Willie Morris Library Opens Today

Toasting from home! So happy and so well-deserved!!!!!

Hope they leave Dorothy in charge. she is great.

Nice Building and Real Nice Site placement. Set back and Wooded....Sooo North Jackson!!!!! Congrats.....

Just got back. What a great event. JoAnne made lovely remarks (I'll see if she'll give me her transcript to post), and David Rae donated a box of Harper's magazines from the time when Willie was editor in the 1960s, as well as one of his photographs of Willie and Eudora Welty. It was a big crowd, including Bill Minor. Ben Allen made gracious remarks as well. Both Mayor Johnson and Mayor Melton spoke.

Melton's bodyguards Recio and Wright were there; the rest of his entourage included chief of staff Marcus Ward and his youth staff coordinator Charles Melvin (a former MBN agent). They left soon after the ribbon-cutting and didn't stay for the reception.

I took a bunch of photos and will post a gallery as soon as I get a chance.

I was saying to folks there that I couldn't imagine a cooler honor than having a library named after you! That's better than winning the Pulitzer!

also I want to plug another opening in Jackson/Metro.....The new Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Flowood.......real nice......out Lakeland near that hugh new Lowes Shopping center. We back...bigger and better......!!!!

Now we need to name one after Bill Minor to show we have really arrived. I will suggest that for the next library in Ridgeland. I wonder if I will have any problems there? Willie Morris was an excellent choice for the name of that library. I wanna thank whoever made it happen.

I know Frank and the boys showed you their usual love. Cheers.

It was great to be there - gorgeous day and the library sits back on the property so you feel you are in the woods...hurrah! As JoAnne said, Willie would be proud.

Ray, a lot of people get credit—Ben Allen not the least among them.

Actually, Recio yelled hello at me, and Wright waved. It seemed genuine. I actually got along really well with those guys when I was around them. It's too bad that they're caught up in all this. Mr. Melton didn't go out of his way to say hello, though. Nor did I. Today wasn't about all that; it was about honoring a great writer and Jacksonian.

This is wonderful!

And agreed on naming a library after Bill Minor... That would rock.


Cheers,

TH

Agreed on Mr. Minor. Man, what an inspiration. He was filling me with story ideas in the parking lot afterward. For me, personally, it doesn't get any better than knowing people like Mr. Minor and getting his advice on doing this trade.

I hate that I never knew Willie, although I did through his books and now through JoAnne. There's no way to express how much she has encouraged me personally and this paper since its inception.

What a wonderful, wonderful day for her. I cried just watching her make her remarks. What a tribute to a great man.

I didn't know Willie Morris personally, but I was working at Choctaw Books when he died and the old folks coming in were full of great stories about him. He sounded like one heck of a guy.


Cheers,

TH

Such a great tribute to such a talent! He left behind treasures of excellent work and a supportive family to keep his legacy alive!

I think what struck me most about JoAnne Prichard Morris's speech is the dual nature of a library. It is a place that holds community together, that binds generations and that serves as "a repository of civilization" (I believe that was Willie's phrase). And yet, it provides for each person a "silent and private place" (again from Willie though I'm paraphrasing). I love that! What a combination of duties a library serves and what wonder it brings to us all. Can you tell I love public libraries??? It's the first place I do when I move to a new town...