to live and second and third degree burns over 75 percent of his body. He almost lost three of his four limbs. After two weeks in intensive care, Ramsey was moved to the burn center in Galveston, Texas. For four months he lived through living hell. “Spiritually and emotionally, I crawled deep

into a rabbit hole. I somehow was able to put myself into a selfinduced coma. It’s a dark place; it was my human way of coping.” After a life-changing and mind-altering dream one night, Ramsey jumped out of that rabbit hole with a zest and willingness to live that was overwhelming. Following two more months in the burn center and after more than seventy surgeries, with both arms and legs still attached, Ramsey rebounded with an appetite for life and a willingness to overcome the scars and happenstances that almost took his life. Throughout the months and years of the healing process, he realized, “my perspective on life changed. Life is full of uncertain, critical moments, and I realized that it’s all about your attitude and how you react to those moments.” Ramsey Russell has not slowed down since. The horrors of the scars, bandages, pains, and continuing treatments and surgeries were overcome with a readiness and a zeal to excel in what he knew and loved the most—the great out-ofdoors. He had grown up in the woods and waters of the Delta and wanted to make that a major part of his life. Ramsey’s grandfather, a lawyer, told him there were only three degrees he should consider, “law, medicine, or business.” Having lived through the Great Depression, his erstwhile counselor may not have thought much of Ramsey’s decision to get a degree from Mississippi State in forestry and wildlife. Yet it was he himself who had instilled wholeheartedly that love in his grandson! And that appetite for the outdoors and wildlife was about to explode in the burned and battle-scarred young man like a covey of wild quail! DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Ramsey and his beloved “Coop, the Chicken Dog” on a self-styled, do-it-yourself sea duck hunt on the coast of Alaska.

Stunning Tundra Swans above the Artic Circle.

Motorcycle turned swamp buggy in the marshes of Azerbaijan.

Beautiful rosybills harvested in Argentina. 120 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

While in college, Ramsey worked on a big ranch along the Mexican border and began exploring hunting venues across America and Canada. He became focused on a path in life that involved the areas where his heart lay, wildlife, the great out-of-doors, and conservation. After graduate school, the love bug bit, and he married and started raising a family. While working in forestry positions in the private and federal sector, Ramsey compiled quite an impressive resume. He served as forester for USFWS North Mississippi Refuges covering Dahomey, Tallahatchie, and Coldwater NWRs and then as USDA NRCS forester covering twenty-four central Mississippi counties and on the side as a certified wildlife biologist performing baseline documentation reports for conservation easements statewide. And he hunted—across America and Canada. During a return trip to Alberta, Canada, to hunt Canada Typical, and quite stylish geese, the outfitter became quite while warm, duck hunting impressed with the increasing attire in Mongolia. number of friends and guests he brought along and suggested that Ramsey become his booking agent. Back home, a simple webpage was put together booking hunting trips and a whole new field opened up. He strongly believes that “God guides you on this path of life. There are things like my upbringing in the Delta, my close call with death, and the people I’ve met since that have led and brought me to where I am now.” GETDUCKS.COM Realizing that there is a duck season open in some part of the world every day of the year, Ramsey began exploring different locations far and near that could be accessed and hunted. His online booking business, GetDucks.com, begun in 2003, gained momentum as he traveled to Argentina and Canada setting up hunts. Soon he and his wife realized that between his federal

All needs are taken care of on the many different international hunts put together by Ramsey Russell and crew. Here, favorite guides prepare and serve local fare during a successful hunt in the Indus Valley of Pakistan.

government job, his consulting business, and coordinating hunting trips, there were not enough hours in the day, a decision and a path forward had to be made. It wasn’t easy to leave a government job with all the benefits and security, but Ramsey felt a calling, felt it was fate that he may have this opportunity, and in 2010 he turned in his resignation papers and jumped full time into exploring and setting up waterfowl hunting adventure trips all over the world. He has been able to set up trips to places heretofore unknown to the hunting and sporting community. Places like Azerbaijan, Peru, South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Argentina, among others, are exotic and lucrative locations where Ramsey pre-hunts, sets up, and then sometimes hosts hunts. He has hunted on six continents and spends almost 225 days a year pursuing his passion. Ramsey’s business, GetDucks.com, is a full-service travel agency specializing in high-quality wing shooting and excellent waterfowl hunting adventures worldwide. Traveling to far away and off-thebeaten-path locations around the globe to hunt wild game in some of the most legendary wetlands in the world can come with intricate and tricky strings attached. Ramsey’s fine and well-tuned operation takes care of all those problems by coordinating the proper wing shooting location at the right time of year, customized itineraries, airline schedules, customs assistance, hunting licenses and permits, hotels, dining, car rental, travel insurance, bird importation, and, if wanted, bird taxidermy delivered directly to your home. Ramsey Russell is living the life of his dreams. He travels the world immersing himself in different and varied cultures meeting people of all walks of life, centered around a common love of wildfowling. He attributes his chance to be a part of bringing a shared sporting opportunity to thousands of people to fate and responding to what God has laid before him. In an article by Brian Broom in USA Today, Ramsey states, “I almost died. You can’t take life for granted. You’re one breath away from not having it. I learned that at too young of an age. Life is about living, not just doing. It made me very, very thirsty to live life to its fullest. It’s a mighty big world, but I’m going to see it.” DM

Ramsey and his world-famous Char Dawg enjoy the bounty of an Argentine marsh.

Setting out blocks and preparing for a hunt from a sink box in a bay off the coast of Nova Scotia.

In America, teal season kicks off our waterfowl season. Here is a beautiful specimen of a blue winged teal. DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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SHOPPING

UPDATE YOUR CABIN with these unique accessories Birds of a Feather Bring a touch of nature indoors—and let it protect your coffee table! These useful turkey feather coasters are sure to add a chic touch to your cabin decor. The Olive Tree, Starkville Instagram: @theolivetreestarkville 662.722.3019

Artfully Lit Artist Kelly Lindsey creates a beautiful and custom take on the rustic driftwood lamp by creating lighting with hand-painted shades. It’s the perfect way to incorporate the arts into your cabin decor. Switch901, Memphis Instagram: @switch901 901.485.7190

Fancy Footrest Take your decor up a notch or two with this exotic Ngala Springbok Cube ottoman from Pearly Peacock Design. Pearly Peacock Design, Oxford Instagram: @pearlypeacockdesign.com 662.832.0748

On the Hunt

Good Gourd The Harvest Pumpkin Fall Festival Candle not only smells fantastic, but the pottery can be used after! Retro Rooster, Holly Springs Instagram: @theretrorooster 662.274.3116

This opulent photo book by Oliver Dorn illustrates the excitement of the hunt in many forms. Featuring hunts from around the world, custom weapons and clothing and even wild game recipes. Rosson Co., Cleveland Instagram: @Rossoncompany 662.843.3986

Outdoor Inspired Designs from a Delta Native Belzoni-native and former House Beautiful style editor Newell Turner has now parlayed his years of experience in the design world to a new indoor rug capsule collection. His newly created collection incorporates many elements that are inspired by the Mississippi Delta. “The collection includes motifs that I think might be interesting for the Delta. There’s a small group based on vintage coverlet designs. There’s a ‘new’ animal print based on barred turkey feathers,” said Turner. “And a particular favorite of mine based on the webbing of aluminum camp chairs, plus other motifs of moss, wild ﬂowers, barn boards, hay ﬁelds, and clouds.” The collection which launched during the pandemic has two themes, “The New American Homestead” and “Field and Forest,” with several design options in each category. The rugs are all hand-made, and are available direct to the consumer, making it an easy way to incorporate the aesthetics of the outdoors in to a well-curated designer space. For more information including pricing and ordering, visit www.nustory.com 124 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Forged Functional Art The unique creations of blacksmith Richard Zago of College Grove, Tennessee are functional as well as beautiful. From ﬁreplace tools to grilling utensils (above) to hand-forged hammers and axes, each creation is forged from raw materials such as iron, steel, and copper. Self-taught, the former school superintendent now operates Ol’ School Forge full-time, but also teaches the craft to local students. Much of the material Zago uses to create what he calls “functional art” is salvaged from old buildings and other structures. He works on a commission basis only, working closely with each client, using their drawings and ideas for inspiration. Zago has made many larger pieces as well such as iron gates and even stair railings. He brings a unique ﬂair to each piece, twisting and turning the metal often shaping it into tree limbs, vines, and other natural elements. For inquiries about commissions Email: olcrow1964@gmail.com or follow @olschoolforge on Instagram

Match Point No need to keep those matches for your fireplace or fire pit hidden away in a drawer when you can display them in a way that fits your aesthetic! Magnolia House Lifestyle Store, Southaven Instagram: @magnoliahousestore 662.469.9825

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Dalin Kennels Breeders of Field and Show Champion German Shorthair Pointers

Breeding and training pointing dogs Long or short-term boarding

Dale or Linda Garner 134 Drive 32 Shannon, MS 38868 (662) 767-8851 brddgs@gmail.com

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COON Hunting in the Delta When the tailgates drop…the lies are gonna stop!

American Billionaire, aka “Bill” is a pure-bred, blanket back Treeing Walker Coonhound once owned by Michael and Kristy Schuerer of Hollyknowe, Mississippi and trained by Mike Ward of Alabama. Bill has won a pickup truck in a sanctioned hunt and a lot of money, probably more than any other coon dog, in private hunts as a champion coonhound.

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MICHAEL SCHUERER

BY HANK BURDINE

HE WILY RACCOON, PROCYON LOTOR, IS A VERY WELL-KNOWN CRITTER TO ALL DELTANS AND MOST SOUTHERNERS. With his

black mask, very curious and crafty ways, nimble ﬁngers, and ravenous appetite, the coon can be a menace to folks and their environs. He can be quite the nuisance, whether eating anything and everything he ﬁnds in your garden or bird feeders, denning up in your attic or garage, getting into dog, cat, and pet food, or outside rummaging around and through your garbage can. With their amazing curiosity and intelligence, the inquiring raccoon possesses an amazing dexterity that allows him to open doors, bottles, jars, and even latches.

Lauren Elizabeth with her faithful Bluetick hound, “Faith” treeing a coon with a young Treeing Walker puppy in her backpack. Lauren takes along a young pup to introduce the hound to the sounds and smells and excitement of a real coon hunt deep in the woods. “I got Faith in a pretty interesting part of my life and to say she has brought out the best in me is an understatement.” Coon dogs and their partners are inseparable and share a very unique bond.

Arkansas coon hunter Clay Newcomb on his prize mule Lizzie, hunting behind Plott Hounds Fern and Scooter. Mules are often used while coon hunting for their sure footedness and their ability to jump flat footed over a 4’ tall barbed wire fence with only a short start.

CLAY NEWCOMB

A raccoon can climb anything allowing them access to food and shelter. Worrisome and unwanted in many urban and suburban areas, the raccoon, however, holds a badge of honor and respect and is highly regarded in the hearts and minds of a somewhat elite yet very diverse genre of Southern sportsmen, the coon hunter. Long regarded for his succulent table worthiness and his sought after and pricey hide that was used in hats, caps, and coats, the raccoon has been a staple of the Eastern and Southern outdoors since the pilgrims ﬁrst came over from Europe. Yes, he would destroy a country garden, but if you could capture or kill him, and if there were any sweet potatoes and greens left in your garden, well, your family and friends were in for a culinary delight. It has been written that William Faulkner’s favorite meal in the

LAUREN ELIZABETH

HANK BURDINE

Master of the Hunt,Todd Davis, and author Hank Burdine with a reward from a coon hunt on the banks of the Mississippi River at Leota Landing. This fine coon met his match the next night in a big cast iron kettle covered with brown gravy and surrounded by sweet potatoes.

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LAUREN ELIZABETH MARY ELIZABETH SIGMON

Faith on the way to a hunt. The anticipation, zeal, passion and anxiety of being turned loose to search for coon scent and then follow that trail until the coon trees is what these dogs live for.

Mary Elizabeth Sigmon with Longshot Bigfoot, a Black and Tan UKC Grand Night Champion and PKC Platinum Champion, having won over $25,000 to qualify. “Bigfoot is the love of my life!”

JANE RULE BURDINE

hunting camps of the Delta, down in what he referred to as the ‘big woods,’ was collards and coon. Raccoons are omnivores, eating invertebrates and sweet foods in the

Store front in Hollandale, Mississippi in 1985. Coon skins have been quite sought after in years past and often brought pricey sums. Here, skins were brought in to sell and then remarketed to buyers from tanneries. You pick and choose. 130 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

wild such as fish and shellfish, eggs, pecans, acorns, nuts and seeds, insects, small snakes, frogs, and fruits. A raccoon will wash and rinse his paws and food with water prior to eating it and if no water is available will still rub off any debris. When cooked properly, a raccoon is tender and delicious and much like roast beef. And a sweet and barbequed coon cooked low and slow… Oh Baby!!! “Well, Rattler was an ole coon dog, blind as he could be, and every night ‘bout supper time I swear that dog could see… HERE, Rattler here, BOY! Here Rattler, HERE! I called Ole Rattler from the barn… Here Rattler, HERE!” Raccoons are nocturnal and do their foraging and moving about during the darkest parts of the night. They are most active in the spring, summer and fall, fattening up for the winter when they spend most of their time deep down in a warm hollowed out den of a tall oak, pecan, or other tree in heavily wooded areas close to water and abundant vegetation. To some, the cool, wet fall time of year is best for coon hunting. A coon dog can smell scent better in those times, and the darker the night, the better the hunting. There are several breeds

of dogs, coon hounds, that are most used for coon hunting. Bluetick, Black and Tan, Treeing Walker, Redbone, and Plott Hounds are most common and closely associated with the sport. Each hunter has his own preference, and the stories are endless and boundless as to whose hound is better and for what purpose his dog excels over any other. “Why ole Bear is so smart he can tell you how many coons up in that tree by the way he barks when you get there!” “Hell, I got a hunnert’ dollars say he can’t!” “Well, get yo’ hunnert’ ready; Bear’s opening up now. Let’s go!!” Countless hours are spent chasing coons in the deep darkness of Delta woods. To some avid sportsmen and women, there is no better sound shy of the Celestial Choir of the Heavenly Host than a good coon dog in full cry deep in a dark bottom on a cool November night. When the trailing cry leads into a treeing howl, you sometimes have to put your heart in your back pocket because you know it’s leaped out it’s beating so hard. Today, many coon hunters do not dispatch the coon, as their passion is in raising and running their prized dogs. My wife Sallie and I attended one leg of a world championship trial in 1983 held in the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge. Parked with several pickup trucks along a gravel road, the action had begun to slow down when one contestant led a Redbone Hound from his truck and went to a tree beside the road. He started scratching the tree bark and howling as he looked up the tree. Right

NANCY BOYKIN

LAUREN ELIZABETH

Franky Hatton is shown here in the Coon Dog Cemetery around the graves of his previous champion coon dogs, Blueflash and Blue Flash Jr. With him is his Bluetick pup, Phydoe and his cousin’s three-month-old Redbone Hound.

LAUREN ELIZABETH

away his dog jumped up on the tree and began his treeing cry. As he walked back to the truck, I asked him what he had just done. “I don’t want to go out in that deep swamp and get my other dog; Sweet Jessie here will call him out.” Late one night as I was on my way home to Lake Ferguson, I saw a beautiful Bluetick hound beside the road. He had no collar and looked pretty rough, yet he came right up to my truck and jumped in. I took him home and examined him pretty closely and decided to name him Bullet because that was the only thing he didn’t have and probably what he needed. But he was a good dog, so I cleaned him up, wormed him, and was ﬁnally able to get rid of the ticks and ﬂeas. He fattened up, and my friend Colonel Tommy “Creeper” Sledge from Cleveland suggested we take him to Choctaw Bar in the middle of the Mississippi River and see if he could tree a coon. At least on the bar he couldn’t get lost. So, an overnight hunting adventure was planned. The next weekend, once we got camp set up, and had a nice toddy or two for nourishment, darkness set in, and it was time to turn ole Bullet loose. We went to the head of the island and set him out. Within ten minutes Bullet struck a trail; we were hoping it was a coon, and the chase was on. The music that dog made sounded like the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing Beethoven’s Fifth, and it was just plain beautiful. Soon his cries faded out, and we had no idea where he was. After an

CALEB CHANCEY

Josephine, owned by Sam and Nancy Boykin of Sewanee, Tennessee. was renowned for her jumping ability, taking 3 steps back and clearing a 4’ fence. “When we first got Josephine and put her in a stall, she started that 3-step back-up thing and we knew that wasn’t going to work, so we quickly abandoned that idea!” Josephine lived her life atop Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, hunting coons in the dark of the night with her caretaker, Old Joe. She was later immortalized in bronze by renowned Southern sculptor Maria Kirby-Smith.

Coon hunters know no gender. Here, three gals are never prouder of their dogs and their prey and their sport of coon hunting. A relationship develops between hunters and their hounds and a bond is set that remains for life. It is often heard, “he may not have been the best coon dog there ever was, but he was the best coon dog I ever had!”

Faith in full cry. Excitement, joy, determination, pride and “Come, on, Mama, I got this coon” says it all. Each dog has his/her own voice and hunters can tell whose dog is hot on a trail, whose dog is merely following another or whose dog has treed. “Come on, Uncle Bubba, let’s GO! There’s a coon up in that tree!!” DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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MICHAEL SCHEURER

Uh, Ohh…! Here comes ole Brummie! I better get GONE!!!”

MICHAEL SCHEURER

hour of searching and calling, we decided to give up on him and go back to camp and cook supper. Upon returning to camp, Colonel “Creeper” Sledge fell out laughing as there lay ole Bullet curled up in my tent on top of my sleeping bag. He exclaimed, “Yeah, ole Bullet sho’ is a fine coon dog; the only thing that dog knows how to run is BACK TO CAMP!” The problem was when Bullet got back to camp, he got into the cooler and ate both the ribeye steaks we had brought along for supper! “Well, I had a coon dog and his name was Blue, I bet you five dollars he’s a good dog too. Now, my dog Blue was a good old hound, you could hear him hollering for miles around. Now look at Blue up ahead of me, he’s got a coon up in a tree. Hear Blue, you good dog you. When Ole Blue died, he died so hard, it shook the ground in my back yard. As we lowered him down with a golden chain, on every link we called his name. So, when I get to Heaven, first thing I’ll do, is grab my horn and call for Blue… Bye, bye, Blue, you ole good dog you.” – Paul Ott

There is a cemetery in Northwest Alabama like none other in the world as it is the only one in the world that is solely dedicated and allows nothing but veriﬁed coon dogs to be buried there. In 1937, in a small grassy meadow in the rich and thick wilderness of the Freedom Hills, Key Underwood buried his faithful coon dog, Troop. They had hunted together for ﬁfteen years in those very hills and deep hollers and were the closest of friends. Key carved a gravestone out of a rock from an abandoned chimney with a hammer and screwdriver. Troop was half Redbone and half bird dog. He was known as one of the best cold-nosed tracking and treeing coon dogs around. Other hunters began burying their favorite coon dogs there. Later in Key Underwood’s life, when asked by a woman from California why he wouldn’t allow other kinds of dogs to be buried in the cemetery, he responded, “You must not know much about coon hunters and their dogs if you think we would contaminate this hallowed burial place with poodles and lap dogs.” And so stating in a Garden & Gun article by Daniel Wallace in 2014, “Here in the Coon Dog Cemetery, every one of these dogs spent twelve years or so with a man or woman who loved them, and whom they loved, every single day. Twelve years is a long time to be loved like that, and it’s a good life for a dog. It’s a good life for anybody. This is the only graveyard I’ve been to that is less an acknowledgment of death than it is a celebration of what certainly was, grave for coon dog grave, a damn good life.” DM

Captain America, a full-blooded Treeing Walker Coon Hound, has won two Ford trucks and well into the six figures in cash prize money. It is interesting to note that some of these coon dogs sell from $10,000 to $90,000. Coon hunting down South is really big business and a sport that is growing every day and is loved by many. 132 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Fun Fact… It is surmised that a raccoon’s black mask on his face around his eyes is there to help reduce glare, much like the black stripe placed on football players’ faces. It is thought to help the raccoon see better in the dark. Each Labor Day the Friends of the Coondog Cemetery host a celebration at the cemetery. Entertainment includes music, dancing, food, and a liars contest. Carole’s Coon Carole Brent’s family recipe came from the ancestral hills of her family in Lodi, Mississippi. It was served often at towboat magnate Howard and Carole Brent’s home in Winterville, Mississippi, on a huge mahogany dining table amongst ﬁne crystal and sterling silver settings, always complimented with a good robust red wine Take a nice, fat wild-harvested raccoon, skinned and with musk glands removed from legs. Soak in buttermilk and refrigerate six to eight hours. Remove from buttermilk and pat dry. Place in a large pot on top of stove with a whole head of celery, chopped, including leaves, and three large onions, quartered, with seasoned garlic salt and pepper. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower heat and cook for several hours until meat becomes tender and all but falls of the bone. Discard everything but the coon and onions and cover with brown gravy and diced chunks of sweet potatoes. Cover and bake in oven at 300 degrees until sweet taters are soft. Compliment with a large pot of mustard, turnip, or collard greens and several big black iron skillets of crusty cornbread because you are going to need it to sop up all that divine goodness. A Southern delight. Bon Appetit! Author’s note. One cold January morning returning in the boat from a successful duck hunt in the bowels of Booger Den at Fighting Bayou Hunting Club, a rather large coon was harvested on the way out of the flooded timber. Upon receiving this fine specimen of gustatory delight, long-term caretaker and major domo, Son Lidell, became elated with his unexpected present. Founding club member and duck hunter emeritus, Skipper Jernigan, asked Son what he was going to do with that wonderful coon, and Son replied, “I’m gone skin him really good and pull out all ‘dem mush glands and get some of that alum, lum, tin foil in the kitchen and wrap him up real tight. Then I’ll put him in the freezer and save him for ‘hard times.’” That, my friends, is a charitable gift!

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JULY/AUGUST

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2022

DELTA DOG CONTEST READERS’ CHOICE WINNERS

202D2og

Delta

Reader’s Choice Overall WINNER

1st Place: Dot, Cocker Spaniel, submitted by Malone Gregory of Greenwood

his year marks the fifth anniversary of our annual Delta Dog Photo Contest.

Each year the number of participants has grown, with 168 entries and a total 4,623 votes this year! Our participants love to show off the best pups in the Delta and beyond, and rest assured, it’s no easy task (but still a lot of fun) to pick the overall winner. After much consideration, our editing team was thrilled with Rook (page 105), a Fox Red British Labrador from Madison who clearly loves retrieving waterfowl. The readers’ choice overall winner, a Cocker spaniel named Dot, strikes a photogenic pose perched on her red Jeep, looking over the fields. Lucky Dot placed first in votes in the Sporting Dog category as well! We present Rook and Dot, as well as all the remaining readers’ choice place winners, on the following pages. Our deepest thanks to everyone who took the time to submit photos, to vote, and share their beloved dogs with us!

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ADOPTED OR RESCUED

1st Place: Howard Street Howard, Mixed Breed, submitted by Danielle Morgan of Carrollton

2nd Place: Daisy, German Shorthaired Pointer mix and Milo,

3rd Place: Tippy, Yorkie/Terrier mix, submitted by Diana

Golden Retriever mix, submitted by Haley Moore of Minter City

McDowell of Cleveland

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DOGS AT PLAY

1st Place: Charlie, Labrador/Chesapeake Bay Retriever, submitted by Keely McGinty of Yazoo City

2nd Place: Jax, Labrador Retriever, submitted by

3rd Place: Delta, Labrador Retriever, submitted by Olivia

Melanie Griffin of Louisville

Norm of Vicksburg

140 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

SPORTING DOGS

1st Place: Dot, Cocker Spaniel, submitted by Malone Gregory of Greenwood

2nd Place: Grizz, Labrador Retriever, submitted by Zachary Flowers of Clarksdale

3rd Place: Hoss, Labrador Retriever, submitted by Brennan Collins of Clarksdale

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Trout Valley Quail Preserve

Preserve shooting at its finest

Book Online Today! www.troutvalleyquail.com cal@troutvalleyquail.com 662.832.6770 Tallahatchie County, Mississippi

Gift Certificates Available Online 142 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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PUPPIES

1st Place: Willow, English Cream Golden Retriever, submitted by Carley Brown of Cleveland

2nd Place: Etta, Labrador Retriever, submitted by Brad Armstrong of Madison

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3rd Place: Archie, Golden Retriever, submitted by Abby and James Hudgins of Greenwood

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146 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

YOU WANT A BETTER COMMERCIAL BANKER. REGIONS IS WHERE YOU’LL FIND ONE. EXPECT BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE THAT GOES BEYOND THE BALANCE SHEET. There will come a moment when you realize your Regions Commercial Relationship Manager is someone who will bring you a lot more than just ways to raise capital. You’ll see we’re here to demonstrate our value to you as local, knowledgeable business consultants. You’ll find we ask smart questions, listen to your answers and deliver smart solutions for your business. You’ll know we’re true partners. In that moment, you’ll realize you made the right choice.

LET’S START THE CONVERSATION TODAY. Walt Stephens | Commercial Banking 662.433.6685 | walt.stephens@regions.com

Commercial Banking | Treasury Management | Capital Markets | Wealth Management © 2020 Regions Bank. All loans and lines subject to credit approval, terms and conditions. | Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank. The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

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FOOD

Helpful Tips This recipe is a delicious way to spice up Taco Tuesday, and is ready in 30 minutes. It can easily be prepped beforehand to pop in the oven at dinner time for a stress-free, delicious dinner that your whole family will enjoy. Don’t have Spanish rice? White or brown rice works great too.

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LINDSEY BELL

The Dinner Darling Darling and delicious: Make your weeknight meals a little easier with three of Lindsey Bell’s most requested back-to-school recipes BY CINDY COOPWOOD • PHOTOGRAPHY BY ABE DRAPER

“Y

’all, I literally could not cook at all just ﬁve years ago,” proclaimed Lindsey Bell of Jackson, on a recent post for her weekly recipe subscription business. As owner and creator of The Dinner Darling, a small business designed to help busy people put dinner on the table with two weekly recipe subscriptions, no one is more surprised than Bell herself. After years of preparing the same boring meals each week, Lindsey realized that she wasn’t the only person having trouble coming up with dinner recipes to feed her growing family, and decided to do something about it. Lindsey, a Jackson native, and her husband, Ryan, have a busy family with two young sons ages four and seven, and a wild German Shorthaired Pointer. And like every young family, their schedule is packed every day. “I hated being in the kitchen because every recipe I attempted took over an hour and made the biggest mess—and it was just super stressful! More stress with two young children was the last thing I needed,” she laughed. “I had this crazy Southern-instilled thought that I needed to serve a ‘meat and three’ for every meal, and it just wasn’t feasible for me.” Her mission became to take classic dinner recipes and turn them into easy, throwtogether meals that anyone could pull oﬀ, whether they have been cooking for years or days. It all started with a Facebook group called Dinner Darlings that Bell started with her sister. “We added our close friends and we would all cook and share our favorite goto recipes. A year in, we had over 3,000 members across several states all sharing recipes. I just knew then that there was a growing need in my community for helping people cook at home.”

TACO BAKE 1 1 ⅔ 1 1 1 2 6

So, after ten years in corporate sales and marketing, Lindsey quit her full-time job to launch The Weekly Dish, an email-based recipe subscription service providing three easy recipes plus the grocery list and nutritional information, to paying subscribers each week. Six months after her successful launch in 2019, she added The Weekly Dish Lite, a healthier version geared towards people counting calories, macros, and points. And the proof is in the pudding, no pun intended. The business has grown from thirty initial subscribers to over 2,000—proving Bell was deﬁnitely not alone. “This community that I’ve helped build is such an encouragement to me. When I get emails and messages from subscribers telling me how much I am helping them, I know that God used my stressful situation to help others, and that makes it all worth it,” says Bell.

pound ground beef packet taco seasoning cup water cup salsa, divided can black beans, rinsed and drained cup cooked Spanish rice cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided large flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook ground beef until no longer pink; drain grease. Stir in taco seasoning and ⅔ cup water and simmer on low for a few minutes. Stir in ½ cup salsa and remove from heat. Meanwhile, rinse and drain the black beans, and cook rice according to package directions. In the 9x13 dish, layer 2 tortillas, ½ the taco meat mixture, ½ the black beans, ½ the rice and ⅓ of the cheddar cheese. Repeat the layers once and top with two more tortillas, ½ cup salsa and the rest of the cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly, and serve with your favorite taco toppings. 8 servings

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Helpful Tips This skillet lasagna is so easy and tastes like the labor-intensive lasagna we all know and love! This one is perfect comfort food, and easy to whip up during a busy school week.

RANCH CHICKEN AND VEGGIE BAKE 2 cans cut green beans, drained 1 pound baby red potatoes, cut into fourths 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and seasoned with salt and pepper 1 packet dry Ranch dressing mix 3 tablespoons butter, melted 4 tablespoons olive oil Salt & pepper to taste

SKILLET LASAGNA 1 1 1 1

tablespoon olive oil tablespoon minced garlic pound ground beef 14.5-ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 2 cups water 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper, to taste 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil, divided 8-ounces dry bowtie pasta (about ½ box) 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves 1 cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese ⅔ cup cottage cheese ½ cup ricotta cheese 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add in the ground beef and cook until browned; drain excess fat. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, Italian seasoning and 1 tablespoon of fresh basil. Stir in pasta. Bring to a boil, cover pan with lid and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook pasta 15 minutes, removing the cover and stirring every 3 to 4 minutes so pasta does not stick to the pan. Remove from heat and stir in mozzarella and cottage cheese. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Top with dollops of ricotta cheese and cover pan for an additional 2 minutes until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, remaining basil, and parmesan cheese. 6 servings 150 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Pour drained green beans in half of the baking dish, and place the diced potatoes in a single layer on the other half of the dish. Season vegetables with salt and pepper. Lay your chicken breasts on top of the beans and potatoes, and sprinkle the dry ranch dressing mix over the entire dish. Whisk melted butter and oil together, and drizzle on top. Cover with foil, and bake for 1 hour. 4 servings DM

Follow Lindsey at: @thedinnerdarling on Instagram; Dinner Darlings on Facebook, or check her website, thedinnerdarling.com

Helpful Tips Say goodbye to boring chicken! This recipe can be prepped beforehand, and then just add the ranch dressing mix, and butter mixture right before cooking.

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E T I H W D N A K BLAC R E V O L L A E G N A AND OR

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STYLED AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY CINDY COOPWOOD

HAVE A HOMEMADE HALLOWEEN

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ypass the candy aisle at the store this year and try your hand at some homemade Halloween treats

that offer something for everyone, young and old. Reminiscent of old-fashioned popcorn balls, the baked caramel popcorn requires a little more work, but is so worth the effort. Balance that with the easiest snack mix you’ve ever made and we’ve got you covered with sweet, salty, and crunchy nibbles. And who doesn’t remember trying to eat huge messy caramel apples when you were a kid? Our answer to that is a do-it-yourself sliced caramel apple bar. It’s a perfect way to keep little goblins busy. Invite the neighborhood over, and use your favorite black and white accessories and your party will be complete!

SLICED CARAMEL APPLE BAR Nothing says fall like a caramel apple. Try these skewered slices dipped and served with fun toppings, and rediscover a childhood treat! sliced red and green apples, amount determined by number of guests 4 cups water ¼ cup lemon juice bamboo skewers

For dipping melted caramel melted chocolate bark or chips melted white chocolate candy melts

Toppings sprinkles chopped nuts crushed heath or other candy bars coconut flakes graham cracker crumbs oreo crumbs

Apples Use a combination of sweet and tart apples. Cut each apple into slices and place in a large bowl with the water and lemon juice. Allow the apples soak in the lemon water for 5 minutes to help prevent browning. Drain the water, pat the slices dry and place each piece on a skewer. The apples can be prepped and skewered up to 1 to 2 hours ahead of time. Sauces When making the sauces, melt caramel bits, chocolate chips, and white chocolate candies, 20 to 30 seconds at a time, stirring at each interval until just melted, being careful not to overheat. Stir until smooth. The dipping sauces may be prepared up to 2 days ahead of time. Cool them completely and store in airtight containers in the refrigerator. Reheat them carefully in the microwave, stirring frequently, until they are warm and smooth enough for dipping. Toppings Place each of the candy toppings into shallow bowls, or containers. Your favorite assorted candies can be used for toppings. Select pieces that are relatively small so they easily stick to the dipping sauces and adhere to the apple slices. Set out the dipping sauces with the toppings and the sliced apple skewers. To assemble, first dip the apple slices into the different dipping sauces and then into the topping of your choice.

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NO BAKE PEANUT BUTTER BARS 1 2 1 1 1

pound powdered sugar cups graham cracker crumbs cup creamy peanut butter cup butter, melted 12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips, melted

Add powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and peanut butter to a food processor. Process until combined. With motor running, drizzle melted butter into the mixture until evenly distributed and mixed in. Spread mixture into a 10 x 15-inch rimmed baking sheet. (We used a half baking sheet.) Melt chocolate 20 to 30 seconds at a time, stirring at each interval until just melted, being careful not to overheat. Pour melted chocolate over the peanut butter layer, spreading evenly with an offset spatula. Refrigerate about 30 minutes, until completely cooled and set. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve. Store and keep in refrigerator up to 5 days in an airtight container.

BAKED CARAMEL POPCORN 5 quarts popped popcorn (about ½ cup of unpopped popcorn) 1 cup butter 2 cups brown sugar ½ cup corn syrup 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Prepare popcorn according to package directions. Divide popped popcorn in two large bowls for mixing. Over medium heat, melt the butter and stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring continuously until the sugar is dissolved. Allow it to boil without stirring for 4 minutes. Turn off the heat and mix in the vanilla and baking soda. Be prepared for the caramel to foam up once the baking soda is added. Pour the caramel evenly in a thin stream over the popcorn in each bowl. Stir and toss until the caramel coats the popcorn evenly. Place the popcorn in a single layer onto 2 large rimmed baking dishes. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely, and break into pieces. Serve and enjoy!

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SIMPLE CHARCUTERIE SKEWERS This tasty snack can be tailored to your favorite ingredients. Tomatoes, olives, and any cured meats would be great substitutes. Dill pickle spears, sliced into chunks Sharp cheddar cheese cubes Smoked sausage (fully cooked), slices or chunks

Simply assemble one of each on a festive Halloween pick for a kid-friendly charcuterie skewer. NOTE: Most smoked sausage is fully cooked when purchased, but it may be heated or grilled as desired before assembling.

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SAVORY FALL SNACK MIX What could be better than mixing your favorite savory, crunchy snacks in one big bowl? No extra seasonings or baking needed! 1 1 1 1 1

bag ready-made Cheddar Chex Mix bag Cheetos bag nacho Bugles cup dry roasted peanuts box Cheez-its

Mix desired ingredients to taste. Enjoy!

PUMPKIN-SHAPED CHEESE BALL 2 1 1 ½ 2 2

8-ounce cream cheese packages, softened cup shredded cheddar cheese package spicy ranch seasoning red bell pepper, finely chopped green onions, chopped cups crushed nacho cheese tortilla chips, crushed 1 bell pepper stem, for garnish

Mix cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ranch seasoning, chopped red bell pepper, and green onions until smooth and creamy. Place onto plastic wrap, and shape into a basic pumpkin-shaped ball. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Before serving, roll in crushed tortilla chips. Using the back of a butter knife or similar tool, press indentions into cheese ball to mimic lines of a pumpkin. When lines are complete, touch up outside with additional tortilla crumbs as needed. Make an impression in center of ball and insert bell pepper stem. Serve with your favorite crackers or chips. DM DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Stuckey Family Dentistry is proud to serve Greenwood and the Delta for 30 Years in family dental services. Beautiful results and a healthy mouth are a few appointments plan for a healthy mouth together. Call us today!

160 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

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HISTORY John Melchior Kirk’s Home in 1910. The Kirk family of Gunnison was one of the first families to settle along the Mississippi River on the western side of Bolivar County.

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THE KIRKS of Gunnison

California Gold Rush brought family back to Bolivar County BY JIM ADAMS

John Casper Melchior 18131882, John M. Kirk’s grandfather

John Cousar Kirk 1812-1998, John M. Kirk’s father

he rise of Ancestry and other Internet sites to gather ancestral information broadened the meaning of family, opening the door to lost facts about our family’s past. This has been

especially helpful for those obsessive people who spend hours searching and communicating with new-found relatives, but there are other hidden treasures. The treasures come in different forms including written documents about the life and death of ancestors or ways of connecting with distant relatives still alive we never met. In my particular case, finding detailed sources was easy, since my great-grandfather, John Melchior Kirk (1858-1925), is documented in various history books available to me all my life as well as genealogical research that was one of my grandmother’s obsessions. The Ancestry website broadened the scope of my understanding of the family in many ways, but more importantly, my Internet experiences compelled me to investigate an even greater treasure, more difficult but fascinating—boxes and boxes and boxes of old letters and photographs related to various branches of my family. I share some of the lessons I learned using my great-grandfather, John Melchior Kirk, as a focal point and hope some of the readers of our new town newspaper may be inspired to act before old documents and letters crumble from “dusty into dust.” I should enlighten those who are not aware of it that Bolivar County, Mississippi, at the time of the earliest settlers was an incredibly wild swamp and unpleasant

John Mechoir Kirk

jungle, sparsely populated by humans, home to alligators, panthers, bears, wolves, and dense swarms of gnats and mosquitoes, the latter spreading malaria and yellow fever far more devastating than any of the pandemic diseases of our lifetime, thriving in cane breaks and swamps covering enormous, impenetrable tracts of land. Oh. I left out snakes…lots of poisonous snakes. “There were alligators in our lakes and numerous poisonous snakes; rattlesnakes and moccasins made it dangerous to walk about at night without a torch. We had no flashlights in those days; our only lights were tallow, sperm, and wax candles. Mosquitoes and gnats were in swarms in summer and early fall, making it impossible for us to sit on our porches in comfort, without burning smudges or smoke fires.” – Memoirs, J. C. Burris, Benoit John Melchior Kirk, my great-grandfather, henceforth abbreviated in this article as JMK, was not an original settler. His father, John Cousar Kirk was. John Cousar returned from the gold rush in the early 1800s to establish his farming operation, named Kirkland, extending far over the current levee from Terrene Landing west of Rosedale into present day Big Island Hunting Club across the river from the Gunnison/Rosedale side of the bank. Most of it caved into the river forcing John Cousar to build a home near Gunnison, his house site probably buried under the current levee. The levee system of the mid 1800s was tiny compared to today, entirely landowner-build dirt mounds that often had little effect stopping the floods and the delays in planting. JMK would write to

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The 1887 flood in Gunnison. Before the Mississippi River levee system was built, early Bolivar County residents were often inundated with spring floods.

Rosedale flood probably before the 1927 flood that never fully reached Rosedale.

his father from school in Kentucky asking about the floods and whether the water had receded enough to return to planting. I knew the time to preserve and transcribe ancient family letters arrived when, unfolding one of the letters from John Melchior’s grandfather, a French immigrant to the Delta named John Casper Melchior, the letter literally fell apart in my hands. I was able to transcribe it and many other old letters and preserve the originals. And that is the real treasure. John Casper Melchior, living east of the now-extinct town of Concordia above Gunnison, was an educated letter writer and intelligent man, educated at the University of Paris in the early 1800s. Be aware, the role of letter writing in those days was very different, being the only substitute for minimal ability to travel and no phones. Letters were the only way relatives knew a distant loved one was even alive! Reading these letters, I was able to essentially exhume the ghost of the man, understand some of his inner thoughts preserved in his writing. “Last night we had a very hard thunderstorm with a heavy rain. It lasted some considerable time, the lightning would illuminate my little cabin, and it appeared at times as though the whole cabin was one vast sheet of flames. And then the thunder would roll and shake the very foundation of it. It was awfully grand. Of the works of God, I could not but think as I lay upon my bed and saw such lightning and heard such thunder, how little and if even less than nothing we are in the sight of this God who thunders when he pleases.”– John Casper Melchior, letter July 7, 1855 John Cousar Kirk, however, wrote tersely of business matters and not often, as judged by his few existing communications. One sees through his son, JMK, and other information written about him, John Cousar Kirk was a true pioneer who persevered through far worse hardships than his son. My grandmother, JMK’s daughter, knew him as a “less austere” type individual. In JMK’s letters to his father, one can see the father-son relationship was relatively stern and formal, whereas with his mother, JMK was less inhibited, requesting extra funds in high school for such necessities as dancing lessons. “Now I was born in 1890. And uh ... now Papa, when he was young, he didn’t do much work. And his Grandpa Kirk said he just was never ... never going to be worth a damn. And because he ... uh ... he

loved to go all around the country to dances, and he fought game chickens, and he followed the races. He was a playboy. And so, he didn’t settle down until he married my mother. And then he settled down with a bam. [gentle laugh or two] He did.” – Transcript audio tape, Mary Kirk Adams JMK expanded the family land holdings considerably, renaming the farming operation Waxhaw, after Waxhaw, North Carolina, from which the Kirks migrated west. He married a young governess and music teacher, Bessie Shattuck, from Woodville, Mississippi, who moved to Rosedale with her family and worked for Charles Scott, the prominent landowner and lawyer from Rosedale. JMK and Bessie Shattuck had three children, John Shattuck Kirk, Mary Edvinia Kirk, and Bessie Kirk, before their mother became ill and died of severe dysentery in east Tennessee trying to regain her health. My grandmother was the second child. After his wife’s death, he remarried Mary Embry Walls (1877-1957) of Louisiana and had one child, Elizabeth Ellen Kirk (1906-1986), who lived in Shelby. JMK bought and refurbished a large home, formerly belonging to a Mr. Stokes, along with property bought from the same. Though the home was beautiful, it succumbed to fire in 1914 and again after JMK’s death, leaving only ruins. By the second fire, JMK had turned over operation of the farm to his eldest child, John Shattuck, and deserted the Delta for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He died in Biloxi and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis beside his parents, wife, and family. A few other facts about early Bolivar County: After the great flood of 1927, the federal government and states along the river became more serious about the levee system, eventually leading to what we see today. Yellow fever allegedly killed one in four people who stayed in the Delta, leading to a large exodus of people from the area near the beginning of the last century. Before electricity and fans, you had mosquito nets and smudge pots, as they called them, to sit on the porch and nets for sleeping. Travel was restricted to riverboats, the Peavine Railroad (in the late 1800s) and the more commonly used mules, horses, and wagons, without a single gravel road in Bolivar County (Granny said). There were mud roads and in the days of John Casper Melchior mostly narrow mule trails through the dense cane breaks and foliage. DM

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EVENTS

Backstreet Boys, September 9 Legally Blonde, October 20

FESTIVALS, MUSIC & FUN THINGS TO DO September 1, 7 pm

Brandon

September 9, 6 pm

Parker McCollum

Science of Wine

Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheater.com

Museum of Science and History moshmemphis.com

September 2, 7 pm

Brandon

Memphis

September 9, 7:30 pm

Memphis

Bert Kreischer

Backstreet Boys DNA World Tour

Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheater.com

FedEx Forum fedexforum.com

September 3

Columbus

September 9, 8 pm

First Annual Ben Fest

Classic Funk Fest

Studio B awesomeam.com

Landers Center landerscenter.com

September 3

Memphis

Skid Row

Radians Amphitheater

Horseshoe Casino Caesars.com/tunica

September 3

Southaven

September 10, 10 am

Grammy Museum Mississippi grammymuseumms.org

Memphis Rox Yoga Festival

September 16

Tunica

Don Felder Gold Strike Casino Resort goldstrike.mgmresorts.com

Tunica

September 17, 7 pm & 9:30 pm

Jackson

Raised in the Sipp: Rita Brent he Return Duling Hall ritabrent.com

Cleveland

Good News Gospel Festival

September 3-25

Clint Black, September 13

September 9

Doobie Brothers: 50th Anniversary Tour

Renée Fleming, September 8

Memphis September 17

Greenville

45th Annual Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival

Memphis Botanic Garden memphisroxyogafestival.com

Vicksburg

In His Element: Andrew Bucci’s Explorations of place

September 10, 7:30 pm

Daughtry: The Dearly Beloved Tour

Washington County Convention Center and Fairgrounds deltabluesms.org

Constitution Firehouse Gallery andrewbucci.com

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

September 17

September 8, 7:30 pm

Memphis

Leland

Leland Frogfest Memphis

September 13, 7:30 pm

MSO Welcomes Renée Fleming

An Evening with Clint Black

Cannon Center for the Performing Arts memphissymphony.org

Bologna Performing Arts Center bolognapac.com

Cleveland

lelandchamber.com

September 17-18

Collierville

Collierville Balloon Festival colliervilleballonfestival.com

September 8, 8 pm

Memphis

September 15, 4 pm

Merigold

Flatland Cavalry

Rice Festival

September 18

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

Downtown Merigold deltaricepromotions.org

“Jim Henson” Frog Fest

September 8, 8 pm

Memphis

The O’Jays Orpheum Theatre orpheum-memphis.com 166 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

September 15-18

21st Annual Delta River Crusin’ Car Show Hollywood Casino hollywoodcasinotunica.com

Greenville

visitgreenville.org

Tunica

September 22- October 2

Mid-South Fair Landers Center landerscenter.com

Southaven

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September 24

Memphis

Cancer Blows: Special Benefit Concert The Cannon Center for Performing Arts cancerblows.com

September 24-25

Memphis

Memphis Comic Expo 2022 Agricenter International memphiscomicexpo.com The War On Drugs, September 24

September 26, 8 pm September 23-24

Hollandale

11th Annual Sam Chatmon Blues Festival msbluestrail.org

September 23-24

Bruce Bruce, September 23-24

September 23, 8 pm

Angela Johnson-Reyes, September 29

Landers Center landerscenter.com

Stovall Farms visitclarksdale.com

September 29, 7:30 pm

September 24

Memphis

St. Jude Walk/Run

Memphis September 24, 9 am

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

19th Annual Water Tower Festival

The War On Drugs Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

September 29

Cleveland

An Evening of Hits Starring Peabo Bryson & Taylor Dayne Bologna Performing Arts Center bolognapac.com

Tunica September 24, 8 pm

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Hernando

Hernando Courthouse Square visitdesotocounty.com

Fitz Casino & Hotel Fitzgeraldstunica.com

Memphis

Angela Johnson-Reyes: “Who Do I Think I Am” Tour Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

Shelby Farms Park stjude.org

Bruce Bruce

Southaven

Jon Pardi ‘Ain’t Always The Cowboy Tour’

Might Roots Festival

Robert Cray

September 23-24

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

September 29, 7 pm Clarksdale

Memphis

Beach House: Once Twice Melody Tour

Memphis

September 30, 7 pm

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio Duling Hall dulinghall.com

Jackson

VISITMISSISSIPPI.ORG

September 30, 8 pm

Memphis

October 6-8

Oxford

October 14-15

Rumors: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute

Oxford Blues Festival

Delta Hot Tamale Festival

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

The Green at Harrison’s visitoxford.com

mainstreetgreenville.com

October 15, 3 pm September 30

Cleveland

October 7, 6 pm

Memphis

DSU 36th Annual Pig Pickin’

Memphis Bacon & Bourbon Festival

dsupigpickin.com

Metal Museum memphisbaconandbourbon.com

September 30 & October 1

Carrollton October 7, 8 pm

Carrollton Town Hall visitcarrolltonms.com

Postmodern Jukebox

September 30- October 2

October 7

39th Annual Octoberfest

Cleveland

octoberfestms.com

Greenville

October 8, 7:50 am

Jackson

2022 Tunnel to Towers 5k Run & Walk

Greenville Speedway greenvillespeedway.net

The District at Eastover visitjackson.com

Hernando

October 8, 8 am

Cedar Hill Haunted Farm

Hernando Water Tower 10k

Cedar Hill Farm gocedarhillfarm.com

Hernando Courthouse Square cityofhernando.org

Hernando

Noah’s Gift 5k Run-Walk-Skate

Hernando

Jackson

October 1, 3 pm

Thalia Mara Hall msorchestra.org

Jackson

Memphis

Helena

Chicago

October 21, 8 pm

indianolachambermainstreet.com

Kevin Hart ‘Reality Check’ Tour

Downtown Helena kingbiscuitfestival.com

MEM-GALA Fashion 22’ Southaven

ndianola

Memphis

FedEx Forum fedexforum.com

Landers Center landerscenter.com

Wallows: Tell Me That Its Over Tour

Memphis

Jackson Convention Complex jurassicquest.com

October 22, 11 am

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

October 10, 9 pm

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

The Melvins

Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium worldwingfest.com

Duling Hall dulinghall.com

October 22, 1 pm

Jackson

Clarksdale

Midtown Autowerks Cybeerfest.org

New Roxy Theater deepbluesfest.com

October 22, 7:30 pm Clarksdale

30th Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival Downtown Clarksdale deltawilliamsfestival.com 170 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Memphis

12th Annual Cooper-Young Beerfest

Deep Blues Festival

October 14-15

Memphis

World Championship Hot Wing Contest & Festival

“Weird Al” Yankovic

October 13-16

Jackson

Jurassic Quest

October 10, 7:30

Memphis

October 21-23

Renasant Convention Center eventbrite.com

Luke Bryan ‘Raised Up Right Tour’

October 6, 7:30 pm

Memphis

Radians Amphitheater livenation.com

Nola Fall Festival October 9, 5 pm

Cleveland

Bologna Performing Arts Center bolognapac.com

October 20

King Biscuit Blues Festival

October 6, 7 pm

October 20, 7:30 pm

Cannon Center for Performing Arts livenation.com

October 8 I

October 5-8

The District at Eastover visitjackson.com

Southern South Music Festival

Show Me Reptile & Exotics Show Wahabi Shriners showmesnakes.com

Jackson

Legally Blonde - The Musical

Bad Apple Guitar Festival

October 1-2

indiememphis.org

Purple Dress Run 5k & Live Music

October 8, 7:30 pm

October 8, 8 pm

Memphis

25th Anniversary Indie Memphis Film Festival October 20, 6 pm

Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s: Bright Horizons

Sean Bad Apple Blues Club visitclarksdale.com

Memphis

Fedex Forum fedexforum.com

October 19-24

noahsgift.org

Clarksdale

October 16, 7 pm

Mary J. Blige: Good Morning Gorgeous Tour

16th Annual Gumbo Nationals

October 1

Memphis

Memphis Food & Wine Festival

Memphis

Radians Amphitheater memphofest.com

September 30- October 29

Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium memphisbrewfest.com

Radians Amphitheater at Memphis Botanic Garden memphisfoodwinefestival.org

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

Mempho Music Festival

September 30- October 2

Memphis

Memphis Brewfest 2022

October 15, 6 pm

Pilgrimage & Pioneer Day Festival

Greenville

Jackson

Mississippi Symphony Orchestra: Broadway Beyond Words Thalia Mara Hall msorchestra.org

October 22, 8 pm

Brandon

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Nola Fall Fest

October, 8 2022

Fun Run| Vendors | Food Trucks Live Music | 12-5 PM *Save the date for Indianola Open House November 4-6, 2022

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Maxwell

October 29, 8 am

Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheater.com

Rick Springfield

October 22

Graceland Soundstage gracelandlive.com

October 29, 11 am

greatdeltabearaffair.org

Bankplus Red Beans and Rice Festival Benefitting Stewpot

Greenville

Delta Cotton Belles Annual Tennis Tournament Greenville Golf & Country Club deltacottonbelles.org

October 22-23

Memphis

Jackson

Mississippi Museum of Art redbeansandrice.org

LITERARY EVENTS

The Watercolor Road

Mellissa Ginsburg

Don Apollo

riverartsmemphis.org

September 6, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Book Reading & Signing squarebooks.com

Clarksdale

Hambone Festival Hambone Gallery stanstreet.com

October 28, 8 pm

Brandon

Chicago Brandon Amphitheater brandonamphitheater.com

October 28-29

Cruz’n the Crossroads Cars & Truck Show Stage 1 Blues Alley Lane visitclarksdale.com

Clarksdale

Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking September 15, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com

River Arts Fest October 27-30

September 13, 4 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com C. T. Salazar

Rolling Fork

Great Delta Bear Affair October 22

Memphis

Wyatt Waters September 17, 12:30 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com September 23, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Book Signing squarebooks.com

Sarah Campbell

David Wharton

Infinity: Figuring Out Forever

Roadside South

September 10, 11 am: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com

September 20, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Book Signing squarebooks.com

Deesha Philyaw

Katherine St. John

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

The Vicious Circle

September 12, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Deesha Philyaw in Conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatahil squarebooks.com

September 27, 4:30 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com

Sophie Blackall

Swan Hammer

Maggie Graber

Farmhouse

September 27, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford

OPEN THROUGH DECEMBER 31,2022 JACKSON, MS Come enjoy The World of Marty Stuart exhibit, and check out our fall programming: Women in Country Music: Songs and Conversation - Sept. 15 Country Music Fashion Show - Oct. 20 History Happy Hour - Nov. 3

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Maggie Graber in Conversation with Joshua Nguyen squarebooks.com Dottie Chapman Reed

Outstanding Black Women of Yalobusha County September 30, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Book Signing squarebooks.com Dee Norman

Burn a Black Candle: An Italian American Grimoire Arkabutla Lake Hernando DeSoto River Park

October 4, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Dee Norman in Conversation with Al Morse squarebooks.com Kathryn Savage

Ground Glass October 7, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Reading & Signing lemuriabooks.com Johnnie Bernhard

Hannah & Ariela October 8, 2 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com

www.visitdesotocounty.com

Margaret Burnham

Snowden Grove Tennis Center

By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners October 11, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson Margaret Burnham in Conversation with Jerry Mitchell lemuriabooks.com October 13, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Book Signing squarebooks.com E. M. Tran

Daughters of the New Year October 17, 5 pm: Lemuria Books, Jackson E. M. Tran in Conversation with Dr. Ebony Lumumba lemuriabooks.com October 18, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Book Reading & Signing squarebooks.com Brian Noyes

The Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook October 19, 5 pm: The Eudora Welty House, Jackson Book Signing lemuriabooks.com Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd

Souther Beauty: Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South October 25, 5:30 pm: Off Square Books, Oxford Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd in Conversation with Darren Grem squarebooks.com 174 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS FESTIVAL

M I S S I S S I P P I

D E L T A

CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND WORK OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS • HONORING THE PEOPLE AND PLACES THAT INSPIRED HIM OCTOB E R 13-15, 2022

For more info, go to DELTAWILLIAMSFESTIVAL.COM or call Jen Waller at 662-645-3555

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Touching lives Powering the future The communities we serve are the communities we call home. We stay active and involved – because we know our responsibility reaches beyond the power grid. So, we invest in education and industry, while developing new solutions to power tomorrow. As a community, our successes fuel each other. entergymississippi.com

176 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Tim Phillips Broker Associate

An independently owned and operated o ce of Crye-Leike Franchises, Inc.

662.816.9194 662.234.9868

tim.phillips@crye-leike.com PENDING

PENDING

NEW LISTING

NEW LISTING WITH PARTIAL OWNERSHIP OF A 75-ACRE LAKE $1,395,000 1527 Toccopola Junction Rd

16 UNIT RENTAL COMPLEX $1,595,000 • 112 Eureka St. Batesville, MS 100% RENTED . 12960 sqft

$770,000 • 186 Downing 4 BR/3.5 BA . 3528 sqft Woodson Ridge Township

130 ACRES - BEAUTIFUL PASTURE LAND

COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

NEW COMMERCIAL LISTING

$2,470,000 • 58 CR 332 Taylor, MS

$2,500,000 • 1307 Chickasaw Rd. 4.9 acres perfect for Commercial Development

$3,500,000 . 1113 Jackson Avenue West 2.6 acres/Perfect for Commercial Development

PENDING

$2,695,000 . 1606 Hwy 30 East 3 Acres (Commercial Development Potential) Just Past 3-way

$2,395,000 . 415 Galleria Lane 8790 sqft. Commercial Space

$555,733 . 259A CR 378 4 BR/4 BA . 2629 sqft Water Valley

NEW LISTING

$380,000 . 712 Martin Luther King Dr. 3BR/3BA . 2018 sqft

$220,000 . CR 332 Taylor, MS 10 acres mostly pasture land

4 BR/3.5 BA . 3483 sqft. Thaxton, MS

Co-listed with Kessinger Real Estate and Oxford Property Group

191 ACRES WITH 8-ACRE LAKE

$2,300,000 • College Hill Road Perfect for large estate lots

PENDING

$899,000 . 1575 Hwy 6 East 42 Acres . Commercial Land Batesville, MS

$1,625,000 . 603 Troon 5 BR/3.5 BA . 5736 sqft Gunite Pool & Pool House

PENDING

$647,750 . 141 Downing St. 5 BR/4 BA . Oxford City Schools

NEW LISTING CLOSE TO THE SQUARE

$1,525,000 . 1815-1825 East Jackson Ave. 1.1 acres perfect for condo development Special Exception would be needed for site plan included.

NEW LISTING

$399,000 . 4 Elm Street 2 BR/2 BA . 1196 sqft Close to the Square

SHOP WITH LIVING QUARTERS

$345,000 • 485 Hwy. 30 East 2 BR/1 BA . 1945 sqft

$205,000 . 317 Foster Lane 3 BR/2 BA .1020 sqft Rented for $1,500 per month DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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DELTA SEEN

Delta Supper Club at Delta Arts Aliance in Cleveland on July 8 Photos by William Powell Photography

Audrey Robinson and Keaton Matty Bengloff and Rory Doyle Danny and Mary McKay Cannon Griffith

Cooper Huff and Rachel Moore

Meghann and Andrew Yee

Stacey and Linda Gillison with Alex Bunnemann

Matty Bengloff and Suzette Matthews

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Haley and Eric Kelly

Alison, Keaton and George Cannon

Rae Crews and Renee LaMastus

Jemela Bajrovic and Todd Will and Hayden Guest Paden

Hal Warlick with Elizbeth and Frank Melton

Amanda and Nathan Wells

Lauren Powell, Lauren Walters and Price Rosson

Susan and Kemp Morgan

Art and Sandy Tidmore with Mary Bess Pannel

DELTA SEEN

North Sunflower Academy Multi-year Reunion at Crawdads, The Cotton House Hotel, and the Pickled Okra on August 5 and 6

Lisa and David Terrell

Bill Whatley and Flip Godfrey

Bobby Eiland and Tim Corley

Michael Manning, Brent Garrison, and Mark Blackwood

Beth Davis and Deborah Sanford

Phil and Morgan McNeer

Pam and Mike Parker

Carla Parker, Barbie Jacks, and Tamar Burrell

Scott and Pam Holder

Monica, Ralph and Lisa Dixon

Penny and Jeff Andrews

Michael and Scarlette Manning

Vickie Dodd, Bubba Dodd and Paula Dodd Simmons

Rusty and Carla Parker with Janie and Tal Clark

Dawn Godfrey, Carla Owens, Flip Godfrey and Gwendolyn West DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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DELTA SEEN

Fifteenth Annual Bikes, Blues, and Bayous Cycling Event in Greenwood on August 5 and 6

Bicycle rest stop at Schlater complete with pickle juice champagne fountain. From left are: Quneka Freeman, Alexander Cross, MJ McMullen, Rachelle Whitehead, Torina Stanciel, Steven James and Theresa Hudson.

Virajita Karunakaram, Haley Brasel, Janet Bevis, Margaret Buchanan and Vearlean Fry

Delta Girls Group: Front row, left to right, Alayja Harris, Makayla Jones, LaJaria Hemphill, TaKeydrua Duren, Kaleigh West, DeZharri Erving DeSidria Erving, and Samya McKinney. Back row, left to right, founder of Delta Girls, Mrs. Deborah L. Harris, Amyreia Anderson, Ariel Jackson, JaKiyah Klines, Autumn Jones, Summer Jones, Serbrill Erving, Nakayla Johnson, Remiah King, D'Mya Speights and volunteer, Mrs. Koneshiana Erving.

American Legion Post 29 helping pass out medals at finish line: Donny Whitehead, Dale Persons, Richard Avant, Johnny Favara, Floyd Melton Jr., Charles Houston, Dave Becker, Ed Hill and Jan Verhage

American Legion Post 200 volunteers at start of ride: Troy Mitchell, George Ellis and Robert Beasley 180 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Claire Smith, Brittany Ricks and Lindsay Wade

Ruthie Robinson and Megan Goss

DELTA SEEN

The Art We Make Student Art Show Exhibit Opening on August 12 at The Ellis Gallery in Cleveland Photos by Lyndsi Naron

Forrest Vinson, Wesley and Georgia Tindall and Lauren Powell

Blake Moon, Kristen Crow and Angel Poole

Hilda Povall, Wright Jeffreys and Kirkham Povall

Leslie Turner, Betty Boyd, Misty and Dena Moseley

Javette White, Ben Lewis and Anna Carson Tyner

Memrie Litton with Bobby and Nina Ray

MK DeWeese and O’Hara Koerben

Marie Ware and Jody Rocconi

Don Conger and Bib Belenchia

Nicole Spinks and Dana Baugh DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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DELTA SEEN

Abbey Bufkin

Rachel, Kendall and Mary Carlisle Charlie, Beth and Tres Heinsz Emileigh Williamson and Causey Bailey Bills

Al and Debbie Mann

Elizabeth Grace Fyfe, Alex Riddick, Anna Brittain Antici, Kalynn Marley, Jerrie Marie Adams and Caysi Seely

Drew Lambre, Charles Michell and Dalton Lambre

Frances and Jim Zook

Pam and Jon Turner

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Deltans Traveled to Support the Ole Miss Rebels in the 2022 Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska on June 26

Maggie Helene, Homer IV and Homer III Sledge

Tammy, Emma, James and Layton Glorioso

Cathy Miller, Ginger Farris and Elizabeth Fisher

Claude Rives, Ashley Wilkinson, Jodi Rives, William Wilkinson and Pratt Wilkinson

Jerry Bullock, Kay Bullock, Elaine Sayle and Ike Sayle

Elizabeth, Ann, Sims and Hunter Nowell

Book Launch for Jake Keiser at Square Books in Oxford on June 7 A Collection of Photos from Delta Magazine Readers

Jake Keiser and Mary Beth Reilly Wanda Poole and Amy Ellis

DELTA SEEN

Jake Keiser and Sherri Jenkins

Ben Malone, Jake Keiser and Hayden Malone

Mary Parker Redditt, Robert Ming and Alex Janoush in New York City

Peyton, Todd, Davis and Dr. James Warrington on the Oregon Coast

Donna Lauderdale, Linda Bastien and April McLaughlinis in Sorrento, Italy

Hays Tidmore, Susie Pepper, Sandy Tidmore, Art Tidmore, Travis Coopwood, Chuck Thomas, Melissa Wyatt, Billy Wyatt, Deborah Long, Pearce Long, Sara Beth Wyatt and Davis Long at a 4th of July family reunion

Darden and Sally North in Canada

Stewart and Abbie Robinson in Amboseli National Park, Kenya

Kappa Alpha Delta Beta Chapter Reunion at Delta State University. Front row (left to right): Will Myers, Wayne Tisdale, Will Branton, Jerry Evans, Reed Hogan, Don Kirksey, Milton Plitt, Dan Stephens, Hugh Smith, Joe Nassar, Billy Nowell, Buzz Shellabarger, Pat Edit, Robert Faust, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Cox, Douglas Simmons, Will Wood, and John Fletcher. Back row (left to right): Bobby Fahey, Tom Jones, Nelson Little, T Y Gardner, Walter Wood, Harold Manning, Mike Wimberly, Tom Vaughn and Guy Mohead.

Cleve Barham and Jim Veal celebrating Jim's birthday DELTA MAGAZINE 2022

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Thefinalword

Delta Autumn: A Pastoral BY JOSHUA QUONG

hen the last blast of summer’s bellows blows hot oxygen into the furnace of long days and the humidity has steamed and cooked us like rice in a pot, our thoughts turn to that season of bounty and harvest, Friday night football and back to school, bonfires and hunting camp. In the Mississippi Delta, the autumnal shift doesn’t occur all at once like the flip of a cosmic switch but it happens slowly and quietly like whitetails tipping from cover to food plots during last shooting light. The crisp whisper of fall air breathes life into our traditions in the forests and fields. The axis of the Earth turns with the whirring spindles of cotton pickers and the cutting heads of combines. Massive modules of compressed cotton awaiting the gin line turnrows like white train cars as grain trucks lumber to the elevator. The air is infused with the scent of soybean dust and dry leaves, and the once green rows of crops have been replaced with hard stubble stretching to distant wood lines. The gray days with their cool light have us scanning the barren fields from the heated comfort of our vehicles for foraging deer, the tracks of which leave more of than just impressions in the gumbo and loam; but they are also in our daydreams of high crowned bucks chasing does past our stands where we’ve waited to be for months. Then come the first frosts of cold mornings covering windshields and windowpanes with crystalline etchings, and the flooded depressions invite the first few waterfowl to feed and loaf. Mallards and

Joshua R. Quong grew up in Glen Allan, Mississippi where he learned to hunt, fish, read, and write. After graduating high school in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, he attended Mississippi College where he obtained an undergraduate degree in literature and philosophy. He then moved to Oxford, Mississippi where he began teaching high school English while completing a graduate degree in education. In 2009, Joshua and his wife Sally opened a small quail hunting preserve called Little “q” Ranch on a small plot of land in Lafayette county on which they live with their two children, Nora and Ray. Today, Joshua is still teaching; still hunting and fishing; and still reading and writing.

184 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

gadwalls congregate just out of gun range while woodies zoom through the treetops with the deftness of fighter jets. Planted wheat fields bombarded by the spiraling hordes of speckle bellies and snows look like moving ground clouds as the geese waddle web-toed over the clods. On each turn-off from the paved road stands a muddied truck or two trailered with ATVs that will shuttle hunters to their blinds and stands. Some of these trucks boast dog boxes teaming with eager beagles that will pour forth once the tailgate is dropped and run rabbits in figure eights in thickets and on ditch banks. At night in the bitter pitch where the only lights are that of the coon hunters’ head lamps, their respiring suspended about the beam like cigar smoke, Walkers, redbones, black and tans, and blueticks tromp stands of oaks and wild pecans in pursuit of those black and gray bandits nocturnally scuttling about the leaf litter. It is such that these pastorals play out in all our little country communities. And though daylight wanes, there is illumination in the long nights. Flickering fireplaces induce an old hypnosis that settles our minds, bodies, and spirits. This seasonal swing, like a measured waltz, sways our attentions inward. We think of our neighbors, our companions, and our families not as singular beings but those souls who comprise the whole of our own being. We are made to gaze into our Delta Autumn, this season of gathering, whether that be of crops, kills, or loved ones, and be thankful. To deny this design is to refute a truth that all our senses perceive and was set forth long ago. DM

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