For over a decade, syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson has been spending several months a year in Southwest Louisiana, deep in the heart of Cajun Country. Unlike many other writers who have parachuted into the swampy paradise for a few days or weeks, Rheta fell in love with the place, bought a second home and set in planting doomed azaleas and deep roots. She has found an assortment of beautiful people in a homely little town called Henderson, right on the edge of the Atchafalaya Swamp. These days, much is labeled Cajun that is not, and the popularity of the unique culture's food,...
For over a decade, syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson has been spending several months a year in Southwest Louisiana, deep in the heart of Ca...
Far from the storm centers of the American civil rights movement, off-camera and outside most reporters' beats, countless, nameless individuals reached their own accords with the era's massive changes. Unsure what was expected of them--or even who expected it--blacks and whites taught themselves how to live and work in a new world, often not of their own making.
Drawing on the author's long career as a southern journalist, this series of closely related sketches, stories, and essays recounts what James calls the "hidden story of the civil rights movement." Set mainly in Georgia, North...
Far from the storm centers of the American civil rights movement, off-camera and outside most reporters' beats, countless, nameless individuals rea...
Nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, winner of the Ernie Pyle Award for human interest reporting, turns her sharp eye on herself in this frank, exhilarating, wise, poignant, and brave memoir. Her territory ranges from childhood memories of ritual pre-interstate trips in the family station wagon to visit foot-washing Baptist relatives to young-girl fixations on the Barbie dolls of the title, from the simultaneous exuberance and proto-feminist doubts of young marriage to the aches of loves lost through divorce and death. Her memorable journalism career, which began on her...
Nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, winner of the Ernie Pyle Award for human interest reporting, turns her sharp eye on herself in...
Nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson's Hank Hung the Moon is more of a musical memoir than a biography: the author's evocative and personal stories of 1950s and '60s musical staples--elementary school rhythm bands, British Invasion rock concerts and tear-jerker movie musicals. It was a simpler time when Hank roamed the Earth; the book celebrates a world of 78 rpm records and 5-cent Cokes, with Hank providing the soundtrack and wisdom. A Cajun girl learns to understand English by listening to Hank on the radio. A Hank impersonator works by day at a prison but, by night, makes...
Nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson's Hank Hung the Moon is more of a musical memoir than a biography: the author's evocative and p...
