When Joe Came to Dinner: A Journalistic Get-together

                      When Joe Came to Dinner: A Journalistic Get-together

                                                                             Published in the Marietta Daily Journal Nov. 8, 2015

            September of 2014 brought one of the biggest delights of my life.  Any meal cooked by my wife Nancy is a delight, but enjoying one of them along with two outstanding newspaper editors is an event to remember. 

            During most of the meal I was content just to listen in on the conversation between the Marietta Daily Journal’s Joe Kirby and the editor of the Northeast Mississippi Journal (formerly the Tupelo Journal).  I never taught Joe Kirby although, given the difference between our age, I could well have done so.  However, I did teach Lloyd Gray, the Mississippi editor who was dining with us.

            I taught Lloyd when he was a cute 7^th grader at Northwest Jr. High School in Meridian, Mississippi.  In a column in early 2014 I chronicled how the class he was in literally kept me from leaving the profession after just one year of teaching.  All 30 of the 12-year-olds in this future editor’s class were a teacher’s dream and would have given even a pessimist hope for the future.

            Through Facebook, Lloyd Gray learned about the MDJ column, read it, and gave me a call.  I had not seen or heard from him for 4 decades.  While we were on the phone I invited him to come visit us and to go see one of his best friends who was in the same 7^th grade English class.  That friend, Steve Forbert, with whom I had had recent contact, was a singer and was playing at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur.  Lloyd and his wife agreed to visit us.

            A few days later it occurred to me that Joe Kirby might enjoy getting to know another editor and attending the concert.  When I called and told him about Lloyd Gray and Steve Forbert, Joe said, “You taught Steve Forbert?  He’s the one who recorded ‘Romeo’s Tune.’  He was often compared to Bob Dylan.  He was …” this, that, and the other.  I never knew that Joe was a music historian.  As it turned out, he knew more about my former student turned rock star than I did.  Anyhow, he agreed to come and dine with us, meet Lloyd Gray, and go hear Steve Forbert sing.

            At the dinner table Joe and Lloyd, of course, talked journalism.  But how did Joe know so much about Mississippi history and politics?  His knowledge of Tupelo and Elvis I understood, but when he began to bring up names of Mississippi officeholders, things about Mississippi’s racial past, about the Delta and the birth of the blues, as well as Jimmie Rodgers, the Meridian brakeman and “Father of Country Music,” my unexpressed thought was this man knows everything.

            Joe did know just about everything.  In fact I thought I was the nation’s biggest news junkie until I met Joe.

            After the concert at Eddie’s Attic, I introduced Joe to Steve Forbert.  He was delighted to hear Steve burst into quoting every word of “Abou Ben Adhem,” a poem which I had required the 7^th graders to memorize 47 years before.

            Not given to much joking around, Joe could still throw a zinger.  Once I playfully challenged his right to call himself a Southerner since he grew up in Washington, D.C.  “Even if D.C. is south of the Mason-Dixon, we know it’s not really the South,” I kidded.  “Oh, I see, you’re one of those who truly believe that the North begins on the upper side of Ellijay.”

            At the 2014 Christmas luncheon for MDJ employees, I found myself seated between Joe and MDJ columnist Lauretta Hannon.  Upon learning that the two of them enjoyed Seattle “grunge” music, I asked how in the world two intelligent people like them could enjoy such loud, distorted music.  “It lets your inner rebel out,” he said.  “But you told me you like Pat Boone so you probably don’t have much rebel in you.”  Joe never failed to carry an argument through.

            As for editing, Joe was the best.  I seldom handed him any spelling or punctuation errors; however, I did on at least two occasions give him cause to question my logic.  (How far more serious is that?)  His correction went like this: “Ok, consider what you’ve written here.  Don’t back yourself into a corner for criticism when it’s not necessary and be careful not to contradict yourself.”  Embarrassed, I quickly took the advice of the master.

            Joe Kirby was a man at peace with himself.  I admired him.  He taught me much.  The eloquent tribute paid to him by Dr. Sam Matthews at his funeral this past week was richly deserved.

Roger Hines

11/4/15