Luncheon speaker pays tribute to the South

Gary Ford (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Order this photo]

Gary Ford, a retired senior staff writer for Southern Living magazine, paid tribute to all things Southern at the 2009 Friends of Argie Cooper Public Library author's luncheon.

Ford, who now writes for the R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport, La., has contributed to the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Southern Places: A Classic Collection of Words and Images, and Southern Living Comfort Food. He is the author of the forthcoming Heroes Down The Street, which will be published by the Norton gallery.

Ford was introduced by Shelbyville's own Kathy Eakin, who worked for one of Southern Living's sister publications at the same time Ford was there, but who said she never actually made his acquaintance until he visited Shelbyville.

Ford is a native of Texas now living in Lynette, Ala., but he has ancestors in Tennessee and has looked for information about them in the Argie Cooper Public Library history room. He also praised another Shelbyville product, the #2 Musgrave pencil, saying that while he composes on the keyboard he sometimes rewrites in pencil.

Ford noted the Tennessee influence on Texas culture and language.

"You gave us 'fixin' to,' which is so common in Texas it is the official state verb," he said. He praised Tennessee's backroads and highways.

"I love your cities, but I love the sway of your two-lane roads," he said. He recalled "interviewing" the University of Tennessee football team mascot, a blue-tick hound. Ford quoted Smokey IX as calling himself "a babe magnet" due to the affection lavished upon him by cheerleaders and coeds.

Ford praised Southern women, quoting the novelist Reynolds Price in calling them "Mack trucks disguised as powder puffs."

His presentation rambled amiably among various other aspects of Southern culture, from food ("Often, what we love to eat best is the worst for us") to manners ("Southerners will be polite until they're angry enough to kill you") to the Bible, which Ford called "the bedrock of Southern literature."

He noted how many Southern writers grew up reading the King James Version of the Bible, and said that children need to be encouraged to read. He said the region's economic well-being depends on education, and education depends on putting books into the hands of children. He praised libraries for their work in this regard, and also lauded Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program, of which Argie Cooper Public Library is an affiliate.

"More than ever," said Ford, "the library must present the beauty of the book to children."

Ben Craig, chairman of the 2000 Friends of Argie Cooper Public Library council, announced two separate $5,000 contributions from the Friends to the library: one for the building fund, and another for the purchase of new books.

The luncheon was held at the Blue Ribbon Circle on the Celebration grounds.