Reporter Terry Keeter, who died last week, was funny,
profane, insightful, and talented. He knew more about Memphis and the Mid-South
from the 1960s through the 1980s than just about anybody. But some of his best
work never got into print, either because he wrote it for the annual Gridiron
Show or because the newspaper he worked for rarely allowed reporters to indulge
in personal recollections.
The newspaper business nurtures reporters, lets them shine
for a while, then uses them up and tosses them on the junk heap. After Keeter
got sick and was forced to retire, mainly due to his smoking and drinking, he
shared a personal recollection called “Lone Cedar News” which he hand-printed in
black ink on six sheets of parchment paper. Here are some excerpts.
“When I was five years old and went to visit my
grandparents in North Arkansas, I put together my first newspaper so my family
in South Arkansas would know what was going on along the banks of the White
River. It had handwritten headlines over handwritten stories, the conciseness of
which was only recently challenged by USA Today. And, in retrospect, it was
about as apt to catch the eye of Pulitzer judges as Gannett’s afternoon digest
of the morning news … It told of wood stoves, lye soap, and exploring a root
cellar. That handwritten paper also carried a bit of sports news about listening
as Harry Caray shouted above the summer-night static about Cardinals, holy cows,
and Griesideck Brothers Beer.”
Keeter began his career in Meridian, Mississippi in the
1960s during the civil rights struggle. “I have walked the lonely dirt road
where three young men were gunned down. And I held a slave light as
Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Jack Thornell took photos as a Neshoba
County deputy sheriff, who had helped take those three lives, helped unload
their bodies at University Hospital. … I’ve seen a boney-fingered, redneck
prosecutor named Bill Finch convince an all-white Mississippi jury that the
Laurel Jaycee’s Man of the Year was Ku Klux Klan nightrider who should be found
guilty of murder in the firebomb death of black voter-registration leader Vernon
Dahmer.”
“I attended school with three Miss Americas and a Soybean
Queen…. Knew to stand up-wind from Jerry Jeff Walker spoke with Ray Price about
what he did For the Good Times, asked Ralph Nader on television what kind of car
he drove, shot the bull with Jerry Lee Lewis, rode the bull at Gilley’s, and
survived confrontations with Madison Avenue, Bourbon Street, Market Street,
Broadway, Beale Street, Gaslight Alley, Printer’s Alley, Basin Street, Peachtree
Street, Main Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, several episodes involving Elm Street,
and a gambling boat on Lake Hamilton.”
He wasn’t bragging when he said “I have been on a
first-name basis with governors of seven states and more than two dozen U.S.
senators” or that he “rubbed shoulders with Kings – Martin Luther, Elvis, and
B.B, drank coffee with Imperial Wizards and beer with Black Panthers.” A sports
fan, “I found out Archie Who, saw Billy Cannon’s best shot, went one-on-one with
Pete Maravich, exchanged jabs with Jack Dempsey and Muhammad Ali, stole moments
with Lou Brock, Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial. And on a peach farm near Pope,
Mississippi, I took a swing into the past with Samuel B. Vick, the man who
pinch-hit for Babe Ruth. I’ve known the animal magnetism of Bear Bryant, Snake
Stabler, Squirrel Griffin, Hoss Anderson, Dan Quayle, Bull Sullivan, Dog Owens,
Meadowlark Lemon and Tommy Cribbs…..
“In these 50 years, I’ve found that there are only two
legitimate standards by which to judge a news story – who cares, and who ought
to care. And I’ve learned that there are many things that are nicer not to know,
things best left unsaid, unreported, you might say. But unreported things don’t
just go away. They can jump out and grab the very people left untold. …. I’ve
tried to remind others that the news does not belong to those who own the
presses. And I have constantly reminded myself of the single reason for that
first handprinted newspaper I so carefully prepared on my grandfather’s farm: so
the folks at home could know what’s going on.”
(John
Branston is a senior editor of the Flyer.)
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