7 The Editor’s Notes
A southern Journal comes to an end.
Robert C. Lock

history, literature, drama, music

22 The Phoenix Rises: Jessi Colter
Tamara Holly
Singer, songwriter, widow of Waylon Jennings...Jessi Colter is one tough lady.

29 Getting It Wright
Jerre Repass

Florida Southern College is home to the world’s largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

40 Writing Their Roots
Betty Wilson Beamguard
Poke a finger into about any county in the South, and you’ll find some pretty serious writers. This batch of York County, South Carolina, ladies has published fifty books between them. And they’re just getting started.

68 The Long Legacy: Louisiana’s Kingfish
Jerry Salyer
Huey Long left a remarkable imprint on Louisiana. Many veterans of the last few years might wish him back. Huey Long: his life, times and movie legacy.

76 The Meeting That Made Craft History
Katey Schultz
Three remarkable schools: Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Berea College, and Penland School of Crafts.

98 Keeping Reading Fundamental: Hattiesburg’s Children’s Book Festival
Melodie Taylor
Sponsored by the University of Southern Mississippi, this annual spring festival was created in1968 and is a wellloved annual rite for librarians, writers, and illustrators.

108 Henry Flagler and the Key West Railway
Steve Levenstein
In 1912 Henry Flagler completed a modern miracle—his Florida Eastern Railroad reached the island of Key West. For 23 years the railroad was a transportation lynchpin for the Keys. Then came Labor Day 1935 and the most massive hurricane to ever come ashore.

128 Family Bluegrass: A Step Back Janice

Fiddle bows bounce and banjo pickers’ fingers fly. It’s Saturday night—family bluegrass night—in Southern Appalachia.

133 Poker Goes Mainstream

The modern game of poker is an American invention born on Mississippi riverboats. It grew up through Western expansion and matured during the Civil War until it evolved into the forms we love today.

179 Fresh As A Mountain Breeze, Stronger Than A
Hurricane: Greensboro’s Triad Stage
William Trotter
Regional theatre is a passion for Preston Lane. He’s spent years carefully preparing. Now Triad Stage, a regional launch of he and co-founder Richard Whittington is earning national recognition and showcasing brand-new regional creations.

art, antiques, collectibles

12 Duane Keiser: Every Postcard tells a story
Tom Gresham
Between December 10, 2004 and April 1, 2006, Richmond artist Duane Keiser produced a postcard-sized oil study each and every day. Although his pace has since eased, Keiser, 40, continues to paint daily, finishing three or four postcard pieces each week. These, in addition to his more major works, are, on close inspection, full of detail and nuance. The paintings have gained a popular following and are auctioned off in highly competitive bidding on the Internet.

cooking

65 Neenie’s Chess Pie

“The best memory I hold of my grandmother is our making her delicious chess pie together. Her pies still remain the most delectable treats that ever passed my lips—partly because they tasted so good, but mostly because a bite conjured up all the precious memories I had of the woman.”

destinations and more

35 Shakespeare in the Shenandoah Valley

The American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse, billed as the world’s only reproduction of Shakespeare’s original indoor theater, is putting Staunton, Virginia, on a pretty exclusive map.

52 The Greatest Museum: The Muhammad Ali Center
Joe Nolan

Louisville’s Muhammad Ali Center, which opened November 19, 2005, is a state-of-the-art, multimedia environment that immerses visitors in a flood of images, sounds, and engaging activities to fascinate children and adults alike.

30 It’s the Real Thing—Atlanta’s World of Coca-Cola®
Carla Edmisten
Since it opened in August 1990, this cross between a museum and an amusement park has become Atlanta’s most-visited indoor attraction. But a bigger and better one is coming.

155 The Tank Museum: In The House of Heavy Metal
William Trotter
In the rolling hills just outside of Danville, Virginia, sits the Glasser family’s pride and passion. Their mission-statement sums it up well: “....to collect, restore, preserve, display, and educate the public about as varied a collection of military tank and cavalry artifacts as it is possible to assemble....” You’ll have to see it to believe it.

essays

123 Train Whistles & Tobacco Sacks
June Land
“All it takes is the whistle of a train, and my mind begins running on a fast-backward track....”

150 Memories of an Urban Paradise
Cory Turner
There were very few children my age in the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers where I grew up....”

fiction

56 Enquiring Minds
Nancy Peacock
By the time lunch was being served, The Price Is Right was on TV, and I’d reached the back of the house. If I had been in the house alone, I’d have finished up the bathrooms before I sat down to eat. In the housecleaning trade, bathrooms and kitchens are called wet-work, and I preferred to have all that behind me before lunch....”

88 Margaret’s Magnolia
Sarah Warburton
“My sister Margaret has hair the color of midnight she wears in a single braid down her back. She is an artist, but she looks like a portrait. She is the headliner; I am the barmaid. She is the movie star; I take the tickets...”

103 Uncle Billy
Doug Davis
"Uncle Billy's cloudy eyes had already become mesmerized by the roiling waters beneath him. This was his last wish, one that had been in peril while he was in the hospital. Would he live to see his beloved river again?"

116 Pure Wholesome Delicious
Jane Andrews
”I had gained ten pounds this summer, but the pink and brown saddle on the charging cat is just my size....Other animals on the Pullen Park Dentzel Carousel join my grey cat in the up and down, round and round journey they’ve been taking since the merry-go-round came to the Ashe Avenue park in 1921.”

103 Circus Justice
Billy Earl

“Kids always threaten to run away and join the circus, but no one ever does it, right? Sonny did.”

poetry

51 Watching the Grasses Grow
Billy Earl

126 Vocation
Michael Gaspeny

book reviews

186 The Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren,
Volume 3
Jerry Salyer

190 Ava Gardner—Love Is Nothing
Richard Mansfield

Subscribers and Booksellers: Our Final Issue

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