It was October 1944 and I was 11-years-old. My brother had joined the Boy Scouts of America the year before. The Scout Master of Troop 10 was Mr. Turner. The meeting was each Monday Night in the basement of Milam School. Mr. Turner let me attend the meetings, but I could not do any of the sc…

I have long been fascinated by criminals. I’ve met those who were about as sharp as a marble. This one guy robbed a bank and wrote his note “This is a hold-up” on back of one of his own deposit slips, or there was the one who dropped his pager as he made his escape.

It is always heartwarming to me as the calendar turns to November!

I’m a proud fan of old country music. This modern stuff parading around as “country music” just isn’t for me. Not long ago, I heard Merle Haggard singing about “drinking that free bubble-up and eating that rainbow stew.” Immediately, I thought of an old political friend who used that line wh…

Mississippi Treasurer David McRae returned more than $12,000 of unclaimed money to the City of Tupelo.

My dad, Floyd Eldon Clark, really enjoyed being a father.

I watched the white sheers wave gently back and forth in the windows of the living room as the breeze eased its way into the house. It was an extraordinarily hot day. By mid morning the coolness gained in the previous night had given way to the demands of the sun making everyone glisten in a…

The waves beat rhythmically against the shore in an endless pattern that seemed would never stop. I had stretched out in the back of my white Ford station wagon near the shore and the sound lulled me quickly to sleep. As I woke up, I walked slowly along the beach and watched the sun rise up …

Last week, the United States Senate took bold steps to provide significant funding for roads, bridges, water & sewer, broadband and other vital forms of infrastructure. We believe Senator Wicker deserves thanks for his vote to provide approximately $3.6 billion to the state of Mississipp…

August is ABLE to Save Month, a time to highlight a savings program that is very special to me and the entire team at the State Treasury.

As I came through the most recent week in my life, I marked a one-year anniversary of an unexpected fall outside my home while working in the yard. That fall on the driveway resulted in a broken hip which yielded a couple of friends responding, our local fire department, and an ambulance rid…

Mary Andrews' European cruises are canceled during the pandemic. But the refund for her airfare is still missing. Will she ever get her money back? Q: I had two cruises booked in Europe for last spring. Both were canceled during the pandemic. We had nonrefundable tickets on Alitalia to Rome …

Have you ever sat down and looked through your photo albums or boxes of photos and not known whose face you were looking upon? Just the other day I was looking at images from my kindergarten. You would think I would be able to name every one of those kids; I mean it was just yesterday that w…

Why College Savings MS may be the perfect destination for your Child Tax Credit payments?

Communication – the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior. Most of us begin this process from the first time we point at something to indicate we want it. After we slowly master “Mama” and “Dada,” we eventually grow our vocabulary and wit…

When I was a child, my parents instilled in me a lengthy list of expected behaviors for a man in training. Behaviors such as stand when shaking a man’s hand and look him in the eyes, a woman’s hand is taken not shaken, a promise made is a promise kept, speak truth and dispel lies of others, …

There are many times in my life when I have searched for the reason someone that I care for becomes ill or suffers through some series of events. I have sat by the bedside looking at tubes connected to someone’s body; and watched people struggle to find a new normal while coming back from a …

The sweet smell of honeysuckle lightly drifted over the back porch steps as I sit at the top of a thirty-step descent to the ground below. At three-years-old this was a surmountable achievement to navigate these without tumbling to the bottom. And in reality my mother was always watchfully s…

This past month I was awarded a Medicare card.

As I turned the key and the engine on the gray Murray riding mower was balking, I sort of knew it was going to be one of those days. With a little prompting though I was off and running. Many people love to mow, although I started mowing other people’s yards at about age nine, I really am no…

The saying “Southern by the Grace of God” came to us, maybe, from an old column writer Lewis Grizzard, sometime back in the late 1970s.

Dear Jim,

The Band of Brothers Breakfast Club, who meet at Jack’s on West Main, are almost back to full membership.

My fascination with taking my fingers and flipping through the pages of a book began early in my life. Beginning with the children’s books read by my mother, I soon found myself carried into other worlds created by the minds of authors. Once I started school, I soon spent any free time in th…

You’ve probably heard — God works in mysterious ways.

As I stumbled along the dirt road, occasionally I would reach my hand up and slip it into that of my Grandpa Jesse’s. As an independence streak struck, I would then pull it back managing my steps all on my own at least for a few feet then I would once again find myself repeating the process.…

As the nation celebrates April as Community College Month, on behalf of Itawamba Community College, thank you for your continuing commitment to education, which prepares both youth and adults with the foundation to ensure a better future. In some instances, that education is lifelong learnin…

The warm air, a slight breeze, sunshine shining on my face, are all things that raise my spirits as we set off through another spring season. As a boy, this time of year was set aside for preparing and planting our family garden. I will never forget one year in some reading I had found some …

The Lee County Courier takes a lot out of me. There I said it.

This was the tenth week of the 2021 Legislative Session was busy with Floor action in the House. Wednesday was the deadline for the House to discuss general Senate bills. Senate bills that were not taken up by the members of the House and passed died. Tuesday, March 16, was the deadline to d…

Monday, March 1 was busy with the Committees meeting vetting the Senate Bills went to the House. It was the ninth week of the 2021 Legislative Session. House committees had to report out general bills originating from the Senate before Tuesday at 8 p.m. Senate bills that did not make it out …

I crowded into the MARTA bus headed towards downtown Atlanta. I grabbed a seat as the bus filled up. A black lady in gray dress and heels got on and I noticed that there was no available seat, so I rose and moved towards the back giving her my seat. As I got situated near the rear door, I wr…

One of the greatest men of God of our time is undisputedly Billy Graham. The reach of his ministry has touched the four corners of the earth. I remember watching a message he delivered in Louisville, Ky. some years ago. He shared his realization that he was finally old, when not too long ago…

It’s 6 p.m. Monday. I’m at the office. I’m stuck here intentionally with a bottle of green tea, some potato chips, a Slim Jim and lots of music.

WOW! The fifth week of the 2021 Legislative Session was the busiest by far. Committees wrapped up their deliberations by Tuesday. Wednesday, the House Chamber welcomed the entire membership of the House of Representatives. COVID-19 is still a large concern of everyone in the legislature. Rep…

This is the fourth week of the 2021 Legislative Session. Members worked diligently in committee meetings, as next Tuesday’s deadline to have House Bills out of committee quickly approaches. Last week, the House announced new protocols, and all committee meetings and sessions were moved onlin…

I pushed on through the mountains, my Lumina maneuvering the curves with great accuracy. Snow lay along the roads as I watched diligently for patches of black ice on the interstate. I had hit a patch of black ice before when I was about 20. I exited Atlanta’s 285 at Doraville returning home …

A new year brings the promise of starting over. After 2020, we could all use that! Many folks see it as a point to make a resolution to complete or change things in their life. Perhaps coming out of the Christmas season gives them hope to make their lives better. In reality, each new day bri…

There’s no way I can put lipstick on this pig called 2020. It’s been a horrible year. This creature called COVID has even penetrated my family in recent days. Fortunately, the youngest and probably healthiest in the family, my grandson and his wife have been able to match the virus. They liv…

The time is December 1939 and the story is about a single Mother and her two boys, Jacque, age six and Bobby, age eight. Opal was working at the Tupelo Hotel as a waitress. She worked seven days a week for fifty cents per day, any tips she might receive plus two meals a day. They lived in a …

This nasty COVID has made the fight personal — it’s taken one of our brothers. It hurts, even though we know Bill Roper has gone on to a better place. Bill had been a part of our Band of Brothers, who meet at Jack’s most week day morning for coffee and to solve the world’s problems as best we can.

People will long remember and talk about the year of 2020, which thank goodness is almost over. But it’s not necessarily the worst time America has ever had. I was born in 1940 and for the first half of the 1940s the world was at war with itself in all of Europe and all of Asia at the same t…

JACKSON, MISS. – With Christmas season here, the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) wants you to make sure your perfect Christmas tree makes it home by properly securing it to your vehicle.

Sometimes there are points in life when one reflects on topics that bring worry, sadness, concern or even depression.

I stood at the edge of the mountain and looked down at the green of the fields below. The fields were cut neatly into the shapes that the farmers had cultivated them in for years. The blue sky around me seemed to almost envelope me as I stood amongst the rocks and trees listening to the wind…

With less than two months remaining in the 116th Congress, the Senate is working to complete several important priorities for Mississippi and the nation. These include an annual military authorization bill and funding for the federal government. We are continuing to confirm Trump-nominated j…

It is amazing how disappointments can take various forms in life. I think often our childhoods are filled with little disappointments such as not getting something we really wanted – that pony. Perhaps by not winning the spelling bee or the science fair after so much practice and effort in p…