Guest Speaker TODAY - Pratt Memorial Library

 

Elvis Benefit Concert- 1957- Tupelo, MS

September 27, 1957 in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis performed a benefit concert.
After expenses, all proceeds, which amounted to over $14,000, went toward the construction of a youth center in Tupelo.

ELVIS RETURNS TO TUPELO

It was 56 years ago...In 1956 that Elvis came back to his hometown of Tupelo and put on a show! It was here that the famous Marshutz photo was taken...and here where the statue stands today to commemorate the man and his triumphant return.

September 26, 1956 - Elvis returned to Tupelo to perform two shows at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. Elvis Presley Day was proclaimed . Elvis' parents joined him on his return to the town of his birth as a big star. He performed two shows at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, the same fair at which he had performed at age 10. This time there are a hundred National Guardsmen surrounding the stage to control the crowds of excited fans.  14 year old Wynette Pugh (Tammy Wynette) watched from the front row.

Elvis Concert 1956
Fairgrounds (Now Fairpark)
Downtown
Tupelo, MS 

'The Hand'
Elvis performing in Tupelo Mississippi,
September 26, 1956.  Photo by Roger Marshutz

Photo by Thomas Wells

The fairgrounds today: Now Fairpark  

The fairgrounds today: Now Fairpark  

 

TODAY is William Faulkner's Birthday

William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. After training with the RAF in Canada, he returned home and worked in temporary jobs while honing his writing craft. His 1929 novel "Sartoris" introduced Yoknapatawpha County, a recurring locale in his novels. Faulkner also worked as a Hollywood screenwriter and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. He died in 1962 in Byhalia Mississippi.  He is buried at Oxford Memorial Cemetery in Oxford, Mississippi. 

 In adolescence, Faulkner began writing poetry almost exclusively. He did not write his first novel until 1925.   Faulkner was born and raised in, and heavily influenced by, his home state of Mississippi, as well as by the history and culture of the American South altogether.

Rowan Oak, home of William Faulkner, Oxford, MS.
Four days prior to William's fifth birthday, the Falkner family settled
in Oxford on September 21, 1902 where he resided on and off for the remainder of his life.

Notable work(s)
The Sound and the Fury
As I Lay Dying
Light in August
Absalom, Absalom!
A Rose for Emily

Notable award(s)
Nobel Prize in Literature 1949

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1955, 1963

ABOUT MY POETRY : I Consider My Poetry Folk Art

I would best describe my poetry as "folk poetry"

Storytelling is a special Mississippi folk art. To me, folk art is simply art made/performed by ordinary "folk" for ordinary "folk".   Folk artists attempt to freeze their memories into their art and help to preserve the culture and customs of everyday life.   With Reflections and Magnolia Memories , I hope to offer a time capsule, of sorts, for future generations, offering a glimpse into the everyday lives of everyday people in our region. I hope that the poems will play a part in preserving a rich cultural history
I must admit an affinity for the familiar, the common, the everyday, the ordinary and the simple things of life.  The poems in my books, Reflections and Magnolia Memories are essentially "snapshots' from my life in written form of people, places, events and lessons learned.

Mark Twain said:"My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine... everybody drinks water." 

I say...  "My books are like water...plain, simple, 

crystal clear ...easy for ANYONE to drink in and digest." 

 Patricia Neely-Dorsey