Y'all Magazine – December 2004

JASON MRAZ | WHAT SOUTHERN WOMEN KNOW

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BILL ENGVALL | 2005 FARMERS’ ALMANAC

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Brett Favre 3-Time MVP Quarterback Quarterba ck

THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

ANDY GRIFFITH MAYBERRYAND MATLOCK MATL OCK

ANNIVERS

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Jamie Foxx

Captures Ray Charles in “Ray”

R EDITIO

$3.95 U.S. / $5.95 CAN NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004

2005 Deidre Downs

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TV’S SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

Miss Am America erica

www.yall.com

Fred Thompson Thompson Law & Order

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| Where the South Lives.

HOLIDAY: A.

B.

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$115.00 B. SANTA WITH CAT FIGURINE (Product Number 08A303) A must-have for Christmas collectors and cat collectors. Artist Jim Shore works in a folk art quilt motif to create this darling pair. Handcrafted, hand-painted resin with the look of hand-carved wood. 4.5” dia. x 10.75”h. Gift Wrap Available.

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$95.00 D. 48 INCH COPPER STAR (Product Number 09G034) Star power! Big and bold, crafted by hand in the USA. Natural copper. Outdoor safe.

Some assembly required. 2-3 weeks delivery.

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$29.95 F. SMILEY TREE FACE (Product Number 03A163) Does a tree have a spirit? If so, this clever set brings it to life! Hang the pieces on a tree. Resin, crafted to look like weathered bark. Way larger-than-life but, like any face, may vary: 5.5”w mouth, 6.5”l nose, 4.5” dia. eyes. Gift wrap is available.

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THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

this-n-that

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ANDY GRIFFITH: The man that generations of Americans have grown up with on TV grew up in North Carolina. After successes in New York and Hollywood, Andy and wife Cindi (above) are back in The Tar Heel State, where he is home. Find out more about the veteran actor and musician.

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Where Y’all?

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Bible Belt

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On the Money

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Dixie Destination

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GRITS

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Home Plate

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Wine Down South

72

Cranky Yankee

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What Southern Women Know

Capturing hot Southern stars, from Dollywood to Hollywood.

Actress Nancy Stafford is now trying her hand at Christian books.

Money man Dave Ramsey gets you prepared for a Total Money Makeover. Alpo Anyone?

Camden, South Carolina is the Southern Steeplechase stomping grounds.

Ms. Grits Deborah Ford Decks the Walls.

Chef Marvin Woods is back in the kitchen, this time cooking up a festive dish of duck.

Doc Lawrence gets you and your champagne ready for the yuletide.

A new column for “all y’all.”

Y’all yankees should know the rules

Peter Kramer/Getty Images

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Kevin Winter/Getty Images

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TEXAS HEAT: Jamie Foxx was a high school football player in Terrell, Texas, before tackling Hollywood.

With the new starring role in Ray, Foxx emerges as a force to be reckoned with. Jamie is front and center in this edition of InnerView.

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Blue Collar

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Star Gazing

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Festive South

Bill Engvall gives us the scoop

Joe LoCicero reports from Hollywood.

A listing of some of the Holiday Highlights from throughout the South, from Disney World to Houston’s 14322 Ella Lane.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

10/14/04 5:43:28 PM

31 Tracy Byrd by Scott Gries/Getty Images

features 14

Tracy Byrd

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Jason Mraz

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Kentucky: Got Teeth?

Julie Love Templeton

Country music star Tracy Byrd has sold millions of records in his decade of hits. Back home in Beaumont, Texas, you can find Tracy in the kitchen cooking up a first class meal, or out in the woods.

Virginia singer stormed up the pop charts with his hit “The Remedy.”

Osborne Family Christmas

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Children With No Home

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Belita Moreno

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Actor Fights Cancer

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Fred Thompson

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Little Rock businessman Jennings Osborne loves to bring cheer to all with his world famous Christmas light displays.

Alabama the Beautiful Miss America 2005 Deidre Downs Alabama is the undisputed home of beauty, thanks to the crownings of Deidre Downs as Miss America and Julie Love Templeton, Mrs. America 2005.

Palmetto Place in Columbia, S.C. is a children’s shelter that brings holiday cheer to the forgotten ones.

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Anthony Herrera, “James Stenbeck” on As The World Turns, penned a book to educate others on his battle with cancer.

The former Tennessee Senator has played many memorable roles, in real life and his “other” job, acting.

The Law & Order star loves to get home.

Southern Democrats Coming Home Veteran Senators Breaux, Graham, Hollings and Miller are calling it quits in Washington, D.C.

southern sounds

The George Lopez Show star keeps Lopez in line on the ABC comedy. The Texan also keeps her career straight.

The South has some hot new music to listen to as you get ready to pull out the Christmas decorations. Amy Grant’s new greatest hits package is sensational, as well as country hitmaker Trent Willmon’s debut.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images

A joke on Jay Leno’s show fired up Kentucky and its governor. Now, The Bluegrass State is firing back.

Take notice.

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Mrs. America 2005

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inside

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InnerView

Osborne Family Christmas

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COURTESY OF THE OSBORNE FAMILY

Little Rock businessman Jennings Osborne loves to bring cheer to all with his world famous Christmas light displays.

Rick & Bubba Mornings in the South would not be as funny without these syndicated radio hosts.

COURTESY OF RICK & BUBBA/TURNER SOUTH

The NFL’s only three time MVP loves to come home to South Mississippi for the chance to play golf, and just be a good ole boy.

John Daly

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The long ball king made quite a comeback on the PGA Tour this year.

Find out what drives this Southern stroker.

Johnson 61 Evelyn 95-year-old still teaches flying lessons.

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Pecan Story

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Ginny Walsh

Y’all of Fame Lewis & Clark

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Farmer’s Almanac

Two Southerners blazed an important trail in the history of our country.

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In Memoriam

78 PHOTO BY US MINT VIA GETTY IMAGES

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GARY SMITH, CWC

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RONALD MARTINEZ/GETTY IMAGES

STREETER LECKA/GETTY IMAGES

Brett Favre

ON THE COVER: ANDY GRIFFITH AND HIS YELLOW LAB, “CHARLENE” FAVRE: STREETER LECKA-GETTY IMAGES, DOWNS: DONALD B. KRAVITZ/GETTY IMAGES, FOXX: PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES, THOMPSON: FERNANDO LEON-GETTY IMAGES

The South loves a good nut.

Austin, Texas teen braved the waters of Hawaii.

What’s in store for 2005?

Farmer Bob tells us.

Remembering Southerners who have passed to the Great Beyond.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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Y’ALL IS ONE!

™

This issue of Y’all marks our 1year anniversary. Thanks to “all y’all” that have made this Magazine of Southern People a great success.

Here’s to many, many more anniversaries.

“Christmas in Dixie.” It’s more than an old Alabama song; it’s a winter wonderland of reality.

There is nothing more special than this time of year, and there is no place more special than Dixie.

Just in time for the Holidays, this issue of Y’all is filled with excitement and cheer. Cover boy Andy Griffith is the essential Southern gentleman, and his exclusive interview showcases the Carolina legend’s incredible career.

We’ve got a new Miss America, Deidra Downs, and she’s from the Heart of Dixie. Find out how the Alabama beauty stole the show (pg.

30).

Thanks for reading Y’all, and Happy Holidays.

Southernly yours,

THE M AGA ZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE ™

President & Publisher Jon Rawl jon@yall.com Managing Editor Molly Fergusson molly@yall.com

VP & Associate Publisher Keith Sisson keith@yall.com

Art Director Carroll Moore carroll@yall.com

Account Executive Meredith Dabbs meredith@yall.com

(662)236-1928 New Media Andy Young andy@yall.com Asst. Managing Editor Mary-Kathryn Millner Copy Editor Dianne S. Fergusson Illustrator Allan Inman Contributing Writers Jeff Foxworthy Deborah Ford Ronda Rich Kristin Gravatt Bill Engvall Nikki Roberts Marvin Woods Doc Lawrence Dave Ramsey Joe LoCicero Lisa Buck Robin Street Laurie Stieber Jenna Blackwell Jennifer Russell Amanda Manning Tabatha Gardner Jane Kathryn Saunders Jason Derrick Jeffrey Rhea Mitchell Carrie E. Young

Alabama Bureau Paula Sullivan Dabbs alabama@yall.com Arkansas Bureau Jason Nall arkansas@yall.com Kentucky Bureau Colleen Cassity kentucky@yall.com Tennessee Bureau Joshua Wilkins tennessee@yall.com Texas Bureau Matt Heermans texas@yall.com Publishing Consultant Samir Husni

Circulation

Editorial Assistants Michael Nozinich Mary Melinda Tew Amy Stanfill Rusty Ballentine Matthew Bandermann Victoria Parchman

Y’all is published bimonthly by General Rawl Media, LLC (November/ December 2004), Volume 2, Number 4. Editorial and advertising offices at 1006 Van Buren, Suite 211, Oxford, MS 38655-3900. Mailing address: P.O. Box 1217, Oxford, MS 38655. Telephone: 662-236-1928. Basic subscription rate: 6 issues, U.S. $24.95; Canada $32.69. 12 issues, U.S. $34.95; Canada $45.80.

Entire contents copyright 2004, General Rawl Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Products named in these pages are tradenames or trademarks of their respective companies. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect that of the publisher.

For subscriptions, queries, and customer service, please visit www. yall.com Y’all Magazine Business phone: 662-236-1928.

E-mail us at: mail@yall.com Subscriptions: Toll-Free 1-800-935-5185 Application to mail at Periodical Postage Rates is Pending at Oxford, Mississippi and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Y’all, P.O. Box 1217, Oxford, MS 38655-1217. Printed in the USA.

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Jon Rawl

SPRINGDALE RACE COURSE

Rawl at the 2004 Carolina Cup Pegasus Ball in Camden, S.C.

your 37 cents Bless y’all’s hearts for creating such a gem of a magazine. I picked up a copy, the only one I’ve seen to date, as the family was leaving for St. Augustine to meet up with more family and friends there. I have to say that little is left of the magazine since all of us read, no, we drank it in from cover to cover...even my new son-inlaw who’s from Delaware enjoyed your publication. Seriously, one of our friends practically read, dramatically, the entire edition to us all. Yes, there was plenty of laughter and not a small amount of tears as we all, yes, even the Yankee boy, could relate with something, if not all, included in the magazine. I’m looking forward to subscribing and to giving subscriptions of Y’all to family and friends as gifts. And a far as being a Southerner is concerned, it’s like my late Daddy always said, “Ain’t God good...He let us be born here.” Keep up the good work.

Greg Wilson Thomaston, Georgia

I just recently discovered your magazine and have not had time to completely read it but am glad to have found it. You really need to do a story on Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer from Frankville, Ala. They are both awesome songwriters and performers. Shelby is going to star in the upcoming movie about Johnny Cash called Walk the Line, currently fi lming in Memphis. Thank you in advance for considering them.

Susan Wade Brandon, Miss.

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

10/14/04 6:27:52 PM

where y’all?

Singer Beyonce Knowles collects her award for ‘Best female Video’ for ‘Naughty Girl’ on stage at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.

(Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Singers Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey arrive at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards at the American Airlines Arena, on August 29, 2004 in Miami, Florida.

(Photo by Peter Kramer/ Getty Images

Actress Mary-Louise Parker, winner for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for “Angels in America”, poses with her Emmy backstage during the 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on September 19, 2004 in Los Angeles. Parker is a native of Ft. Jackson, S.C. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)

Actors Ted Danson and wife Mary Steenburgen, from North Little Rock, Ark., attend the Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium (Photo by Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Y’all Magazine hits the Big Apple. Y’all VP Keith Sisson, New Media Director Andy Young and New Jersey Correspondent Howie Morgan share a toast with Maker’s Mark Bourbon President Bill Samuels, Jr. (far right), at the My South soiree in New York on Sept. 1.

Cheers, y’all!

Legendary Blues great Robert Johnson’s grandson Steve Johnson (l), and Morgan Freeman (r), present Jacqueline Nassar a new Robert Johnson commemorative guitar from Gibson at Ground Zero in Clarksdale, Miss. Jacqueline, a 13year-old blues prodigy from Clarksdale, won the first Youth Recognition Award by the Robert Johnson Estate for her efforts to preserve blues music. (Photo by Gary Vincent)

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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where y’all?

Florida Air National Guard members Jim Kahrey (c) and Terry Turbes fill Dave Alexander’s cooler with ice and bottled water at a Hurricane Ivan relief distribution center in Pensacola following the devastation that hit the South in September.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Dolly Parton and Rounder Records group The Grascals take a break during rehearsals for Dolly’s upcoming fall tour. The Grascals will open each show on the “Hello, I’m Dolly” tour.

Grammy Award winning singer and actor Randy Travis attends the ceremony honoring him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 29, 2004 in Hollywood, California.

(Photo by Vince Bucci/Getty Images)

Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Erin Pate from Louisa, Ky. keeps watch during an evening patrol of lower Manhattan aboard a 25-foot Defender Class security boat in New York City. The U.S. Coast Guard led the multi-agency waterside security effort around Manhattan during the Republican National Convention.

(Photo by Mike Lutz/U.S. Coast Guard)

The Bold and the Beautiful actress Sydney Penny, a Nashville, Tenn. native, attends the Soapnet Fall Launch Party at the Falcon Restaurant on September 23, 2004 in Hollywood.

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

We’d love to hear from you!

Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and daytime phone number and may be edited for clarity and space.

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Former Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves joins the cast of “Peachtree Battle” to celebrate the show’s 3year anniversary on Sept. 16. Reeves made a cameo appearance in the show, running at the Ansley Park Playhouse in Atlanta.

TO CONTACT THE EDITORIAL STAFF Write to us: Y’all Magazine Editorial Dept.

P.O. Box 1217 Oxford, Mississippi 38655

Call us: 662-236-1928 E-mail us: editor@yall.com

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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The South’s South’s Web Address!

www.yall.com

Log on today.

Nobody’s Poet, is a collection of the best food columns ever typed with Robert St.John’s right index finger. Illustrated by cartoonist Marshall Ramsey, St.John’s latest book is sure to be the hit of the season. With over 100 original, unedited columns and cartoons, this book dishes out laughs page by page.

Coming to bookstores throughout the South November 2004.

For special orders, call 888-315-6774.

NOBODY’S POET N D COLUM THE FOO

S T. J O H N

BERT S OF RO

Visit Robert at Mistletoe Marketplace (booth #338) to purchase a signed copy.

Robert St.John is also the author of A Southern Palate, illustrated by Wyatt Waters and Deep South Staples.

Illustrated by

msey

Marshall Ra

Deep South Staples

A Southern Palate

w w w. n s r g . c o m w w w. r o b e r t s t j o h n . c o m “Robert, don’t quit yo ourr day a job.” job.

“This book is hard to swall llo low. What was in ins inspiration nspira on forr thi this iss crrap. p.””

“Stick Stick a fork in i him – he's d done!"

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reviews

gov’t mule

déjà voodoo Since bass player Allen Woody’s death in 2000, the original concept for the band, begun as a power rock trio, has been restructured for their latest studio release, Deja Voodoo. The last release of new material under the Gov’t Mule name was a bass tribute to Woody, each song from The Deep End volumes I and II featured a different bass player. Back with a stable lineup, original members Warren Haynes and Matt Abts are joined by keyboardist Danny Louis and bass player Andy Hess. Even Haynes (who also played this summer with The Dead and plays with The Allman Brothers Band) admits that this album is a new sound for the band, but that sound is still a great

one to rock out to. Their studio sound may be a bit constrained compared to the live performances, but this record is full of songs that will quickly become crowd favorites. Haynes shines through on many of the tracks with his signature guitar sound and soulful vocals. Don’t let yourself get lost in the incredible guitar licks of songs like “Slackjaw Jezebel” and “Wine and Blood,” because they also have meaningful lyrics and powerful messages. While a few of the tunes have a slow blues-y feel, most of them gear up to an explosive rocking beat. Any fan of the band will enjoy this studio album, and will enjoy these tunes even more when they are played live.

amy grant

greatest hits | 1986-2004 Bringing together her top hits from 19862004, Grant showcases a legend of music hits along with four previously unreleased tracks.

In 2003, Grant released Simple Things, her first album of new material in six years, and now she produced a collection of her most memorable songs from the past 18 years. Listeners will instantly recognize the classics “Baby Baby,” “That’s What Love Is For,” and “I Will Remember You.” The disc also contains two new tracks, “Come Be With Me,” and “The Water.” For the first limited copies, a second CD is included with four remixes of classic favorites. Also being released simultaneously is a DVD of videos to correspond with the tracks on the CD. This fivetime Grammy-winning artist has made a whole package of her best material for her fans. Not only is this a blast from the past, it is also a look into some new material and new takes on old favorites- a must for any Grant fan. reviews by Kristin Gravatt 12

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maggie brown This may be her debut album, but Maggie Brown is not new to the music scene. Her first album seamlessly blends aspects of rock, country, and bluegrass into a collection of songs straight from her heart. Following her mother’s vision, she began playing at 14, traveling and sometimes living out of a van. Maggie was thrust into independence when her mother suddenly passed away, and as she grew into her new roles as wife and mother she stopped performing her music. But music never left her soul, and the songs she collected through the years have been polished and placed on this album for everyone to enjoy. Maggie’s southern voice shines through in her thoughtful songs about love gained and lost. She can go from a rowdy honky-tonk song, “40 Dollars,” to slow and soft reflections on the world, “Jacob’s Eyes.” Maggie Brown’s music will please your ears while her provoking lyrics will touch your soul.

trent willmon This country boy has worked as a ranch hand, horse trainer and bartender while paying his dues in Nashville, and his years of work have paid off with the release of his self-titled debut album. The Texan’s subject matter through these 11 tracks is strictly country themed, with songs about his love for beer and loss of love. The first hit of the collection is “Beer Man,” which has a very direct title- it’s all about his love for the ale. Other reflective titles include “Home Sweet Holiday Inn” and “Population 81,” and all of these songs stay true to the lonely-hearted country boy image. There are a few rocking tunes in this collection, but most are slow ballads and sad country songs.

Willmon is a country boy who will appeal to the beer-drinking cowboy boot-wearin crowd he is a part of.

Can you think of anything better for breakfast on a crisp cool morning, or any morning for that matter, than a biscuit hot from the oven and some of Grandmother’s famous jelly or preserves? Maybe you’re a quickie breakfast fan and only have time for toast or a bagel. It always tastes better with something sweet smeared on top.

If you think you don’t have time to make homemade preserves or it’s just way too hard, or you want a neat gift for someone who enjoys cooking and trying new recipes, you need to pick up a copy of The Jamlady Cookbook by Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld. This really is more than just a cookbook or a canning guide. It has lots of useful information to help the beginner as well as the long time canning expert. The recipes are labeled as to skill level and time required, and it even includes recipes made with sugar substitutes and recipes for nosugar jams. The Jamlady goes to great lengths to explain methods, problems you might encounter, different fruits and vegetables for canning those mouth watering treats, safety with canning, baking with your jams, and a quick reference to spirits and liqueurs. If that’s not enough to entice you to try some of the recipes, the photographs contained in this 288-page cookbook are so beautiful you must be careful or you may drool on the pages while you are looking through the book. Just in time for Santa, log on to www.yall.com for a good, quickto-make recipe for the beginner, Microwaved Orange Marmalade.

by Paula Dabbs

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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music

Tracy Byrd

good ol

Courtesy of Tracy Byrd

renaissan renaissance

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“That’s the truth about men, that’s the truth about us, we like to hunt and golf on our days off, scratch and spit and cuss...

We’d rather pick guitars and work on cars than work on the problems in our lives.”

When you hear country star Tracy Byrd’s hit song “The Truth About Men” it will lead you to believe that all men care to do is hunt, golf, spit, cuss and avoid problems with their women.

While the man does like to hunt, the truth is that he is not like the typical guys in his song. Tracy Byrd is a family man, a country star, and, who knew, a cook! On top of all these titles, Byrd is simply a nice guy, which can be a rare fi nd in the music industry. “It’s a whole lot easier just to be nice. Getting all upset and being rude just upsets you, and I just hate being like that,” says Byrd.

With that kind of outlook on life it is tough not to like this well rounded Texan.

Byrd, 37, grew up in the piney woods near Beaumont, Texas, with parents whose love for country music rubbed right off on him. “We’d get up in the morning, getting dressed and brushing our teeth and there’d be a Merle Haggard record playing. It wouldn’t be the radio, it would be a record.” Byrd started picking a guitar when he was 15 and later in college learned that he would rather play music than go to school. “I went off to college and didn’t do nothing but party and pick guitar,” admits Byrd.

After playing music eventually edged out going to class he concentrated on his new chosen career and eventually signed a major recording contract in 1991. Even after getting a contract, his success did not immediately follow. Byrd admits that

his fi rst single “didn’t do nothing.” Then in the spring of 1993 he released “Someone To Give My Love To,” and received great feedback, so the album shortly followed. Byrd says that after “Holdin’ Heaven” went No. 1, “things got rolling for us, but it didn’t start out that way.”

Tracy Byrd has enjoyed longevity in the country music business with a career that has spanned over a decade and shows no signs of tapering off. He consistently gives his fans traditional up-tempo country hits such as “Watermelon Crawl” and “I’m From The Country” (and his recent movers “The Truth About Men,” “Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo,” “How’d I Wind Up In Jamaica”) along with emotional love songs like “The Keeper Of The Stars,” a song that is played at more weddings than “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Speaking of love songs, somehow Tracy Byrd has managed to simultaneously be a country music star, stay happily married and father a whole clan of Byrds.

Tracy and his wife Michelle have been married for 13 years and he says there is no secret to a successful marriage, whether you are on the road or home everyday. “I think any marriage is compromise and understanding, even the guys that are home every day.” “Who knows?” laughed Byrd, “maybe the secret is that I’m not home everyday, if I was home everyday we might kill each other.” Tracy says he and Michelle

olee boy &

nce ce man

by Jenna Blackwell NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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Top: Robert Mora/Getty Images Next Page: Courtesy of Tracy Byrd

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Tracy and his daughter Eve

have been blessed with three beautiful kids, Eve Elizabeth, Logan Lynn and Jared James Byrd, “yep that’s my bunch,” Tracy proudly says. One of the ways the Byrd’s stay so close is the time they spend together in the kitchen. Cooking and sitting down at the table is part of the Byrd family foundation. The truth about Tracy Byrd is that he loves his family and he sure does love to cook.

Cooking in the kitchen comes as naturally to Byrd as performing on the stage. Byrd’s love for creating recipes in the kitchen stems from his other favorite pastime, which is hunting. “When I was a kid I spent all my time in the woods, or in the water. So I was constantly bringing home a sack full of squirrels or rabbits or bass or catfish.

So I was skinning these things out and cooking them. So that’s how my love of cooking started.”

Byrd began cooking at age 11, when he came home with a bunch of bass. He had heard of Cajun blackened fish and decided he wanted to try some. His mother told him, “well, you get in there and cook it, just clean up your mess,” so he went at it. He did not follow any recipes; he just covered the bass in butter, cayenne and black pepper and seared them in a pan. Byrd says, “from then on I was cooking.”

Food is so much a part of Tracy Byrd’s life that he decided to share his recipes and his memories.

Eat Like a Byrd isn’t a manual for fi nicky eaters; it is a new collection of Tracy’s best recipes for cooking anything from wild turkey to his grandmother’s lasagna. The cook book is a project that Byrd had been looking into for years.

Around the same time that he was creating his cookbook Byrd developed a line of “rubs” (dry seasonings) and marinades. Many of them are incorporated into his recipes, and they are also perfect for simply marinating any type of meat.

Eat Like a Byrd has plenty of good Southern recipes and some with a little Southwestern spice.

With a house full of kids, his hands full in the kitchen, and a music career, it seems impossible that Tracy Byrd has time for much else. But he has a love for the outdoors that keeps him in the woods and on the water every chance he gets.

The truth about Tracy Byrd is that hunting is more than a passion it’s a full-blown obsession that was passed on to him by “Na-Na” his beloved grandmother, Mavis Vaughn, who bought him his fi rst shot-gun when he was six years old.

Byrd will hunt for just about anything that’s in season but he says he could never give up bowhunting for white-tail deer and bass fishing. He is a member of the Mossy Oak® Brand Camo proteam, and hosts a show called “Step Outside,” an outdoors show with the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Through the years he has been connected with his friends at Mossy Oak in a number of ways. In 1997-98 they sponsored his concert tour. For two years during his “Hunt the Country” tour Byrd had a semi-truck painted completely camouflaged. “We had my whole semi, which is solid white normally; it was total (Mossy Oak) Breakup pattern for two years, says Byrd.” A camouflaged semi-truck, now that must have been a sight!

There is no doubt that Tracy Byrd is a man who treasures the beauty of the outdoors. This Southern man is a Texan through and through, even when his music career may have warranted a move to Nashville, Byrd stayed in his home state. Every aspect of Byrd’s life is rooted to his values and beliefs that are shared all over the South. “I believe Southern people know what it’s all about. They understand the importance of God and family in your life and they understand the beauty of the outdoors.”

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music

jason

mraz The Curbside Prophet

By Tabatha Gardner

Jason Mraz, from Mechanicsville, Va., broke into the music scene two years ago and has since been delighting audiences and wooing females of all ages with his rich voice and sweet lyrics, while rising in the charts. Mraz’s sound is one of a kind and unlike anything listeners have ever heard before. His debut album, Waiting on My Rocket to Come, features a wide variety of tracks ranging from the upbeat, and catchy song, “The Remedy,” to the fast paced, almost rap-like “Curbside Prophet.”

The 26-year-old singer got his start when he moved to San Diego, and “discovered there was an incredible music scene.” There were all kinds of people and all kinds of music. “I knew right then that’s where I could make my home and start playing on a regular basis. I played there for two some years and our show, my little Thursday night show at the coffee shop, got really popular to the point that you knew record label folks were coming down to watch the show, and that was it. We eventually decided we would make 18

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a record and hit the road.”

Making Waiting for My Rocket to Come proved to be no challenge for Mraz, whose hobbies are writing and photography. He was a little critical of the album the first time he heard it, noting that it was all about him, a rather cocky move. So Mraz decided to put a rooster on the album cover for two reasons, to acknowledge his arrogance and as a tribute to his Southern roots. “I grew up in Virginia and my mom decorated our house in rooster print, rooster wall paper, rooster plates on the wall…. So, when it came time to make this record, I wanted a power animal to attach to my feeling that I was being kind of arrogant with this record in that a lot of the songs were me, me, me. But more poetically, the rooster, he wakes the world up with a song. He gets the day started with his cock-a-doodle doo and you know it’s not a pretty song but everyone sure as hell knows it.”

One of the things that makes this album unique is its break-away from the cookie-cutter mold that pop music has seemingly fallen in to. There is not a single song on the album that sounds like another. Each song tells a different story, from heartbreak to eternal optimism. A sound this different from all others makes it quite difficult to place Mraz into any category of music, but Mraz knows exactly how to classify his sound and refers to it as, “Brunswick stew, because Brunswick stew was the number one food in my small town. It’s peas and corn and pieces of chicken and tomatoes and lima beans. Pretty much everything you’ve got that you can grow would go into Brunswick stew. I feel like the kind of music I sing and I make and that I write about is just that.

I borrow from anything that can be home grown and I fuse it all together. You get a small taste of that on my album with the different styles.”

A self-professed lover rather than a fighter, for inspiration, Jason Mraz looks to none other than the relationships that he develops with the people around him. “It’s all about my relationships with my roommate, my family, my girlfriend, my ex-girlfriend.... There’s always a lesson to be learned from any relationship you have, so that’s what I look to.”

No matter how big his career becomes, Mraz knows where he comes from, small town Virginia. He knows that being from the South has helped his career in that it enhanced the development of his imagination. “It (growing up in the South) forced me to be more creative than other kids because we didn’t have all of that growing up. We didn’t have big city life. We had a go-cart but it got stolen. We had a BB gun, but that was kind of scary after a while when your brother would turn on you with it. So, it was up to me to entertain myself, you know, write songs, write stories, and make little home movies and geek out. I think that’s how I

developed my imagination, being trapped in the South.”

He has held many different jobs, from working for the postal service to being an elementary school janitor. From framing pictures to pedaling cigarettes in a tobacco shop, his favorite job, and of course, just like every other Southern boy, he “mowed lawns for many a year.” Jason enjoys going to the movies whenever he gets the opportunity. He “loves the fact that hundreds of people get together and they make a movie and it takes you to another world, to another time. I love everything about fi lm. It’s a great escape.” In fact, he likes the movies so much that they are his idea of a perfect date. “This doesn’t seem romantic, but I like to see a movie. I can usually tell if I like a girl or not based on how she reacts to the movie and whether or not she goes to the bathroom during the movie or talks during the movie because I don’t like either of those things. And then after the movie we have a lot to talk about and so on. I just like going to the theatre, a little getaway.”

He has fears and dreams just like everyone else. “Fear, that I won’t find the right person to settle down with either because I work too much or because I’m always using a relationship as a muse. I won’t let myself just be personal and private.

But my dream is that I do find someone to share my time with someday.”

The vocalist remains very humble and down to earth despite his career which gets bigger with each passing hour. Mraz feels this is what has made him “the curbside prophet. “I’m an average guy and I’m no different from the next guy you’d pass on the street. It’s just that I think I have something to say more often.”

The best advice he has ever been given is to “avoid the questioner and just go with what you know. So many times we always just stand around asking questions like, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ We’ll ask all our friends and family, should I do this, should I do this, should I do this? And you get all these different answers saying hell no, you shouldn’t do that. You got everything you need right here. There’s a voice inside of us that’s making us ask that question that’s saying I want to do this but should I do it. So I was taught to stop asking questions and just do it.” His personal message for everyone… “Write a book. I think it would be great if everyone in the world wrote their book.

It could be about anything they wanted. It could be as sloppy as it needs to be but I think it would be an amazing library if we all, before we died, had to write a book. We would be able to read what was on our minds and so on and so on. So, I think we should all speak up a little more often. And if you don’t want to write a book, then vote.”

For those waiting for more Jason Mraz, have no fear, a live album is on sale now.

“I’m an average guy and I’m no different from the next guy you’d pass on the street.”

(L)Courtesy of Jason Mraz (R) Scott Gries/Getty Images

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Andy Griffith

home for the holidays

by Lisa Buck

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From Mayberry to Matlock, his countrified Southern charm won over American audiences.

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ndy Griffith, one of the most enduring entertainers, is perhaps best known for his starring roles in two popular series set in the South, The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock.

The shows gave viewers a glimpse into the best of Southern living: honesty, integrity, community, and family values. “I am Southern and I am proud of it,” declares Griffith. “I live in the South and I love the South.”

Griffith and wife Cindi live in the seaside town of Manteo on Roanoke Island, nestled between the mainland and the outer banks of North Carolina. Griffith was first smitten with the Carolina coast in the 1940’s when he went to Manteo to play “Sir Walter Raleigh” in The Lost Colony, now the nation’s longest-running outdoor drama. “I grew to love it down here during those times,” he says. In 1956, Griffith bought the Manteo house that he and Cindi now call home. They own 70 acres which they share with three Labrador retrievers as well as the wild foxes, raccoons, ducks and geese that roam the island.

North Carolina has always been home. Andrew Samuel Griffith was born June 1, 1926 in Mount Airy, N.C. to Geneva and Carl Griffith, a furniture factory employee.

“I worked there with him for two or three summers,” Griffith recalls. “[Then] I said ‘I know I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life.’”

After a half-century of conquering the stage, screen, and television, Griffith has returned to his first passion: music. His latest album, The Christmas Guest, is a selection of Christmas songs

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and poignant stories that capture the spirit of holidays gone by.

Griffith developed a passion for music early. As a freshman at Mount Airy High School, he took a job sweeping out the school for $6 a month. He saved his earnings and bought a slide trombone – only he didn’t know how to play it. He had heard that a Moravian preacher in town taught boys how to play horns “because every Moravian church has a brass band.” The preacher taught him to play all the horns in the church “and then when I was sixteen, he taught me to sing.” Griffith became a Moravian, which is a Protestant denomination similar to Lutheran.

Griffith enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, intending to become a minister. “I lived right next to the music department and I hated my major, which was sociology,” Griffith recalls. “I asked the bishop if I could major in music and still be a minister and he said ‘no.’ So I prayed over it for two weeks and I majored in music.” He graduated with a degree in music in 1949.

Griffith became a high school music teacher in Goldsboro, N.C., acting on weekends at the Raleigh (N.C.) Little Theatre. “Driving back to Goldsboro, I got an idea to take an old popular song and explain the deeper meaning,” Griffith says. His comedy monologue parodying the popular Johnny Ray song, “Please Mr. Sun,” was born. “I got big laughs and I realized I had something.” Griffith went on to record albums of his stand-up comedy routines,

I asked the bishop if I could major in music and still be a minister and he said ‘no.’ So I prayed over it for two weeks and I majored in music.

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including the classic routine, “What It Was, Was Football” in which a country fellow describes his first experience seeing a football game.

Griffith’s comedic talents earned him a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut in the 1955 play No Time for Sergeants.

Griffith played a fish-out-ofwater hillbilly drafted by the Air Force. “The people of New York welcomed me into their lives and I love the city,” Griffith recalls. “It was good to me.”

In 1959, Griffith starred in another Broadway musical, Destry Rides Again. Although he received a Tony nomination for his role, he felt that he had “struck out” on Broadway.

“It wasn’t too good of a show, and I wondered if I should try television.” Having informed the William Morris Agency that he was ready to try television, the late Sheldon Leonard, thenproducer of The Danny Thomas Show, approached Griffith with an idea for The Andy Griffith Show. “I didn’t like the idea that much, but I liked Sheldon,” Griffith explains. “When he came [to see me] the second time, I said, ‘Let’s go with it.’” And the rest is television history.

Griffith took on the role of widowed sheriff “Andy Taylor,” patrolling the streets of fictional Mayberry, N.C. with gentle wisdom and homespun humor while raising young son Opie.

The show ran from 1960 to 1968, never dropping below the top 10 spot in Nielsen ratings and rating No. 1 in its last season. “It could have gone for more years, but I felt that it was slipping so I closed the show,” Griffith explains. The Andy Griffith Show generated two spin-offs and several reunion shows and enjoys

enduring popularity. Each month, 27 million viewers watch reruns of the show on the TV Land network.

The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club, founded in 1979, claims 20,000 members in 1,200 chapters worldwide.

Mayberry is believed to have been modeled after Mount Airy (population: 8,500), Griffith’s birthplace and mecca for the show’s fans that flock to the town’s annual Mayberry Days festival. An estimated 30,000 people attended this year’s festival, including the Griffiths, to witness the unveiling of a bronze statue honoring the show.

Griffith stays in touch with some of the other cast members. “A lot of them, unfortunately, are gone. Don Knotts and I are still close,” he says of the actor who played bumbling deputy “Barney Fife.” “Don turned 80 this past July and I bought him two Martin ukuleles for his birthday. Martin doesn’t make ukuleles anymore, so they are very hard to find.”

Griffith produced and starred in another hit television series, Matlock. Griffith received a People’s Choice Award for his portrayal of Southern lawyer “Ben Matlock” in the courtroom drama. The show ran from 1986 to 1995. Though Matlock was filmed in California, Griffith brought the entire crew to Roanoke Island to film a two-hour episode. “It was a boost to the economy down here. It was pretty special,” says Griffith. The show eventually relocated to Wilmington, N.C. to cut production costs. “So I went with it,” Griffith explains. He still has a house in Wilmington, but spends most of his time in Manteo.

Mayberry is believed to have been modeled after Mount Airy...

(population: 8,500)

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“Christmas is quiet, a time to reflect back and look forward,” Griffith says.

In 1996, Griffith released his first album with Nashville-based Sparrow Records, I Love to Tell the Story. The collection of hymns sold over two million copies and won a Grammy. He followed up in 1998 with another collection of hymns, Just as I Am. The Christmas Guest, released last year, is Griffith’s first holiday album. “I am especially proud of the stories,” Griffith says. “I wanted to do it because of the stories.” The first story, “The Christmas Guest,” tells the tale of a man who helps three strangers while waiting for a visit from Jesus. The tale was originally written by the late Country Music Hall of Famer Grandpa Jones.

“The Juggler,” the story of a transient juggler who seeks shelter in a monastery during a harsh winter, holds fond memories for Griffith. “I have carried that tune, that story in my heart since I was in high school. I heard it on the radio one Sunday and I carried it in my heart ever since. It’s an old French folktale and I rewrote it for myself and shortened it so it would fit on a record,” explains Griffith. “The Lord led me to do that one.”

The Christmas Guest was produced by country singer Marty Stuart. Griffith credits his wife with leading him to Stuart.

“Marty had written a book called Pilgrims, Saints, Sinners, Prophets about fine country artists and he gave Cindi a copy of that book.

Cindi said right then, ‘That is the man to produce your Christmas album.’”

Making The Christmas Guest was a labor of love for Griffith.

“We all went up to Marty’s office with a guitar player named Mark Casstevens and we sat down and picked us our tunes,” he explains. “I don’t know if you know about us country people, but country people just work out their arrangements as they go and they amount to chord changes and key changes. So [we] sat there and worked on these tunes until we got them the way we wanted them.”

The jacket cover of The Christmas Guest shows Griffith with his 24

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1956 Martin D18 guitar, the very guitar his character carried in the acclaimed 1957 film, A Face in the Crowd. The prop crew had painted a new D18 black and glued sequins on it for the film.

After filming was completed, Griffith rescued the guitar from the film lot and restored it, removing the sequins and sanding off the black paint down to the bare wood. In 2003, Martin Guitar Company created an Andy Griffith D18 Signature Edition guitar, modeled after Griffith’s beloved 1956 D18. Griffith sent Signature Edition guitars to several friends and keeps one handy in his living room.

Since completing The Christmas Guest, Griffith is not sure what project he’ll take on next. Despite his enormous success in television, he is not pursuing television ventures. “It’s too hard, the hours are long, and I am just not really interested in doing that right now,” he admits. He is considering film roles and recently recorded The Three Wise Men, an animated story of the biblical journey to see Baby Jesus. Griffith narrated the tale and supplied the voice of one of the wise men.

Now 78, Griffith enjoys doing church work and exercising in his pool. “As the years go by, things start to crumple away, [but] I’m in good shape for my age,” he boasts. Griffith underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2000. He credits the cardiology staff at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia for his recovery.

“They saved my life,” he says. Griffith appears to have the genes for longevity: his mother lived to be 86 and his father lived to 80.

“He would have lived a lot longer had he not smoked,” Griffith says. Griffith’s daughter, Dixie, lives in Denver and they talk by phone often.

This Christmas, you can find the Griffiths at home in Manteo.

“Christmas is quiet, a time to reflect back and look forward,” Griffith says.

He will have much to contemplate.

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bible belt

Nancy Stafford

The Wonder of His L Love ove

Courtesy of Nancy Stafford

You may recognize Nancy Stafford from her various starring roles in TV movies and series, including three years on the NBC Emmy-award winning St. Elsewhere and six years as Andy Griffith’s law partner, “Michelle Thomas,” on Matlock.

“I view it as a gift in my life,” Stafford, 50, remarks about her time starring alongside Griffith from 1986-1992. “Every day on the set was a joy. You could not ask for a better work environment, the tone of that is set from the top down. Andy just created an amazing, wonderful atmosphere. I learned so much from him. He’s a consummate pro, and a very underestimated actor. He’s always played these very accessible, easygoing guys. You may think that he’s playing himself, but the character really envelops Andy.”

Stafford, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. native, segued to other shows after Andy, including spending the past nine years as the host of TV’s Main Floor, the syndicated fashion, beauty, and lifestyle magazine series that airs in over 40 countries around the world.

In 2002, the former Miss Florida 1976 and University of Florida journalism graduate penned her first book, Beauty by the Book: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You (Multnomah Publishers, 2002), now in it’s fifth printing, which has been called “one of the most valuable Christian books to be published in decades”. Nancy shares her story of God’s healing and transformation in her life from insecurities and unworthiness to wholeness and acceptance.

She shares the scriptural truths we need to know to find freedom from our pasts and freedom from the bondage of our culture’s

standards. “Everyone has beauty and value,” says Stafford, “but not everyone sees it. I want you to see it.”

Stafford’s latest book, The Wonder of His Love: A Journey into the Heart of God, offers a fresh glimpse into the nature of God’s heart, and invites you to venture deeper into the mystery and majesty of His love. “Everything that I write is sort of birthed out of my own need,” she says. “This book is based on my need to be reminded every single day that we have a God who loves, and would go to the end of the earth to love us. It’s a 31-day devotional book that people can carve out a month of their life if they want, and it’s written in very short, essay pieces.”

A popular speaker, Nancy travels extensively from her California home, sharing with women’s groups, colleges, churches, corporations, and other organizations. She speaks with warmth and transparency, and her passion is to help others grasp their true identity and worth “I love to see women get past issues of self-esteem, or low self-perception.”

Nancy’s husband of 15 years, Larry Myers, has been a pastor and worship leader since 1975 when he helped establish the original Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Los Angeles. The focus of his ministry has been teaching, counseling, and the pastoral care of artists and musicians. Nancy has one stepdaughter, 25, and a new grandson.

When Stafford’s not busy acting, writing, speaking, or being a grandmother, she gets back to Dixie when she can. “I love it!

That’s Matlock Country,” she laughs.

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bible belt

I Can Only Imagine

MercyMe

by Tabatha Gardner

MercyMe began 10 years ago playing for Wednesday night youth groups at local churches. Today, they are one of the most easily recognized names in contemporary Christian music. Remaining true to their Bible Belt heritage, the six-member band hailing from Greenville, Texas remains down to earth and devoted to spreading Christ’s word, despite their huge success on the Christian charts and the mainstream charts.

MercyMe consists of Bart Millard, lead singer, Mike Scheuchzer and Barry Graul, guitarists, Jim Bryson, keyboardist, Nathan Cochran, bassist, and Robby Schaffer, bassist. Nathan Cochran, who has been with MercyMe since he was 19, admits that he has grown up with the band. “It seems like in some ways you kind of go through seasons of growth. I remember when I first joined the band.

I was kind of a kid and I was still really young for being in a ‘real band.’ I had a band in my hometown of Missouri but we never traveled or anything like that so I kind of jumped head first into this and I had to learn a lot along the way.

It’s kind of one of those things where I was learning a lot but at the same time MercyMe as a whole, we were learning a lot. Our ministry was growing. We were going new places, doing new things and it’s really been neat. I guess our mission, our goal for MercyMe hasn’t changed really over the ten years. But, I would say that things around us have gotten a lot bigger, but we still have the same goals in mind and the same mission that we did when the band started 10 years ago and that was to glorify God with everything that we do.”

Nathan laughs about how he came to join the band, but one can sense it is a story he has told many times and will tell many more. “Robby, our drummer and I grew up together, going to church together, and he had moved to Oklahoma City doing an internship at a church and that was where MercyMe was based out of at the time. Their bass player at the time wanted to get off the road and so Robby mentioned me and said that I could play and that’s how I got involved. I actually came into a camp they were doing in Missouri just to kind of hang 26

out. It was funny because I came down to try to be the bass player for the band, but the first time I came down, we never played any music. I just played volleyball with them and helped them fix the bus. I got together by association. Robby’s sister is my wife. So, we’re kind of keeping it all in the family.”

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MercyMe’s hard work and dedication soon paid off with their album, Almost There. Even if you lived under a rock, if you were breathing in 2001, odds are you heard the group’s single, “I Can Only Imagine,” which quickly became a No. 1 single on the mainstream charts, something the band never expected to happen.

Nathan Cochran describes the band’s reaction to song’s success as “A little bit of awe. It was kind of surreal. ‘I Can Only Imagine,’ we had written for one of our independent albums that we recorded in 1999. Bart, our lead singer, kind of always had that phrase in his head for years, ‘I Can Only Imagine,’ ever since his father passed away. He had those questions in his head. Why would his father be in Heaven rather than here on Earth? In 1999, he finally decided to expound on that idea, the phrase, I can only imagine, that he’d been thinking on for so many years. We were at the end of one our sessions of recording that album and just threw it together. I guess the whole thing came together in 30 minutes or an hour. It was funny. We had treated that song as kind of a B-side on that album and didn’t play it for a couple of months.

After the album came out somebody asked us to play it at a camp and we’ve played it every night since then.” The song’s success has been linked with the tragedy of September 11th and the state of the nation following the catastrophic event, of which Nathan says, “You know, we get the privilege of traveling all around the world and talking to so many different people and with everything that the country has gone through in the past few years, it seems like people are looking for answers.

They’re not necessarily looking for Christ, but they are looking for answers to everything that is going on around them. There has definitely been a lot of tragedy in the last few years in this country and I think a song like “I Can Only Imagine” gives people hope in a time when they’re not finding much.”

Cochran, whose favorite movies are That Thing You Do, Saving Private Ryan and The Lord of The Rings, admits that his favorite thing about coming home after being on tour is, “just being able to come home and be with my family. To spend time with my wife and my son. They may come out on the road from time to time with me but, you can’t replace that time at home. It’s your home, you’re not on a bus. It’s your space. It’s your time. I look forward to that, coming home and being with family. One thing

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that’s kind of weird and I never really realize it until the tour is over, but I actually miss getting to settle down and drive my own car. It’s weird because you don’t think about it but then I’ll look back and realize that I haven’t driven a car in three months.”

Over the past 10 years, MercyMe has had the opportunity to play many different venues and to share the stage with a number of recording artists such as Amy Grant and DC Talk, who also serve as major musical influences and sources of inspiration to the band and to Nathan personally. When asked who he has enjoyed sharing the stage with the most, Nathan replies, “It was Lynyrd Skynrd.

We got an opportunity to play at Fort Hood for all the troops there a few months ago. They had just come back from Iraq and we got invited to play. So, we played and then right after us, Lynyrd Skynrd played. That was a little strange.

That was probably one of the neatest moments we’ve had.”

And of playing for the troops, Cochran says, “It was one of the neatest things we’ve ever done.

It was one of those things where we felt extremely honored to be a part of it. It’s strange because we were there to support the troops, but because of what we do, playing music, we were receiving applause and everything. It was a little strange. It was kind of like we were there to serve that day but at the same time we were still getting applause for what we were doing.

We got the opportunity to sit down and sign some autographs for people. You know even doing that was strange because we just wanted to shake the hands of the men and women who have been sacrificing for our country. Instead, they were coming through the line to meet us. It was a little weird, but we were honored and thrilled that we got to be a part of it.”

MercyMe’s new album, UnDone, is sure to have listeners singing along, even those who do not normally listen to Christian music, with it’s catchy lyrics and thought inducing messages from a band that describes themselves as “some of the most normal goofy guys you will ever meet. If there’s anything cool or good about us, it’s only because God put it there. I guess that’s good enough.”

The ministry is reaching people, helping people, doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, so that they will hear the Gospel.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF MERCYME

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Ladies Night Out: December 2, 4-7 p.m., Cantey Building Joe Ruggiero: December 3, 10 a.m., Ellison Building Wine & Ale Tasting: December 3, 6-8 p.m., Cantey Building Market Dates: Thursday, December 2, 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

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Saturday, December 4, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

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SIZES ARE: Small, Medium, Large & X-Large Hanes 100% Cotton

WHO IS JOE RUGGIERO? Joe Ruggiero joined HGTV when the network launched in 1994. In addition to “Homes Across America”, Ruggiero has hosted several HGTV specials, including “The Best of...Design Series,” which examines architecture and interior design around the world. He has been a design consultant for “This Old House,” and “Good Morning America,” and has served as editor-in-chief and publishing director for Home Magazine.

Joe Ruggiero will present “Your Personal Holiday Stylist,” at 10 a.m. Friday, December 3 at the Ellison Building at the Fairgrounds. Come learn how to set a glamorous holiday table, find the perfect gift and more! Tickets for the event are $30 and include same-day market admission.

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inner VIEW The stars have fallen on Alabama in the past few weeks. Miss America 2005 and Mrs. America 2005 have been crowned, and both Miss America Deidre Downs and Tuscaloosa attorney Julie Love Templeton, Mrs. America, call the Heart of Dixie home.

Discover more about these lovely, and enterprising Bama beauties.

Terrell, Texas is the hometown of hot actor Jamie Foxx. The star of the blockbuster films Collateral, Ali, Any Given Sunday, and the new film Ray grew up in the Dallas suburb with the real name of Eric Bishop, but now he is naming his own destiny in Tinseltown. Find out how the actor prepared for Ray, the biopic of Ray Charles.

For 10 years, listeners in the Deep South have been tuning in to Birmingham-based Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey’s hilarious morning show. Now syndicated on radio stations throughout the South and on Turner South TV, Rick & Bubba are getting even bigger.

To find out the facts and information you’d like to know but don’t, turn to InnerView.

What do you want to know about? What are your pressing questions about your favorite Southern personalities? Email us at Innerview@yall.com

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Alabama the t

Deidre Downs

miss america 2005 on an all-boys baseball team for six years when I was a kid, and never wanted to be Miss America. I mean I’d watch it on TV, but that stuff just wasn’t for me. I’d rather be out playing sports. Actually, I went to college (at the University of Virginia) on a volleyball scholarship. I did that for a year and decided to give up my scholarship (and transfer to Samford) because I knew I wanted to go to medical school, and I just wanted to do some other things in college - student government, etc.

- and sports just wouldn’t allow that. So, I was looking for a way to get scholarship money, and someone mentioned to me a preliminary for Miss Alabama. I thought, ‘Well, I did my high school pageant.’

DONALD B. KRAVITZ/GETTY IMAGES

Y’ALL: Plans after you give up your title?

DOWNS: I’m going to medical school. I knew I was going pre-med from the beginning. I took some pre-med courses at Virginia, but I have always been interested in history and politics and literature and liberal arts in general. I thought, I am going to go to medical school and study all the sciences, and taking the core courses now, of course for pre-med.

Y’ALL: An obvious question, what is it like to be Miss America?

DOWNS: Well, I’m still learning what that’s like, actually. I’m still trying to get used to the whole idea. It’s such an incredible opportunity. Miss America gives you a platform to speak about, issues that you care about, like your platform issue.

But one thing that I really want to talk about this year is the Miss America organization, because so many people don’t realize that it is such a large scholarship provider for women.

They may think it’s just a beauty pageant, or whatever. It is so scholarship oriented. It’s not for profit. People don’t realize that before I won Miss America, I had gotten $50,000 in scholarship money in the four years that I competed in Miss Alabama, and I was able to pay almost everything at Samford University (where she earned a history degree) and had money left over for medical school. So now that I’ve won Miss America, that’s another $50,000. All of that can go towards medical school (at UAB). It has to, because it’s scholarship, it’s not cash.

Y’ALL: Did you always dream of being Miss America?

DOWNS: No, actually I was a tomboy growing up. I played 30

Y’ALL: Since you are quite the historian (at the age of 24), how will your hometown of Birmingham influence you as you travel the nation?

DOWNS: So many people still have that (negative) image of Birmingham and of the South, and they don’t realize that we have come so far, not only that we have come so far, but we really almost celebrate the civil rights struggle. We look back on it now, and we admire the civil rights leaders so much.

The people of Birmingham really love the Civil Rights Institute because it focuses on the positives, but there’s just reconciliation that comes out of it. Every area still has problems with race relations, Alabama, Michigan, everywhere. But people don’t realize that Alabama has come so far; we are willing to look back on it and embrace what’s come out of it, and how we’ve come together since then.

Y’ALL: Give us the lowdown on your platform for Miss America.

DOWNS: I have been working with pediatric cancer patients now for several years. Two years ago, I worked to establish a specialty car tag to benefit pediatric cancer research at Pediatric Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, and that tag will enter production this fall. We were able to get the necessary 1,000 commitments, and it’s going to raise a lot of money for research.

Now that I’m Miss America, I want to promote awareness and work with some of the major national organizations that work with cancer research. A lot of people don’t want to associate cancer with children, and unfortunately because of that, it doesn’t get the funding that it needs for researchers to explore the mechanism of cancer and how we can treat it. Through my year, I want to promote awareness and try to be a voice to try to raise funds for research.

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ma the Beautiful Julie Love Templeton mrs. america 2005

Y’ALL: After college (Alabama) and law school (Cumberland), you started practicing in Tuscaloosa, Ala. What are you like in the courtroom?

TEMPLETON: Well, because I have a theatre background, I love to be in front of people talking. Thatʼs just what I like to do and the great thing about being an attorney is Iʼve never had two cases that were the same. Youʼre always learning and itʼs always something new. So, everyday is a different challenge. I love it.

Y’ALL: How do you compare your career to Matlock?

TEMPLETON: Iʼll tell you what, Andy Griffith is still it.

The Andy Griffith Show is my favorite TV show. I still watch it. As far as Matlock, well thatʼs not near as exciting. But I do own a seersucker suit. Iʼm a Southern attorney, I have to own a seersucker suit. I remember my dad (an attorney in Talladega, Ala.) wearing them in the summer when I was a kid, and thatʼs just kind of one of those things that was just ingrained.

Y’ALL: Do you dress pretty savvy when you go to the courtroom?

TEMPLETON: The funny thing is that pageant interview suits are very different than attorney suits, because as an attorney, your job is to blend in the best you can. If you attract a lot of attention to yourself, people arenʼt paying attention to your clientʼs case. So, there are certain court forums that I like to wear my seersucker, but for the most part, itʼs navy blue and black.

COURTESY OF THE MRS AMERICCA ORGANIZATION

Y’ALL: How did you get involved with Mrs. America?

TEMPLETON: I have a friend who lives in Tuscaloosa, and he said, ʻHey go do this Mrs. Alabama pageant, youʼll have a good time.ʼ Until my friend told me about it, I honestly didnʼt even know it existed.

I accidentally lucked up and won it and then in five weeks I was in California, so I didnʼt really have any time to slow down before I was on a plane and gone. I havenʼt really had time to slow down and think about it because you rush back to your office and you try to get all this work done, so itʼs just kind of surreal.

Y’ALL: As a 30-year-old married woman, is it important to showcase that married women can still be beautiful?

TEMPLETON: Thatʼs the great thing about this organization. Just because youʼre a married woman doesnʼt mean that you donʼt have a life and interests, and that youʼre not an attractive and well-rounded person.

Y’ALL: What is it like for both Mrs. America and Miss America to both be from Alabama?

TEMPLETON: The great thing is not just having two winners from the same state, but us both being professional women, not saying that thereʼs something wrong with not being in a profession. But people tend to look down on any type of scholarship pageant and say, ʻ Oh well, just a bunch of bubbleheads,ʼ and it just says something about the level of competition at these things.

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Jamie Foxx actor

Y’ALL: In your latest movie you play Ray Charles, but you have an impressive musical background of your own.

FOXX: I went to college on a classical piano scholarship at Alliant International University. We had like [people from] 81 different countries that went there. So you had child prodigies from Japan, and you had people from Venezuela, all sharing music. So when he [Ray Charles] talked about the music, I was like that’s no problem. So he said, ‘Are you sure?’ And I said, ‘That’s what I do, I play.”

Front Page: Kevin Winter/Getty Images -Top Right: Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images - Center: Universial Pictures

Y’ALL: What has it meant to you to portray fellow Southerner Ray Charles?

FOXX: It means a lot more now than it did when we first started. Obviously in Ray’s passing we wanted to make sure the story was eloquent. And at the same time he got a chance to view the movie in his own way and then it started gathering ground. It started out as an independent film, the next thing you know, nobody wanted to buy it. Then Universal Pictures President Ron Meyer was like, “I used to sneak in and watch Ray Charles perform, I want this movie,” and the next thing you know it’s blown up. So, you really know now it was necessary to do the film.

Y’ALL: What was it like working so closely with Charles?

FOXX: It was incredible. You meet a person whose career has spanned over fifty years and he was still young, and youthful and ready to play. He met me and shook my hand and his fingers, strong fingers. Then we started playing blues and it was amazing to see how he still had it. He would be on the road almost all the time up until he left us. He was on the road all the time performing in different places. To see that energy still there, that enthusiasm gave me more energy.

Y’ALL: What will his legacy be?

FOXX: He left us with everything. When they say the genius of Ray Charles, he really is. He took chances. Go back all those years where Ray Charles takes Gospel music and then switches over to Rhythm and Blues, and people were thinking, “Oh my God, he’s going to hell.” And for him to take those chances and say God gave me this talent to do it all, to sing about my love, my courage, my demons. If he didn’t take those chances, you don’t know where music would be right now. Quincy Jones was 15 when Ray was 17 and Ray taught him everything he knew about music. And we know how big Quincy Jones is.

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Afterall, he went on to produce Michael Jackson, among many others. So without Ray Charles, you probably wouldn’t have a lot of the stuff we have right now.

Y’ALL: How was he able to cross barriers, in terms of segregation?

FOXX: Because of the music. Music is the first Internet connection. He connects you to the music. Everybody loves Ray Charles’ voice, so that’s how he brought us together. Then when he was asked the questions, “How do you feel about this situation, the black and white stuff,” he said, “I can’t see any of that.” He said he did know that he was a black man and there were certain things he had to do. Like when they banned him from Georgia, then they give him a ceremony and keys to the city and he didn’t hold a grudge. He turns around at the Playboy Jazzfest and has an all white orchestra. Bill Cosby turns to him and says, “Your band is all white.” Ray says, “Funny, they don’t sound white.” So he wanted to break that ignorance. The ignorance of somebody being born a certain color, creed, or gender and hating somebody different, he said that was ignorant.

Y’ALL: What do you think impacted his life the most early on?

FOXX: His mother and his brother passing away. Those are some of the last things he could see, so those images stayed with him. They were burned into his mind. He lived with that.

He lived with those demons of thinking he had something to do with his brother’s passing away, and his mother passing away at a young age. He was heavily burdened with that. So that’s what made him right. That’s what made him get up and go. He said I got to do something. I got to get out there and be successful because I got to get rid of those demons.

Y’ALL: And he never felt handicapped or disabled?

FOXX: Not at all, it was amazing seeing him walk around with no seeing eye dog and no cane and he was still getting around doing his thing. He said, “I can get around like someone that can see. The things that are difficult I will do immediately, the things that are impossible will take a little more time.”

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Rick & Bubba

the two sexiest fat men alive!

Y’ALL: How did you two meet?

RICK: We knew of each other in high school. Bubba’s cousin played on my high school…well we went through all sports together up through high school. He had cousins…we were 20 miles, about 15 miles apart where we grew up, same county, Calhoun County, Ala., which you know it sits right in between Birmingham and Atlanta…almost centered up, and we both went to rival high schools and then we ended up going to the same college and at the same campus radio station, but not working together on the air at any time during that run. BUBBA: We started cutting up a little bit at that point because we were bored to death and we didn’t understand Spanish and we didn’t know why we had to have it.

RICK: Little did we know, we should’ve learned it. BUBBA: Yes. RICK: It would come in handy now anytime I go to Wal-Mart.

Y’ALL: When did “y’all” realize that your pairing would be huge, literally and figuratively?

RICK: I would say from the beginning, correct me if I’m wrong, Bubba, that we had the same type of humor…we laughed at the same things. BUBBA: Yeah, yeah, we were friends, and you know, I guess you could say we had a little chemistry together, but we didn’t know how that was going to play out.

Courtesy of RICK & BUUBA/TURNER SOUTH

Y’ALL: What other jobs have you two held, before making it “big” in radio?

BUBBA: I spent one summer as a “grass removal technician” at the golf course…that’s better known as a weed-eater, and I decided quickly that was not for me. RICK: I was a pre-loader for UPS and was removed from that job after found sleeping in one of the trucks, and then where I think I really showed my ability to do good work - I worked at a car wash.

Y’ALL: With all the great success you have had, your distinct East Alabama twang remains.

BUBBA: In college, I was taken off the air because I had too much of a Southern accent, so I had to learn other parts of it, and that was really a good thing looking back. I learned sales and programming and promotions and engineering, and engineering was really the most fun and easiest, so I stuck with it. RICK: Well how about this…this is how we talk.

I mean, I don’t understand, people sound like where they’re from.

Y’ALL: How did you and Bubba fare in college at Jacksonville State?

RICK: We, once again, much like our President, we are proving that a C student can achieve a lot. Matter of fact, at one time

we were considering raising funds to fund a scholarship, but only for a C student. BUBBA: Somebody that maybe was an underachiever, but we felt like was ready to break out.

RICK: So we would provide, since they can’t get it on grades, almost like a second chance. “Rick and Bubba’s C Students are People, Too.” Y’ALL: How have your families aided in your success?

RICK: We, like a lot of guys you see, have married up. Our wives are very beautiful women. Bubba and I are probably not as beautiful as you might like to see them with. BUBBA: Well in the male world, we would not rank like they do in the female world. RICK: They rank like—they’re like A+ and again here we are at C or C-, but what we did was say that we just wouldn’t go away. I mean—we refused to let them spin us into friends as you know, that happens to a lot of big guys who are maybe not as attractive. Women will say, “Well let’s just be friends,” and I told my wife I already have friends—they’re guys. You know what I mean? I don’t want any more friends. I have plenty of friends. BUBBA: You just want somebody to go parking with.

Y’ALL: How are you two so energized every morning?

BUBBA: A lot of caffeine. RICK: The truth of it is we are not morning people, and we quit every single morning we get up. But then I start realizing I cannot pay my bills selling insurance. BUBBA: To me, that’s what we get paid for—to wake up. I used to get here real early. For some reason, this morning I couldn’t sleep so I did what anybody would do, and that’s go to Wal-Mart and shop.

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on the money

ALP ALPO A ANYONE? A N

by Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey is a financial counselor, host of the popular syndicated radio show “The Dave Ramsey Show,” and author of the New York Times best-seller The Total Money Makeover. His columns appear regularly in Y’all.

For those of you who have followed along since May you know the fun is about to begin.

For those who haven’t, let me bring you up to speed. When you’re exhausted from living paycheck to paycheck; when you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired about money; when you’ve said “Where did all our money go?” too many months in a row – you are ready for a Total Money Makeover.

Before you get started you must do a budget – put a name to every dollar that comes in before it gets there so you know what its purpose is. After you have your budget in place then it’s time for the baby steps. Baby Step One: Get $1,000 in the bank fast for life’s little emergencies. Baby Step Two: Start the debt snowball – begin paying off all of your debts, except for the house, starting with the smallest and working your way to the largest. To those who say mathematically this doesn’t make sense I would say two things: 1. If you were great at math you wouldn’t be in debt and 2. Pick up a copy of my book The Total Money Makeover for an explanation of the snowball. Your way isn’t working so try mine. Baby Step Three: Finish the emergency fund – put three to six months of expenses in the bank and only use it for emergencies.

If you just started your Total Money Makeover you are probably still on Baby Step Two – this one takes a while. But, close your eyes and just imagine what it would be like to have no payments except for the house and have three to six months of expenses in the bank. When you reach Baby Step Four that’s what your financial picture will look like. This is where you get serious about wealth building.

Baby Step Four: Invest 15 percent of your income in retirement. That’s 15 percent of before tax gross income invested toward retirement. Why not more? You need some of your income left to do the next two steps, college savings and paying off your home early.

Why not less? Some people want to invest less or none so they can get a child through school or pay off the home super fast. I don’t recommend that because those kids’ college degrees won’t feed you at retirement and I’ve known too many 75-year-olds with paid-for homes and no money. Plus, by getting started now, the magic of compound interest will work for you.

Remember this is a rule of thumb, so if you cheat down to 12 percent or up to 17 percent, that is not a huge problem, but understand the dangers of straying far from 15 percent. If you under-invest, you will one day be buying the classic cookbook “72 Ways to Prepare Alpo and Love It.” If you over-invest you will keep your home mortgage too long, which will hold back the wealth-building power of your Total Money Makeover.

Do not include your company’s match as part of your 15 percent. By the same token, do not use your potential social security benefits in your calculations. A recent survey said more

people under age 30 believe in flying saucers than believe they will receive a dime from “social insecurity.” I tend to agree. It is your job to take care of you and yours, so part of your Total Money Makeover is to invest now to make that happen. If by some miracle social security is there when you retire, you’ll have extra money to give away. I’m sure you’ll forgive me for that.

Growth-stock mutual funds are what I recommend investing in for the long term.

Growth-stock mutual funds are lousy shortterm investments because they go up and down in value, but they are excellent long-term investments when leaving the money longer than five years.

When your company will give you free money, take it. Always start calculating your 15 percent where you have a match but don’t include the match in your 15 percent. If your 401k matches the first three percent, the three percent you put in will be the first three percent of your 15 percent invested. If you don’t have a match or after you have invested through the match you should next fund Roth IRAs. There are some limitations as to income and situation but most people can invest in a Roth IRA. The

“

“Where did all our money go?” too many months in a row – you are ready for a Total Money Makeover.

”

Roth grows tax free.

Start with any match you get, and then fully fund Roth IRAs. Be sure the total you are putting in is 15 percent of your total household gross income. If not, go back to 401ks, 403bs, 457s or SEPPs and invest enough so that the total invested is 15 percent of your gross annual pay. For more information about retirement investing visit www.mytotalmoneymakeover. com Dream with me for a moment, Joe and Suzy Average are a 27-year-old couple making the average American income of $40,816 per year and they are on Baby Step Four. They invest 15 percent of their income into four types of growth stock mutual funds with five to ten year track records. If Joe and Suzy Average invest $6,000 per year or $500 per month with no match into Roth IRAs from age 30 to age 70, with an average growth of 12 percent they will have $5,882,386 tax-FREE! That is almost $6 million. What if I’m half wrong? What if you end up with only $3 million? Sure beats the 97 out of 100 65-year-olds who can’t write a check for $600. There is no excuse to retire without financial dignity in the United States today.

A Total Money Makeover is not a magic show. You start where you are and you do the steps. These steps work if you are twenty-seven or fifty-seven and they don’t change. *** This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. – From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

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raising a family, the state hopes to save at least $3.5 million thanks to the negotiation of lower commissions and fees in addition to securing better media rates.

“We want to have one state, one vision and one brand,” said Fletcher. “For too long, state government has been operating ‘in silos,’ with cabinets and agencies all pursuing separate agendas and delivering different messages. We will now deliver one common message. Our goal is to harness the pride and the passion Kentuckians have for our state, and showcase that pride to the rest of the world, so more businesses will want to locate here, more visitors will want to vacation here, more people will want to live here, and more business will be conducted here.”

New West LLC, a Louisville-based public relations, advertising and marketing agency is spearheading the project

(L) Margaret Norton/NBC via Getty Images (Above) Courtesy of kytourism.com

After Jay Leno took potshots at the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Gov. Ernie Fletcher decided to fight back.

In July, the famed host of The Tonight Show proposed that the state’s slogan should be: “Kentucky: Got Teeth?”

A “terse letter” arrived from the governor asking for some equal time to fend off such stereotypical Southern wisecracks and explain the commonwealth’s new image campaign – a $15 million campaign.

Fletcher, armed with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat, used a little stand-up comedy to showcase his beloved state and fi re back zingers at Los Angeles on Leno’s show.

While $15 million sounds like a lot of cash to drop on promoting Kentucky as a great place for business, pleasure and Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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y

Fast Facts About Kentucky • Kentucky is one of four states to call itself a “commonwealth.” In 1792 when Kentucky became the 15th state - the first on the western frontier - both “commonwealth” and “state” were used. Commonwealth meaning government based on the common consent of the people, dates to the time of Oliver Cromwell’s England in the mid-1600s. The other U.S. commonwealths, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, were originally British colonies. Kentucky, once part of Virginia, chose to remain a commonwealth when it separated from Virginia.

• Cheeseburgers were first served in 1934 at Kaelin’s in Louisville • All Chevrolet Corvettes are manufactured in Bowling Green • The world’s longest cave, Mammoth Cave, was first promoted in 1816, making it the second oldest tourist attraction in the U.S., preceded only

by Niagara Falls • Both Civil War presidents, the Union’s Abraham Lincoln and the Confederacy’s Jefferson Davis, were born in Kentucky

by Colleen E. Cassity, Kentucky Bureau Chief to “brand” Kentucky cohesively. They have also teamed with Atlantabased Fitzgerald & Co. The brand should be released in the next couple of months.

Interestingly, New West’s research has shown that people who live elsewhere do not take negative jokes and stereotypes about Kentucky very seriously. However, residents feel the typecast is out there.

“People outside [of the state] have a really good impression of Kentucky. They see Kentucky as a beautiful state, but many people don’t know about Kentucky. That was surprising, but a fact. Obviously, a lot of people identify [the state with] the Kentucky Derby and certainly with horses,” said Kentucky Commerce Secretary Jim Host, who is overseeing the branding effort.

In 2004 alone, the Kentucky Derby generated $60 million for the local economy. “The Run for the Roses,” also known as the best two minutes in sports, has the world’s eyes on Kentucky, but Host stresses the state has so much more to offer. He cites a rich history, quality of life, inexpensive utilities, navigable waters, deep cultural pride, location within a days drive to many other cities, new age technology, and fuels like coal and natural gas.

“We are the Saudi Arabia of this country,” said Host.

With a $9 billion tourism industry in place, improving and promoting Kentucky’s inherent assets should make the commonwealth a better place for Kentuckians while creating an environment that is attractive to people starting and growing businesses.

• More than $6 billion worth of gold is held in the underground vaults of Fort Knox. This is the largest amount of gold stored anywhere in the world • The public saw an electric light for the first time in Louisville. Thomas Edison introduced his incandescent light bulb to crowds at the Southern Exposition in 1883 • Middlesboro is the only city in the U.S. built within a meteor crater • The first thoroughbred was brought to Lexington in 1779, and a 1789 census showed even more horses than people. Horses are a multi-billion dollar industry in Kentucky. Central Kentucky’s bluegrass region has the world’s greatest concentration of thoroughbred breeding farms. More registered thoroughbred foals are produced here than any other state - more than 10,000 were foaled in 2000 • Courtesy of www.kytourism.com.

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Everything about Jennings Osborne seems to be larger than life. “I can’t do anything in moderation,” he says.

Born and raised in Fort Smith, Ark. in 1943, he was in the same nursery room as his future wife, Mitzy. Their mothers even shared a hospital room too. It seemed their marriage was fated at birth, but they did not fall in love until after college.

Osborne’s unique tale did not stop there; his life seems to be as he has often called it, “a fantasy”.

One “Osborne-ism” as he calls the many facts there are about his family has to do with one of Osborne’s favorite places, Disney World. “There are only two people at Disney with their name on things, Walt Disney, and the Osborne family,” he says.

Osborne earned the right to have his name printed on 38

merchandise at Disney World thanks to his Christmas light display. “We do three things,” Osborne says, “Christmas lights, barbecue and fireworks” Osborne may be known now for his generous spirit, and over the top events, but at one time, he made headlines nationally for just one thing, his Christmas lights. For several years Osborne put up a display at his home in Little Rock that was so outlandish that he was ordered by the courts to take it down. The massive display started when his daughter Breezy was young, and she asked her dad for some Christmas lights. And as he says himself, nothing in moderation. The Osborne’s fought their battle to keep the lights all the way to

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by Mary-Kathryn Millner

the Supreme Court, but never won a motion.

But Osborne did not lose faith. “I like to think it was a divine intervention. It opened up a million doors for us,” he says. The lights that once adorned his home are the lights that now attract millions to Disney World. But Disney is the not the only place where Osborne’s lights shine. He also decorates Graceland, Jimmy Carter’s hometown, and Panama City, just to name a few. In total, his lights can be seen in over 30 cities around the country.

“The Barbecue is something I have always enjoyed doing,” he says. “We go to small towns and we serve everyone a small tray that weighs 11 pounds with NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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expression when they’ve just seen my Christmas lights, and eaten by barbecue and watched the fireworks. That is a triple hitter.”

Osborne made his money with his medical research company, Arkansas Research Medical Testing, which he started with his wife in 1968. The company, which is very successful at testing the safety of new drugs, worked so well because of Osborne’s philosophy that “customer service is everything.” That is no surprise since every aspect of his life seems to put others first.

Osborne gets his thrills from helping others enjoy life as much as he does. All his generosity is stickly for that purpose- there is no financial gain for him and his family.

“We have been so blessed and it is just nice to give something back and it is rewarding to us. We get a bang out of it- getting to do things for other people. I enjoy life, it is fun being Jennings Osborne.”

food on it.” At his barbecues, Osborne feeds up to as many as 7,000 people. “We do it all free,” he says. Following the feast, Osborne then provides the town with some entertainment in the form of a 20-minute, elaborate firework show.

“It is just great to go into a small town where people –they’re just forgotten, especially in Arkansas. We have such a rural area. We go in and do the barbecue and finish it up that night with fireworks. You know people talk about it for a lifetime.

They’ve never seen that much food before in their life or a firework show.”

But small towns are not the only people Osborne is feeding.

“We get to slop that barbecue for a lot of people, from one end of the spectrum to the other,” he says. Osborne has fed several presidents, many of whom he calls close friends, like Bill Clinton, the Bush family, and Jimmy Carter. Carter even attended his daughter’s 2003 wedding- for which he used the same company who provided the air-conditioned, chandelier filled tents that Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt used.

“The greatest thing in the world is to see someone’s

Osborne and Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt.

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Molly Fergusson

t isn’t every Christmas holiday that an eight year old boy eagerly anticipates getting back to school, but that is exactly what happened a couple of years ago at Palmetto Place, a temporary emergency children’s shelter in Columbia, S.C. When staff members asked the young boy why he wanted to get back to school so badly, he replied, “This will be the first year I don’t have to make up a list of what I got for Christmas.”

Celebrating holidays, as well as birthdays and special events is only one thing that makes Palmetto Place so special. The staff at Palmetto Place care about the children that stay in their facility and work hard to ensure they get the attention they need. A trip to McDonald’s for a happy meal, what many children take for granted, is a special treat for the children at Palmetto Place, one the staff makes sure they experience. Trips to the zoo and the area museums are also on the agenda. In addition to providing a loving environment and support for these children, Palmetto Place also makes sure their health care needs are addressed. Upon arrival at the shelter, children receive a full physical exam and are taken to the dentist and any medical specialist, mental or physical, whose services they may require.

Palmetto Place has been operating since 1977 as a non profit organization that provides shelter and care for children who have been removed from their homes. Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the shelter welcomes children ranging in age from two weeks old to 17 years who have suffered abuse or 42

neglect. Over the years, the facility has provided shelter to approximately 5,550 children, an average of 225 children each year. It is because of its non profit status that the shelter has been able to provide such one-on-one attention. The small, dedicated staff, and generous support of volunteers and donations, have kept Palmetto Place operating and meeting the needs of children.

Two events during the year are integral in helping raise funds for the shelter. One, the annual Beach Ball, hosted by the Junior Woman’s Club of Columbia, is held each spring. The other, held in November, is the annual “How Sweet It Is” dessert competition.

While proceeds from the Beach Ball go to assist with the operating

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Help around the South Gateway (Family and Children’s Services) 5201 Airport Highway Birmingham, AL 35212 205-510-2600 Website: www.gway.org Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter 7702 S.W. Regional Airport Blvd.

Bentonville, AR 72712 479-795-2417 CHARLEE Homes for Children (CHARLEE stands for: Children Have All Rights: Legal, Educational, Emotional) 5915 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite # 26 Coral Gables, FL 33146 305- 665-7365 CHRIS Kids, Inc., 3111 Clairmont Rd., Suite B Atlanta, GA 30329 404-486-9034 Children’s Home of Northern Kentucky 200 Home Road, Devou Park Covington, KY 4101 859- 261-876 Mississippi Children’s Home Society and CARES center, Inc. 1900 NW Street Jackson, MS 39215 Toll Free: 800-388-6247 New Braunfels Children’s Shelter PO Box 311682 New Braunfels, TX 78131 830-629-0659 888-324-6080 Above: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Upper left: George Frey/Getty Images Lower left: Peter Kramer/Getty Images

expenses of the facility, proceeds from the dessert competition go 100 percent to a project benefiting the house and the kids. In 2002, proceeds from the dessert competition funded a new playground, in 2003 a kitchen renovation. This year, funds from the competition will go into renovating and updating the children’s rooms in the house.

It’s not always Christmas at Palmetto Place, but the caring staff and volunteers make sure that the children who come there go back in to the world stronger and better able to deal with life’s demands – no matter the season.

Youth Services of Tulsa, Inc. 302 S. Cheyenne, Ste. 114 Tulsa, OK 74103 918-582-0061 AGAPE 4555 Trousdale Drive Nashville, TN 37204 615-781-3000

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know books.

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ble outages. no tuning in next week.

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Belita MORENO

By Jenna Blackwell

Texas native Belita Moreno, currently found slinging wit as George’s mom “Benny” on the hit ABC comedy George Lopez, has been learning and teaching her craft for more than 30 years.

Moreno’s current project, The George Lopez show, revolves around family situations and Lopez’s complicated life as the first assembly-line worker promoted to management in an airplane parts factory. The all-Latin cast that makes up Lopez’s family allows Moreno to give the show some edge as George’s sharp but loving mother. In real life, she’s no actor, raising two children and two Golden Retrievers named Sunset and Leonardo in Santa Monica, Calif.

“Benny” gets to show off her skills as a gifted comedian. Much of the dialogue on the show revolves around Moreno and Lopez, as a mother and son duo. Both actors have excellent timing and are great at feeding off oneanother. Her character constantly delivers put-downs to her on-screen son. She is a tough mother who wants to prepare her family members for whatever they may be dealt in life.

Moreno’s role as the critical mom is not her first notable television character. Moreno is also remembered from another television comedy, Perfect Strangers, where she spent five seasons playing “Lydia Markham.”

From a family full of “firsts” (Moreno’s mom was first Latina woman to graduate from Southern Methodist University, and her uncle was the first Latina student body president), Moreno graduated from SMU, where she excelled in the prestigious theater department along with other notables Kathy Bates, Patricia Richardson, and Beth Henly before heading out west for a professional career that includes notable roles in television, features and theater.

Moreno began her professional career on stage with the Pacific Conservatory of The Performing Arts in Santa Maria, Calif. After performing in musicals such as Once Upon a Mattress, the actress strongly pursued her acting career. After moving to Los Angeles she met director Robert Altman and appeared in three of his films. Moreno co-starred with Sissy Spacek and Shelly Duvall in Altman’s film Three Women. In 1978 she starred with Carol Burnett, Mia Farrow and Dezi Arnez in the Altman film A Wedding. Her last film with the Oscar-nominated director was A Perfect Couple, playing

It has truly been one of the highlights of my life to do this show, we have so much fun, it’s sickening.

COURTESY OF ABC

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“The George Lopez Show is history making, we are the longest running Latino family show, ever.”

the role of “Eleousa.”

Moreno has also appeared in, Oh, God! You Devil, Swing Shift, Nobody’s Fool, Men Don’t Leave, Mommy Dearest as well as more recent roles in Grosse Pointe Blank and Clear and Present Danger. Some of Moreno’s favorite work was with friend and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Beth Henly.

Interestingly enough, before The George Lopez show, Moreno was never cast as a Mexican-American. “When I came out to Los Angeles I couldn’t get arrested as a Latina!”

She played many remarkable roles portraying a variety of cultural identities, but was never type-cast as a Latina. So

when the opportunity to audition for The George Lopez show came along Moreno was very skeptical. Then she started getting calls from friends at ABC who knew her from her days on Perfect Strangers begging her to audition for a part as a Mexican-American mother, a role she had never played before. Now after working with her fellow cast mates it is an experience she is glad she did not pass up. “It has truly been one of the highlights of my life to do this show, we have so much fun, it’s sickening.”

Not just a talented actress, Moreno is also a very talented acting coach, using her knowledge of the craft to guide other actors. “It kind of just fell into my lap, and I got to work with some spectacular talents.” Some of her pupils through the years include fellow Texan Renee Zellweger, Britney Spears, Kate Hudson and rapper Eminem in his film Eight Mile.

In addition to her work as an actress and theater coach, Moreno lends her services to the community. Last year she was the keynote speaker at Catalina Magazine’s national tour called “Empowering Latinas.” The tour reaches over 3,000 professional Latinas each year and donates money to non-profit Hispanic organizations in host cities. The proceeds went to victims of the San Diego fires. Moreno also gives back right in her own back yard. “My own personal charity is a free-clinic that is right here in my neighborhood.”

Moreno knows that her current gig is no flyby-night sit-com. “The George Lopez Show is history making, we are the longest running Latino family show, ever.”

Moreno may be best known recently as George’s mother “Benny,” but she has proven she can do more than throw insults in her extensive career. With the show currently at the top of its time-slot, and a proven leader among Hispanic viewers, Belita Moreno shows no signs of slowing down.

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fighting the cancer war On the daytime drama As The World Turns, residents of its fictional setting Oakdale must summon their courage when the villainous character “James Stenbeck” is around.

by Robin Street

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Viewers often wonder if Herrera is as dark as his character. “People perceive me to be like the character they see on television, but I’m not,” he says. “I’ve got a comical answer I use when they ask me at book signings, ‘Are you anything like James? “ I say not at all. He’s rich.”

Indeed, he is “very Southern” and nothing like his character, says Fulton. “He’s polite. He’s a gentleman. He’s kind, but it’s his gentleness that he has.”

Herrera is also doing some acting on-line these days. One of his close friends , fellow Southerner Willie Nelson, stood

by Herrera during his cancer ordeal and gave him an idea for a new project. Herrera had developed a one-man show performing poetry.

“One night I was on Willie’s bus, and Willie said, ‘You need to put your one- man show on the web,” Herrra says.

So Herrera founded the Web site poetrytheatre.org . More than a one-man show though, the site offers streaming video of several actors performing poetry.

The actors, including Herrera, Nelson and Hume Cronyn, all donate their time.

“Think about a kid from Wiggins going to Hume Cronyn’s apartment and saying, ‘Mr. Cronyn- action,’ and Hume Cronyn performed an A.E. Housman poem,” Herrea says.

“That was a thrill.”

In August 2000, Herrera relapsed again. But six weeks later, a follow up CT scan showed that the tumor had shrunk without any treatment whatsoever. This meant his new immune system was fighting the cancer, a medical breakthrough.

Because of his treatment, Herrera, 59, is an advocate of stem cell research. “One, stem cell research saved my life and two, I want to keep living,” he says.

Today, Herrera trys to balance his work, diet, exercise, and personal life while having CT scans every six months. His courage continues to shine, as he refuses to live in fear. “You have to move forward in your life as if you’re going to stay in remission and be able to have a life,” he says.

NOTE: For a personally signed copy of Anthony Herrera’s book The Cancer War, visit www. Thecancerwar. com. Payment of $30 is a tax-deductible contribution to the Poetry Theatre.

Today, Herrera has been in remission four years, and has told his story in a selfpublished book, The Cancer War.

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But Mississippi native Anthony Herrera, the actor who plays Stenbeck, was forced to find a courage deeper than he could have ever imagined after he was told he was going to die from a rare form of blood cancer, mantle cell lymphoma, in 1997. Instead, he waged a medical history-making battle against the disease.

“If you don’t fight, you will die,” Herrera says.

Fight, Herrera did. He underwent a bone marrow transplant at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York using his own stem cells and was thought to be in remission. Eighteen months later, he relapsed and was told his only chance to survive was a sibling donor transplant.

Fortunately, his brother John was a match and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston had a new approach to the donor transplant. But even after the second transplant, he relapsed twice and suffered life-threatening complications. Today, he has been in remission four years, and has told his story in a selfpublished book, The Cancer War. The book includes memories of his Southern background. Herrera, who lives in New York, grew up in Wiggins, Miss., living with his grandparents as a teenager.

“Because of my grandmother drilling manners into me, I’m socially comfortable in any situation,” Herrera says. “ And I know how to work. I know what work is.”

He graduated from the University of Mississippi, aka Ole Miss, where he joined Sigma Chi fraternity and earned a B.A. in English and zoology. He then moved to New York where he studied acting for three years under Stella Adler, and paid the bills by working as a waiter.

After six years, he began to earn a living as an actor in August 1974, with an earlier role on As The World Turns as Mark Galloway.

Herrera has played Dane Hammond on The Young and the Restless for four years and Jack Curtis on Loving for two years. He has appeared in episodes of Mancuso FBI, The Incredible Hulk and The Rockford Files.

In addition to acting, Herrera has also been a writer, director and producer of Southern-themed shows. He produced and directed an award-winning documentary film, Mississippi Delta Blues on blues singer James “Son” Thomas, He also wrote the screenplay for and directed The Wide Net based on a Eudora Welty story for the American Playhouse.

But he is best known for the role he originated on ATWT in 1980, and has played off and on since then.

Stenbeck is the arch-villain who manipulates, kidnaps, defrauds, or terrorizes characters on the show. The character has spent years pursuing his ex-wife Barbara.

Eileen Fulton, a fellow Southerner from North Carolina, has played the character of “Lisa” for 45 years. She describes the character of Stenbeck as “our resident bad guy that absolutely turns the screws on everyone in town.”

Herrera describes the character a bit differently: “They say he’s the villain. I see him as a very effective man. If you go back to the core of the character, he’s a European aristocrat who comes from 13 centuries of power and money. He makes up his own rules, which very rich people do. As an actor, I try to make Stenbeck to that level. They tend to want him to be all bad and dark, but he’s not.”

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From real-life legislating and lawmaking in D.C. to lighting up the big screen, and small screen for that matter, this Southerner proves he can do it all.

Fred Thom Tho

by Amanda Manning

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mpson

A person doesn’t have to be a die-hard country fan to know Loretta Lynn. She can safely be called a personality, not just a celebrity. Over the years, Loretta Lynn has not been reinventing herself so much as she has been becoming herself. She manages that ironic blend of giving fans—regular folks— the feeling they know her, without ever becoming predictable or repetitive. Because of the movie based on her life’s story, Coal Miner’s Daughter, people may naturally connect her with Sissy Spacek, the actress who played Loretta in the film, but no one would ever confuse the two. Loretta’s best role is playing herself.

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(L) Former U.S. Senator Thompson (R-TN) speaks on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ where he supported U.S. President George W. Bush’s policy on Iraq.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

(Below) Former Sen. Thompson and his wife Jeri pose for a photo as they attend the Partnership For Public Service 2nd Annual Gala in New York City.

Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images

(L-R) The cast of Law and Order: Dennis Farina, Elisabeth Rohm, Dick Wolf, Fred Thompson, S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterston and Jesse Martin.

Trish Lease/Getty Images

Front page: Courtesy of F. Thompson’s PR

Fred Thompson, a former U.S. senator, recently joined the cast of the Emmy Award-winning series Law & Order as “District Attorney Arthur Branch.” No longer a novice to acting, Thompson has appeared in over 18 motion pictures and guest starred in several television series such as, China Beach, Wiseguy and Matlock.

Though Thompson, 62, is an accomplished politician and actor, he does not seem quite ready to admit his achievements. “If we are going to assume I have been successful, I guess that it would be due to the combination of luck and perseverance. I have had opportunities kind of fall into my lap and I’ve tried to take advantage of them,” he says.

The first opportunity came in the form of a movie called Marie, in which Thompson played himself. Thompson’s work on a case that led to unveiling a cash-for-clemency scheme in the government caught Hollywood’s eye and before he knew it, he was auditioning for a part.

“I thought I might have a walk-on, hand somebody a piece of paper and walk off, you know. But when I got over there, they handed me a script and it was the part of ‘Fred Thompson’, and I didn’t even know my character was going to be in the movie,” he says of his sudden role.

A natural to show business, Thompson not only dove head first into acting without having any prior training, but he also attempted to do a little directing. He would often offer suggestions of how he should act in a scene or how to do things differently, until director Roger Donaldson called him on it.

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“He (Donaldson) said to me, ‘Fred, it must be tough acting in and directing a movie at the same time.’ And we had a good laugh, and I backed off a little after that,” said Thompson.

Obviously a dedicated worker, Thompson demonstrated this same “allor-nothing” attitude in his political career as well. He was elected to finish an unexpired Senate term for Tennessee in 1994. Two years later he ran for reelection and received more votes than any previous candidate for any office in Tennessee history. However he did not stop there. During this term he was appointed to Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, which was quite an accomplishment because he was one of the junior senators heading a major committee.

Thompson served Tennessee as senator for eight years and decided not to continue. He says the founding fathers of the United States had the right idea in setting up a system of terms. Though he admits he left a little sooner than planned, he believes everything has worked out fine.

“I needed to do some other things and some personal considerations and so forth that dictated the precise timing. I thought an additional six years was just longer than I wanted to stay in public service,” he says.

Although he left office, his political passion has yet to leave him. He makes speeches for former colleagues running for office and has done a few things for President George W. Bush, such as narrating a video to introduce him at this past summer’s convention.

Holding a political office could have prevented him from experiences like filming The Hunt for Red October. He admired the character he played and got to spend a few days on the USS Enterprise. “I got to be around those young people out there on the ship, see how it operated, and eat with them, and spend some time with them,” he describes. “It was just a totally wonderful experience…the making of the movie. And I think the end product was a classic movie.”

Right now, Thompson is busy filming scenes for Law & Order in New York, but still maintains that his home is Tennessee. Traveling for work is nothing new to him. While he served as senator he spent his weeks in Washington and flew home to Nashville almost every weekend.

“I enjoy the variety frankly. There are certain things about home that nothing else can provide, but you know, spending a little time in New York is interesting also.

But as the old saying goes, it’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there,” Thompson says of his work locale.

When he’s not filming, Thompson’s favorite place to be is at his lake house in Tennessee with his wife, Jeri, and one-yearold daughter Hayden Victoria. He also has two sons and five grandchildren to spend quality time with.

Maybe all that family is partly why he can’t quit Tennessee. Or perhaps it is because his two alma maters are there. Thompson earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and political science at Memphis State University and went on to Vanderbilt University for his law degree.

Having grown up in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., it only makes sense that he would stick around for college and beyond. “It [Lawrenceburg] was a wonderful place and a great time in America in the 50’s and the beginning of the 60’s. I was still growing up in a typical small town atmosphere where everybody knew everybody, and life was pretty simple.

We didn’t think so at the time, but in retrospect, it was,” says Thompson of his childhood.

For now he’s happy to root for the Tennessee Titans and get in as much lake time as possible when he’s home. And his gentle Southern accent that he picks up when at home has never been a problem for his acting. “I guess they don’t cast me in anything where they don’t want my voice or my accent the way it is. We’re so well traveled and people move and change their residences and so forth so much nowadays, that it’s not as big an issue I think as it used to be,” he says.

His future projects include continuing Law & Order, but past that he can’t elaborate. “Things usually have a way of developing that are outside of your control anyway, so I’m always interested in seeing what kind of opportunities are around the corner, but I’m totally happy with what I’m doing right now.”

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coming

home Four of the Senate’s key Democrats say goodbye to Capitol Hill

by Meredith Dabbs

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home

ZELL BRYAN MILLER

Four of the Senate’s key Democrats say goodbye to Capitol Hill

Born: Feb. 24, 1932

Extraordinary Profiles of Public Service

Hometown: Young Harris, Ga.

ERNEST FREDERICK “FRITZ” HOLLINGS

College: Young Harris Junior College, University of Georgia Graduate School

Born: January 1, 1922 Hometown: Charleston, S.C. College: The Citadel, University of South Carolina School of Law. Family: Senator Hollings was raised in a family with four siblings and a hard working mother and father. He currently has 4 children and 7 grandchildren, and is married to Peatsy.

HOLLINGS & MILLER: Alex Wong/Getty Images, GRAHAM: Eric Francis/Getty Images, BREAUX: Mark Wilson/Newsmakers FRONT: MILLER: Spencer Platt/Getty Images, GRAHAM: Chris Livingston/Getty Image, BREAUX: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Political highlights: Elected Governor of South Carolina at the age of 36. In 1966, South Carolinians elected Hollings U.S. Senator. Elected to the Senate for the seventh time in 1998. Co-authered the Graham-Rudman-Hollings Act. Unsuccessful bid for President in 1984.

Plans after office: Will help promote the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Will be best remembered: As the longtime “junior senator” from South Carolina to Strom Thurmond, and for his thick old Charleston accent.

Political Highlights: Mayor of his hometown of Young Harris in the late 1950s. Governor of Georgia from 1991-1999, creating the nationally acclaimed HOPE scholarship, which has transformed education in Georgia and which many other states have sought to duplicate. Miller was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and quickly established himself as a strong voice for the conservative, common-sense approach to issues.

Plans after office: Sen. Miller tells Y’all, “I’m going to go home to Young Harris, walk the dogs twice a day down by the creek, play with the grandchildren and great grandchildren, and finish a book I’ve been working on.”

Will best be remembered for: His love of history, baseball and music. He has written six books, including “A National Party No More: The Conscience of A Conservative Democrat.”

Delivered “energetic” speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

DANIEL ROBERT GRAHAM

JOHN BERLINGER BREAUX

Born: November 9, 1936

Hometown: Crowley, La.

Hometown: Miami, Fla.

College: University of Southwestern Louisiana, LSU School of Law

College: University of Florida, Harvard Law School Family (wife, children): Wife Adele, four daughters, and 11 grandchildren.

Political timeline: Elected 38th Governor of Florida in 1978, U.S. senator in 1978.

Important events in career: Primary author of the USA Patriot Act Plans after office: Will teach at his alma mater, Harvard Law School Will best be remembered for: Unsuccessful run for president in 2003. Graham’s total net worth is estimated to be somewhere between $25 and $100 million, due in part to his Miami-based development company.

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Family: Married to Shirley Carver Miller since 1954. Two sons, Murphy and Matthew, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

He also has two yellow Labs, Gus and Woodrow.

Born: March 1, 1944

Family: wife, Lois Daigle, four children, and three grandchildren.

Political highlights: Elected to the House of Representatives in 1972 at the age of 28, and represented the 7th District of Louisiana for 14 years before being elected to fill Senator Russell Long’s seat in 1986. Widely recognized as a leader in the Senate.

Plans after office: Says that he will be “looking for a job.”

Will best be remembered for: The New Orleans Times- Picayune said it best, writing that Senator Breaux is “a mainstream Southern Democrat who has the skill to fashion legislative coalitions that draw extremes toward a bipartisan middle.”

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dixie destination Camden, South Carolina

the Southern steeplechase E

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ach November, 20,000 horsemen and fans come from all parts of the country to meet at the elite steeplechase horseracing event, the Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup, held at the historic Springdale Race Course in Camden, S.C. The event has taken a premier social status since 1970, becoming an honored South Carolina tradition. The Colonial Cup often decides national titles such as Horse of the Year, Jockey of the Year and Trainer of the Year, and includes purse money totaling over $180,000. It also lures people of all ages not only to see the unique race, but to also experience family fun in the country.

With entertainment such as wine tasting, the Ultimate Chef Challenge, pony rides and mule demonstrations, attendance is coveted.

If you can’t saddle up and ride to Camden (30 miles northeast of Columbia) for this year’s event, be sure to don your fi nest hat and join the 70,000 plus that will gather April 2, 2005 for the Colonial’s big brother, the 73rd running of the Carolina Cup, also at Springdale.

Whenever you make it to town, ride through and visit the 1780 Revolutionary War battleground, and Springdale’s National Steeplechase Museum (open year-round).

Log on to www.carolina-cup.org for more information about Camden, a special Southern spot nestled in the Carolina Sandhills.

by Jane Kathryn Saunders

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sports

Favre By: Jeffrey Rhea Mitchell

Above: Tom Pidgeon/Getty Images, Center:Ronald Martin Martinez/Getty Images

Not since the legendary Vince Lombardi has a figure so relentlessly roamed the realm of Lambeau Field. For 13 years, the football faithful of Green Bay, Wis. have tipped their oversized cheesy headwear to their adopted son and favorite quarterback. “I enjoy it here. I don’t want to move. I enjoy the fans and I just want to stay. I couldn’t envision myself playing for another team,” Brett Favre says.

Possessing a tough-as-nails demeanor on the field and a happy-go-lucky attitude off it, Favre, 35, has solidified himself as one of the NFL’s elite and most popular players. The only three-time recipient of the league’s Most Valuable Player award, the Packers prolific signal-caller has come a long way from his days in rural Mississippi.

Situated in Hancock County in the coastal plains of the Magnolia State, Favre’s hometown of Kiln (pronounced Kill) was named for the kilns built by early French settlers for the production of tar and charcoal. Kiln enjoyed a boom in the 1920’s when it became known as the Moonshine Capital of the World during the bootlegging days of prohibition.

The son of a football coach, Brett Lorenzo Favre grew up in the small town and played his prep ball at Hancock North Central High School, where his all-natural instinct and clean-

cut character fostered his Hall of Fame ability. Favre earned the fi rst of five letters in baseball in the eighth grade and led the team in batting all five seasons. Favre also received three letters in football, where he played quarterback and strong safety while holding down special teams responsibilities of punting and placekicking.

Favre learned the nuances of football from his late father, Irvin Favre, who served as his mentor. Though the elder Favre noticed considerable potential in his son, the ball coach stuck to his offensive game plan, which centered around a traditional ground attack, leaving Favre’s passing game virtually non-existent. So when college recruiters came calling on the younger Favre, bids for collegiate quarterback positions were not in the cards. In fact, there was only one offer on the table, and despite his desire to lead the Golden Eagles at quarterback, Favre was recruited as a defensive back by the University of Southern Mississippi. However, the Golden Eagles’ staff gave the resilient Favre a chance, and he began summer camp of the 1987 season as the seventh string quarterback. He would eventually work himself into the lineup and break numerous school records during his time at quarterback, 1987-1990.

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sports p most punishing punis game, Favre proudly dons his green No. 4 jersey ffor the Green Bay Packers P s and happily wears a smile the size of Lake Mic Michigan. An eight-

time Pro Bowl selection, Favre carries a proverbial cannon for an arm and is widely considered the game’s most feared passer. Favre ranks in the NFL’s top five in four major passing categories.

“Brett not only continues to demonstrate his talent as one of the league’s best players, but also continues to display an intense passion for the game, his teammates and the Green Bay Packers,” says Packers GM/Head Coach Mike Sherman of his field general.

“Nothing he’s accomplished so far in his career has surprised me, nor will any future accomplishments surprise me.”

After setting an NFC single-season record during the 1995 season with 38 touchdown passes, Favre won his fi rst Most Valuable Player award on January 1, 1996. He also led the Packers to a convincing 35-21 triumph over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. Playing 100 miles from his hometown in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Favre threw for 246 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and ran for another score in the Super Bowl victory.

Arguably considered the toughest quarterback ever to have played the game, Favre has made over 190 consecutive regular-season starts, an NFL record for a field general and a mark that comparatively rivals

baseball’s Cal Ripken, Jr. Equipped with a slow, Southern drawl, and a healthy affinity for Christian charity, Favre’s down-home style off the field is as eye-popping as his gridiron feats. Named one of sports “good guys,” Favre was recognized for his genuine civic responsibility. He’s involved in numerous charities throughout the nation, including the Brett Favre Forward Foundation, which, in conjunction with his annual golf tournament and celebrity softball game, has donated close to $1 million to twelve charities in Mississippi and Wisconsin over the past seven years.

Favre, his wife Deanna, and their two daughters, Brittney and Breleigh, have established residences in both Hattiesburg, Miss. (where he owns 460 acres) and Green Bay. During his time off from the gridiron, he enjoys TV nature programs, playing golf, crossword puzzles, fishing and tending to his home and land.

From the small town charm of Kiln to the storied sod of Lambeau Field, Favre’s journey of success has led thousands of fans to awe and cheer this native son of Mississippi and adopted son of Wisconsin.

Southern Boys Under Center in the NFL Name

NFL Team (Hometown/College)

AARON BROOKS – Saints (Newport News, Va./Virginia) DAUNTE CULLPEPPER – Vikings (Ocala, Fla./Central Florida) JAKE DELHOMME – Panthers (Breaux Bridge, La./Louisiana-Lafayette) BRETT FAVRE – Packers (Kiln, Miss./Southern Mississippi) Above: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images, Right: Streeter Lecka-Getty Images

KELLY HOLCOMB – Browns (Fayetteville, Tenn./MTSU) BRAD JOHNSON – Buccaneers (Black Mountain, N.C./Florida State) BYRON LEFTWICH – Jaguars (Washington, D.C./Marshall) ELI MANNING – Giants (New Orleans, La./Ole Miss) PEYTON MANNING – Colts (New Orleans, La./Tennessee) JOSH MCCOWN – Cardinals (Jacksonville, Texas/ Sam Houston State) STEVE MCNAIR – Titans (Mt. Olive, Miss./Alcorn State) CHAD PENNINGTON – Jets (Knoxville, Tenn./Marshall) PATRICK RAMSEY – Redskins (Ruston, La./Tulane) PHILLIP RIVERS – Chargers (Athens, Ala./NC State) MICHAEL VICK – Falcons (Newport News, Va./Virginia Tech) 58

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Southern-sational: 2003 Co-MVPs Steve McNair and Peyton Manning shake hands, while Daunte Cullpepper applauds.

(Photo by Ronald Martinez /Getty Images)

10/11/04 6:49:55 PM

Long John Above Right: Ronald Martinez-Getty Images, Left: cott Halleran-Getty Images, Background: Donald Miralle-Getty Images

2004 has been the comeback year for a golfing rebel

John Daly and his atypical ways have surged back into the PGA Tour limelight. “ It is just a wonderful feeling to win again... this is the sweetest victory,” Daly proclaimed after ending a nine year winless streak on the tour with a narrow victory at the prestigious Buick Invitational in February.

With this victory and several top ten finishes in 2004, Daly has climbed from 299th in the World Golf Rankings.

Nicknamed “Long John” and “The Lion” because of his long driving prowess, Daly, 38, is currently ranked third in PGA Tour driving distance. However, his climb up the tour money earnings list is a direct result of his improved putting statistics. John has ranked in the PGA tour’s top ten putting averages all year long. “Anytime you win a tournament, you win with your short game. I won the British Open with my short game. I won the PGA with my short game” Daly says.

The University of Arkansas alum began his unlikely journey into American lore overpowering a major field as the ninth alternate at the 1991 PGA Championship.

“I drove all night when I got the call. No practice rounds.

Hell, I barely made my tee time.”

From that moment on, Daly became the workingman’s golf pro. John looks more like a professional arm wrestler than a professional golfer. He travels to tour events via high tech tour bus vs. private jet. And, if there is a Hooters in the host city, you can bet “The Lion” and his pride will be hawking merchandise from a van in the parking lot.

Fellow PGA tour outlaw, and major champion, Fuzzy Zoeller, befriended John early on. Recently Fuzzy predicted that John’s “grip-it and rip-it, full throttle lifestyle” would never allow the golfer to see 50, and the Senior PGA Tour.

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John Daly with his wife Sherrie and son John Jr. during the final round of the Buick Invitational. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

cott Halleran-Getty Images

The John Daly chronology looks more like a rap sheet than a timeline. Divorce papers, drinking binges, rehab, tournament withdrawals, obsessive gambling, and lost endorsements grabbed the headlines over the past decade. These realities only fueled “The Lion’s” popularity.

At any given golf tournament, Daly’s rambunctious following overshadows the galleries of the world’s top ranked golfers. Razorback “Hog Hats” and NASCAR gear glittered the tee box gallery of the tenth hole at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis this summer. The former Cordova, Tenn. resident (now Rogers, Ark. resident) is the tournament’s biggest draw. “The Lion” played guitar and sang with Kid Rock and Hank Williams Jr. earlier in the spring at Memphis rock club Newby’s. In fact, John recorded an autobiographical rockabilly CD entitled My Life, to benefit Make-A-Wish. John took his true to life songs into the studio and, “had a ball. I am no singer, it’s hard, but very rewarding.”

At this year’s PGA Champions Dinner, 2003 Champion and former Memphian Shaun Micheel presented all former champions with a Gibson “Lucille” Guitar. After getting some help with the tuning, Daly held a jam session lasting well past midnight- not your typical two-time PGA Major Champion stuff.

In 1995, Daly again stunned the sports world with a playoff victory in the British Open on golf ’s oldest stage at St. Andrews in Scotland. Nine long years marred with suspension, depression, and losing followed. John’s battles with compulsive behavior remained front-page national media material. In August 2001, John married his fourth wife, Sherrie.

Daly has four children. And, children are his passion. He is a long time fundraising catalyst for the Mid-South Make-A60

Wish Foundation. “Granting wishes encourages them to keep fighting,” explains John, “and seeing the good it brings them encourages me to keep helping these kids.”

During a practice round in August before the PGA Championship, the bighearted lion caught up with club professional Bruce Smith of Lewisville, Texas. Smith’s twoyear-old daughter was born with lymphatic malformation of a portion of her face. Smith had recently organized a celebrity pro-am tournament at his home club to raise money and awareness for his daughter’s foundation. After completing his practice round with Bruce, Daly reached into his pocket and forked over a wad of cash. “I thought he was handing me a business card,” Smith said. “But, then he handed me a roll of bills. John said, ‘Put this in your foundation.”

Even the staunchest of PGA tour officials will admit that John’s heart is as big as his monster tee shots. His relationship with the tour has been rocky at best. However, television executives were quick to capitalize on John’s resurgence. ABC paired Daly with 2004 Masters Champion Phil Mickelson to square off against world No. 1 Tiger Woods and fellow long-baller Hank Kuehne. The made-for-TV event aired in primetime in August.

With impressive finishes throughout his comeback year, “The Lion” is showing no sign of letting up. Exclusive tournament invitations and PGA Tour exemptions are in store for 2005. That’s good news for extreme golf fans and television executives alike. story by Jason Nall Arkansas Bureau Chief

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fl h

flying high at

95

by Jennifer Russell

The thrill of piloting a takeoff, soaring through the sky, and completing a landing safely back to ground is an experience that many people may never know.

Courtesy of Cititzen Tribune, Morristown, TN, Gary Smith, CWC

Evelyn Johnson has been doing just that for nearly six decades. In her years in the sky, she has completed 57,565 flying hours, which, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the most flying hours for any woman.

On Nov. 4, 1909, Johnson was born in the mountains of small-town Corbin, Ky. She grew up loving the outdoors and had a thrill for technology at a young age. While attending high school, she never really thought about college, but she received a scholarship that enabled her to go to Tennessee Wesleyan College, a two-year college in Athens, Tenn. After graduating with honors, she taught high school for a couple of years, following in the footsteps of her mother.

One summer, Evelyn enrolled at the University of Tennessee in hopes of eventually finishing a four-year degree in English. She met Wyatt Jennings Bryan and later married him while in college. At that time in Tennessee, a law prevented teachers from getting married while working as a school teacher. According to the law, she would have to be married for five years and come back to teaching.

“I will say that going to college is important,” Johnson says. “But I’ll say also that there is not a thing in the business that I’ve been in all these years that required it. But, you do study a lot.”

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“Teaching is very rewarding,” Johnson said. “You take somebody that doesn’t know a thing in the world about it and someday make them a captain on an airline.”

Johnson left her teaching job and U.T. with one semester left to graduate. She and her husband moved to Jefferson City, Tenn. to run a dry cleaning business, College Cleaners, in 1933. When Mr. Bryan left to fight in World War II, Johnson found herself managing the business in his absence and was beginning to feel the strain. Johnson began her flying career as a hobby and a way to get away from her job.

An ad in a Knoxville paper saying, “Learn to Fly!,” prompted Johnson to get on a train from Jefferson City to Knoxville and go to pilot school.

“It [flying] was just to get out of the job for an hour or two a week,” Johnson said. “I was running his laundry and dry cleaning while he was gone and it grew awfully tiresome. I thought if I got out for an hour or two a week it might make it less tiresome.”

Like a plane launching in takeoff, so did Johnson’s long-lived flying career that started out as a hobby.

Over the years, Johnson has received many different levels of pilot licenses including a private license and a commercial license both of which she received in Knoxville in 1945.

A year later she received her Instructor’s rating, which enabled her to teach flying lessons. Johnson is such a renowned teacher that she has won 39 awards and has been inducted in five halls of fame, according to Johnson. In 1979, Johnson was named the Federal Aviation Administration National Flight Instructor of the Year. She is a member of the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame as well as the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame.

“Teaching is very rewarding,” Johnson said. “You take somebody that doesn’t know a thing in the world about it and someday make them a captain on an airline.”

Teaching became her true passion and to many past students she has been instrumental in their flying careers. Some of her students have gone on to receive several awards and some of the highest levels of flight ability by the Federal Aviation Administration. Nancy Dowgherty, of Mosheim, Tenn., a former student of Johnson, received both her private and commercial license under Johnson. She remembers how caring Johnson was as a teacher, but at the same time she 62

remembers how demanding Johnson could be.

“She’s very exact, and she expects a lot out of you,” Dowgherty said. “But she’s always very understanding. She knows the rules and regulations and she doesn’t let anyone slip by.”

In 60 years of teaching and flying, Johnson has accomplished much, including winning a Carnegie Award in 1959 for saving the life of a fellow pilot in Ft. Worth, Texas.

“It was a helicopter that crashed, and I carried a fire extinguisher, which was really much too heavy for me to carry, and crawled under the plane and extinguished the fire for one of the pilots to get out,” Johnson said.

Not long after receiving the Carnegie Award, Johnson’s husband died of cancer in 1963. She remarried Morgan Johnson in 1965, but also lost him to cancer only 12 years later.

Johnson had no children of her own but she carried on her flying tradition with her stepson and his children.

“I taught solo to each one of them (stepgrandchildren) on their 16th birthdays and gave them their private license test on their 17th birthdays,” Johnson said. “That’s as young as you can do that.”

Her love of her students and teaching still continues today as she works as an FAA flight examiner and still is the manager of the Morristown (Tenn.) Airport.

She is known fondly as “Mama Bird” around the airport because of the way she treats her students, according to Johnson.

“One of my lady students sent a long time ago a Mama’s Day card,” Johnson says. “I thought what in the world is she doing that for, she’s nearly as old as I am. There was a letter in there that said, ‘Mama Bird, you treat the students just like a mama bird treats the baby birds. You look after them all the time.’”

Johnson has no plans to retire from teaching and issuing pilots licenses in Morristown any time soon.

“A man asked me one time ‘What is your desire for the future?’ And I said,‘To live.’”

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the nut of the south

THE PECAN

by Jason Derrick

The pecan tree in my Grandmother’s backyard was a giant. Its trunk at the base must have been ten feet around, and as a child I really couldn’t even imagine how tall it was. Its branches stretched far over the yard so that even on the hottest summer day there was always a spot of cool grass somewhere under its canopy.

After a hard rain, the spicy fragrance of the pecan tree’s bruised leaves moved gently in the steamy air, and always since then I have associated that smell with all things good—all things home.

I didn’t really care for the footballshaped nuts that fell like hail from the tree in my Grandmother’s backyard until much later in life. Adults watched in horror as I took great pains to remove the mosaic of nuts from a slice of my Grandmother’s pecan pie.

Only recently have I realized a true appreciation for pecans and how lucky we are in the South to have such ready access to them.

I’ve recently begun to build my own house. There are five pecan trees in my backyard, none as grand or mysterious as the one from my childhood. But the sharp scent of the leaves after the rain still smells like home.

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local

PECANS

Whether toasted or roasted, sugared or spiced, or just hanging out on top of a pie, pecans always seem to be around during the holidays in the South. Tins full of pecan medleys are given as gifts, are on tables as part of celebrations and are always savored and appreciated. And here are a few of our favorites ….

Golden Kernel Pecan, Cameron, S.C. www.goldenkernel.com 800-845-2448 Situated where the South Carolina Sandhills meet the Lowcountry, Golden Kernel Pecan Co. was the first shelling plant in the Carolinas. With selections ranging from Butter Roasted Pecan Halves to Orchard Fresh Cracked Pecans, Golden Kernel Pecan Company has everything you need for special gifts or baking needs.

Indianola Pecan House, Indianola, Miss. www.pecanhouse.com 800-541-6252 Pecans from Indianola Pecan House are an indispensable part of many Mississippians holiday celebration. Pecan half offerings such as bourbon praline, key lime and roasted garlic are sure to satisfy a variety of tastes. With retail locations throughout the state, Indianola Pecan House also offers a delicious assortment cookies, candies and pies.

Whaley Pecan Company, Troy, Ala. www.whaleypecan.com 800-824-6827 Since 1937, Whaley Pecan has supplied high quality pecans to users throughout the United States. You can purchase pecans in the shell, shelled, in pieces or in bulk. For those with a sweet tooth, donʼt miss the large sized halves covered in white or milk chocolate or the orange frosted natural pecans!

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ms. s. grits

DECK THE WALLS, HALLS, AND BATHROOM STALLS, Y’ALL

by Deborah Ford

Deborah’s new book “Puttin’ On The Grits” Guide To Southern Entertaining will be available April 2005.

Other books and Grits® merchandise can be found on the website www.gritsinc.com

Nothing is bigger than Thanksgiving and Christmas in the South. There is always warmth in our hearts, music in the air and lots of delicious food on the table. Needless to say, it’s all about the pure joy of being with our spirited mix of family and friends.

A big part of our holiday season is family traditions. We have our Southern traditions as well as traditions that are unique to each family. They are repeated year after year with the planning and preparation beginning weeks or months in advance. Some have been passed down for generations. We bring out our best! From our brightest vinyl, best linen, everyday stainless steel, finest silver, favorite plastic glasses, beautiful crystal, colorful paper plates, to our very best china, we go all out and “Put On The Grits.”

Especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas, the food includes everything imaginable. What Southern table doesn’t have at least turkey, ham, green bean casserole, oyster dressing, candid sweet potatoes, yeast rolls, sweet potato pie, and a big coconut cake? I could never leave out the notorious banana pudding and the recipes that every family reserves for these special holidays.

Ambrosia, a dish made with oranges and coconut, graces many Southern holiday tables. The making of ambrosia is surrounded by the same sort of heated debate that surrounds cornbread. Each family has its own recipe, and each is sure it’s the only authentic ambrosia.

Ingredients vary from apples, bananas, cherries, and nuts, to marshmallows... and the Southern table would not be the same without it.

Decorations are another way we put on the grits. Traditionally, Christmas decorations are brought out from the attic or basement right after the Thanksgiving meal. Some families have entire rooms devoted to these precious items. In the traditional Southern home, the front yard features reindeer and nativity scenes. The bushes, trees, and house itself have thousands of lights.

We love these lights so much it’s not unusual to see them on houses all year.

Some neighborhoods are so bright they could easily be mistaken as the second burning of Atlanta. The front door

and windows are featured with ribbons, lights, and greenery. Inside, ceramic Christmas villages, stockings, and, of course, Christmas trees as high as the ceiling grace every home. Maybe we’re making up for the fact that throughout most of the South, there’s hardly any chance of a White Christmas, but, whatever the reason, it sure does look pretty around here.

In the South poinsettias are as traditional at Christmas as fireworks are during the Fourth of July. Many people use their plastic ones year after year! There are so many fun and wonderful traditions that can be enjoyed by all. Making and sharing gingerbread houses, fruitcake, eggnog, various preserves, jellies, cookies, candy, and many other treats are customary for our family, friends and neighbors. Cutting the family Christmas tree was always special in our home, and we spent hours locating the perfect one. It was also a yearly ritual for my Aunt Peggy to help us decorate the tree, while telling or making up funny stories.

As special as the food, the holiday treats, decorations and wonderful traditions. When I think of Christmas, I don’t think about the candles or lights or the cranberries or the ornaments or even the gifts I received (or didn’t receive), but, the warmth and love from all the people I know and care about.

“

As a Southern girl, I was raised to always remember the real reason for this special season, which is the birth of our Lord and loving our fellow man.

”

As a Southern girl, I was raised to always remember the real reason for this special season, which is the birth of our Lord and loving our fellow man.

Have a wonderful Southern holiday and keep on making those memories. By the way you Southern Gents, remember how to make a Southern Belle ring….. diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and rubies.

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home plate Duck Serves 6

Slow Roasted Mahogany Muscovy Duck, Beluga Lentil and Wild Mushroom Circuit Hash

by Marvin Woods

This is the time to really be thinking about breaking out the duck. Now don’t get me wrong, I think duck is good anytime of the year, but there is something about the fall and winter that makes me really want to serve it. Maybe it’s that rich juicy fat flavor that sticks to your ribs and says, “I’ll keep you warm,” or just the fact that it is an item that is hunted at this time of the year so you think, “Ah, the duck is really good this time of year.” I don’t know but whatever the reason I think of this time of the year and I say “Duck.”

Now for my selection of duck I like to use the farm-raised version. Why? Because the farm-raised duck has more of a fat content than the ones that are out in the wild. Don’t be worried though, with the slow cooking method the fat flavors the meat and drips down to the pan underneath, so you get flavor and not a whole lot of fat.

Now I will say this recipe is a little more involved than others, meaning, quite a few ingredients, and also quite a few steps in preparation... but it’s the holidays and more than any other time now is the time to have more time in the kitchen. So grab a bottle of wine and go to work. Believe me, everybody (including you) will be happy you did.

1 whole 3 to 5 pound Muscovy Duck 6 bunches spring onions (chopped small) 3/4 cup plum sauce 1/3 cider vinegar 1/4 cup honey

6 cloves garlic (minced) 1 1/4 cup hoisin sauce ½ cup light soy sauce 1/4 cup dry sherry

For this recipe you will need a cooking rack to place on top of a deep roasting pan to catch the excess oil. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Season duck with salt and pepper on both sides. Pour mixture over duck. Place on the rack and place in oven. Now depending on the size of the duck the cooking time can take up to 6 hours. Once the duck starts cooking you want to rotate the position of the duck (turn it on its side, back etc.) every 40 minutes until it’s done, and occasionally baste the duck.

Beluga Lentil Wild Mushroom Circuit Hash Serves 6

2 pounds of beluga lentils 1 cup red wine 6 cups chicken stock 1 bay leaf ½ onion 1 carrot Place in a pot and cook over low heat until lentil become soft to touch or taste. Strain off liquid and place lentils on a tray to let cool.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TURNER SOUTH

3 pounds assorted mushroom (Shiitake, Domestic, Oyster, Crimini, Portobello) 1/4 cup vegetable oil 3 shallots minced 1/4 cup garlic minced Chef Marvin Woods is the host of Home Plate on Turner South, which airs M-F at 10am, 10:30am, 3pm and 3:30pm ET. He is also the author of The New Low-Country Cooking.

Keep mushrooms separate. Clean and stem if needed. Place one type of mushroom in a bowl and season with salt and pepper and some of the garlic and shallots. Place on a sheet tray and roast

for 3 to 5 minutes (depending on the mushroom) or until the mushroom starts to soften. Repeat these steps until all the mushrooms are pre-roasted. Cool and then mix together.

Hash

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil 1 shallot minced 1 cup corn on the cob 1 cup edamame (fresh soy beans) sugar snap peas or lima beans 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock 1 medium tomato diced 2 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley chopped 1 tablespoon butter (optional) To put the hash together, start by sautéing the shallots in the oil. When translucent add the corn and edamame. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat. Add the tomatoes and parsley. Add salt and pepper and simmer for about 2 minutes just combing all the flavors and add the mushrooms last. If you want, finish with the butter. This is optional and not needed.

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wine down south

B

CHAMPAGNE, FOOD, FAMILY AND FRIENDS

by Doc Lawrence

Patricia Kluge employs a hands-own approach to wines produced at Kluge Estate Winery in Charlottesville, Va. Her wines are highly regarded and Kluge sparkling wine is a delicious accompaniment to holiday treats before dinner.

irmingham lawyer Jack Hood, an author and genuine gourmet chef, lost 35 pounds with his fascinating version of a “low-carb” diet. “I enjoy good wines,” he revealed, “ from South America and Italy with walnuts and exquisite Parmesan cheese.” Hood traveled the South before the holidays, sharing his weight loss discovery with the like-minded.

Festive meals and seasonal parties don’t always fit with diets, and even Mr. Hood allows year-end exceptions. Champagne is the South’s traditional holiday favorite. Each Christmas eve in Crowley, La., Ed Michael Reggie’s family gathers for a Champagne tasting. “It’s a black tie affair and we rate the Champagnes while we trim the tree, eat caviar and pâté.” Mr. Reggie confirms that Champagne is at its best with hors d’oeuvres.

As a holiday wine gift, Champagne stands alone. Most of the Champagne houses are located in Rheims where Joan of Arc had Prince Charles crowned King of France in 1429. Madame Lily Bollinger, who headed her famous Champagne house, said she drank Champagne during the holidays and “ . . . when I’m happy and when I’m sad.

Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone.” Bollinger Champagne recently teamed with Riedel Crystal and developed a new tulip glass as part of Riedel’s wine-specific Sommeliers Series. Combined with a fine bottle of Champagne, the set of stemware is a functional gift.

Sparkling wines are highly popular during the holidays and Stone Hill Winery in lovely Hermann, Mo. makes astonishingly fine wines from grapes that prosper in the region. Patty Held-Uthlaut’s family founded Stone Hill and she recommends ocean-flavored Gulf oysters paired with her superb Stone Hill Brut. “This is deliciously festive,” she said, “and so American.”

Patricia Kluge owns Charlottesville, Virginia’s heralded Kluge Estate Winery just a few miles from Monticello, and produces her own sparkler, Kluge SP 2001, an impressive, creamy Blanc de Blancs in the méthode champenoise. “Pop the cork, set out some flavorful food like lobster gratin and enjoy the holidays,” advises Patricia.

Serving an appropriate wine with turkey is easy. Before his death in 1999, the great wine pioneer Jim Sanders gave me his priceless food and wine pairings. Sanders, a Southern renaissance man and French-trained cook, imported his own award-winning wines from France to Atlanta and beyond. In the Jeffersonian tradition, Sanders educated thousands by “matching the weight of the wine with the weight of the food.” Most white wines, he believed, were too light for turkey. He preferred grand cru Beaujolais like Morgon and Moulin à Vent or flowery red Côte de Beaune Burgundies like Volnay and Pommard. According to Michael Panzer, owner of Fort Lauderdale’s Gold Medal Wine Bar, Alsatian Riesling or Gewurztraminer works well with turkey plus there are excellent Kosher wine counterparts to all these. “Kosher wines provide many of the benefits of organic wines and they are available at good retail wine stores,” Panzer says.

During the holidays, there are many arts-related events featuring wine and food.

Mobile, Ala. ends the year with its Nutcracker Charity Ball benefiting South Alabama charities, while the Mobile Opera rewards its financial supporters who helped restore the Saenger Theatre with food, wine and fabulous performances.

As we enjoy holiday feasts and celebrations, we remember Julia Child, a founder of the American Institute of Wine and Food. Our sommeliers, chefs and wine enthusiasts in the South are her progeny.

Bon appetit, Julia!

Doc Lawrence is a wine and food writer who divides his time between Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta. H He also writes and lectures about wine iin relation to Southern cuisine and lifestyles from his home in Atlanta and in South Florida.

Doc welcomes emails at doclawrence@yall.com.

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Ginny Walsh’s

strength strength of character How one Texas teen turned a senior project into a record-breaking event

Above: Denison University/SID, Left: St. Andrew’s E.S.

At five years old, Ginny Walsh begged her parents to let her join the year-round swim team. They did, but with the stipulation that her father check the pool temperature each morning to make sure it was warm enough for his young daughter to swim in. Little did this protective father know that twelve years later he would be receiving phone calls filled with ocean wind and excitement from a boat leading his daughter through a channel of white capped water in Hawaii.

How did this swimmer find herself fighting the waves of the Palilolo Channel between the Islands of Maui and Molokai?

The idea developed from a school assignment given to all senior students at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. Each year, seniors are expected to complete a project such as an internship, research paper, or art work.

The 17-year-old wanted to do something related to swimming for her project and began researching channel swims with her parents on the Internet. The first channel considered was the English Channel, with 68

temperatures around 50 degrees and a distance of over 20 miles. But for the daughter whose father wouldn’t let her train in water that was too cold, this was more than Ginny was prepared to tackle.

She narrowed down her search to swims over five miles and she found information on the Hawaiian channels, they seemed perfect: the right distance with water temperature in the upper 70’s.

While Ginny had completed a threemile lake swim, the Palilolo Channel, at nearly 8.5 miles was a challenge, but one that seemed possible.

Ginny told friends Lizzie Kohout and Nathan Michaud about the idea and the three of them decided to make a documentary film of the swim as a joint project. When they proposed the idea, “the professors thought it was a little nuts, but approved it,” says Walsh.

Ginny wrote to Carl Kawauchi of the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame and let him know of her plan. Carl sent a packet of information and Ginny began contacting boat drivers to find someone who could lead her through the channel. One driver was unavailable, another tried to talk her out of the swim altogether, and the third was the charm. She had her driver.

St. Andrew’s coach Kirstin Weiss and athletic director Laura Longoria accompanied the three students to Hawaii.

On March 12, 2004, the group shopped for bottled water, Snickers Marathon bars, sunscreen, Vaseline, and Benadryl. Ginny also did a one mile swim in the ocean to get used to the water and to calm her

fears of what might be lurking beneath her as she swam. “The word shark was not mentioned until after the swim,” said Ginny, whose fears were also eased by her parent’s confidence that things would be fine, and by the statement that Ginny read during her initial research online stating that there was a better chance of dying from a coconut falling on your head than a shark attack.

Early Saturday morning, before the sun had risen, Ginny, Lizzie, Nathan, Kirstin, and Laura piled into the small boat captained by Jim Dixon. They drove for nearly an hour to Hawea Point, where a lighthouse marked the beginning of the swim. Ginny swam over to touch the nearby rocks, following the first rule that swimmers begin the channel swim on land. The next rule that she had to follow wouldn’t be as easy; she could not make contact with the boat again until she touched land on the other side of the channel.

Greasy with sunscreen and vaseline to protect from chaffing, Ginny began to stroke, one arm after the other, through the water. She would maintain almost an even pace during the next five hours as she moved through the waters of the Palilolo channel whose name means “crazy water.”

Ginny followed closely behind the boat, and during the first part of the swim, the team fed her water and Marathon bars about every 30 minutes using a lacrosse stick to hand the items to her. Further into the swim, Ginny stopped about every 15 minutes for refueling and encouragement.

“The first part of the swim was very

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r

by Carrie E. Young peaceful, just blue water, no fish or anything,” remembers Ginny, “I was feeling very happy until about four miles.”

It was at this point that Ginny felt a sharp, hot sting on one of her legs and let out a scream. She couldn’t see anything in the water, but received at least five more excruciating stings on both of her legs.

This time, the lacrosse stick delivered two Benadryl tablets and Ginny’s friends assured her that the pain would soon let up.

About thirty minutes later, Ginny felt the same piercing pain on one arm and then the other. In tears, all she could think about was how many more jellyfish were waiting for her in the water. Ginny would later learn that the channel is known for its Portuguese Man-O-War. She would also learn later that every swimmer that had crossed this channel before her spotted at least one shark during their swim.

Ginny remembers begging her friends to let her get out because of the exhaustion and pain, and them convincing her to stay in. But the documentary film that the students made recorded a different story. Coach Laura Longoria said to Ginny, “You have done a fabulous job, you’re more than half way. If you want to get out, you can get out.”

But Ginny looked at her and said, “No, I want to keep going.”

This strength of character helped carry her through. Ginny remembers thinking, “I really wanted to do it and I knew I could do it, at least physically.” Another source of strength during the swim was a prayer that her mom had written. Ginny repeated it over and over during the most

difficult hours of the swim. “Dear God, stay with me, help me finish, keep me safe.”

After the stings, Ginny still had over five miles left to go. The pain was subsiding and the next few miles were fairly smooth.

But soon Ginny began to notice the waves growing and the boat moving further and further away from her. A current was carrying her towards a reef and rain was starting to fall. The team in the boat told her not to try to swim back to the boat but to just keep swimming forward. She was getting more and more frustrated because the current seemed to be holding

“One more mile.” her in place and she couldn’t stop for a break because when she tried, the current would move her backwards.

The team in the boat began to get worried about how far the current had taken her from them. Kirstin Weiss remembers seeing Ginny 200 yards away from the boat, and “there was nothing we could do…that was possibly one of the worst moments of my life.” They began telling her to try to swim back to

the boat. To do this, she would have to swim through white crested waves that were being churned up from the storm that was moving in.

Ginny called out, “How much further?”

“One more mile.”

When she heard them yell this – for the third or fourth time – she realized her friends had been lying to her and telling her she had one more mile for the last couple of miles to help keep her psyched.

At 500 yards, Ginny could see the beach but had run completely out of energy and wanted to stop. Nathan jumped in the water to swim with Ginny and didn’t know what to say to her as she said over and over that she wanted to stop. “She would tell me she couldn’t go any further…all I knew was she had come so far and I wasn’t going to let her stop at this point.”

She kept going.

Minutes later, 17-year-old Ginny Walsh went down in history as the youngest swimmer ever to successfully cross a Hawaiian channel. The strong willed swimmer had gone a total of 9.1 miles, over half a mile further than planned because of the strong currents.

The students spent the several days in Hawaii relaxing before returning home to Texas where they would edit the film of Ginny’s swim. The swim made the record books in Hawaii and must have also made history at St. Andrew’s High School as the most exciting senior project to ever to be laid down on a teacher’s desk.

Today, Ginny’s on the swim team at Denison Univesity in Granville, Ohio.

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Farmer bo b What’s in a name ?

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country and see how people are and how they behave. Some are very warm and some are distant; [but] you pick up these little jewels every once in a while,” says Bob. He doesn’t travel alone; he often takes “Molly,” the rescue dog he and wife Jo Ann got last December.

With the recent weather disasters in the South, one must really wonder what the next predictions will be. “Sometimes we get it right on. We say that a hurricane will hit in a specific location.

When it happens, we call that a direct hit. If not, we just kind-of forget about it. Weather patterns run in about 11 year cycles,” he says. The cycle we are in began “a couple of years ago. The next eight years will be about the same we think.” Several college classes will do studies on the predictions, and have concluded an “accuracy of 78-82 percent.”

To back up the almanac predictions, you can access a slightly older book, the Bible. “Red at night, sailor’s delight; red in the morning, sailor’s warning.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus said that,” Farmer adds. “Anybody can look up at the sky and tell you what the weather is going to be the next day.”

This is proof that people have been talking about the weather for several thousand years. Also included in the 2005 Farmers’ Almanac is commentary about past hurricanes and storm safety from The Weather Channel’s ace meteorologist, Jim Cantore.

According to Farmer, almanacs came from England and are always annual publications. People were very interested in the many different almanacs, and read them religiously as they were “placed next to the Bible.” The Farmers’ Almanac is available in two versions: newsprint and retail. The newsprint version includes weather, astronomy, and stories whereas the retail version is in color, with all that the newsprint version has to offer plus ads. The Farmers’ Almanac boasts as being one of the oldest continuously published periodicals, originating in 1818. “A lot of people really get into it; others just go by the moon signs,” he says. Bob often hears “my Grandmother lived by the almanac and wouldn’t do anything unless she checked the sign.” You can also find helpful hints for vegetable cooking times, lessons on wedding traditions, recipes, and the healing powers of hydrogen peroxide; which you will have to see to believe.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

“I always wanted a fancy name. But it’s Farmer Bob if you say it backwards,” says spokesman for The Farmers’ Almanac Robert “Bob” Farmer. But as Bob clearly states, “If my name was Herman Schwartz then I couldn’t use it [well] enough for the almanac!”

The Louisville, Ky. native gets “the privilege of going around and talking about the Farmers’ Almanac and entertaining folks” with his unique sense of humor and common sense tips. Although not related to the almanac or the owners in any way, the Farmer name couldn’t have been destined for any other career path.

Working at a bank in the 1970s, Farmer, 54, got the chance to befriend the Geiger family, which owned the Farmers’ Almanac. The bank bought the Almanacs, and gave them to customers every year. Bob helped the Geiger family “go around town and do a little sweep and do interviews, TV, radio, newspaper and all that stuff ”. Until the 1980s, the almanacs were just given away by sponsors. Apparently Bob had a knack for storytelling in a way that would make “technical talks about IRAs, banking, and stuff like that” seem funny; he “wasn’t even trying” to be funny. He began adding a little more humor to his presentations and began “rolling on one day” as he was talking to the Geiger family and asked them, “Did you ever stop to think what my name is?” There it was, Bob Farmer and the Farmers’ Almanac: an inevitable marriage.

People hire Bob to speak at events such as chamber meetings or for rural electric companies; most of these places buy the Almanacs and give them to their employees. Bob says that his talks are mostly “80 percent entertainment and 20 percent almanac.” Bob also adds educational “Bobservations,” as he termed them. For example, “the word vegetarian is an old Indian word that means bad hunter.” He also has a list of “Bob’s Famous Ten Tips,” which include common sense guidelines such as “If you don’t understand…ask,” and just as important, “If you wonder whether or not to say something… don’t.” These tips are light and funny, but good advice.

Traveling is a big part of Bob’s job, as the Farmers’ Almanac is popular throughout the United States. “One of my favorite things is to meet the different people in different areas of the

by Meredith Dabbs

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r bob Bob has two sons Scott, 24, and Brian, 27. They’ve expressed a little interest in continuing on dad’s path. Brian has helped his father sell ads for a couple of years. “I don’t know that they would get out and do the speaking and all of that stuff.”

Whether a blessing or a curse, one thing is for sure, they would get the same recurring question as their father, “Is that your real name?”

For the past two years, Nashville has been the location of the release party for the Farmers’ Almanac. Previously released in the Northeast, the Farmers’ Almanacs are now being premiered at The Grand Ole Opry House. The Almanacs are available in the gift shop at the Opry, and on Tuesday nights you can even get Bob Farmer to sign it after the show. “[It’s a]nice marriage between the Grand Ole Opry and The Farmers’ Almanac. Everybody prospers and it’s good publicity, a good relationshipwhen everybody benefits.”

And Bob’s personal predictions for 2005? “Things will change.”

There is a limited supply of sponsor almanacs available free. Email Farmer Bob at almanac@yall.com

PREDICTIONS FOR 2005 A storm track along the East Coast is expected to be quite active. So along with milder-than-normal temperatures, Florida and the Southeast may see a wetter-than-normal winter with frequent periods of showers.

There could be hurricane activity for the Eastern U.S. In late July, while the Gulf Coast could be adversely affected during the third week of August, and again in the second week of September.

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cranky yankee I am a cranky Yankee

by Laurie Stieber

Laurie Stieber is an Atlanta-based entertainment attorney and freelance columnist. The New York City native can be reached at yankee@yall.com

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I am a cranky Yankee. Worse than that, I am a cranky, Jewish, entertainment attorne Yankee with dark hair and brown eyes, who came here from Manhattan 12 years ago on the midnight train to Georgia. What that confounded Confederate conductor deliberately failed to warn me of as he grabbed the ticket from my hand, was a profoundly important - and truly on the books - State Law of Georgia: “Donkeys may not be kept in bathtubs.” Had I have been aware of that legal stroke of genius, I surely would have set my alarm clock, those 12 years ago, for 12:01 am, thereby missing the danged train.

Well, what’s done is done. I live here now, in the land of cotton, even if old times there - the cotton sweater rack at Bloomingdale’s in New York City - are not forgotten. Being a Bi-Polar mom (a Yankee, Dixie Chick wannabe, who will never look good with blonde highlights like all the other Southern moms on the carpool line) in Atlanta, has its definite character building qualities. It has made me “tougher than a one-eared alley cat.”

Fitting in comes easier to some folks than it does for others. My husband, Andrei, for example, is a Romanian “Ricky Ricardo.” He is a Jewish immigrant and a Liver Transplantation Surgeon at Emory University Hospital.

Andrei is a born-again Redneck. He loves the South, and the South loves him.

Andrei even has the key to East Dublin, Ga., because he gave the mayor’s wife a shiny new liver. Some people stoop to any old lifesaving trick in order to get the key to a Southern city. Other people just get cranky, like a one-eared alley cat.

I suppose I may have one teeny, tiny confession to make and that perhaps, just perhaps, I do deserve this bout of penitence I seem to be serving that would justify the difficulty fitting in.

My thoughts weren’t exactly …hmm… pure, when Lewis Grizzard might have needed a new liver. As confessions go, mine, as a then aspiring columnist lusting after Lewis Grizzard’s space in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, would sound something like this, “Andrei, if you give Lew a new liver, guess who isn’t getting ‘nekkid’ for you tonight?”

All right, all right, I am ashamed, y’all! I have been trying to make amends ever since. I ate Chitlins. The boiled kind, even though I thought our

host was ordering chickens, as in wings.

There is more to my humility. As I was chewing the large intestines of the pig, while trying to retain consciousness, I kept my thoughts about the incredible stench to myself. I completely refrained from saying, “Does anyone else at this table smell the worst men’s locker room on earth after their socks have run 10 million triathlons in Hell?” Wait! My heartfelt humility has a grand finale. I sent our host a thank you note, as all wellbred Southern Belles do, for the privilege of gagging on Chitlins (I forced my hand to omit the word “gag” in the thank you note, further proof of repentance.)

Confession #2: I did not know what

“” I am becoming a Dixie Saint, albeit a cranky one.

a Moon Pie was when I moved here.

Yankees prefer, appropriately enough, “Yankee Doodles” or “Ring Dings.”

So, I confess. I told my friends up North that a “Moon Pie” was eight Rednecks standing in a circle at a sleazy bar and dropping their drawers, mooning underaged, beer-guzzling girls. We laughed at the expense of Southern snacking culture, but I feel deep remorse and regularly buy Moon Pies for my teenaged son at Kroger’s, deliberately passing up the “Yankee Doodles.” I am becoming a Dixie Saint, albeit a cranky one.

This penitence business is getting me plumb tuckered out. It’s making me crazier than a run over dog. It’s getting my grits in a snit, especially because I don’t dare reach for the Quaker Instant kind. I know Southern sacrilege when I see it. Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am. My grits are homemade, as is my cornbread.

Homemade to the very core by the marvelous take-out chef at OK Café where I am welcomed as a preferred customer.

So, when I ring your doorbell, dear known for your Southern hospitality neighbor, with a picnic basket of homemade cornbread especially for you, please don’t look away, look away, look away…Dixieland.

Shalom, Y’all!

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what southern women know

Y’all Yankees Should Know The Rules

by Ronda Rich

Ronda Rich is the author of What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should). www.whatsouthernwomenknow.com

Southern women are terrific at writing our own rules. Of course, we don’t always go to the extreme of imposing these rules on ourselves but we do sweetly suggest that others follow the guidelines we have devised.

Here’s a rule of Southern womanhood: Never be offensive to a Yankee who has enough courtesy to stay put above the Mason-Dixon line. There is no sense in ruining our gracious image by being mean to those who know their place. Besides, there are some excellent Yankees, both here and there, who should not be judged by the behavior of the obnoxious ones.

Another rule is that if they do move to Dixie, then do your best to win them over.

Mold ‘em more into our image because, after all, the world could use more of our kind. Teach ‘em the importance of multiple casserole recipes, sweet tea, handwritten thank you notes, perfect hair and silver patterns. We know going in, that it might be a losing battle. Admittedly, we Southerners have lost a few battles to the Yankees but we have also won some mighty important ones. Therefore, we are never without hope. We are an optimistic society.

Some Yankees complain loudly of their treatment when they move South. Maybe it would be beneficial to explain a few things that might help us all get along better. I don’t suspect many Yankees will be thumbing through Y’all, looking for tips on harmonious living but some of y’all might want to clip it out and send it to offenders.

This, of course, should be done courteously and anonymously. We wouldn’t want to offend anyone openly.

Number One Rule: All white flags are immediately rescinded the moment that a Yankee makes fun of us. That is called stepping across the proverbial magnolia line. We don’t cotton well to it at all and anger crawls across us as quickly as kudzu spreads in the summer heat. Here are other words that rile us mightily: I can’t understand a word any of you people say.

Sounds like you have a mouthful of grits. Why on earth would anyone come to a person’s homeland and make fun of the way they talk? Would you go to England or Scotland and spit their words back in their faces?

That’s bad manners at their worse. Besides, we’re proud of the Scotch-Irish, French and English accents that dance through our words. It’s lyrical and soothing.

That’s not the way we did it up North. We’ll try to be polite but underneath, we’re seething when we hear this. Bottom line: We don’t care. It’s how we do it here and we’re the ones who have been nursing this land back

to health since the war that ravaged us and the depression that dang near starved us.

I’m surprised that so many people have indoor plumbing. If you really thought that, then why were you dumb enough to move here?

Is in-breeding a wide-spread practice? Now, here’s an example of over-the-top rudeness: A transplanted Yankee clipped out a wedding announcement and took into the bank to share with my niece’s husband.

“Look here!” the Yankee exclaimed happily. “Nix Marries Nix! All my friends up North told me I shouldn’t move down here where they in-breed. I’m mailing this to them to see they were right!”

Without a smile, Jay replied, “That’s my brother-in-law.” My nephew had married

“” All white flags are immediately rescinded the moment that a Yankee makes fun of us.

a young woman who, coincidentally, had the same last name. No relation.

Now a Southerner would have had the grace to salvage the moment. For instance, had we said something unkind about our most hated enemy, General Sherman, and the person replied, “He was my great grandfather”, we would have recovered quickly to say something like, “And I’m sure he was a fine family man. We just found him lacking in certain social graces.”

But not that Yankee. That Yankee, instead, clapped his hands together in delight and laughed gleefully. Apparently, he was happy to meet a member of the clan.

You need to know this: When you cast aspersions on our bloodlines or our families, you have crossed the line into the marshes of dark anger. You will not win. Instead, you will sink only into a murky abyss.

All I know about the Civil War is that we won.

Those are sure-fire words that’ll end the cease fire.

There are some nice Yankees who live here and are a welcomed addition to our homeland. But some of ‘em are giving all of ‘em a bad name. So, perhaps we should prevail kindly on the nice Yankees to take care of the mean Yankees.

Apparently, Southern niceness isn’t working completely.

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My South

uses knives and forks, but biscuits finish the job. In My South, if you wouldn’t want your momma to hear it, you don’t say it. My South is on Turner South.

Weekdays at 8AM ET

For the Best of Rick & Bubba Volumes 1 & 2 DVD set and other Turner South gifts go to TurnerSouth.com!

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blue collar

About Bill

by Bill Engvall

I was born in Galveston, Texas in 1957 in the middle of a hurricane and I guess because of the drop in the barometric pressure it affected my brain and I was destined to become a stand-up comic. Although at that age I wasn’t aware of my destiny.

We moved a great deal when I was a child and so I used my sense of humor to make friends quickly. The final die was cast when in third grade we had a class play. We were doing the play “Clementine,” which for those of you who may not be aware was a western. I had always wanted to be a cowboy but because my voice was still too high, combined with the fact that I was a bit scrawny, I was forced to play the role of Clementine. Yes, in third grade I was wearing a dress and singing the theme song.

So it was either become a cast member of “La Cage” as a female impersonator or become a comic. Obviously I chose the latter much to the delight of my parents.

I was always the “Class Clown” and over time became very good at it. I started doing comedy on stage at the Dallas Comedy Corner where I honed my skills by working with and watching guys like Garry Shandling, Robin Williams, Jay Leno and more. After two years of doing shows in Dallas, I was ready to hit the road. When I started doing road work I realized how much I loved the job. I could work at night, sleep in late, and the drinks were free. It filled all three of my job requirements.

In 1982, I got married to a wonderful woman, Gail, who I am happy to say is still with me after all these years. She is either the best woman I have ever met or the craziest for putting up with being married to a comic. We moved to St. Louis in the summer of ‘84 where we continued to save money for the big move to Los Angeles- the Mecca of comedy. This is where you have to be, or so I had been told. When my wife was six months pregnant we loaded up a UHaul truck and packed our two dogs off to the Promised Land. My timing has never been great. Yeah, move when your wife is pregnant--good choice!

Once in Los Angeles I had several goals-one was just to make enough money to pay the rent on the overpriced house that we were living in, and the other was to become a big TV star. At least I met one of those! When the day came that I got my first audition, I asked my lovely bride to help me study for the part. Years later I was to find out that as we were reading the lines together she nearly went into labor. Not because it was time to have the baby but because I was so bad at acting that she nearly freaked into labor.

I couldn’t act my way out of a wet paper bag. Needless to say she got me into some good acting classes. My first part was on Designing Women, and after that I was hooked.

I had tasted the forbidden fruit and loved it.

There were a couple of years with no parts in any shows for Bill Engvall, although I continued to work the road becoming a better comic. Then I got my first big break,

I got to do The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Can you believe it? I was going to be on with the man -- Johnny Carson. I was as scared as I have ever been. The spot went great and I thought here we go. Then nothing, no calls from big producers, no calls from movie people. I guess they were all out of town the night I did The Tonight Show.

I then got another break when I won the American Comedy Awards “Standup Comic of the Year” in 1992. This was a huge coup for me since no one had any idea who I was other than those great fans that attended comedy clubs. After that I landed a role on the Delta Burke Show which ran for a year and was promptly cancelled for reasons that still baffle me. Now it was time for my first album Here’s Your Sign, and thanks to all of you fans who made it the No. 1 selling comedy album of 1997. I then started touring with Jeff Foxworthy, whom you all know, and we had a blast on the road together. I subsequently ended up with a part on his television show.

In October 1999, I released my second album entitled Dorkfish and couldn’t believe that I was still doing this for a living. Here’s Your Sign went Gold, meaning that it sold over 500,000 albums and Dorkfish was well on its way toward that milestone also. I

“

Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall star in Blue Collar TV, airing Thursdays at 8/7 Central on The WB.

Yeah, move when your wife is pregnant — good choice!

”

started doing concerts across the country on my own tour and was having the time of my life. I had two children then, who still remain a wealth of material, and was working on my third album.

In the year 2000 Now That’s Awesome was released and Jeff and I started the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with two other comics who most of you now know as Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy. This tour ran for three years and culminated with the release of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour movie in 2003.

We recently filmed a sequel to be called Blue Collar Rides Again which will be released in December. The movie also spawned a TV show called Blue Collar TV which airs on the WB on Thursday nights, and my own standup special Bill Engvall’s Here’s Your Sign-Live aired on Comedy Central and was released on DVD in August. It still amazes me that what started out as a hobby has become one of the loves of my life and a job all rolled into one. I hope that I see all of you at my concerts, and have the chance to meet you personally.

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star gazing Presents with Presence

PRACTICAL WHIMSY southern hospitality hollywood style

by Joe LoCicero

Stone Mountain, Ga.-raised Joe LoCicero is a Hollywood writer-publicist and entertaining guru whose eclectic, collective credits include Entertainment Tonight, The All-New Captain Kangaroo and Frasier. He began the “Practical Whimsy” movement in 2003.

For groovy goods and hip tips, check out www.practicalwhimsy.com.

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Hollywood’s quest for the NBT (that’s Next Big Thing) naturally extends to gift-giving, when studios, agents and executives strive for creativity and originality… at often big expense.

One of giftdom’s most extravagant examples is now part of Hollywood lore: the cast of Will & Grace – Will McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally – received matching Porsche Boxsters, at about $50,000 each, as a thank you present from NBC. But as the holiday season always presses us to come up with winning ways to remember relatives and lavish love ones, we needn’t visit a car showroom to do so. Let’s just look to the stars – and those who wish to impress them – for some ahead-of-the-curve and top-tier notions. And if the idea is too debt-provoking, then maybe the gift inspires a leaner priced, but just as worthy, substitute.

Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and Drew Barrymore have all been on the receiving end of the luxury items found by Los Angeles-based Donum Gifts, which specializes in high-end, name-brand and trend-setting merchandise. Their clients include Hollywood’s top studios, talent agencies, networks, executives and celebrities and, as such, Donum has to be particularly inventive, innovative and inspired. As partner Kristy Wylie says, “We buy for people who have everything. The gift doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to be fabulous.”

To that end, this season Donum Gifts’ most notable offerings include a silver “Martini Lunchbox” ($75) that comes complete with a sleek shaker and two martini glasses. From the Vera Wang Home line, Donum suggests the new silver challis bowl ($95) or silver bar tray ($195) – that can double for drinks or candles – and is ideal for “office, home or dressing room.”

For a recipient to wrap up in comfort – on set, in a limo or on the couch – the Anichini Italian Surf Throw ($395), made of 100 percent merino wool, comes in dashing colors, such as a tangerine and fuchsia stripe. The Kookoon silk Velvet Throw ($550) features the label’s signature silk on one side and cushy velvet on the other. But a star’s ultimate luxury may be the 100 percent Cashmere TV Blanket ($895), with pockets for both feet and a remote.

When Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney, were filming Ocean’s 12 in Italy, they no doubt heard about the European rage, the Nespresso espresso maker. Those involved in productions overseas have clamored for it in the states, making it a hot item for the holidays.

With the Nespresso D290 titanium model ($499), an espresso, cappuccino or latte is perfectly, nearly instantly brewed one-at-a-time using single-serving capsules (offered in varying strengths). As soon as the cup is brewed (the unit is outfitted with a 1.2 liter removable water tank), you simply pop out the crushed capsule and enjoy your java with this revolutionary, ultra-clean, and jaw-droppingly clever system.

And just in time for 2005, Hollywood movers and shakers will get a new way to strut their stuff with the Trikke 8 ($199), an adult-sized “clambering” vehicle that’s part bicycle, part skateboard, and part in-line skates. The Trikke 8 takes the best of those popular transportation modes and combines them for a riding sensation more akin to skiing, snowboarding or surfing.

If you’re looking to navigate the Hollywood maze – with or without a vehicle – there’s the portable automated Garmin Street Pilot 2610 GPS ($1,000).

If Donum’s luxuriant leanings strike you as too indulgent, a couple of other Los Angeles connections embrace star whims… at price points that aren’t at all bracing. Their good nature also applies for warm hostess gifts, eclectic stocking stuffers, or gifting a gaggle of co-workers or bosses.

For those who relish the calm of a lesshectic holiday, check out these relaxing options from Elephant Gifts, a Ventura Boulevard store that caters to the execs, production staff and talent shooting at such nearby studios as Warner Bros., Universal and Disney. Tops on Elephant’s Christmas list is the Essential Stuff line-up ($6 - $28) of body lotions and wick-ed candles in such spirited scents as fig ‘n peach and cucumber gardenia. Elephant also is into the crazy-cool Tigo collection ($25 - $40), a line of brag books, stationery sets, and sketchbooks (with either water colors or colored pencils, your choice). Each of the Tigo items is wrapped in a suede cover in one of 12 vibrant colors.

Hollywood-ites – and any aspiring artist -- are also prime candidates for the Buddha Board ($38), which combines the joy of creation with the Zen of letting go. Using water – and the cup and bamboo brush provided – you can paint an image on the board that disappears within minutes.

And when all other ideas seem just-not-right, any Southerner knows that food is always the best bet for a one-size-fits-all solution. Oprah “O-List”-er Good Karmal candies – started by a former publicist for Felicity, Buffy and Smallville -- make life oh-so-sweet. For a mere $22.50, the Good Karmal classic gift box is packaged with nine pieces of the good stuff. Nestled inside the woven mocha-colored keepsake box, each karmal comes wrapped in a fortune inscribed with a quote of wisdom. Jennifer Garner and Sarah Michelle Gellar have raved about Good Karmal, which has also brought happiness to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno cast and crew, and as gift bag swag for out-of-town guests at Tori Spelling’s July wedding.

So whether you’ll be shopping this holiday season for candy, candles, or a car, make sure you see stars on your tree, on your list… and in your gift choices.

Donum Gifts: Elephant Gifts: Good Karmal:

310-317-4577 or www.donumgifts.com 1-800-303-1155 www.goodkarmal.com

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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of fame

Lewis & Clark

by Nikki Roberts

America would not be the great nation that it is – from sea to shining sea – without the bravery of two Southerners, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

I

n 1801, President Thomas Jefferson came to the decision it was time the western parts of North America should be charted. His desire was to have a map of the area created, make contact and peace with the Indians, and have a record of birds, plants, reptiles, insects and mammals in the area.

The man Jefferson found fit for the job was Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809). Lewis, a Virginia planter, spent his childhood in the same Charlottesville neighborhood as Jefferson.

On March 6, 1801, Jefferson sent Lewis, an army captain in Pittsburgh, a letter offering him the position of secretary aide; one of the traits cited by Jefferson was Lewis’ “knowledge of the Western country.” Jefferson soon instructed Lewis to gather a group of men, to be called the Corps of Discovery. They were to find the most convenient route of travel between the United States and the Pacific Ocean.

Lewis recruited 45 men for the treacherous journey, but felt that he could not successfully complete his task without the help of a co-captain. This co-captain was to be Lieutenant William Clark (1770-1838). Clark, a brother of Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark, had been a commander of a militia sub-legion that Lewis was a part of in 1794.

Clark was four years Lewis’ senior, but the two had many things in common. They were both Virginians, born leaders and both were Army officers.

After setting out from St. Louis in 1803, the Lewis and Clark Expedition went by boat and foot, often led by Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman, traveling over 8,000 miles of unmapped terrain.

The discoverers reached the Pacific Ocean in November 1805. They had not only mapped the western countryside but had also logged scientific descriptions of 178 plants and 122 animals.

When the voyage ended, Lewis became Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Lewis died mysteriously on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee just three years after the expedition’s close.

Jefferson is believed to have written the inscription on his tombstone. In Latin, it reads “I died young: But thou, O Good Republic, live out my years for me with better fortune.”

Clark became Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and rose to general in the U.S. Army. He lived in St. Louis until 1838, where he died at the age of 68.

The two Southerners will forever be linked and remembered for their courageous exploration, and its enormous impact on the burgeoning American nation.

Today, the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration is an opportunity for us as a nation to learn about the expedition, enhance cultural awareness and to acknowledge the traditions and sacredness of the land. (www.lewisandclark200.org)

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William Clark

2005 Nickel Designs The United States Mint recently announced that it is issuing two newly designed 5-cent coins (nickels) in 2005 with a new image of President Thomas Jefferson on the obverse (heads side) of both nickels. The reverse (tails side) of the second nickel shown here will feature a design that signifies the culmination of the Lewis & Clark expedition.

(Photo by US Mint via Getty Images)

Meriwether Lewis Photo by US Mint via Getty Images

A documentary of General Nathan Bedford Forrest featuring commentary by Shelby Foote.

Presenting the first documentary to look exclusively at the life of the Confederacyʼs “Wizard of the Saddle.” This film on Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest features expert analysis from Civil War writer Shelby Foote, Gen. Parker Hills, Nelson Winbush and others. Portrayed by Stan Dalton, Gen. Forrest comes to life in this objective work by director Jon Rawl. Ride with Forrest and discover for yourself the extraordinary life, controversy and myth that surrounds this Southern legend.

by Rick Hynum m

$1995 $1495 60 min. VHS

49 min. Audio CD

log on to:

Also available is the full 49 min. audio interview CD with Shelby Foote, featuring commentary not heard in the documentary VHS.

www.RebelForrest.com

or call toll-free:

1-866-815-0872

$3 per item shipping charge. Mail check payable to Jon Rawl/ P.O. Box 1217, Oxford, Miss., 38655 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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For 25 years, women and their loved ones touched by breast cancer have trusted Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization for support, information and empowerment.

LEFT: KEVIN WINTER RIGHT: ROBERT MORA /GETTY IMAGES

Where to turn when your world turns upside down

We understand; we’ve been there. Y-ME offers the only multilingual, 24-hour hotline in the country staffed by trained peer counselors who are also breast cancer survivors. We believe in the power of support—survivors helping people meet the challenges of living with breast cancer.

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Y-ME National Breast Cancer Hotline 1-800-221-2141 (English)* 1-800-986-9505 (Spanish) *Interpreters available in 150 languages

www.y-me.org

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10/14/04 6:33:32 PM

memoriam ininmemoriam JOHN AND BOWDEN MADDEN

DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES,

Florida State University head football coach Bobby Bowden and wife Ann lost a grandson and an ex-son-in-law and as a result of Hurricane Frances.

John Allen Madden, 45, a former FSU football player under Bowden, and his son, Bowden Madden, 15, died as a result of a traffic accident on rain-soaked Interstate 10 in Quincy, Fla. on Sept. 5.

John had been married to Ginger Bowden Madden, an Okaloosa County prosecutor, for 22 years, until the couple’s divorce in January.

Bowden Madden was a sophomore offensive lineman at Choctaw High School.

AL DVORIN

Dvorin, the concert announcer who made famous the phrase “Elvis has left the building,” was killed in an auto accident in California on August 23. He was 81.

The night before, the Chicago native performed his signature closing line at an Elvis impersonator concert.

Dvorin was with the King from his early days as a performer and was on his last tour in 1977, the year Presley died.

JOE BARRY

Louisiana performer Joe Barry, whose 1960 version of “I’m a Fool to Care” put him in the national spotlight, died of heart complications on Aug. 31 at the age of 65.

Barry, whose given name was Joseph Barrios, recorded his 1960 hit, which went gold and landed him on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

Barry was a “swamp pop” legend, a style of music that derived from the postWorld War II swamps of South Louisiana, and is a hybrid combination of rhythm & blues, Cajun music and other influences.

SKEETER DAVIS

The Grand Ole Opry star died after a long fight with cancer at the age of 72 on Sept. 19.

Davis hit the top of the pop charts in 1963 with “The End Of The World.”

GEOFFREY BEENE

Haynesville, La. native Beene died on September 28th of pneumonia in New York at the age of 77.

His clothing line is known throughout the world, which he created on a limited budget in 1963.

ELLIS MARSALIS SR.

The patriarch of a family of world famous jazz musicians, including his grandsons Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Marsalis died at the age of 96 in New Orleans on Sept. 19.

He is survived by daughter Yvette M. Washington and son Ellis Marsalis Jr., a world-renowned performer in his own rite and father of four musical Marsalis’: Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason.

LT. COL. JOHN F. “JACK” BOLT

The last surviving double ace of World War II and the Korean War, the Florida native was a member of the Marines legendary “Black Sheep Squadron.” He was credited with six Japanese kills, and shot down six MiG-15s during a threemonth period in Korea in 1953. After leaving the military, he retired to New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where he died of leukemia on September 8th.

GOV. KIRK FORDICE

The first Republican governor of Mississippi since Reconstruction, Fordice died of leukemia on Sept. 7.

A self-made millionaire through his construction company, Fordice upset an incumbent Democrat in 1991, then served as governor from 1992-2000, becoming the first and only Mississippi governor to win re-election.

COURTESY HENSELY FAMILY

JACK HENSLEY

Hensley, a Marietta, Ga. resident, was working for a United Arab Emirates-based construction company during a yearlong stint when he was taken hostage with two of his co-workers on Sept. 16.

His captors beheaded him on his 49th birthday, Sept. 27.

Hensley was born in Hendersonville, N.C., and grew up in Ponca City, Okla. He graduated from the University of North Carolina.

The Tega Cay, S.C. Rescue Squad established a college fund for Sara E. Hensley, daughter of Hensley. Donations to the fund can be made as follows: checks should be made out to the Sara E. Hensley Fund. All donations should be sent to: The Sara E. Hensley Fund, c/o First Citizens Bank, 2880 Highway 160 West, Fort Mill, SC 29708.

Hensley is a former resident of Tega Cay and was an original member of the rescue squad in its formative years.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 • Y’ALL

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festive south

Christmas in Dixie Holiday highlights you don’t want to miss.

Alabama Christmas City in Ariton City of Valley’s Christmas Walk on the Rails to Trails Christmas on the River in Demopolis Arkansas Great Passion Play Grounds in Eureka Springs 501-253-8559 Joslin’s World of Lights on State 124 East, 3 miles east of Quitman Florida Light display on Tarragona Way in Daytona Beach Light display on Jacksonville’s Ridgecrest Avenue near Beach Boulevard off Spring Glen Road Walt Disney World in Orlando

Maryland Lights On The Bay at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis 410-974-2149 Light display at Homestead Street in Baltimore Baltimore Zoo 410-396-7102

Georgia Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain Magical Nights of Lights at Lake Lanier Islands www.lakelanierislands.com Enchanted Garden of Lights at Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mountain 706-375-7702

Mississippi Christmas on the Water in Biloxi Dec. 4 228-435-6185 Christmas in Holly Springs Dec.4-5 662-252-3669

Darren McCollester/Newsmakers/Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Kentucky Winter Wonderland of Lights at Central Park in Ashland Light displays at Henderson’s Central Park and Main Street, and Denise Drive (off Zion Road) Louisiana Safari of Lights at Zoo of Acadiana 116 Lakeview Drive, in Broussard (through Dec. 30) 337-837-4325 Christmas Nights/Holiday Lights at Zemurray Park in Hammond City Park in New Orleans

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Missouri Branson Hills Parkway in Branson Cape County Park in Cape Girardeau 573-335-1631 North Carolina Festival of Lights in Tanglewood Park in Clemmons (Exit 184 off I-40) 336-778-6300 McAdenville, Christmas Town USA www.mcadenville-christmastown.com Oklahoma Safari in Lights at the Arbuckle Wilderness in Davis 800-738-7275 Festival of Angels in Ponca City 405-767-8888

Tennessee Planet Christmas in Franklin www.planetchristmas.com Opryland Hotel in Nashville Graceland light display in Memphis Texas Crosby’s Sights and Sounds of Christmas at 14322 Ella Lane in Houston Arlington’s Interlochen residential area, from I-30 take Fielder Rd. and go W. to Randol Mill Rd. Light displays at Koenig Lane and Landon Lane areas of Austin Virginia Light Displays at Lee Manor Drive in Manassas 100 Miles of Lights along I-64, including cities of Richmond, Newport News and Virginia Beach 800-769-5912 Washington, D.C. Washington Mormon Temple Visitors Center at 9900 Stoneybrook Drive.

South Carolina James Island County Park near Charleston Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia Harmon Holiday Farm near Lexington www.harmonchristmashouse.com

Y’ALL • THE MAGAZINE OF SOUTHERN PEOPLE

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This project partially funded through a grant by the Mississippi Development Authority. Š 2003 Harrison County Tourism Commission

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