More Christmas Floats from the 1950s ...

From the John Holly Williams Collection, LLF Library

In the run-up to Christmas 2012, more of these vintage photos will be posted.  The dates for the above two are unclear, though they are likely from the 1956-58 period, given the other photos in the collection.  

I do not recognize faces in the first photo, but I do believe the tall man on the right in the second photo just may be Henry Ware Hobbs. 

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

The Staff of the Leader Times Plants a Rose Bush

From the John Holly Williams Collection, LLF Library

Two men and three women plant a rose bush on March 19, 1958, at the Brookhaven Leader Times.  

The library caption has them as unidentified, but the woman in the black dress is Sis Brennan, my first real boss in the world of journalism.  The shorter woman is Flo Mitchell, long-time linotype operator and typesetter, and next to her is Nella Wade. (Help is needed with the identities of the other two.)

I chose to post this photograph because yesterday it was announced that the surviving town newspaper, the Daily Leader, which has been owned by the Jacobs family since 1958, has been sold.  See this link to learn more.

As the memories swirled yesterday, I recalled the interview on file of Charles Jacobs at the Lincoln County Library, conducted by John Coke in December 1991, regarding the history of the local newspapers and how Chuck Jacobs, a native of Chicago, and Mrs. Jacobs came into play. Here is an excerpt of that bit of town history:

"Jacobs: After getting out of the service during World War II, I got started in the newspaper business. I went to Meredith, New Hampshire, and worked on what they called the G.I. Bill of Rights, the government paid half of your salary. The salary was, I think, sixty dollars a week. After a year working for the paper it became for sale and I bought the paper with the G.I. Bill of Rights, they guaranteed a four percent loan. I stayed there for five years, sold out and went to Wauseon, Ohio. With the money I made on the sale of the Meredith News, I bought the Wauseon Republican. I stayed there six years and moved to Sarasota, Florida. I worked in the advertising department of the Bradenton Herald. Newspapers are sold through brokers just like real estate brokers. A broker got hold of me and told me about Brookhaven, Mississippi. I came up and looked at it and eventually decided to take over the paper. 

Coke: Who was running the paper then? Who was running it and who owned it? 

Jacobs: It was owned by a man named Joe Lee. Dalton Brady held the note on it; Lee lost the paper, he forfeited on his loan. I picked it up from there. At that time there were two papers in Brookhaven, the Lincoln County Advertiser and the Leader Times. I had the Leader Times. It was the older paper. We had a dog-eat-dog battle and eventually we merged the two papers. Bill Lauderdale owned the Advertiser. He died six months afterwards. Eventually I was able to acquire the Lauderdale interest in what had become the Leader Advertiser. We dropped the Times and became the Leader Advertiser. After a number of years, it was 1968 we started the Daily Leader, we published five days a week. This is almost 1992 and it's been going since 1968. 

Coke: How often was the paper published before you took it over? 

Jacobs: The Advertiser was a weekly and the Leader Times was published twice a week. The Leader-Advertiser continued as a semi-weekly. 

Coke: When you got the paper, what was your general policy as to how you would operate the paper, what were you trying to accomplish ... can you tell us a little along those lines? 

Jacobs: Newspapers have changed considerably in my period of being in the newspaper business. We've gone from letterpress, which was the old hot metal, hand type, linotype to photojournalism and offset printing. The paper, at this point, is completely computerized, all the accounting, the bookkeeping, production of the newspaper. Mr. B. T. Hobbs, who started the newspaper, would never recognize it. It's entirely different from that time. 

Coke: I believe your wife [Patricia Patterson Jacobs] was involved in the paper from the very beginning? 

Jacobs: She introduced photography which was very important. At one time, photography was seldom used in small newspapers. She got into photography and that was one way we forced the Advertiser into a merger. Our paper became much more popular and they decided to go along with us. To this day, photography is very important to the newspaper. 

Coke: In other words, you out photographed your competition. 

Jacobs: They used maybe one picture a week while we filled the paper up with local pictures. "

And, as print publications across the country struggle to survive in an electronic world, considerable changes in journalism continue on all levels ... I wish all the best to the new owners of the Daily Leader and pray they continue to serve the community as well as their predecessors, who made Brookhaven their HOME and left an indelible mark.

1956 Christmas Parade in Downtown Brookhaven

Both Photos from the Don Jackson Collection at LLF Library

1958 Christmas Parade Downtown Brookhaven

Both photos from the John Holly Williams Collection, LLF Library

The marching band in the upper photo appears to be that of Copiah Lincoln Junior College. The second photo is of Co-Lin's high-stepping Colettes, the likes of whom marched in at least one, if not more, of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York back in the day, if my fuzzy memory is correct.  

Can you imagine marching an entire parade doing scissor kicks and smiling all the while?  

If anyone has accurate information on the Colettes' participation in the Macy's parade, please leave me a comment here or on my Facebook page.  I want to make certain my memory isn't playing tricks on me. 

A Promising Future of a Writer/Editor, Sculptor, Humanitarian ...

From the John Holly Williams Collection, 1950s, LLF Library

A lifelong resident of Brookhaven, Bruce Brady (pronounced Braddy) was graduated from Lawrenceville Prepartory School in Lawrenceville, NJ, in 1953.  Judging by the shoes and hats on the ladies in the gallery, I suspect this photo is from that very occasion, although I have been wrong before.  Other cap and gown possibilities include ceremonies at Ole Miss; he went on to receive his BA in 1957 and his L.L.B. in 1961.

An avid outdoorsman, the late Bruce Brady spent three decades as a freelance writer, contributing editor, field editor and editor at large at Outdoor Life Magazine.   Google his name and you will find numerous articles by him and about him on the web.  You will find some of his writings on his outdoor adventures, pictures of his bronze sculptures of animals and public figures, and information on his memorial foundation, Catch a Dream.

His sculptures, which can be found in the collections of Ronald Reagan and Robert Dole, are available for sale at numerous galleries in the United States.  To view his bronze work, please click on this link to a local gallery, which includes a more complete biography for those who wish to learn more about this remarkable Brookhavenite.

Also of note is the humanitarian work of the Catch a Dream Foundation, which was launched after his death in February 2000.  Click on the embedded link to learn more about that.

Copiah Lincoln Junior College Faculty?

Don Jackson Photo, LLF Library Collection

Library caption reads: "Sixteen people are grouped for this photo. No other information is available. Scanned from printed photo."

I recognize my friend and mentor, the late Burlian O'Neal Walker, top row, second from left, and mathematics instructor Roy Daughdrill, top row, far right.  Beyond that, I'm drawing blanks.

Date and location and occasion are unclear, although I suspect this was taken in the mid to late '70s, based on the width of the ties and the hairstyles.  Help with names welcomed!

Flights of Fancy

Left to right, James, Sam, Robert E.??and Freida McDaniel, Johnston's Station, MS, circa 1920.

Mary, their mother, Red Sam, Freida and James, circa 1918-19.

Sam McDaniel, known to his family as "Red Sam," is pictured in the above 1947 Enterprise Journal article, being lifted into the cockpit of an Ercoupe, touted to be one of the "safest" planes to fly in post-War II civil aviation circles.  (See link for more information).  

Despite being crippled by Rheumatoid Arthritis, which at the time was known as the Wasting Disease, Red Sam was determined to get his pilot's license.  With the help of the owner of McComb Airways, Red Sam was able to realize his dream of flying solo after only four hours and 25 minutes of instruction. Later that same year, he received his license after 39 hours and 40 minutes of instruction.