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Table of Contents 6

Alex Deason

14

Zacc Turner

Sunflower County’s Extension agent is passionate about Zacc Turner decided he wanted to buy the former Lucky’s more than just agriculture. He’s also a first responder, a Express in Drew after reading an article in The E-T two years ago. Read the story behind the name of this new soccer coach and a drummer. venture, Pearlie Mae’s.

8

Linda Smith-Myles

Linda Smith-Myles has become well known over the past several decades for taking in needy children. Read the story behind her love for giving back.

10

Ricky Nobile

The Moorhead native has become one of the state’s most prolific editorial cartoonists, and he got his start in The E-T 50 years ago.

13

Kaneilia Williams

Kaneilia Williams took over duties as Indianola’s city clerk earlier this year. In just a few short months, she is already making a difference.

4

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18

Jennifer Deaton

Jennifer Deaton was born and raised in South Carolina, but she has had deep ties to the Delta for many years.

Read about her journey to becoming the rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Indianola.

20

Jason Conner

Jason Conner has been in athletics for most of his adult life, many of those years spent at Delta State University.

This summer, he started a new chapter by accepting the position of athletic director at MDCC.

24

Valincia Richard

Valincia Richard has already published two books, and she hopes more are on the way.

Editor’s Notes

It’s beginning to look a lot like fall It’s beginning to look, and feel, a lot like fall again.

Last year around this time, we really could not enjoy fall to its fullest.

The late summer surge of COVID-19 in 2020 pretty much put an end to most traditional fall activities.

Those that were not postponed or canceled were heavily affected by the virus.

Now in 2021, COVID still fails to allude us, but we are starting to adjust to the virus a little better.

Vaccinations have helped in that regard.

If you recall, our public schools were completely virtual in the fall of 2020, and all fall athletics were nixed.

That meant the usual festivities surrounding Homecom-

ing celebrations at Gentry the norm than we’ve seen and Thomas Edwards in since the pandemic hit a yearRuleville were canceled as and-a-half ago.

For instance, we have capacwell.

Even the schools that host- ity crowds at all sporting ed sporting events had limit- events again, including at the college level. ed-capacity Crowds are crowds. tailgating once Trick-Or-Treatagain, and ing on Halthousands of loween last people can be year required found in The masks, funny Grove in Oxford enough, and during each social distanchome weekend ing as well. for Ole Miss No matter Bryan Davis football. how normal we Only a handtried to make Publisher ful of public things, it just schools have canceled fall wasn’t normal.

Fast forward to 2021, and sports, meaning our athletes, things still are not completely cheerleaders, dancers and normal, but they are more of band members are able to per-

form in front of capacity crowds on Friday nights.

Last summer, both the Great Ruleville Roast and the Indian Bayou Arts Festival were scrapped, even before we knew how bad it was going to be during the fall.

It made little sense to plan large events like these, only to have them potentially canceled at the last minute due to COVID concerns.

But this year, the Roast is back.

And even though Indianola is not bringing back the Indian Bayou Arts Festival, Indianola Chamber Main Street has replaced that event with an early-October harvest festival called Nola Fest.

This magazine will likely be CONTINUED, Page 21

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A different drum

A Strong Calling

Sunflower County’s Extension Agent, Alex Deason, had dreams of becoming a firefighter before heading off to college.

He is now one of the county’s top volunteer first responders.

Alex Deason is an Extension agent, a first responder, a soccer coach and a mean drummer

By MARK H. STOWERS

S

uperman is fiction, supposedly.

There really are superheroes who walk among us.

First responders come in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life with one mission in mind, helping, protecting and rescuing their fellow man, without a cape.

Alex Deason is a first responder. By day you’ll see him wearing his Sunflower County Extension Ag agent hat and working with farmers and those with any agricultural questions and problems across Sunflower, Washington and Tallahatchie counties.

But he’s always “on call” as a volunteer medical first responder for Sunflower County. He’ll tell you that his dedication and skills are no better than any of his 6

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“band of brothers” in the first responder community that he so gladly serves with.

But Deason was recently awarded the first ever Indianola Chamber Main Street Emergency Medical Responder of the Year.

He’s been in the Delta working his ag extension agent job for nearly a decade but his first responder days started long before then. Growing up in Philadelphia at the age of three, Deason’s father was a volunteer firefighter and Alex’s path was lit, so to speak.

His mother, though, wanted him to follow a safer path.

“I always wanted to be a firefighter but my mother was strongly opposed,” he explained. “She wanted me to go to college and get a degree and find a field of work that matched my study. To her, being a firefighter wasn’t high on that priority list.”

When he joined Boy Scout Troop 52 and

climbed the ranks, worked at Scout Camp and achieved his Eagle Scout, it only stoked the fire he already had inside.

“That drove me further learning about not only firefighting and safety but first aid, EMS and one of the biggest things the Boy Scouts push is volunteer work,” Deason said. “I’m fortunate enough that I have moved to different places where they needed volunteer work. And all aspects, not just public safety. I got the opportunity to be a volunteer firefighter in Kosciusko and I went for it.”

It was also this first stop that gave Deason an introduction to both firefighting and EMS training. His path, much to his mother’s dismay, was set. Educationally, Deason got a soccer scholarship and played on the JUCO level and then attended Mississippi State University.

CONTINUED, Next Page

Continued from Page 6 He then took the job as an Extension agent in Sunflower County, specializing in 4-H, agriculture, and natural resources.

“My duty is to address the needs of Sunflower and other counties as needed by providing research-based information and educational programs to better equip and inform residents,” Alex said.

Deason noted that he and his team achieve this goal by conducting various workshops held at the office, during field days, at farms and homes for face-to-face visits and sharing information through various types of media, including newspapers and social media.

“I really love that no two days are ever the same,” he said. “There is no typical day for any one of us. We have all learned to prepare for the unexpected.”

Deason’s day can go from traveling to look at a homeowner’s lawn to answering a phone call on cattle nutrition and then standing in a corn field monitoring moisture sensors.

“Only people in Extension understand the variability in a day,” Deason said “Extension serves all 82 counties with the purpose of extending knowledge and changing lives. Even though not all counties offer the same programs, we all aid in enhancing and sustaining Mississippi’s agriculture industry, providing health awareness to Mississippi families, molding the next generation of leaders through 4-H, and promoting community growth through education.”

Looking back over his first responder career, there’s been no tougher or higher profile call as the Yankee72 military plane crash back in July of 2017.

“We’ve all had the calls that stretch us to our limits,” Deason said. “That one was one. You found yourself at times wondering what can you do and what are the next steps?”

The incident took the lives of 15 Marines and one Navy corpsman. That tragic event and other medical emergencies continue to hone the abilities of all Sunflower County first responders and emergency medical workers. So much so, that larger hospitals around the state attest to the high level of skills of Deason and his emergency-working brothers and sisters.

“Sunflower County is blessed to have one of the best volunteer medical organizations in the country,” Deason said.

“It’s because there are a lot of guys who put a lot of effort in on their own time.

There’s not any benefits. We don’t get any money for it, no reimbursement, no tax write-offs. Just the feeling of helping

A Man of Many Talents

Alex Deason has taken on a number of roles in Sunflower County since he moved here, and he is passionate about each and every one of them. thy neighbor. A lot of folks put in a lot of time not only for training but getting up in the middle of the night and going across town to help somebody in need.

And it’s not just standing in a driveway.

The guys are hands on.”

The first responder and Ag Extension agent added another hat to his job collection – girls’ soccer coach at Indianola Academy. His teams have been competing for and winning on the state championship level.

“Clete (Putnam) called me and knew that I played college soccer and loved the game and still kept up with it. I told him I would try it out. I love it and I love the girls,” he said. “We’ve been in the state championship two years in a row and hopefully this year. We don’t want to go home second best. Some of the girls have that taste from year one when we won the state championship.”

Deason puts a lot of college-level skills into his high school practices and he’s seen his players grow with confidence and ability and continually compete with everyone. He also explained that if and when he ever has kids, especially girls, he’ll be ahead of the parenting game.

“I’ve learned more from them than they’ve learned from me,” he said. “I think I’ll be very well prepared of not how to deal with them but what to expect. We’ve shed a lot of tears together.

We’ve had a lot of joy together. Losing the state championship match was tough but we’ve learned a lot of life lessons along the way. It’s been well worth it. It’s a pile of fun and it’s dynamic.”

When he’s not coaching, teaching or responding to medical and fire emergencies, Deason enjoys relaxing behind a drum set and sharing his musical influ-

ences with anyone not scared to listen.

“In seventh or eighth grade, I found a girlfriend – at that time I listened to country music because that’s what my mom listened to. And she listened to rock music but me trying to be the kid that she liked most, I was a percussionist and I started listening to more of a beat.”

He fell in love with rock music as it had a better beat than any country song, he said. He slowly got attracted to techno music and by the time he got to college, he was set in the techno beat and expanded his music.

“I started listening to EDM which has no lyrics and is all beats and beat drops,” he said. “I’m just listening to the beat. I don’t care about the lyrics.”

Deason listens to DJ Marshmello and other artists you don’t find on regular radio.

“When my soccer girls peep their head in my truck and hear my music, they make a lot of fun of me because they would expect me to listen to country music. If you go into rock, I can throw Disturbed out there, Rammstein – a German rock band, Marilyn Manson, I’ve listened to him quite a bit. It’s a whole closed door to a lot of people until they get into my truck.”

For those folks Deason doesn’t know too well, he keeps his radio tuned in to a “safe” station with top hits and such. But for those who dare, the extension agent extends their musical experience far beyond their normal standards.

“I can scare some people with the types of music I listen to,” he said.

There are days when his responsibilities seem to intersect and even collide.

While at Indianola Academy to pick up an award he had received, he was called into action when a student had a medical emergency.

“I had gone to the headmaster’s office to get the plaque for Coach of the Year and they were having dance team practice in the gym,” he said. “That was a luck of the draw that I was on campus.

But the next responder was there within a minute or two as well. Her mom actually told us how thankful she was for us.

It’s hard to explain to people that, one, we don’t work for the ambulance service and two, we’re volunteer and three, we are there to help and get no kind of reward other than helping that person.”

One of Sunflower County’s superheroes helping those in agriculture, those on the soccer field and even those on the dance floor, Alex Deason continues to work on a high level and achieve success across the board.

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She’s walked miles in their shoes Linda Smith-Myles talks about her journey from being an abandoned infant to taking in over two dozen children in Indianola

By RECARDO THOMAS

T

here are many things that can inspire a person’s life work, from a desire to give others a leg up to a longing for everyone to be treated equitably and fairly, but one element of that list that drives them all is having a caring attitude.

Linda Smith-Myles, whose name is well recognized in the Delta, has spent a major portion of her life caring for others.

She has been a foster parent for more than three decades, has kept and cared for over 30 children and has personally adopted five children out of the system while raising two children of her own.

So, what was the catalyst that sparked this compassion?

It was a six-month-old baby that was left on a neighbor’s doorstep one Sunday morning that was taken in and cared for by strangers like it was their very own.

Usually when you hear about a baby being left on someone's doorstep it's straight out of a storybook or television.

However, in this scenario, SmithMyles was that child left there by her grandmother.

“Someone took me in after laying there on that doorstep; I've always wanted to give back. I always took time for anybody,” Smith-Myles said.

And she always enjoys telling her history, because someone took her in.

"When they opened that door, I was just laying there wrapped in a blanket," she added, “And if the Lord blessed me to be able to tell this story, I feel like I should give back to others and so, I take my time to wait and help on anybody.”

Not only was Smith-Myles left on a doorstep, but her brother, who was twoyears-old at the time, was dropped off at another neighbor’s home.

Both of her parents had hearing and speech disabilities, she said, and her grandmother had decided she did not want the couple to be together anymore. That meant the children would be separated as well.

"They could not hear or talk," Smith-Myles said.

So, her father's mother had him to take Smith-Myles' mother back to her 8

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An Incredible Journey

Many kids in Indianola have had opportunities in life only by the grace of God and the dedication of Linda Smith-Myles family in Elizabeth, Miss., and then the grandmother took her father back home to Pascagoula with her.

Smith-Myles was born May 21, 1950 in a home on Depot Street in Indianola.

She started off this life as Joe Linda McBride.

"After, and I just assume, six months my grandmother, which is Willie McBride, decided she did not want my father and my mother to be together," she said.

Smith-Myles said, "One Sunday morning she got up—my grandmother did—and she took the two siblings from my parents and she placed me on the doorstep of Smith & Dillon Funeral Home. And she carried my brother down the street to a house next door to Club Ebony."

She said she was not discovered on the steps until Monday morning. "And

when the people (James and Beatrice Smith) woke up Monday morning and opened the front door of the funeral home, there was me," said SmithMyles.

"And Daddy Smith and Mama BeBe, as you've always heard those names here in Indianola, they raised me."

She said it was not until she got ready to start the first grade at Carver Elementary School that her name was changed to Linda Beatrice Smith. "He (Daddy Smith) carried me upstairs to Howard Q. Davis Sr.'s office and that's where they filled out the papers and changed my name."

Smith-Myles’ brother, who now resides in Southaven, was also adopted by the family who received him on their doorstep and his name was changed to Eddie Paul Smith. She said CONTINUED, Next Page

Continued from Page 8 his adopted mother's name was Nancy Pam Smith and according to Smith-Myles, the house where he lived is still standing.

You may be asking, why the funeral home? She said it was because her grandmother knew the people at the funeral home and it was directly across the street from the house where her parents lived. "So she just walked across the street and left me there in the door."

Thus began a lifetime of caring and nurturing for Smith-Myles. She remembers that her first job working with children was at the old swimming pool at the American Legion Hut on what is now Hannah Avenue. She also talked about her adopted mother, Beatrice's daycare center; it was in the house in which she now resides.

“Mama BeBe always ran a daycare in that house and we always had everybody's kids at that house,” she said, “My mama always cooked buttered grits for all the kids and they would come there on Saturdays and Sundays and get their buttered grits.”

Smith-Myles said the front of the house was always sectioned and set aside as space rented out to teachers.

“So, I had to always get my lesson out and I had to always study and I had to always interact with all of the kids that came to our house,” she said.

Her stint with the foster care system began in the late 1980s with a visit to the Department of Human Services when one of the caseworkers asked if she would consider becoming a foster parent. "And they talked me into becoming a resource parent and I've been a resource parent over 30 years," said Smith-Myles.

Being able to foster children requires participation in extensive trainings and certifications.

After becoming a resource parent Smith-Myles said they then asked her about becoming an adopting parent, which is what led to her adopting five children. She mentioned a sixth child that she and one of her husbands were going to adopt, but that one was never finalized. She said he is incarcerated now in Wilkerson County, Mississippi.

"And I send him $25 a month; whenever he calls, I send him that $25," she said.

Smith-Myles said at one time she had several of his siblings in her house because during that time there was no limitation on the number of foster children you could have, if you had adequate sleeping space for them. “I loved all of my children that I've had there.”

She said the youngest child that she has had in her care was three-weeksold. “And I've had them where they have been on machines and they had to sleep in the bed with me because I wasn't secure with them being in the baby bed and being sick,” she said.

Smith-Myles said that she would put them in her king-size bed and they would be on one side connected to their equipment while she was sleeping on the other side. “Whatever I had to do, that's what we did,” she added.

How she has conducted herself as a foster parent is reminiscent of how she remembers her childhood.

"Mama BeBe, when I got of age, she would get me ready and send me down the street to Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church every Sunday morning; and then I also played the piano there for Mr. Perry Price when he was the superintendent," Smith-Myles said.

So, she made sure that her foster children had some of the same experiences. They attended church with her and some even became members of the churches they attended. "And I did not say they were my foster child, everybody was my child, my son or my daughter. And I love them," said Smith-Myles. She said they always did things as a family.

She asserted that some of the children were able to explore things while in her care that they were not able to explore in their own home environment. "And then they had a parent that was there for them at all times, through any issues. I was there by their side whether it was good or bad, we were able to work it out to be in a positive aspect," she said.

She said she made sure they had everything they needed and many of the things they did not have at home.

She said the largest number that she's had at one time has been five or six and many of the children come from other places across the state. “I just like giving back and being there,” Smith-Myles said.

Even now, they keep in touch and she still reportedly receives cards and gifts from those she has had in her care.

Now, after more than 30 years and dozens of children, Smith-Myles says she is going to retire…sort of. “I'm going to spend some time with my grandchildren. They're already making plans for me. The first house I'm going to is gone be in October."

However, Smith-Myles says that even though she is retiring, if she gets a call and there is a need for a temporary placement, she would accept that.

It is her memory of how she was taken in that motivates her. Smith-Myles said her adoptive mother did not try to take her back, but took her in and raised her like she was her own.

Smith-Myles said, “I know she said, now I wonder who done done this? But she knew who I was because she lived right across the street from that house.”

She has many memories of her childhood and those she has encountered along the way. She is like a walking history book.

The two children Smith-Myles birthed, a son, Edward DeJuan Myles is a retired military captain and lives in Montgomery, Alabama and her daughter Dionne Yolanda Myles, who is a multilingual educator and lives in Plano, Texas, are the parents of the grandchildren she is looking forward to spending some time with.

Her son has two children and is currently taking care of his father, who was Smith-Myles’ second husband.

"You know I’ve had seven husbands?" she said.

Her daughter was also a resource parent and adopted her two children from New Mexico. She speaks five languages and is married to a pharmacist.

Smith-Myles said being able to give back and being a positive parent is what has brought her the most joy.

Despite her plans to start her retirement in just a few short weeks, she still has a few loose ends to tie up. “I have two youths in my home now that will be going to court on the 21st (September) to be placed back with their father, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

And they're looking forward to it.

We've been packing for two weeks," she said.

“If the Lord put you here to be a positive image, to anything, you're supposed to get in there and do what you're supposed to do; because the Lord has allowed you this knowledge or allowed you this skill to help somebody and I'm going to help somebody,” she said.

Smith-Myles said she schedules herself to help somebody every day and always makes time for the children and the senior citizens in the community. She also works with several community organizations and does not plan to give those up entirely either.

"I've always felt like if the Lord blessed me to be taken off the street and given a life, then I should give back and that's what I've always enjoyed doing."

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‘Still doodling’

Always Loved to Draw

Ricky Nobile knew from an early age that he did not want to be a cotton farmer, like the rest of his family in Sunflower County, and he knew early on that he loved to draw.

Ricky Nobile turned a love of drawing into a career

By BRYAN DAVIS

R

icky Nobile has not missed a deadline in 50 years.

It’s probably even longer than that if he’s counting all of the high school and college newspapers his cartoons have appeared in since the 1960s.

He’s a mainstay on The EnterpriseTocsin’s opinions page, along with dozens of other community newspapers across the state.

Editors on Thursday evenings still anxiously await the arrival of his cartoons, usually sent by his wife, Mary, by email. There’s usually three to choose from, including a color cartoon, which is a recent addition to the mix.

The Moorhead native’s first cartoon - in a non-school paper - appeared in The E-T a half century ago.

“I never would have had nerve enough to ask The Enterprise-Tocsin about running my cartoons, but my sis10

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ter-in-law, Beverly Nobile, asked Jim Abbott,” Nobile said. “Jim Abbott was a young, energetic new editor, and he was open to me sending my cartoons in. That was great.”

Those first cartoons, which tackled issues ranging from potholes to shopping local, were the start of something special, and by the mid-1970s, Nobile’s cartoons were in papers from the top half of the state to the bottom half.

He would become well-known for using his artistic abilities to tackle statewide issues and portray the personalities that shaped state politics through his doodles.

“The main thing I enjoyed doing was the caricatures and the personalities of the different politicians,” Nobile said.

Recently, Nobile published a book of his cartoons, Home Grown, Home Drawn!: 45 Years of Mississippi Editorial Cartoons.

At first glance, it’s a little over 130 pages of cartoons, but it’s much more than that.

It’s a history book. It tells the history of a half century of Mississippi politics.

“What I tried to do is try to have an overview of Mississippi politics for the last 50 years,” Nobile said.

Nobile was raised on a cotton farm between Moorhead and Indianola.

He is the son of Pauline and Gus, and he had three brothers, Billy, Jimmy and Dennis.

It was apparent very early on, Nobile said, that he was not going to be a farmer.

“I always loved to draw,” Nobile said.

“Like most kids, I drew all over everything, my homework and everything else, but I never outgrew it. I’m still doodling today…I never was much of a cotton farmer. I think my daddy saw right off I wasn’t going to be a very good farmer.”

Nobile took a correspondence course in high school in cartooning.

CONTINUED, Next Page

Continued from Page 10 His family was very supportive.

He began to draw for the school newspaper at Moorhead High School, which shuttered right after Nobile graduated in 1966.

He then attended Mississippi Delta Junior College (MDCC today), and he drew cartoons for the school paper there, and he also served as editor of the annual.

“Anything I could do to get in print, because I enjoyed just seeing my cartoons in print,” Nobile said.

From Moorhead, Nobile would travel down to the bustling town of Hattiesburg, where he attended the University of Southern Mississippi.

And guess what. He drew cartoons for that school’s paper as well.

“That’s when I got the idea of trying to get into some of these weekly newspapers,” Nobile said.

Shortly after that, in early 1971, Nobile made his debut in his home county’s paper.

When he finished college, he took a job at the Bolivar Commercial in Cleveland, working in ad sales under then publisher Norman Van Liew.

CONTINUED, Next Page

Getting Started

Pictured above is a Ricky Nobile cartoon that appeared in The Enterprise-Tocsin in the January 7, 1971 edition.

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The First and Last

Pictured to the left and top right are the first and last cartoons Nobile did of Senator James Eastland.

Continued from Page 11 “I started doing cartoons on Mississippi politics, and I sent out mailers, and my idea was to get into as many of these community newspapers as I could,” Nobile said.

There were not many cartoonists doing local or state drawings back in the early 1970s, so Nobile figured he had a product he could sell.

And he was right.

“I’d go to these ad sales meetings, and I’d corner these editors up in the elevator or somewhere and sell them my cartoons,” Nobile said.

Back then, there was no email.

After drawing his weekly cartoon, he said he would get the woman who photographed the newspaper in Cleveland to take a picture of his cartoon.

He would then use the copying machine to make copies, and he would then stuff envelopes and mail them out.

At his peak, Nobile was in about 40 community newspapers, he said.

“I’m a big believer in community newspapers,” Nobile said. “I believe they’re the nucleus and kind of the heartbeat of the community. It’s really nice to be part of it. I just try to be an added feature, something that makes the newspaper a little more interesting.”

Over the years, Nobile has had the privilege of drawing national figures 12

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like the late Senator Jim Eastland and also the state’s governors.

“The basic issues, over the years, really never changed much,” he said.

But the faces have indeed changed, and Nobile has a gift of bringing those personalities to life.

One governor in particular stands out, and that is Haley Barbour.

“The Mississippi governor is supposedly weak, compared to the Legislature, but Haley Barbour had a strong personality, and I drew him as Fred Flintstone and Boss Hogg and different things over the years,” Nobile said. “I even had him rapping one time.”

But Barbour was always a good sport.

He even wrote the forward to Nobile’s book of cartoons, and when he was first elected to office, he commissioned Nobile to draw the Barbour Christmas card that year.

Not all of the feedback has been positive.

Back in the early 1980s, when what is now the Mississippi University for Women was about to start allowing men to enroll, Nobile said he drew a cartoon that riled one Memphis reader to the point that she mailed him a note.

“I got this letter in the mail, from Memphis,” he said. “She had torn out the cartoon and written across there, ‘Why don’t you grow up?’”

‘Why Don’t You Grow Up?’

Those were the words from a reader in reply to the above cartoon Nobile drew during the controversial enrollment of the first male students at the Mississippi University for Women in 1982.

After working in ad sales for 27 years, Nobile retired and moved to the Hattiesburg area where he’s been for the last 20 years.

Since then, he’s made cartooning his full-time job.

Aside from his syndicated newspaper cartoons, he often appears at conventions and other events where he draws caricatures of those in attendance.

He’s even done some special projects like coloring books for several organizations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed his business some, mostly due to events being canceled or postponed, but after 50 years, Nobile is still in the business of drawing, and he doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.

Putting family first Early childhood experiences growing up in Yazoo County helped shape the work ethic of Indianola city clerk Kaneilia Williams

By RECARDO THOMAS

A

lthough having a cow run after her through a pasture provided strong motivation to physically hurry up, push harder and climb higher - especially given that she was just a toddler Indianola City Clerk Kaneilia Williams credits other sources as her motive to strive for excellence in her adult endeavors.

She clearly has not forgotten her childhood experience with her granddaddy down on the farm though.

"Four-years-old, picking up pecans under a tree and a cow

chasing me," she said.

That, and her grandfather scooping her up in his arms to safety, is one of her earliest memories.

“The cow got out and he was coming, and I took off running,” she said.

The cow gave Williams an idea of just how fast she could run that day, but it would be her mother, she said, whom she credits for laying the groundwork that motivates her and her brother’s and sisters’ attainment.

After holding several positions with the city of Yazoo City, including city clerk, she CONTINUED, Page 26

All About the Numbers

Indianola City Clerk Kaneilia Williams is working hard to get the city caught up on its paperwork.

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Meet Zacc Turner Small business owner gives Drew store a new legacy

By BRYAN DAVIS

I

t all started with an article in the newspaper.

The Enterprise-Tocsin to be specific.

Zacc Turner was reading a front-page expose on what was then a stalled project on Park Avenue in Drew.

The Ruleville entrepreneur read in amazement as a local business owner on what was an impassable stretch of street at the time divulged some critical information about Lucky’s Express.

“It was the article in the newspaper,” Turner, who owns multiple small businesses in Ruleville, said.

The owner told the newspaper reporter his monthly income prior to the paving project starting and what it was after it had stalled.

CONTINUED, Next Page

Pearlie Mae’s Favorite Color

Zacc Turner has purchased the old Lucky’s store in downtown Drew, and he has given it a fitting name and a fitting outside color.

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Continued from Page 14 Turner, who owns Turner’s Construction and Downtown Liquor in Ruleville, knew at that moment he wanted to buy that business.

And, so he did.

Turner is partnering with his brother, Terrance, who also owns an inflatables rental business in Ruleville, and they are opening Pearlie Mae’s, right next door to the Post Office in Drew in the same building as the former Lucky’s business.

Folks are perhaps curious about the name of the new store, and they may be even more inquisitive about the color scheme on the exterior of the building.

But there’s a reason for it all.

The business is named after Turner’s mother, who was murdered when they were living in Ohio when he was 8 years old.

The bright purple that adorns the outside walls at Pearlie Mae’s was her favorite color, he said.

“That’s my momma’s color,” he said.

The murder was a turning point for Turner, who became a troubled youth, and that lasted even longer into adulthood.

“It affected me a whole lot,” he said.

“I’m not going to lie. I’ve fought a whole lotta stuff.”

Turner said he used to get into fights, and he was even shot at one point in his life, but that was before he started going to church and reading the Bible.

Prior to finding Jesus, he said he had one thing on his mind, and that was revenge.

Up until a little over a decade ago, he was still looking for the man who killed his mother, a person he said never did a day in jail for the crime.

“I was looking for the guy who did that to my momma,” he said. “I was looking for him on Facebook and everything.”

Turner did eventually find him, in the obituary section of a newspaper.

Then came another turning point for him.

He turned to God and the Bible for guidance, and he made up his mind and heart to forgive the man who killed Pearlie Mae. “I had to forgive him for killing my momma,” Turner said. “I had to not just say that with my mouth. I had to mean it with my heart.”

It was like lifting a heavy burden off

his shoulders.

“Once I forgave him, my whole life changed,” Turner said. “Peace came upon me. I started my business about three months later. I got all the way on track. I had peace. I really was at peace.”

Turner said that living a troubled past has led him to use his gifts and resources to help more troubled kids in northern Sunflower County.

He said he tries to dig deep to find out why kids he’s helping are acting out.

From his own experience, he knows that most of the time there’s a backstory and a reason why they are misbehaving.

“I understand more than everybody else,” he said.

Turner is currently in the process of selling the Downtown Liquor business in Ruleville, and he will be dedicating his time to making Pearlie Mae’s a success in Drew.

He said he hopes he can use the business to give back to the community and area kids.

A fitting legacy for him and Pearlie Mae.

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Meet Rev. Jennifer Deaton

Called to Indianola

Rev. Jennifer Deaton accepted the call this year to serve as rector for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church here and vicar at St. John’s in Leland.

St. Stephen’s new rector comes with deep ties to the Delta

By BRYAN DAVIS

I

t wasn’t always a given that Rev. Jennifer Deaton would end up in ministry.

There was a good chance the South Carolina native would end up in the pulpit one day, given her family’s history with the Episcopal Church.

Her father and stepmom are both ordained ministers in the church, as are her stepbrother and his wife, and her uncle and his wife.

When she was young, she lived in Sewanee, Tennessee, the home of the University of the South, where her parents attended seminary.

Now the rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Indianola and vicar at St. John’s in Leland, Deaton actually majored in anthropology when she enrolled in classes at Emory University.

But of course, she also took religion classes there, and that would eventu18

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ally become her major.

Even before college, Deaton couldn’t help but feel called to the ministry.

When she was in high school, she attended a summer program, and while getting to know some of her peers, she started talking about her involvement with the church and how much she enjoyed it.

“One of the people in that group I was getting to know said, ‘Oh, so you’re going to be a priest one day,’” Deaton said.

And she immediately thought to herself, “Well, of course I am.”

She didn’t become a priest right away, but she did become a youth minister at a church in Florida.

That’s where she met her husband, the now Rev. Charlie Deaton Jr., who had a deep connection to the Delta. He grew up in Greenwood, where his mother still lives today.

Charlie is now the full-time rector at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Clarksdale.

The two dated for a year in a longdistance relationship, while Charlie attended seminary.

Then they were engaged for a year before getting married.

“We got married right before his last year of seminary in Sewanee,” Deaton said.

Shortly after he finished seminary, Charlie was placed in Oxford, Mississippi.

“That was my first introduction to living in Mississippi,” Deaton said.

Charlie served at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford and was also assistant chaplain at Ole Miss for four years.

Deaton worked on a counseling degree at the University, and the couple would give birth to a son, Charlie Deaton III. It was also in Oxford where Deaton began to feel a stronger pull toward the ministry.

CONTINUED, Next Page

Continued from Page 18 “While we were there, I formally began the discernment process to go to seminary,” she said. “It’s a beautiful, intentional process of prayer and reflection and conversation with a small group in your church and with your priest and with your bishop.”

With a strong family support system, she began to narrow her seminary options.

There was Sewanee of course, the place she had lived for a time as a child and where so many in her family were educated on the Gospel.

But it was New York’s General Theological Seminary, located on about a city block in New York City’s Chelsea district that Deaton finally settled on.

“It have a strong academic reputation and strong liturgical life I was drawn to,” she said. “There were also people I could meet in New York that I would never have met anywhere else.”

Her first day in class just happened to be September 11, 2001.

“That shaped everything, theologically, liturgically and in terms of our community life and how we were pulled together as a community,” Deaton said.

Deaton and her husband were no strangers to the ministry, and very quickly, she went from being a seminary student to also helping the people of New York City during a time of collective grief.

“A couple of days after 9/11, we ended up being involved in different ways, in volunteer efforts,” she said.

She was among several volunteers who visited St. Paul’s Chapel, an Episcopal church had been converted into a care center for recovery workers.

Deaton would eventually finish at General and return to Mississippi.

She was placed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Meridian, which was within walking distance of the local hospital. She was the assistant rector at the church.

“I absolutely fell in love with doing pastoral care,” she said. “I loved visiting hospitals. I loved visiting parishioners at their homes. I was given a lot of opportunities to do that.”

After two years, Charlie was called to be the rector at St. Peter’s By The Lake Episcopal Church in Brandon.

The family moved to Jackson and stayed for over a decade.

During that time, Deaton became

An Amazing Journey

Rev. Jennifer Deaton and her husband Charlie Deaton have served multiple congregations in multiple cities during their marriage. the chaplain at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, where she served in that role for nearly three years.

After that, she remained at the school in a new role as canon for pastoral care for 11 years.

While she was in Jackson, Deaton would often supply preach in churches all over the state.

One was the Church of the Advent in Sumner.

“I’ve spent a lot of time visiting the Delta and getting to know it,” she said.

When Charlie was called to become rector at St. George’s in Clarksdale in December of last year, the couple thought they would continue to serve in Jackson and the Delta.

Charlie had actually served at St. Stephen’s in Indianola on an interim basis, and when that church and St. John’s in Leland began their search for a new priest and vicar, respectively, Deaton was called to the Delta permanently.

Serving in two small towns is definitely a change from the large school

and congregations she had become accustomed to in Jackson, but she said the transition has gone smoothly because so many of the churches’ members have been supportive and serve their churches so well.

“It’s different,” she said. “Everybody is on staff. Everybody is engaged.

Everybody is part of the life of this place.”

Deaton said the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted some of the churches’ outreach in the communities, but she looks forward to using her gifts in pastoral care and service to grow the churches outside their walls.

“We worship in this space, and we read the Gospel here, but that Gospel is lived outside these beautiful walls, outside these doors,” she said.

The Deatons are settling in to life in the Delta, and they are enjoying being close to Charlie’s mother in Greenwood and being able to see their son, Charlie II, who is currently a junior at Ole Miss.

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MDCC’s new head cheerleader

A Return to His Roots

Mississippi Delta Community College’s new athletic director is no stranger to the Delta. He served for nearly two decades in the Delta State men’s basketball program, many of those years as head coach.

Jason Conner right at home in the Delta

By MARK H. STOWERS

M

ississippi Delta Community College hired Jason Conner as its Athletic Director this

and what is your educational background?

Conner: I was born in Born in Bristol, Tennessee. Dad was a Pastor and was called to Lakeland, Florida in the winter of 1976. I had two years of high school at Lakeland Senior High School and my 11th and 12th grade years at Evangel Christian High School.

Earned a BA in history/political science from Belhaven College. Earned my MEd from Delta State University in health and physical education. Started and completed 15 hours towards a doctorial in administration but have never finished.

summer.

Coach Conner’s resume begins as a student assistant for the men's and women's programs as a student assistant at Belhaven from 1985-87.

From there he’s been a head coach at Delta State, Belhaven, Gulf Coast Community College and SouthernNew Orleans.

He’s served as an assistant coach at University of Houston, University of Texas-El Paso, South Alabama and E-T: What sports did you play in high Delta State.

The Enterprise-Tocsin caught up school and/or college and what posiwith Conner to learn more about his tions? Did you win any awards?

Conner: I played all sports in high background and how he became the school – quarterback in football, power head athletic Trojan. forward in basketball, pitcher and first E-T: Where are you from originally and third basemen in baseball, goalkeeper in soccer and golf (most likely 20

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to throw a club). In college I played first and third for the baseball team.

E-T: What has been your career path since college?

Conner: I have spent 34 years coaching college basketball – 19 years as an assistant coach and 15 years as a head coach.

E-T: What made you want to be a coach? What person was instrumental in putting you on this path?

Conner: My coaches had a huge impact on my life. Athletics was a big part of our family. My dad was recruited heavily in SEC football country and was eventually drafted by the Yankees.

My uncle was a lifetime .303 hitter but only got as high as Triple A baseball with the Memphis Chicks. I would say that Charlie Rugg, through an interesting turn of events, put me on my CONTINUED, Page 27

507 Hwy 82 E Indianola 662 662.887 887.9520

Visit bank ksouthern.c n.ccom m

Continued from Page 5 circulated after these two events have happened, but it’s good to see our chambers back in action after over a year of having to put off events due to the virus.

It’s also good to see that we’ll have four Homecoming celebrations during 2021.

We still encourage everyone to be diligent about the virus.

If you have not gotten the vaccine, consider doing so.

If you absolutely will not get the vaccine, please make sure

that you are taking precautions for yourself and others like social distancing and wearing masks in public.

It doesn’t look like COVID is going to run its course completely anytime soon, but we’ve done a pretty good job over the past several months of adjusting to the reality of its presence.

We’ve become better managers of the virus and the risks.

It’s beginning to look a lot like fall again, and hopefully this winter it will look a lot like Christmas in Sunflower County. A more normal Christmas that is.

Advertise in The E-T’s special products. Ask us about Holiday Gift Guide, Best of the Best, Breast Cancer Awareness, our 2022 Calendar, Season’s Greetings, Profile and more. Call 662-887-2222 21

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A love for writing

Book Signing

Valincia Richard, born in Blaine and now in Indianola, has already written two books, and she hopes to write more in the years to come.

Author hopes to turn passion into a full-time job

By RECARDO THOMAS

A

love for writing that started in elementary school has budded and grown into an undeniable passion for Valincia Richard.

The 36-year-old, who was born and raised in Blaine, now makes her home in Indianola with her husband, the Rev. Rodney Richard.

She has authored two books—including a book of poetry—and has co-authored another project that is a collection of women's stories. "I love to write. That's my plan one day to just settle down and just write. Nothing more, just write and be able to go and visit my patients whenever I can."

She currently works as a certified clinical hemodialysis technician at a renal care facility in Greenwood.

Richard lays no claim to having any formal creative writing training. “I haven’t been to school for writing, it 24

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started when I was in sixth grade.

Stuff started to happen in my life and I really didn't have a relationship with anyone else, no friends…no nothing and paper and pen became my best friend."

Richard said she just wrote her thoughts out and usually they were in the form of poems. An in-school poetry competition during Black History Month is what she credits as the real spark that ignited her passion for poetry.

“We had to write poems about Martin Luther King and stuff like that and from then on it was just ongoing, writing poetry," she said.

Sadly, she doesn't have many of her original lyrical attempts. "I know a lot of my poetry got trashed by my auntie when me and my cousin Tashika (Williams) had gotten into some trouble. She took it and trashed it at Parker Estates." Richard said that she and her

cousin would sometimes write poetry together; however, her cousin's mother disposed of a lot of it.

Richard said that she and Tashika engaged in a lot of activities together from things like cooking and writing to getting into trouble.

According to Richard, her cousin has also been published in a collection of stories compiled by Turning The Page Publishing founder, Erica D. Boyd.

Richard said the destruction of her earlier verses dampened her spirit, but by the time she reached the eighth grade she was reinvigorated. She said, “After things started to transpire in my life again—stuff that was beyond my control—I was sitting around waiting on my dad to show up and he never showed up. Me and my mom, we didn't have the best of relationships, so all I could depend on was my paper and my pen."

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Continued from Page 24 Her first literary publication was entitled “Melodies From The Heart.” The book is comprised of poems that cover a variety of topics. "You've got your gospel, you've got your romance, talk about mothers and fathers; just all different kinds of genres together," said Richard.

She said her aspiration in writing the book of poems was to encourage and uplift people because you never know what a person is going through.

"And I also talked about my husband and my children in it too. So it's really a good book. It's a collection of all different kinds of poetry," Richard said.

Richard added that she and her husband have a blended family of four children and now a grandson.

Her other solo project, which she said has taken the longest to get published, is entitled “Beaten, But Not Broken.” It tells the story of a woman who gets involved with a younger man who appears to be everything that she wants him to be, kind, honest and adoring. But, she later finds out that he is not the person she thought.

Without disclosing a lot of detail about what the woman encountered in that relationship, Richard did state that in the end the woman was victorious.

Richard acknowledged that all of her inspirations for her writings come from God. She shared that one day while discussing her ideas for the book with a co-worker, the co-worker revealed that she had experienced some of the same issues and as a result Richard said she decided to dedicate the book to her to remind her that God still performs miracles every day.

Richard said the book is not necessarily based on the co-worker’s experiences, but is indicative of a lot of women's experiences.

Richard is also one of the writers in a book comprised of stories from 12 different authors. The title of the work is, “It Didn't Break Me, It Built Me, I’m Still Standing.” "It's about my testimony. The stuff I've been through in life," she said.

Richard asserted that the book can help people who have experienced many trials. "When you've been through a lot, being molested and a lot of stuff and you think, like why this had to happen to me."

She said although everyone's outcome is different, "I want to encourage

Stay Tuned

Author Valincia Richard and her publisher Erica Boyd stand at her recent book signing event. somebody that your outcome don't have to be what you think it should be because there is a God. And God takes us through different things for different reasons and if we just hold on, we're going to come out of it. We’re going to become victorious. God will make a way," Richard said.

She expressed her joy in having experienced God's favor time and time again.

Richard’s book of poetry and the compilation were published through Boyd’s company and she praised Boyd for how attentive, helpful and professional she has been in working with her, something that Richard stated cannot be said about the publisher of “Beaten.”

“I signed with them almost two years ago; I was 34 and I just turned 36 today. The connection just wasn't there, but with Erica she's kind, she's dependable, she's a God-fearing woman and I don't have to run her down for anything,” Richard said, “She was right there; she kept me updated, she let me know what was going on and she is just the right person and I wish I had met her two years ago when I first set out to publish a book.”

Richard said she connected with Boyd on social media after she saw that her cousin had collaborated with her on the compilation project. She

talked with Boyd in December 2020, contracted with her in January 2021 and her first publication was released mid April.

Richard said, “I just hope that it can help somebody. My main focus is to help somebody because you never know what people may be going through and how they might be feeling. Some people feel like committing suicide, feel like giving up, when they shouldn't because there is a God and God can bring you out of anything.”

She paraphrased the scripture from the Old Testament book of Psalms 121:1-2 and asserted that she is a strong believer in the power of God. She credits her great-grandmother as being her motivation, her encourager and her everything, her go-to person. “And I just wish that she was here today, she taught me that whatever I do, stand on the promises of God because he won't fail me and I hold on to that, that's what keeps me going.”

Her next undertaking is a short story entitled “A Season of Thanksgiving” that’s due out in early 2022.

Richard expressed her thanks to her husband, their children and her church family for their continued support and Boyd for all of her help. She also expressed her gratitude to her mother, Brenda Mickens, for being her “greatest inspiration.”

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Continued from Page 13 began working for the city of Indianola April 19, 2021.

Williams spent a lot of time in her youth in the country, in Yazoo County, with her grandparents.

“It's called Yazoo City, but it's the country, near Satartia where my grandparents' house was. So I spent a lot of time growing up in the country,” she said.

Her mother was one of her primary influencers, and although she laid the foundation for Kaneilia’s drive and tenacity, times were not always good.

Williams’ mother primarily raised her and her siblings, but around the time of Williams’ sophomore year in high school, her mother experienced some substance abuse issues, so she and her sisters and her brother were separated, and she ended up living with her grandparents.

“My mom was on drugs, and that's why I had to go live with my grandparents when I was in the 10th grade," she said.

Although she was separated from her siblings that didn't hinder their relationship or progress.

It may have even enhanced it.

Williams said her grandmother had a garden, so she spent a good bit of time shelling peas, picking corn and more.

Her granddaddy was big into farming, so her early days on the farm provided her with some other experiences like riding on the tractors and such and going fishing.

"You know in the country, they only had like three channels on the TV, so we spent a lot of time outside," she said.

In spite of the rocky times she had in her late teens, Williams still looked up to her mother, and she would graduate from her high school as valedictorian in 2000.

"My mom - even though how she ended up, and she's no longer here - she laid a good foundation with us,” Williams said.

"Even when we stopped living with her, the foundation was still there.”

Williams said school was a very important part of their upbringing.

"All four of us (she and her siblings) still use her principles in life," she added.

Williams said after her children were born, they then became her biggest motivation, particularly during the time when she was working on her master’s degree.

"I was just pushing to do better for them, get more degrees so I can excel, get better jobs, better pay. Knowledge is just 26

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the mother of learning," Williams said.

She graduated summa cum laude from Mississippi State University with two degrees in just four years, one in banking and the other in finance and real estate.

“That was like the best four years of my life. If I could go back I would,” she said, “I just had a lot of fun.”

Then in 2011 she attended the University of Phoenix online to acquire her MBA, and she finished that in 2013.

Williams had another strong woman in her life who influenced her career path.

That was her aunt, who is now a vice president at BankPlus.

“I kind of chose that because of her,” she said.

Williams went to work as a loan auditor at BankPlus right out of college.

After three-and-a-half-years, she left BankPlus and spent over six years working for Mississippi Home Corporation before leaving to become a loan officer at a mortgage company for almost a year.

While working at Mississippi Home Corporation she became a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which is where she met Yazoo City's current mayor, Diane Delaware; however, that was before she became mayor.

“When she won the mayor's race, she kept saying, ‘I need you to become my assistant. I need you to come work for me," Williams said.

Williams asserted that she kept turning Delaware down because that was not something she wanted to do, but Delaware’s persistence eventually paid off and in 2014 Williams finally gave in.

"And for three years, I was the mayor's executive assistant," she said.

Williams explained how she came to be Yazoo City’s clerk.

“One day the current city clerk, he went to lunch, and he sent us an email saying that he wasn't coming back,” Williams said.

She said that's when the mayor implored her to take the city clerk's position.

Citing various reasons for initially refusing her, she again expressed her reluctance to change positions but like before, she eventually relinquished.

"I just grabbed myself up by the bootstraps and took on the challenge, learned everything I needed to learn and did the best job that I could do,” she said.

Williams stated that although she was new to the city clerk's position, she was not new to city government.

"Being in government, before I became

city clerk, that gave me a lot of knowledge. I was able to learn some things, understand some things before I took the city clerk's job," she said.

She is now working toward getting acclimated to Indianola and trying to improve upon the areas that need to be improving, she said.

Williams said that the city is playing catchup with the audit reports; they just finished the 2017 and still have three more years to catch up on.

"We need to be caught up; because it's like grants and different things that you can't get, because your audits aren't caught up," she said.

She's on track now to also get the city’s documents digitally scanned to eliminate the accumulation of papers that are stored throughout the city hall.

"My goal long term is to get all this stuff scanned and eliminate the paper and therefore when we're looking for records, we'll be able to find them,” she said.

Improving the inventory system (catching up the minutes which were last put in the books in 2018, according to her) is also high on her list of things to accomplish.

"I think it will take me probably four or five years to fix everything," she said.

She said her time away from work is consumed mainly by her children’s activities, which include sports, sports and more sports.

"My kids are a humongous part of my life. I have three. My daughter is 16 and I have two sons who are Irish twins because they are 11 months apart. They are 12 and 11," Williams said.

“My sons play football, basketball and baseball. My daughter plays softball and she's pretty good at it. So, we go to a lot of colleges. She is on the travel team; just about every weekend we're doing something with sports," she said.

As for Williams and her siblings, they are still close.

Two, in fact, are working on Ph.Ds. Williams said that since she was the oldest, she took on the responsibility of checking on the others and trying to keep them together.

"Growing up, my siblings, we were really, really close. We talked to each other every day."

Those strong family ties continue to serve as the foundation for her personal life and her dedication to her work.

Continued from Page 20 coaching track.

E-T: What sport have you enjoyed coaching the most?

Conner: College basketball is all I have coached professionally. I did play just a little semi-pro baseball. My best sport might have been football.

E-T: Favorite coaching story or memory?

Conner: Recruiting my first female basketball player at the University of Texas El Paso, Holly Russ.

E-T: What brought you to MDCC? Conner: My 14-year-old daughter Emma Grace lives in Cleveland and I was offered the opportunity to lead the athletic department here at Mississippi Delta Community College. I never get tired of seeing sunsets. I never get tired of seeing the changing landscapes. I love seeing the sunflowers in the fields and the hardwoods in the winter. I also think the people in the Delta are solid, caring people.

E-T: What are your goals and plans for the Trojan athletic program?

Conner: New stands and press box for the visitor's side which will become the new home side. Lights for the baseball and softball fields. New floor for men's and women's basketball. Scholarship improvements for our Pell-eligible kids. New entrance to the football locker room. Upgrades to our weight room and training room. Upgrades to our locker rooms and Lord willing, a new field house and coliseum. Adding sports and staff. Creating a sports information position to give Trojan teams the coverage they need.

Connect athletic alumni back to us. Continue spreading the good news of this gem in Moorhead, Mississippi.

E-T: Tell us a little about your family?

Conner: I was married for 14 years. Divorced now for nine years. One daughter adopted and could not be loved more if she was my own flesh and blood.

E-T: What are your hobbies or interests outside of coaching? (Dancing? Cooking? Science?)

Conner: Really have not had time. Enjoy golf. I enjoy being involved with my church. I enjoy walking, traveling, good food and music.

E-T: What is something no one or most people don't know about you? Have you met Ronald Reagan? Ran a marathon? Kissed Oprah? Anything unusual?

Conner: I once road in an elevator with Barbara Bush. I was somehow getting on with her around her secret service team.

One time, I was picking up Joe Niekro from the Tampa International Airport and Dick Vitale was picking up his daughters from a tennis tournament and we had a great conversation about basketball and life for an hour.

I’ve eaten dinner with Morgan Freeman at his restaurant in Clarksdale. Played golf with Nolan Ryan, Jose Cruz and Joe Niekro.

When a new athletic director who I knew, Chet Gladchuk, came in at the University of Houston, my contract was not renewed along with all the coaches in the athletic department.

He apologized and told me I could apply for the head job,

Joining a Rich Sports History

MDCC AD Jason Conner talks with retired athletic director Domino Bellipanni during a home football game. but he already knew who he was going to hire. He told me he would be glad to help me in any way he could.

He then said, “Coach, I want to introduce you to some people.”

We went into his conference room and Chet introduced me to about 10 NBA all-time greats. Clyde Drexler, Moses Malone, George Gervin, Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon, Don Chaney, Otis Birdsong, Michael Young, Larry Micheaux, Rickie Winslow and (Olympic) gold medal winner Carl Lewis.

I wished the new coach and staff all the very best.

As Chet escorted me back to his office he asked, “Well, what do you think?”

I said that he (Drexler) would sell out Hofheinz Pavilion for a year but they have never had to carry their own bags and this college coaching is tougher than what they think, and I will give you two years and you will be looking for another coach. (Editor’s note: The Cougars would go 19-39 with Drexler at the helm for two seasons.)

Coach Conner’s prediction came true but Trojan fans are happy that his career path has landed him at Moorhead to continue building winning teams at MDCC.

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Sunflower County’s top spots

G

ood Mornin’! Good piece was so rich and tasty Tiger Field Sports Complex Mornin’! that it would satisfy you for at Central Delta Academy – days and have you dreaming that’s the name I gave it.

From Rome to Caile, Holly about more.

The baseball/football field Ridge to Blaine and everyMomma, when are we going right across the road from the where in between, there are to grandmother’s house? Her gym and tennis courts. plenty of great places to think fridge was always heaven.

Those spots were home to about in Sunflower County.

Macon Lake – where I my most memorable athletic Some are just a memory learned to swim and scoured performances. while others continue to the banks for the best fishing Two pick six interceptions thrive. Here’s my list of a few spot. Oh, I also learned that a and a Three Rivers Confertop places in Sunflower Coun- fire can still burn you long ence Championship, a few ty, in no particular order. after its flame is gone. One home runs, an S.S. All Stars Peasoup’s – fried shrimp, burned foot gave me a PhD trophy (shortstop/third base) ranch dressing to die for and education in and an ERA that nothing has changed for 50 “hey, don’t go was double if years or more. Nuff said. stepping in the not triple digits.

No matter the generation or ashes no matThe hardphysical location, the magic is ter how innowood where I always there and the flavors cent they look.” once put up never vary. It’s comfort, it’s The rope eight points home and it’s always awe- swing that took and blocked a some. no prisoners – shot. The same Grandmother’s refrigerator you better let gym where Mark Stowers – just a blink out of Inverness go at the apex Mike Sibley Columnist on Highway 49 headed to of your swing buried 64 in one Isola, my momma’s mommy or that hardwood tree is game. We lost more than we and daddy had a few acres gonna show you and your won but it was always fun. they scratched a living from. back what hardwood really is.

MDCC Baptist Student They raised six kids and A pier where the bream Union – We didn’t have a Wesgrandmother’s fridge always would nibble at you and an ley Foundation so all Chrishad two Cool Whip containers old log we loved to float and tian faiths rambled up to the filled with her award-winning sink on for hours on end. small brick building in the chocolate candy. One had The homemade fire grill my middle of campus. pecans, the other didn’t. dad made out of cotton trailer They didn’t try to make me Oh, and there was always a siding was awesome. a Baptist but did help me chocolate pie to be found. One Wish I still had one. know Jesus and gave me a lot

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Sunflower Journey

Fall

of great friends and awesome memories. Brother Tom (McLaughlin) took us to New Orleans and we experienced Café Du Monde and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Jackson Square. Boy howdy.

Inverness Co-op – somehow whenever I was riding around with my daddy, we’d end up at the Co-op.

Getting a flat fixed or other parts or a new pair of rubber boots, Mr. Mike had what we needed. And there was always a Coke machine and some peanuts or nabs to keep me busy.

Inverness Community House – CDA dances, Lions Club meetings, hamburger suppers, bingo and it’s also where the Masons kept their secrets upstairs. I think.

My daddy’s truck and wherever it was going in Sunflower County. A safe and special ride that escorted me through dynamiting stumps, special fishing spots and getting me to a treasured deer stand.

Each spot in Sunflower County, special, awesome and always to be remembered.

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Sunflower Journey

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Pulmonary Servic ces and

Sleep Medicine e Dr. Aman Munir D Pulmonary & Sleep Medicine

We W elcome Pulmonologist - Drr.. Aman Munir to North Sunflower Medical Center’s Specialty Clinic Drr.. Munir specializes in Pulmonary & Sleep Medicine.

In addition to rre eading sleep studies, he will be expanding his services at North Sunflower Medical Center by o e ering management of pulmonary conditions such as, COPD, asthma & lung nodules.

Pulmonary Function T Te esting Pulmonary Clinic Monday - Friday Tuesday, Tu y, We Wednesday & Thursday 8am - 4:30pm 8am - 4:30pm

One Call Referral Line: (662) 756-4000 North Sunflower Medical Center’s Specialty Clinic 820 N. Oak A Av venue, Ruleville, MS 38771