Lifeline
One photo creates an unlikely connection between two families that alleviates a lifetime of pain. Billy McMillan, a Kosciusko Star Herald journalist, snapped the once-in-a-lifetime image voted America’s best journalistic photo of 1950 by the National Press Photographers Association. The small town photographer took top honors from news story giants like Life and Time magazines and National Geographic. The photo and newspaper articles that drew national attention were preserved in a scrapbook created by Billy McMillan’s wife, Della, who handed it down to their son, Stokes McMillan. More than a half century later, the Mississippi State aerospace engineering alumnus decided to write about the true story in a book called “One Night of Madness.” A story of a beautiful African-American woman, Mary Ella, stalked by a Caucasian madman, Leon Turner, who’s attentions also turned to her teenage daughter. He threatened to kill her husband and four
Bagley College of Engineering
other children: 4- and 8-year-old daughters, an 11-year-old son, and their 6-month-old baby. “Growing up, I always looked at the scrapbook, but never realized the significance of the story and the role my dad played in reporting the story, working with the national press and convincing Judge Coleman to allow photographic journalists into the courtroom,” McMillan explained. “Although my dad had a small, but historic role in this story, the book isn’t about my father. It’s about Mary Ella and Leon Turner. The dilemma I had was overcoming the
impression that I was writing this to get my dad in it.” It was Christmas of 2001, 18 years after Billy McMillan passed away that his grandson asked if he could have a poster sized photo of his grandfather’s award winning photo to hang in his college apartment. “I made the photos and gave my middle son and his younger and older brothers each a copy. I wanted to tell the boys about their grandfather’s work and the story behind the photograph. Over the holidays, I read the scrapbook articles that depicted a story
Momentum
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